“Self-organizing tree models for image synthesis” by Palubicki, Horel, Longay, Runions, Lane, et al. …

We present a method for generating realistic models of temperate-climate trees and shrubs. This method is based on the biological hypothesis that the form of a developing tree emerges from a self-organizing process dominated by the competition of buds and branches for light or space, and regulated by internal signaling mechanisms. Simulations of this process robustly generate a wide range of realistic trees and bushes. The generated forms can be controlled with a variety of interactive techniques, including procedural brushes, sketching, and editing operations such as pruning and bending of branches. We illustrate the usefulness and versatility of the proposed method with diverse tree models, forest scenes, animations of tree development, and examples of combined interactive-procedural tree modeling.

1. Anastacio, F., Costa Sousa, M., Samavati, F., and Jorge, J. 2006. Modeling plant structures using concept sketches. Proceedings of NPAR 2006, 105–113. Google ScholarDigital Library
2. Aono, M., and Kunii, T. L. 1984. Botanical tree image generation. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 4, 5, 10–34. Google ScholarDigital Library
3. Arvo, J., and Kirk, D. 1988. Modeling plants with environment-sensitive automata. Proceedings of Ausgraph 1988, 27–33.Google Scholar
4. Bangerth, F. 1989. Dominance among fruits/sinks and the search for a correlative signal. Physiologia Plantarum 76, 608–614.Google ScholarCross Ref
5. Barthélémy, D., and Caraglio, Y. 2007. Plant architecture: A dynamic, multilevel and comprehensive approach to plant form, structure, and ontology. Annals of Botany 99, 375–407.Google ScholarCross Ref
6. Bell, A. 1991. Plant form: An illustrated guide to flowering plants. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
7. Beneš, B., and Millan, E. 2002. Virtual climbing plants competing for space. IEEE Computer Animation 2002, 33–42. Google ScholarDigital Library
8. Bloomenthal, J. 1985. Modeling the Mighty Maple. Computer Graphics 19, 3, 305–311. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 1985. Google ScholarDigital Library
9. Borchert, R., and Honda, H. 1984. Control of development in the bifurcating branch system of Tabebuia rosea: A computer simulation. Botanical Gazette 145, 2, 184–195.Google ScholarCross Ref
10. Borchert, R., and Slade, N. 1981. Bifurcation ratios and the adaptive geometry of trees. Botanical Gazette 142, 3, 394–401.Google ScholarCross Ref
11. Bornhofen, S., and Lattaud, C. 2008. Competition and evolution in virtual plant communities: a new modeling approach. Natural Computing. In press. Google ScholarDigital Library
12. Boudon, F., Prusinkiewicz, P., Federl, P., Godin, C., and Karwowski, R. 2003. Interactive design of bonsai tree models. Computer Graphics Forum 22, 3, 591–599. Proceedings of Eurographics 2003.Google ScholarCross Ref
13. Chiba, N., Ohkawa, S., Muraoka, K., and Miura, M. 1994. Visual simulation of botanical trees based on virtual heliotropism and dormancy break. The Journal of Visualization and Computer Animation 5, 1, 3–15.Google ScholarCross Ref
14. Cieslak, M., Lemieux, C., Hanan, J., and Prusinkiewicz, P. 2008. Quasi-Monte-Carlo simulation of the light environment of plants. Functional Plant Biology 35, 9/10, 837–849.Google Scholar
15. Cohen, J., Markosian, L., Zeleznik, R., Hughes, J., and Barzel, R. 1999. An interface for sketching 3D curves. Proceedings of the 1999 ACM Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics, 17–21. Google ScholarDigital Library
16. Cohen, D. 1967. Computer simulation of biological pattern generation processes. Nature 216, 246–248.Google ScholarCross Ref
17. Costes, E., Smith, C., Renton, M., Guédon, Y., Prusinkiewicz, P., and Godin, C. 2008. MAppleT: Simulation of apple tree development using mixed stochastic and biomechanical models. Functional Plant Biology 35, 9/10, 936–950.Google Scholar
18. Côté, J.-F., Widlowski, J.-L., Fournier, R., and Verstraete, M. 2009. The structural and radiative consistency of three-dimensional tree reconstructions from terrestrial lidar. Remote Sensing of Environment 113, 1067–1081.Google ScholarCross Ref
19. de Reffye, P., Edelin, C., Franĉon, J., Jaeger, M., and Puech, C. 1988. Plant models faithful to botanical structure and development. Computer Graphics 22, 4, 151–158. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 1988. Google ScholarDigital Library
20. Greene, N. 1989. Voxel space automata: modeling with stochastic growth processes in voxel space. Computer Graphics 23, 4, 175–184. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 1989. Google ScholarDigital Library
21. Hallé, F., Oldeman, R. A. A., and Tomlinson, P. B. 1978. Tropical trees and forests: An architectural analysis. Springer, Berlin.Google Scholar
22. Honda, H. 1971. Description of the form of trees by the parameters of the tree-like body: Effects of the branching angle and the branch length on the shape of the tree-like body. Journal of Theoretical Biology 31, 331–338.Google ScholarCross Ref
23. Ijiri, T., Owada, S., Okabe, M., and Igarashi, T. 2005. Floral diagrams and inflorescences: Interactive flower modeling using botanical structural constraints. ACM Transactions on Graphics 24, 3, 720–726. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2005. Google ScholarDigital Library
