Week 39&40 ( Sep. 21 - Oct. 4) Branch Mesh Generation

After the generation of tree nodes through the space colonization algorithm, we focus on the branch mesh generation from the already-defined tree architecture. This process is also inspired by Baptiste’s work. In brief, an auxiliary circle will be created, centered at each tree node and perpendicular to the direction from the current node to its first child node. A certain number of branch mesh vertices will be generated uniformly on each auxiliary circle. And the triangle branch mesh will be then generated by connecting the mesh vertices around the current node and its first child node. This generation process is explained more clearly by the following figures:

Note that the number of vertices on the auxiliary circle influences the division degree of the mesh (how smooth the surface could be). And the radius of the auxiliary circle determines the thickness of the branch around the tree nodes. This should be larger at the tree root and smaller at the treetop to simulate the real trees. We follow Baptiste’s formula to realize the branch size (auxiliary circle radius) change.

Our final code to realize the branch mesh generation shown as followed:

And our result looks like