Full of Hot Air......

I had an idea to create an inflating object so that's just what I did.... Being a dynamic simulation though it was never going to be as straight forward as I had hoped!

My initial idea was to have a tethered balloon inflate and then the tethers release and the balloon float off.... each part is simple enough but then there's the "C" word.... that's right, I'm talking about constraints. I discovered that n-cloth doesn't play too nicely with constraints on hair systems and the only work around appeared to be to set up the hair systems first which was a bit backwards really as the n-cloth was driving the hair.

Anyway, after a little jiggery pokery I got it to work in the end.....

For a first attempt I'm pretty pleased with it, there's issues with the tension on the guy ropes and the rope on the right isn't really behaving as it ought to at it's connection with the balloon but these are minor issues thatcan be ironed out as I continue to develop my understanding of the systems, the main thing is I have created a workflow that can produce results... happy days!