Mitosis

Blender add-on for procedurally animating the replication of objects and 'flock behavior'.

Features

• Animate objects spawning and dividing into neighboring spaces.
• Specify speed, distance, axis, and style of spawning behavior, as well as size of spawned objects
• Specify post spawn behavior of objects, including location, size, and rotation changes.

Tutorial

Quickstart

• Download files, and then install the add on from the Blender Preferences -> Add-ons menu. (Click the install... button and navigate to mitosis.py.)

• Upon installation, a panel for this add-on will appear within any selected object's Properties Editor. You can also access a popup of the add-on under the Object menu when in Object Mode.

• Within the panel are various basic parameters to adjust. Hover the mouse over each for a basic description of its function.

• Click Execute (or OK if Mitosis is accessed via the popup panel) to write the animation.

Behavior Modifiers

Behavior Modifiers allow for more complex post-replication behavior of each spawned object.

Click on the Behavior Modifiers button to access the settings panel. From this panel, you can add Behavior Mods, and specify their behavior type, direction, duration, and amount.

Note that the delay parameter is based on the frame when each generation of spawned objects begins. So assigning a delay of 0 is later for each subsequent generation and depends on your settings in the main Mitosis panel.

As an example, if you'd like each spawned object to move 100m in the X direction for 30 frames, then 25m in the -Y direction for 20 frames, you'd create two Behavior Modifiers with these settings:

• Behavior Modifier #1:
  • Behavior: Move, Direction: X, Delay: 0, Duration: 30, Value: 100
• Behavior Modifier #2:
  • Behavior: Move, Direction: Y, Delay: 30, Duration: 20, Value: -25

The delay of 30 in Mod #2 means its animation will begin right as the animation for Mod #1 ends, since Mod #1's duration was 30 frames.

Note: There are no checks implemented yet for if the timing of different behavior modifiers of the same type overlap and cause unpredictable results.

Compatability

Tested with:

Blender - 4.1.1

Credits

The author and maintainer of this module is Brendan Krueger