The MotionBoutique creators of the 2D Physics simulation plugin for After Effects, Newton2, post a look at how to create flying balloons that can interact with their environment. This comes complete with Newton2 animated string that are attached to each balloon.
There’s no “Flying in the air” option in Newton, but you can somehow make objects fly if you use a negative Gravity Scale value
Although Newton2 does rigid body physics only, this doesn’t mean that it is not capable of creating soft body type of effects with a bit of work.
We have had a look in the past that by using smaller segments and the Connect Layers script for After Effects, you can achieve a soft body dynamics effect pretty effectively. Check out the post Creating Soft Bodies using Connect Layers and Newton2 as an example.
Setting Values for Newton2
As the tutorial points out, there is no “Flying in the air” feature in Newton. You can however, fake the look by using Newton’s negative Gravity Scale value pretty easily.
There are a few parameters to set to make it look believable, giving the balloons settings for lower density and a much higher bounce setting. Increasing the linear damping value can add the effect of having more air resistance. Check out the tutorial for Creating Balloons with Newton2 in After Effects here.
