best process for deforming highpoly layer of ice on top of moving branches

[anbt]

Hi there,

I am looking for some ideas on how to go about doing this.
I had built a plant with many branches (lines scattered on pts, then sweepSOP, etc...), but then I thought of using Vellum to move it instead of a multidirectional noise.
So I used the skeleton of my original plant, simmed it, and used a frame I liked to start sweepSOP, etc....
I then convert my plant to VDB/VDBreshape/etc... to create a new layer of what would be ice or whatever. 

My issue now is to point deform this very high poly layer with the vellum sim. 
I created a piece attribute for the pointDeform with xyzdist() and primuv(), I used a connectivitySOP on my vellum sim (which is made out of lines/branches) and transferred it onto the high poly layer of ice.
It works better than without a piece attribute but first it still isnt perfect, when branches are very close to each others or touching, it breaks, and secondly, it is very very slow.

So what would be a smarter way to do this you think? I want to have a deforming plant with a high poly layer of ice on top of it

Thank you for your lending your Houdini brain

Cheers