Over the many hours spent putting together Grasshopper definitions to create the forms that I am proposing, including the indentations created by the bamboo, it occurred to me that I may be able to create a part of the definition that would allow me to animate the construction process. The video below shows this as it stands currently.
Construction sequence animated in Grasshopper
The screenshot below from Grasshopper shows part of the definition which allowed me to animate the growing sequence. I set parameters for the maximum height that the bamboo should grow to, and then set the each bamboo culm to grow to a random height at 90-100% of that maximum height. This meant that the animation would convey the natural variation in the growing heights and times of the bamboo culms. Then, I used a timer input as a multiplier which, when started, would 'grow' the bamboo from the ground upwards, updating with each iteration in the Rhino viewport. I then screen-recorded this process from three different views and compiled them in Adobe Premiere Pro, along with screen-recordings of the other parts of the process from the same views, to create the animation above.
Extract of the Grasshopper definition which facilitates the bamboo growing animation
I'm really happy at having devised how to do this myself, and I will definitely use this technique for animating construction processes from Grasshopper again in future. I think that whilst the film is not a visually beautiful portrayal of the construction process, it is a useful work-in-progress way of demonstrating where this part of my project is at at this stage and the crucial role that Grasshopper and Rhino modelling is having alongside the physical modelling and drawing processes.
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