my hair trial

[thefreshestever]

i´m workin on a hammy-like squirrel-character to learn more about hair. i figured out how to work with decals on hair, in this case i´ve decals for the color, the length and the density of the hair... first i had only one hair system, and it looked totally like a stuffed plush toy... then i added a second one, so that i now have a short one with a high density (375) and a long one with low density (25).. looks way better now, but i´m still not satisfied. i still get this kind of pattern, it looks not really natural...

i thought about adding a third system, but i doubt my computer can take any more.

 

the image i added took about 1 and a half hours to render (multipass 9, 1280x720 px), has anyone got an idea how i can speed this up?

how can i make the hair look more natural?

 

what i did so far to make it look better was:

 

- added a little kinkyness

- made it thinner, brighter and 70% transparent to the tip

- selected high values for direction and length variation

 

thanks ahead

[Luuk Steitner]

I think that's a really good image. There is a pattern visible, but if you don't tell anyone no one will notice

I didn't use hair much so I don't know all tricks to speed it up, but do you really need that transparency? Transparency can slow down the render significantly. Maybe you'll get the about same result if you just make the hair thinner at the tips.

[Kamikaze]

Ive been experimenting with the Hair System too. IS your 375 Hair density the % density setting? that is if it goes above 100. I have my set at 10 @ 100% and that seems dense enough for my purpose . Maybe I better check my settings again.

[John Bigboote]

the image i added took about 1 and a half hours to render (multipass 9, 1280x720 px), has anyone got an idea how i can speed this up?

how can i make the hair look more natural?

 

An hour and a half for one image?

I have a theory on speeding up your render...seems to work for me. Try this:

 

(Always good advice to 'Save As' before trying something new...) As you noticed, there are two places where you can set your hair emitter's density- one in the main material hair property window and one each in the individual emitter's property windows. I've recently had great speed in renders by reducing the individual emitters density to the lowest value possible- which I believe is .01 (if you set both to .01 you will have a 50-50 ratio of the 2 emitters, but if you set one to .01 and the other to .02,.03,.04 etc you will have a primary emitter and a secondary emitter.)

 

Now this will make your hair quite sparse, so in the main hair property window you will compensate- set that value to 400% or 500% or 900% (experiment) Now- try a render frame and see if you notice an improvement in render time. I hope you do!

 

ALSO= How can you make it look more natural? Have you set the surface attribute to Muhair yet? Muhair gives the overall hair a 'pantene-sheen' that is quite natural. To do this- In the individual emitters 'Surface' property window scroll down to 'Diffuse Render Shader' and click the setting for MuHair, and do the same to the setting below which is called 'Specular Render Shader' (Set to Muhair) There are lots of new settings to dink with but for starts leave the default settings be and see if you like the hairs new look upon render. (Don't forget to specify in the render properties window to turn Render Shaders to 'ON'...under 'options') This will cause a little extra render time but the visual is worth it.

 

Good luck! I like your character!

[thefreshestever]

I think that's a really good image. There is a pattern visible, but if you don't tell anyone no one will notice

I didn't use hair much so I don't know all tricks to speed it up, but do you really need that transparency? Transparency can slow down the render significantly. Maybe you'll get the about same result if you just make the hair thinner at the tips.

 

thanks... it looks a bit more realistic if you make it a bit transparent at the tips additional to make them thinner... sure, that may be a reason for the long render time... i´ll check that and compare.

[mtpeak2]

You can also lower the density and use the jitter option to make it look like more hair than what's there. I would also lower you direction value, for the most part, animal fur is usually pretty uniform in direction. As Luuk suggested, remove the transparency and just taper the thickness of the hair in the timeline.

[thefreshestever]

the image i added took about 1 and a half hours to render (multipass 9, 1280x720 px), has anyone got an idea how i can speed this up?

how can i make the hair look more natural?

 

An hour and a half for one image?

I have a theory on speeding up your render...seems to work for me. Try this:

 

(Always good advice to 'Save As' before trying something new...) As you noticed, there are two places where you can set your hair emitter's density- one in the main material hair property window and one each in the individual emitter's property windows. I've recently had great speed in renders by reducing the individual emitters density to the lowest value possible- which I believe is .01 (if you set both to .01 you will have a 50-50 ratio of the 2 emitters, but if you set one to .01 and the other to .02,.03,.04 etc you will have a primary emitter and a secondary emitter.)

 

Now this will make your hair quite sparse, so in the main hair property window you will compensate- set that value to 400% or 500% or 900% (experiment) Now- try a render frame and see if you notice an improvement in render time. I hope you do!

 

ALSO= How can you make it look more natural? Have you set the surface attribute to Muhair yet? Muhair gives the overall hair a 'pantene-sheen' that is quite natural. To do this- In the individual emitters 'Surface' property window scroll down to 'Diffuse Render Shader' and click the setting for MuHair, and do the same to the setting below which is called 'Specular Render Shader' (Set to Muhair) There are lots of new settings to dink with but for starts leave the default settings be and see if you like the hairs new look upon render. (Don't forget to specify in the render properties window to turn Render Shaders to 'ON'...under 'options') This will cause a little extra render time but the visual is worth it.

 

Good luck! I like your character!

 

 

thanx, i´ll try that out with the percentage settings...

 

i don´t have a shader called muhair to choose in the render shaders menue, is that a new feature? i´m working with a:m 12, maybe i should upgrade..

[thefreshestever]

You can also lower the density and use the jitter option to make it look like more hair than what's there. I would also lower you direction value, for the most part, animal fur is usually pretty uniform in direction. As Luuk suggested, remove the transparency and just taper the thickness of the hair in the timeline.

 

 

thanks, but where do i find the "jitter option"?

[mtpeak2]

Jitter is v14, I think. Sorry, didn't realize you were using v12.

[John Bigboote]

Yup- both features are newer (jitter and muhair) GOOD NEWS- You can upgrade for only $50 and that will put you in V15!

[Rodney]

No advice to offer here. Just want to say, 'Very nice hair on your character!'.

[c-wheeler]

The guard hairs(longer ones)on the fur look good. I would change the underlying fur to make it a little finer. Also I would have a direction map for the fur or comb more -Think whorls- I usualy take down the density to do this, and just step it up for rendering.

 

Chris