Differential Growth for Blender
Latest release · Please see the orginal blog post for a formal introduction.
Differential growth is a generative algorithm inspired by the growth occurring in living organisms such as lichens, algae, poriferae, corals and other kinds of organic forms.
Installation
- Download a zip file from Releases
- Install the addon in Blender by going to Edit > Preferences > Addons > Install
Important notes
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The algorithm is "destructive" (i.e. it will modify the mesh in-place). It is recommended to set the Undo Steps to maximum (Preferences > System > Undo Steps) to be able to revert to previous results.
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Some combination of parameters may result in combinatorial explosion causing Blender to hang. It is recommended to save often.
Development
It can be painful to develop in Blender's text editor.
One good solution is to symlink the repo to the Blender's addon location, then develop using your favorite editor.
Mac/Linux
Locate the addons directory, then replace ADDONS_DIR in symlink.sh and run it.
Windows
Run cmd.exe as Administrator (Start menu, search 'cmd', right click).
Then run (correct the paths as necessary):
mklink /D "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Blender\2.93\scripts\addons\diffgrow" "C:\Users\boris\3d\blender\diffgrowth"
Credits
This work is heavily inspired by the work of others. Here's a non-exhaustive list of resources used in creation of this addon:
- Anders Hoff · inconvergent.net
- Floraform by Nervous System
- Kaspar Ravel Blog
- Jason Webb 2D differential growth
- Sheltron's amazing collection of math art
License
Differential Growth Addon uses Blender License.
Free to Use. Free to Change. Free to Share. Free to Sell Your Work.