VEX Tree Generator

The Tree Generator is a tool that I made for a project at the LIVE Lab. We needed the ability to create a bunch of trees with ease for multiple different landscapes! Therefore, instead of opening up SpeedTree and creating dozens of different trees, I figured that I would just make a tool for that.

This HDA works by resampling points along a line and growing branches out from there. For this tool, I wanted to experiment with the "golden angle". The golden angle is essentially when leaves, branches, or other structures grow around a stem (~137.5°) to help them avoid directly overlapping, giving each leaf better access to sunlight, rain, and airflow!

There are a bunch of different controllable parameters for the growth of the tree (looking back, almost too many parameters).

Here is a breakdown of the HDA in use:

A functionality that I found especially important for this HDA was the ability for the artist to choose between hand-modeled leaves and leaf cards. We were debating between making the leaves a material and actually hand-modeling leaves, so I left that decision open and supported both options!