Skylift – Hot Air Balloon Generator for Blender

Skylift builds photorealistic hot air balloons and gas balloons inside Blender: one-person cloudhoppers, sport balloons, 24-passenger ride balloons, special shapes and spherical gas balloons in their rope nets. Pick one of 22 presets from pictures, press Add, then change anything. Every setting rebuilds the balloon live.

The envelopes are made like the real thing. Each gore is a separate fabric panel between raised load tapes, the fabric bulges softly between the tapes and folds near the mouth, the load tapes and panel seams carry real stitching that holds up in close-ups, the crown is sun-bleached and the mouth sooted, and every panel has its own slight dye-lot tint, so nothing looks like a smooth CG balloon. The crown has a parachute vent with its centering lines, the mouth a load ring, a scoop skirt and stainless flying wires down to the burner frame.

The baskets are woven wicker with leather-trimmed step holes, a suede rim roll, rawhide bands, ash runners, rope handles and partitions for the pilot and passenger compartments. On top sit single, double, triple or quad burners with tight vaporizing coils, brass jet rings, pilot lights, blast and whisper valves, pressure gauges and a gimbal handle, firing a licking propane flame with a blue root. Padded pole covers, an instrument pack, the red rip line and propane hoses routed up the poles finish the cockpit.

Patterns are painted along the real seams, so stripes, checks and chevrons never cross a tape and never z-fight.

Features

• 22 presets: classic, rainbow, flame racer, chevrons, checkerboard, harlequin, spiral, sunburst, stars, patchwork, sponsor banner, passenger 16 and 24, cloudhopper, sphere, pumpkin, light bulb, heart, cube, teardrop and two gas balloons
• 8 envelope shapes: classic, racing, tall teardrop, sphere, pumpkin, light bulb, cube and heart
• 14 patterns with up to 4 colors, plus banner panels that print your own logo image
• 1 to 24 passengers: the basket, partitions, burners, cylinders and envelope volume follow
• Gas balloons with a rope net, load ring, appendix and sand ballast
• Rip-stop nylon, polyester laminate and rubberized fabric finishes
• Gentle bobbing and drift and pulsing burner flames on the timeline, made for night glows
• Randomize and Surprise Me for endless new balloons
• Low, Medium and High detail: light balloons for crowds, hero detail for close-ups
• Real-world scale in meters, PBR materials that export to game engines, Make Static for export

Requires Blender 4.2 or newer. Tested on Blender 4.2, 4.5 and 5.2 LTS.