After all the research that had been done, I had a better plan on how to approach a specific reference. I will be attaching photos by the end of this week!
1. I handmodeled a heart shaped radish leaf in MAYA to get the most control.
2. I assembled the leaves in the phyllotactic pattern and animated according to the spread. Then, ran a vellum
simulation to get rid of starting intersections. I ran this simulation many leaves so that the force of all the leaves
would create better animation on the internal leaves.
3. In a for each loop, I bent each leaf according to its direction ramp. I animated on the bend and ran another vellum
simulation to create the bud shape. Dampness values were important so the leaves wouldn't be bouncy. Stiffness just enough
to keep the shape, but not cut into surrounding leaves.
4. Retimed the simulation so it is starting from the bud and then opening up. Deleted the leaves that were not needed for the
rest of the animation.
5. Copy to points leaves to the end of a line.
6. Created a Controls node to connect transform, bend, scale values on the stem to handanimate the stem according to reference.
7. Run a third vellum simulation with the leaves connected to stem animation so the leaves get the natural movement based on the stem.
8. Add thickness to the leaves.
9. VDB on Leaf and Leaf Stems so they seamlessly connect.
I plan to add a second bud coming from the center later this week.
On the Look Dev side, since this is my first time working in Redshift, I did some quick research on how to add lights & connect materials and basic render settings
so that I could start playing around with the shaders.
I haven't tried matching to reference yet. Right now, I am trying to navigate how the shaders will work for different
parts of the plants. Since subsurface makes the parts almost see through, I am not sure how I am going to handle interesting
geometry. Here are some references.
Here is my latest version of the animation.
There was some discussion on exactly which render engine to use for lighting and look development. I temporarily stopped using Redshift as we do not have a license for it on the Blackwell computers.
We will most likely either use Karma XPU or Unreal Engine, depending on which engine is most compatible with the guassian splat dirt. Here is my render test in Karma XPU.
There is some jittering on the hair of the stem that I have yet to fix, the hair on the leaves seems to be looking fine. The textures of all the bud and the background were made in COPs.
WHAT'S NEXT
1. Refining animation based on reference
2. Incorporate Itim's dirt with plant
3. Fix and/or change anything based on how the shots look side by side and pipeline
4. Fix hair jittering
