S. Pirk, T. Niese, O. Deussen, B. Neubert, Capturing and Animating the Morphogenesis of Polygonal Tree Models, ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of Siggraph Asia), 2012

Abstract:

Given a static tree model we present a method to compute deveopmental stages that approximate the tree's natural growth. The tree model is analyzed and a graph-based description of the tree skeleton is determined. Based on structural similarity, branches are added where pruning has been applied or branches have died off over time. Botanic growth models and allometric rules enable us to produce convincing animations from a young tree that converge to the given model. Furthermore, the user can explore all intermediate stages, by selectively applying the process to parts of the tree even complex models can easily be edited. This form of reverse engineering enables users to create rich natural scenes from a small number of static tree models.<br><br><a target = _blank href = "http://www.pirk.info/projects/tree_growth/">Project Page</a>

Bibtex: 

@article{pirk2012capturing,
  title={Capturing and animating the morphogenesis of polygonal tree models},
  author={Pirk, S{\"o}ren and Niese, Till and Deussen, Oliver and Neubert, Boris},
  journal={ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG)},
  volume={31},
  number={6},
  pages={1--10},
  year={2012},
  publisher={ACM New York, NY, USA}
}