DNA with l-system

[Ezz]

Hi all good Houdini-Folks

Ive been playing a while with l-systems in Houdini. Its very powerfull and exciting.

In my quest in learning more I have made a DNA-string out of a pretty simple l-system.

I am trying to simulate the DNA-string getting zipped open ( see pic!) but I am kind of

stucked.

My approach is to impliment a sin-function to controle the angle between the lines drawn.

But its not getting me there.

So any hint or help would be awsome!!

Thank you very much

Erik

l_sys_dna_tk001.hipnc

Edited November 8, 2008 by Ezz

[Miles]

Clever use of the l-system

[JoshJ]

yep, definitely clever, I'd probably opt to use some other methods like curves, copy sop, and ramps to get the control you need. Because the behavior of each step in your lsystem is dependant on the previous generation's step, its going to be tough to control it without introducing a lot of unneccessary math.

[Ezz]

Hi thank you for your comments.

Yeah I guess I need another approach to get more control. L-systems, allthough I havent grasped everything, seems liniear in its construction.

Maybe I can find a solution in mixing both of worlds.

I post my discoveries :-)

Thanks again

Erik

[ihab]

yep, definitely clever, I'd probably opt to use some other methods like curves, copy sop, and ramps to get the control you need. Because the behavior of each step in your lsystem is dependant on the previous generation's step, its going to be tough to control it without introducing a lot of unneccessary math.

Couldn't agree more. But i think what joshjordan suggests is the right or rather "straightforward"way that you would use in production. While production solutions aren't usually the most elegant, but they get the job done. Besides in production you need control, actually lots of it. That's why houdini is tempting to people like us, control freaks you might say. So if the sole purpose of this exercise is to learn l-systems then it's a very interesting project and please keep us posted. However if what you're after is the effect itself rather than the method, then i think you can consider a much easier and straightforward routs.

Cheers

[Owl]

hi, is this what you were after?

l_sys_dna_tk002.hipnc

[Ezz]

Hello Peeps!!

Thank you very much for your answers...Indeed it was an exploration of l-system that led me to this little experiment. I agree with you ihab that productionsolutions tends to be more dirty and simple.

Owl... You made it !! implementing a sin-funktion gave me some funky results. So the next challenge is to make the "zipped" area move up and down :-)

Thanks a lot again folks!!!!

Erik