This is a quick tutorial on making mylar balloons. We will use a flattened sphere but the technique is the same for more elaborate shapes. The texture is the important part here, with the metallic finish and the creases created with a bump map.
The balloon itself is just a flattened sphere.
The texture is fairly simple too.
A metallic texture, with the same image as Diffuse and Specular color map, plus a bump map that simulates the creases of the balloon.
Bump map
Diffuse and Specular color map
Reflectivity and Smoothness
A first render looks like this.
Black all around
A visible and a reflected environment do wonders for the balloon.
With visible and reflected environments
Now we just have to complete the bunch.
The strings are just very long, very thin cylinders, rotated as needed.
Here is the source file, should you want to compare.
