I need to animate a cartoony-looking tree to grow from a young tree to a full mature tree - see http://www.radiantvfx.com/temp/TreeRef.jpg for the look and style of the tree.
The kicker is that the camera needs to be rotating 360 degrees around the tree while its growing.
I made the trunk and branches of the tree with paint effects and animated it with flow animation - I'm OK with the growth of the trunk and branches.
What I can't find a good solution for is the leaves. I have about 20 images of each 'clump' of leaves with alpha and have attached them on poly planes up into the branches of the tree with aim constraints to the camera - that would work OK if the camera wasn't rotating fully around the tree. As the camera rotates around, these poly planes with the clump textures on them penetrate through each other causing clumps to pop in and out.
I guess I could model each clump in 3D - but even with the toon shader, I don't know if I could get the exact same look (the client has already approved the look of the tree.)
Any ideas how to tackle this?
Thanks!
David Henion