Simulating seasonal leaf behavior?

[TurtsMacGurts]

 

Hi all, I'm looking at the Sandalwood tree example that includes growth from seedling to mature tree.

 

With this example, the tree fully grows based off  the "growthControl" path. That node has an animation curve which controls the speed of growth for the entire tree, and it grows linearly. All the paths in the tree inherit and grow based on the parent path (e.g. leaves grow from the branch, branch grows from the trunk, etc.) which is standard GFX workflow.

 

However, I want to decouple the growth of the leaves from the growth of the tree, purely in terms of how *fast* the leaves grow in. I'm basically trying to simulate *seasons* of growth for the leaves. So the tree grows, leaves bloom, then they fall off (or disappear) and the tree stops growing. Then next Spring (or later in the timeline), the existing leaves bloom again, new leaves bloom as well, and the tree continues to grow, then the leaves disappear/detach during Fall. Repeat.

 

Is there a way to do this seasonal regrowth of leaves? If anyone has any pointers, I would really appreciate it!

 

[ptrain03]

For parts of the tree that are decoupled from the growth of the trunk, I usually use an invisble path (usually with a path position modifier) that the leaf or fruit growth is affected by.