v.11 Hair Styles

[JTalbotski]

Hi all,

 

Here's a WIP of a hair style on Lady Goodbody using the v.11 hair system. I call this one "the Miss America look".

 

The renders are pretty speedy if you use lights with z-buffered shadows. And the hair looks better with those lights, too.

 

Thanks Hash guys, especially Randy and Ken for bringing the Mac version along so far, and for the great hair system.

 

Jim

[Haikalle]

I wonder do you make any mistakes EVER!

This model has been my favorite in here and you just make her even better.

I would love to see her hair in animation. I have some problems to animate hair realistic so Maybe MAster like can show how it done. Amazing......just amazing

[KenH]

Man I just love that pair of....gloves! Hair is suitably big and realistic. Nice improvement.

[John Keates]

Hey Jim, nice to see some work from you again.

 

He he. With that voluminous hair she is starting to resemble Maggy Thatcher in her prime.

 

There is a nice soft look to the shadows. Are you using z-buffers these days?

 

And I like the way that you have the hair coming down in a V at the centre of her forehead. How did you control the hair line like that?

[JTalbotski]

Thanks for the comments.

 

 

John, to get the hairline, I kept the color decal on her head that represented the original slicked back hair. It gives a nice transition from the model to the particle hair. I also used the alpha channel of that image as a separate image to control the length of the hair. Whatever is black in the hair length decal allows no hair and whatever is white in the decal has full hair length.

 

And yes, I am using z-buffered shadows, which I'm starting to like a lot more, despite the lights-up-the-nostrils look.

 

Jim

[Paul Forwood]

she is starting to resemble Maggy Thatcher in her prime

 

I'm starting to worry about you, John!

[ypoissant]

Nice hair style. It suits her very well. I like her slicked hair style too but I guess they are for different occasions. One thing I noticed about those hairs is the shadows on the rest of the model seems much darker than on the hair which makes the hair looks like they were added afterward. Is there any ambiance setting on the hair or is this because the use of z-buffered shadows does not work so well on hair?

 

I like the model too. Nice set of curves. Especially the waist line. The symetry in the dress folds and in gloves folds attract my eyes though.

[JTalbotski]

Thanks, Yves. I checked and found the ambience for the hair material was not touched, but I had set the radiance to 100%, for some reason that I can't remember now. What does the radiance setting do anyway? Is it similar to ambience?

 

Thanks,

Jim

[cosmonaut]

Wow Jim, very nice use of the hair. Did that take a long time to sculpt? Must've taken a lot of hairspray to keep it up like that. Did you find yourself fighting the brush tool much? I've found it hard to work with when creating human hair since it sometimes seems to "throw" the hair around. It'd be nice if the force was adjustable, but I must say you've done a great job on this.

 

Kevin

[JTalbotski]

Kevin,

 

Thanks! It took a while to move the guide hairs around, mainly because I'm getting used to the hair grooming features. I'm getting a better idea of when to use the FK hair cursor as opposed to the standard cursor. I use the brush first to get the main shape of things and then adjust smaller areas with the 2 cursors.

 

Jim

[Dagooos]

Model looks great!

 

When you styled the hair did you work with a low hair density factor then increase and tweak as needed?

 

Is that a wig with its own light list?

 

What are her measurements?

 

ps would love to see her do the Huntress dance

[JTalbotski]

Thanks!

 

When I styled the hair, I used the brush with the realtime density of the hair system set to about 20%. Then I'd turn up the realtime density to about 50% to check it. Then I would turn down the realtime density to 0% to grab individual hair guides and tweak them into place.

 

No wig, the hair material is applied to her head.

 

Here's another model with hair. The hairline still needs work.

 

Jim

[ypoissant]

Wow! The man model's hair is stunning. Almost real. It got this same 'ambiance' effect though. I wonder what is causing this?

 

The "radiance" property is used only when you use radiosity in the choreography. Otherwise, it doesn't affect the render at all. It tells the photon shooter how much of the photons should be reflected back from the surface. Unless there are good reasons (technical, artistic or stylistic) to change it, it should normally be set at 100%.

[JTalbotski]

Yves,

 

There is another control to each hair emitter named "brightness". It seems to always be set at 100%, at least each time I open the project it is. What does brightness do?

 

For the images I posted here, I increased the diffuse falloff to 100, the default seemed to be 0. Increasing it to150 makes all the hair almost black, even in the lit areas.

 

I'll try rendering with raytraced shadows to compare, but that will take a while to render.

 

 

Thanks,

Jim

[JTalbotski]

Here's the raytrace render. Does it have the same ambience look as the z-buffer render?

 

Jim

[ypoissant]

Here's the raytrace render. Does it have the same ambience look as the z-buffer render?

No. The hair shadows are much more in harmony with the rest of the shadows. So it is related to z-buffer then.

