Plastic Trees: Interactive Self-Adapting Botanical Tree Models is a 2012 paper that represents a technique for giving modeled 3D trees the ability to react with their environment, branches, leaves and all by Sören Pirk, Ond?ej Št’ava, Julian Kratt, Michel Abdul-Massih, Boris Neubert, Radomír M?ch, Bed?ich Beneš, Oliver Deussen and sponsored by University of Konstanz Germany, Purdue University USA, Adobe Systems Incorporated USA.
For more information on the Self Adapting Botanical Tree Models check out the page here.
We present a dynamic tree modeling and representation technique that allows complex tree models to interact with their environment interactively. Our method uses changes in the light distribution and proximity to solid obstacles and other trees to impose biologically motivated transformations on a skeletal representation of the tree’s main branches and its procedurally generated foliage. Parts of the tree are transformed only when required, thus our approach is much faster than common algorithms such as Open L-Systems or space colonization methods. Input is a skeleton-based tree geometry that can be computed from common tree production systems or from reconstructed laser scanning models. Our approach enables content creators to directly interact with trees and to create biologically convincing ecosystems interactively. We present different interaction types and evaluate our method by comparing our transformations to biologically based growth simulation techniques.
