Progress Update

VOLUME COLLAPSE
We have worked on trying to simulate this effect by still using nCloth, but this time painting per-vertex cloth attributes. Just as a tomato loses its firmness in specific regions first, our nCloth loses rigidity in the areas surrounding the stem before the rest of the fruit. Additionally, there is an overall collapse that occurs, which we simulated by keying nCloth rigidity for all vertices. We still have a problem with the final total collapse: It does not look like the tomato is so much shrinking as it does just deflating.



NEXT STEPS
--Once our growth functions for rot occurrence are completed, we can apply that algorithm to both growing regions of rigidity loss and growing spots of mold. The general pattern of growth (random points of origin favoring certain regions, reaction-diffusion) is similar for both mold generation and softening, with different parameters (mold would not cover as wide an area, would have more points of origin, etc.)
--Right now our texture generation below is implemented as a pre-process. That is, we currently have a separate C++ module that produces a series of images that are then linked to our geometry in Maya as an animated texture. Our goal is to make a real-time simulation that generates textures on the spot.
--Incorporate all of our different elements of the project into a cohesive Maya plugin. Right now our parts are all over the place.
--Work more on rendering. We want our rotting process to look realistic as well as progress realistically.