 

z-buffered shadows does not produce self-shadowing for small details hence the inside of the nostril is lit. That may explain the difference. And hair are definitely small details.

 

Diffuse falloff: This should be set to 100%. Diffuse falloff allows you to adjust the way light falls-off on the object surface as it is facing away from light. Values lower than 100% will produce slower falloffs while values higher than 100% will produce quicker falloffs. So if the diffuse falloff was lower than 100% that may explain the ambiance look too.

 

As for brightness, this one I don't know.

[JTalbotski]

Thanks for the feedback, Yves!

 

Jim

[KenH]

I prefer the first....unless you can get rid of the jaggies in the second.

[forevernameless]

I have to say an excellent job on the hair. The models look good too, don't get me wrong it's just that the hair looks so real it sortof makes the rest look, um whats the word I'm looking for, not fake, just less real. If you get what I'm trying to say. Still. I may just be picky. Overall an excellent job.

[JTalbotski]

A different hairstyle...frizzies!

 

Yes, I'm having fun...

 

Jim

[zandoriastudios]

kewl!!! I'm glad you have finally got Hair on the mac

[cfree68f]

Hey Jim,

 

Brightness could be the problem. Its the brightness of the hair follicle and from what I've been able to determine.. its main use is in its variation setting. Using that makes the hair more natural.. not all the same color or brightness. Yves.. check out my Robin model and see if you see the ambience as up. The hair is black, which might affect things.. but I did have some diffuse falloff settings that seemed to blacken it up alot.

 

If I want really dark shadows. I tend to over shoot the diffuse fallof in order to give the shadow more dark area to "stick" to.. pardon the silly terminology, but its the best way I can discribe it.

 

one suggestion Jim. try using a color for the specular and giving it a large specular area.

 

Another thought on the differences.. I make thicker hair than you .. I map a hair texture to the follicle which gives it a finer appearance than it really has. and use some transparency. That might give the z-buffer more to hit with the shadow and allow the hair shadow to be darker as well.

 

Just some suggestions. I much prefer the z-buffer version of your hair Jim.. its softer, and though I see what Yves is saying, its a small price to pay for more realistic hair. Can't knock those render time improvements either.

 

Awesome work, as usual.

 

C

[Malaclypse235]

I am new to Animation Master and 3d graphics, and don't know a lot, but I just had to say that your hair is SO good. I haven't even tried using hair yet, but seeing things like this gives me faith that just about anything can be accomplished in this software.

 

Excellent work!

[higginsdj]

I don't think you have quite captured the extent of horror Ms Goodbody would probably be feeling with hair like that (if my wifes reactions are anything to go by)

 

Cheers

[turbokitty77]

Love the hair.

Especially the frizzy one.

 

Besides that, I just love her face! Just something about her face seems very intriguing..hmm..

 

Cool work!

[KenH]

Besides that, I just love her face! Just something about her face seems very intriguing..hmm..

She's on the latest AM CD!

[cosmonaut]

One more vote for the z-buffered shadows. I've also found the raytraced shadows are too harsh and produce too many jaggies on the hair. You can always play with the resolution and the softness.

 

Like everyone else said the hair on the man is fantastic and that frizzy hair is great. Any chance we could see a wireframe? You've got some of the best looking hair I've seen yet. And where's Sir Nigel? I'm waiting to see him show up here with a long flowing mane...

[Zaryin]

I also like the first one better. Those harsh shadows just don't look good.

[JTalbotski]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

 

David,

 

My wife would probably have the same reaction as yours!

 

 

Kevin,

 

Here's Nigel with his new hair. I gave him a part on the side, but it's basically the same style as before. Only it looks better!

 

Colin,

 

Thanks for the info and suggestions. I tried making the hair with an image as the hair particle, but so far it looks too much like claymation hair. I think I may have to play with it some more.

 

BTW, what does "bow" do as one of the hair properties?

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Jim

[luckbat]

Dude! He totally needs a goatee now!

[JohnArtbox]

damn these are good

bow controls the cross section of the hair. Hair with 0 bows appears as a flat ribbon(good for leaves, feathers) while 100% bow appears as a cylinder. Settings inbetween flatten the cylinder

[JTalbotski]

Thanks, John. I should and now I am looking all this up in the Tech. Ref. book. Here's a render of the image based hair. It looks a LOT like pigeon feathers, which is cool, but not what I wanted.

 

 

luckbat, if I gave him a goatee, he'd look just like my old boss. But I'm jusy playing around with the hair now. Pretty soon I'll have to start making some new characters. Then I'll go crazy with the hair!

 

Thanks,

Jim

[Rodney]

Good to see you back in action Jim!

It's been far too long.

[ypoissant]

Those are really good. You are the master of hair. I'm amazed at the speed you come up with new hairs and hair styles.

[Animus]

This model is beautiful, i love the skin map and i also thank you for your

tutorials on face mapping.

 

Thank you!