24. Ijiri, T., Owada, S., and Igarashi, T. 2006. Seamless integration of initial sketching and subsequent detail editing in flower modeling. Computer Graphics Forum 25, 3, 138–146. Proceedings of Eurographics 2006.Google ScholarCross Ref
25. Ijiri, T., Owada, S., and Igarashi, T. 2006. The sketch L-system: Global control of tree modeling using free-form strokes. Proceedings of Smart Graphics 2006, 138–146.Google ScholarCross Ref
26. Karwowski, R., and Lane, B., 2004. L-studio 4.0 User’s Guide. http: //algorithmicbotany.org/lstudio.Google Scholar
27. Karwowski, R., and Prusinkiewicz, P. 2003. Design and implementation of the L+C modeling language. Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 86, 2, 134–152.Google ScholarCross Ref
28. Lintermann, B., and Deussen, O. 1999. Interactive modeling of plants. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 19, 1, 56–65. Google ScholarDigital Library
29. Macdonald, N. 1983. Trees and networks in biological models. J. Wiley & Sons, New York.Google Scholar
30. Mandelbrot, B. B. 1982. The fractal geometry of nature. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
31. Měch, R., and Prusinkiewicz, P. 1996. Visual models of plants interacting with their environment. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 1996, 397–410. Google ScholarDigital Library
32. Neubert, B., Franken, T., and Deussen, O. 2007. Approximate image-based tree modeling using particle flows. ACM Transactions on Graphics 26, 3, 88-1-88-8. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2007. Google ScholarDigital Library
33. Okabe, M., Owada, S., and Igarashi, T. 2005. Interactive design of botanical trees using freehand sketches and example-based editing. Computer Graphics Forum 24, 3, 487–496. Proceedings of Eurographics 2005. Google ScholarDigital Library
34. Oppenheimer, P. 1986. Real time design and animation of fractal plants and trees. Computer Graphics 20, 4, 55–64. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 1986. Google ScholarDigital Library
35. Pałubicki, W. 2007. Fuzzy plant modeling with OpenGL. VDM Verlag, Saarbrucken.Google Scholar
36. Power, J., Bernheim-Brush, A. J., Prusinkiewicz, P., and Salesin, D. 1999. Interactive arrangement of botanical L-system models. Proceedings of the 1999 ACM Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics, 175–182. Google ScholarDigital Library
37. Prusinkiewicz, P., James, M., and Měch, R. 1994. Synthetic topiary. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 1994, 351–358. Google ScholarDigital Library
38. Prusinkiewicz, P., Mündermann, L., Karwowski, R., and Lane, B. 2001. The use of positional information in the modeling of plants. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2001, 289–300. Google ScholarDigital Library
39. Reeves, W. T., and Blau, R. 1985. Approximate and probabilistic algorithms for shading and rendering structured particle systems. Computer Graphics 19, 3, 313–322. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 1985. Google ScholarDigital Library
40. Rodkaew, Y., Chongstitvatana, P., Siripant, S., and Lursinsap, C. 2003. Particle systems for plant modeling. In Plant growth modeling and applications. Proceedings of PMA03, B.-G. Hu and M. Jaeger, Eds. Tsinghua University Press and Springer, Beijing, 210–217.Google Scholar
41. Runions, A., Fuhrer, M., Lane, B., Federl, P., Rollandlagan, A.-G., and Prusinkiewicz, P. 2005. Modeling and visualization of leaf venation patterns. ACM Transactions on Graphics 24, 3, 702–711. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2005. Google ScholarDigital Library
42. Runions, A., Lane, B., and Prusinkiewicz, P. 2007. Modeling trees with a space colonization algorithm. Proceedings of the 2007 Eurographics Workshop on Natural Phenomena, 63–70. Google ScholarDigital Library
43. Sachs, T., and Novoplansky, A. 1995. Tree from: Architectural models do not suffice. Israel Journal of Plant Sciences 43, 203–212.Google ScholarCross Ref
44. Sachs, T. 2004. Self-organization of tree form: A model for complex social systems. Journal of Theoretical Biology 230, 197–202.Google ScholarCross Ref
45. Shinozaki, K., Yoda, K., Hozumi, K., and Kira, T. 1964. A quantitative analysis of plant form — the pipe model theory. I. Basic analyses. Japanese Journal of Ecology 14, 3, 97–104.Google Scholar
46. Soler, C., Sillion, F., Blaise, F., and de Reffye, P. 2003. An efficient instantiation algorithm for simulating radiant energy transfer in plant models. ACM Transactions on Graphics 22, 2, 204–233. Google ScholarDigital Library
47. Takenaka, A. 1994. A simulation model of tree architecture development based on growth response to local light environment. Journal of Plant Research 107, 321–330.Google ScholarCross Ref
48. Ulam, S. 1962. On some mathematical properties connected with patterns of growth of figures. Proceedings of Symposia on Applied Mathematics 14, 215–224.Google ScholarCross Ref
49. Weber, J., and Penn, J. 1995. Creation and rendering of realistic trees. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 1995, 119–128. Google ScholarDigital Library
50. Wither, J., Boudon, F., Cani, M.-P., and Godin, C. 2009. Structure from silhouettes: a new pradigm for fast sketch-based design of trees. Computer Graphics Forum 28, 2, 541–550. Proceedings of Eurographics 2009.Google ScholarCross Ref
51. Zakaria, M. N., and Shukri, S. R. M. 2007. A sketch-and-spray interface for modeling trees. Proceedings of Smart Graphics 2007, 23–35. Google ScholarDigital Library