Modeling and Visualization of Biological Structures
Przemysław Prusinkiewicz · 2000
Rapid progress in the modeling of biological structures and simulation of their development has occurred over the last few years. It has been coupled with the visualization of simulation results, which has lead to a better understanding of morphogenesis and given rise to new procedural techniques for realistic image synthesis. This paper characterizes selected models of morphogenesis with a significant visual component. KEYWORDS: developmental models in biology, morphogenesis, simulation and visualization of biological phenomena, realistic image synthesis, reaction-diffusion, diffusionlimited growth, cellular automaton, L-system. How far mathematics will suffice to describe, and physics to explain, the fabric of the body, no man can forsee. D'Arcy Thompson, On Growth and Form [40]