how to model and render mycelium network?

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1

hi,

i’m farely new to blender and cycles rendering and i wondered if it was possible to render something like this:

mycelium.jpg736×736 55.9 KB


i hope the links work!
here is another reference:

the images show a mycelium network, a collection of long fibres accumulating to an object.

it tried to replicate the look with a particle system or hair system, but i couldn’t manage to get strands to align with the form of the object. ( form of the object is not so important, i am trying to get a solution that works with most objects and organic forms) Another methode i have tried was to get the effect with crvs, the result was more promising but it didnt look like what i am trying to achieve.
an important aspect in my opinion would by not to generate new meshes from a basemesh because of memory limitations.
what i not have tried yet is to replicate the look in a combination of these different varients and i didnt try texturing an object.
during my research i found that the topic has great similarities to spiderwebs and how they are generated.

here is the result of my crv rendering (just a draft)

rendered crvs.jpg1920×1080 688 KB

thanks for your suggestions.

2

I am curious if you have put any forethought to the genus of the spore creating the protien excretion you rendered and to the different atmosphere’s in which they change their trajectory of emission from the colony of single cell’s. this is actually a facinating science however mycelae is not the correct term for what you rendered.

3

Might try the ivy generator add-on. Was just watching some demonstration of it, and it seems to be able to get similar shapes by generating it over a mesh.

4

A fibremesh approach might also work…

5

thanks for pointing out this very important aspect of the subject. to answer your question, yes i have thought about how the organism is growing, i would go a step further a say the generation and growth of the digital structure is the most important aspect for the credebility of the design.
sadly i know very little about the biological processes, so the goal for the parametric model i am trying to design is to mimic the behavior not copy all aspects.

6

thanks for the hint, this method looks very promising!

7

i have seen this mehtod before and at the first it looked like this would be the right tool to design a mycelium. But this fibre mesh is generated by randomly weaving a string inside and around an object.

the difference to what i am trying to achieve is the opposite of randomness, the form i am trying to generate has a strong directionality and follows defined rules.

8

Hi @farx69

Were you able to achieve what you were attempting?

I’m also trying to produce something similar to your reference image and was hoping you found a solution