Modelling Phyllotaxis and Zoetropes in TouchDesigner

Model the beauty and complexity of all sorts of plants using a simple – to – program algorithm in TouchDesigner! We will write a short GLSL shader that will implement 2D phyllotaxis, the process by which plants add new organs to their structure (e.g. petals, leaves, seeds, florets).

This fascinating algorithm gives rise to many scintillating patterns with just a few parameter tweaks, making it great for deep exploration!

Project files on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/modelling-in-108743702
My portfolio: https://www.lakeheckaman.com
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lake_heckaman

Resources:

Cool intuition building applet about zoetropes: https://andygiger.com/science/zoetrope/index.html

Artist and fabricator using phyllotaxis in really incredible ways: https://www.johnedmark.com/

Algorithmic Beauty of Plants (phyllotaxis is in chapter 4): http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/abop/abop.pdf

Env Map: https://polyhaven.com/a/kloofendal_48d_partly_cloudy_puresky

GLSL rotation functions https://github.com/dmnsgn/glsl-rotate/blob/main/rotation-3d-z.glsl