Each of the Guildhall@SMU programming students creates a cloth simulation using an integration method, such as Verlet.
Rather than creating the same cloth simulation that everyone else was doing, I created a generic system that can load any model and turn it into a spring system.
The spring system is created by turning all attached vertices into a mass spring damper system. The spring was normalized to the original length, so assuming no external forces the object would always revert to its original shape. This allows the system to have internal pressure on the springs allowing the object to expand or contract, deform to point pressure, impacting another object, etc.
When completed, I could load any model from a sphere to a fully modeled F-117 fighter jet as a spring system and poke it to watch ripples across the surface, apply gravity to watch it bend or smash into walls and floors, or change the internal pressure causing the object to expand to contract.
As a learning tool, I did not apply constraints to the springs so experimentation could be done with the limits of Verlet integration and instability.