How can I use hair dynamics with instanced geometry and have it deform like hair?

Question

I am trying to figure out how to make an animated wheat field with ears of wheat swaying in the wind.

What would the simplest way to achieve that.

I already modeled the wheat and made some variations and added it to a group but i am not sure how to get it to deform using hair dynamics.

Answer 1

To instance geometry onto hair particles and have them use hair dynamics I created the geometry.

Then I added a plane with a hair particle system using dynamics.

On the geometry to be instanced using the hair I added a Particle Instance modifier and selected the plane containing the particle system as a target as the target.

The orientation of the mesh was not what I expected so I activated the create along paths option in the particle instance modifier. Orientation was still off.

I edited instanced geometry and changed its orientation by rotating it on the X axis 90 degrees, and presto!

Adding a turbulence force field with a high strength (23) that deformed the hair and the instanced geometry along with it.

Here is the blend file to dissect. Blend File