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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 horizontal panels carry double-stitched seams 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 vaporizing coils, jet rings, pilot lights and blast valves, fed by padded propane cylinders through sagging hoses.

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

One click, a new balloon
Press Surprise Me in the Balloon tab: a new hot air or gas balloon is built live in the viewport.

22 ready-made balloons
Sport balloons, ride balloons, special shapes, a cloudhopper and gas balloons. Every one can be changed.

14 patterns, any colors
Stripes, rainbow, chevrons, flames, checks, harlequin, spiral, sunburst, stars and more, painted along the real seams.

1 to 24 passengers
One slider sizes the basket, burners, fuel cylinders and the envelope volume that lifts them.

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
• 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.