How to Inflate and Pop a Balloon With Vellum

Shahnam Haider teaches how to use Houdini vellum to inflate and pop a balloon easily.

The speed and the versatility of the Vellum solver in Houdini make for creating some significant effects. Houdini Vellum uses position-based dynamics to simulate things like hair, cloth, and even grains. Check out this quick tip tutorial from VFX TD and CG Generalist Shahnam Haider who shows how you can inflate and pop a balloon.

The tutorial covers how to make tearing happen in the vellum solver. The inflating effect is one that is revisited quite a bit by tutorial authors. Mikael Pettersén shows how you can use Houdini Vellum to inflate objects with air quickly. A while back, Tim van Helsdingen offered some insights into creating an effect where bubbles inflate from a surface, that covered a bit of packing and a bit of inflating. Check out that tutorial here.