Vacuum Cleaner sucking up hair

[introduction-dance]

Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with attracting either rope objects or hair and simulating them being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner. I have a client that wants to illustrate and anti hair wrap product and I have no idea where to start. I'm new to the dynamics system, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi introduction-dance,

Please explore the two files below.

One is based on a simple simulation, the other uses just deformers to create the effect.

These are just rough starting points.

The key here is first to find something you feel most comfortable with to change during a project.
The version with the texture and deformers might benefit from a second layer of "hair" while moving it a little bit differently, to give it a more natural move.

Texture and Deformer-based
https://projectfiles.maxon.net/Cineversity_Forum_Support/2025_PROJECTS_DRS/20251007_CV4_2026_drs_25_ANhv_01.zip

Simulation sketch
CV4_2026_drs_25_SIhw_01.c4d
just one more detail
CV4_2026_drs_25_SIhw_02.c4d
Let me know what feels better to you.

All the best

[Dr. Sassi]

P.S.: here is a very procedural version.

The "hair" is just sketched on the Plane, with the Spline Sketch, while Snapping is set to Polygon only.
It has some set up work, but is super fast.

The scaling of the "hair" is based on the rail-spline set up, closer to the spline inside the vacuum.

CV4_2026_drs_25_ANhs_01.c4d

The silly vacuum-cleaner-model is without any function, just to demo the scene.

Enjoy

[introduction-dance]

Thank you ever so much.
They give me a great starting point, The last version is fantastic.
I'll have a play with it and see if I can get it to wrap round a brush roller.
That's very kind and super helpful.

[Dr. Sassi]

Thank you very much, Instruction dance,

The two spline paths need to shape the brush roller. I have no data on it.

If there is any sketch that doesn't violate perhaps an existing NDA, I'm happy to look in the morning. (I'm on Pacific time)

Enjoy the exploration, and please feel free to ask. I'm happy to look into it.

Cheers

[introduction-dance]

Hi Dr Sassi
Again many thanks for looking at this.
Without breaking the NDA I've attached a very rough hoover head with the final products roller.
My client has asked me to show the difference between a Vacuum cleaner head with hair wrapping around the roller and a version with anti hair wrap tech that stops this happening. All well beyond my current skills!
Many thanks again Nick
[rough_vacuum_head.c4d]error

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi Nick,
I fear the file was larger than 1MB, leading to an error.

Would you mind sharing it via WeTransfer, Google, Dropbox, Adobe, or Apple cloud services? Please upload unzipped and share the URL without using the HTML wrapper. Thank you.

All the best

[introduction-dance]

Hi Dr. Sassi
Here's a Wetransfer link to the file.
Many thanks Nick

https://we.tl/t-awdzaQUUyd