SoftBody/IK-Spline Dynamic Tree Rig

For this project I wanted to explore the notion of using rigging techniques to create a dynamically driven motion.

When thinking of this idea I asked myself what would best represent this idea and that's when I thought of tree's.

For this system I first started by creating a joint system. I did this by creating a master joint system. Then separately I created individual joint chains for each branch. Next I parented these children joint chains into the master joint system.

Now that I had a proper hierarchy I need to create curves along the "curvature" of the joint systems. This Curve system would serve as the goal weight for when I apply Softbody Dynamics. Once I had my curves in place I then created IK-Splines for each individual joint system including the master joint system. After this process was done I created an automation mel button to create the joint systems and IK-Systems based off the geometry.

Below is a video of the result that I got. ( I used a Turbulence Field to create the rustling )

Here is an example of another system using a Lattice to create a similar effect.