 Elm Tree Branching ExperimentPosted on January 16, 2008 by Grant SkinnerHaving grown tired of playing with circular branching experiments (hairball, inktest, flowerGlobe), I decided to tackle generating random trees with my new AS3 branching library. It only took about 1 hour (plus a couple of hours tweaking numbers), versus a week or two for the original AS2 experiments (sakura, tree), and the results are vastly superior (from a realism perspective, if not yet artistically). Much of this was experience, but a lot of it was AS3 and the branching library giving me the freedom to explore the subject without worrying too much about performance or architecture. I also spent some time looking at real trees and really examining their shape and growth patterns â the advantage of winter in Edmonton is that it’s really easy to see branch structure. I plan to see if I can make parts of this interactive, and hopefully create a 3D version in the not too distant future, either with PaperVision, or a simpler custom 3D engine (leaning towards the latter to begin). It’s a little too large to embed here, so you’ll have to click the screenshot below to open the demo. You’ll need a large monitor (> 1200×1200 pixels) to view this well.
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25 Comments
Awesome, you got the exact same numbers as god ^^
Posted by: Cay on Jan 16, 2008 10:18am
bravo
Posted by: e1 on Jan 16, 2008 10:38am
Damn, that looks/works too cool!
Great stuff
Posted by: wp on Jan 16, 2008 10:41am
Looking good. I'd love to see the trunk and everything start as small as the tiny branches and grow over time as the rest of the tree forms. :)
Posted by: Josh on Jan 16, 2008 11:09am URL: http://www.zeuslabs.us/
Josh,
A couple of the guys here suggested the same thing. The issue is mainly with vector rendering. I have to blit everything back to a bitmap each frame to keep it running at a reasonable speed, so updating the thickness of existing branches is a bit of a challenge.
On the other hand, I like a challenge, so maybe I'll give it a go sometime. :)
Posted by: Grant Skinner on Jan 16, 2008 11:54am URL: http://gskinner.com/blog/
this i beautiful.
i was working towards a similar project a year ago, but i don't have quite the same skillset in branching and such, so mine's not as pretty.
http://ar11.net/work/daily/2007-01-11.swf
as josh suggested, i was aiming more at a real time growth simulation, but i was busy with other stuff so i never got to finish.
don't run it for too long, it doesn't manage cpu useage in a friendly fashion :-P
Posted by: drMikey on Jan 16, 2008 12:29pm URL: http://www.drmikey.com
Ditto on this being beautiful!
Posted by: Tink on Jan 16, 2008 12:34pm URL: http://www.tink.ws/blog
gorgeous work!
Posted by: John on Jan 16, 2008 1:08pm
Wow! Usually if you've seen one, you've seen them all when it comes to recursive drawings of trees, but this is certainly the most realistic that I've seen done in Flash. Nice work!
Posted by: Kevin on Jan 16, 2008 3:46pm
Absolutely gorgeous!
Posted by: Nate Chatellier on Jan 16, 2008 4:34pm URL: http://blog.natejc.com
It is the realest tree shade i have ever seen!
Posted by: efish on Jan 16, 2008 8:47pm URL: http://www.tan66.cn
Great stuff, looks gorgeous.
Posted by: pedro on Jan 17, 2008 1:23am URL: http://www.dreaminginflash.com
Waoh very realistic indeed ! and so fluid...
But how come I always get the same tree ? How random is this supposed to be ?
{Maz}
Posted by: Maz on Jan 17, 2008 2:38am
I had a crowd of 10 voicing oohs and aahs around my desk :) hats off!
Posted by: sakri on Jan 17, 2008 3:17am URL: http://www.sakri.net/blog
Nice work Grant.
@Maz: its just and illusion, you don't get same tree every time.
Adrian.
Posted by: Adrian Aioanei on Jan 17, 2008 3:58am URL: http://blogs.eyepartner.com/adrian/
Maz - actually you are correct in a sense, the first tree that draws is the same each time you refresh the SWF. This is because I'm using this experiment to test a seeded random class, and I forgot to randomize the seed before the first draw before posting the experiment. Each time you click to restart after the first draw it randomizes the seed, and you get a unique tree.
Now that you've noticed this, I won't bother updating the SWF, so other people can see what you're talking about.
I should be posting the seeded random class in the next couple of days.
Posted by: Grant Skinner on Jan 17, 2008 8:57am URL: http://gskinner.com/blog/
This is really a smooth growing tree. Impressive!
Posted by: Min Thu on Jan 18, 2008 3:17am URL: http://www.flashmo.com
I look forward to that seeded random class, clearly it works very well! I've been wanting to add seeding into a lot of my random generated stuff in AS for awhile...
Posted by: Aaron on Jan 19, 2008 4:24pm URL: http://abeall.com
Fine work simply superb.
Posted by: Ten on Jan 20, 2008 6:44am URL: http://www.10tontoys.com
Wow Grant, nice job and looks simply fantastic - you've really taken this a long way from veins! =D
Posted by: Mike J on Jan 23, 2008 7:17am URL: http://mx.coldstorageonline.com
Grantastic!
A tint feature request: branch coloring and an ability to feed the tree with some water :)
Posted by: Rostislav Siryk on Jan 27, 2008 9:40am URL: http://en.flash-ripper.com/
Grant, just stumbled on this. I built a PV3D version of some random trees here (http://lukesh.com/files/Trees/FractalExperiment1.html) more or less to mess around with some of the new PaperVision Great White features. I would really encourage you to take some of your experiments (like this one) into 3D. It's a blast.
Posted by: Fran Lukesh on Feb 13, 2008 4:40pm URL: http://lukesh.com
wow awesome... !!!!, this is the first one that actually looks like a real tree..Very Well Done Mister!
Posted by: jakob on Apr 28, 2008 6:43pm
Hi ,
Could anyone point me out to tutorial on how to do : Elm Tree Branching , "growing plant" effects?
Thaks a lot!
Posted by: Borys on Jul 7, 2008 1:43pm
Really nice, very inspirational. Now how many beers will it take to get a look at that branching library :D
Posted by: mark on Oct 20, 2008 12:37am