Hi,

I have an l-system based tree model and I will have some fruits on the branches.
So I was thinking to read the l-system tree as a wire object in DOPs and attach the fruits as RBD Objects so that I would have the realistic hanging fruits and bending branches animation by using DOPs.

The fruits will also detach from the tree and fall down (accordingly the branches needs to react)

As an example, houdini Bending Tree help file (for wire objects) have similar approach. but I couldnt find a way to manipulate it to get the effect that I need.
“hanging fruits and bending branches”

Any Suggestions or ideas..?

Thanx in advance

Have you tried using “T” as your gravity in the L-systems? It's not dynamic but it's totally manipulatable and you can animate it using keyframes or expressions.

I wouldn't go DOPs either! It will slow down your animation and make it difficult to direct. It's totally possible but for a what reason?

Use L-System + Spring + Lattice + some expression or chops.
Faster, cheaper, more controllable…


cheers,
sy.

Hi moonlightkiss and Symek

I am already using Tropism to bend my branches and It works pretty fine when I animate it. the only reason that I wanted to use dynamics was to get a realistic reaction from the tree when the fruits (heavy creature sort of fruits ) fall down from the branches.

But u r right it sounds pretty time consuming.

I will try using spring to see the how it looks.

Thanxs for the replies.

cheers