Hair/fur material and rendering

[flashawd]

Hi - I am working on a project for a client that has to be rendered out at a very high resolution - one of the characters in the scene is a girl with long hair - I want to use a hair material to create her hair, but getting concerned I may not be able to render it, or take way too long at the resolution it has to be in. Has anyone created a character they could point me to or post a pic of that they modelled the hair, but still has a realistic look to it? Thanks - Eric

[zandoriastudios]

If it is just for a still, and you are wanting to cut your rendertime, then maybe you could just paint the hair in Photoshop afterwards?

[John Bigboote]

My favorite is always 'Holly' by Barry Hollingsworth in 2000.

[flashawd]

Hi William - no it is for a 45 second animation - which is going to be an issue w/ using a hair material - at a high resolution output. John - I love that pic as well - that has to be modelled correct? - was hair material even avail in 2000? I think I'll give it a try.. not saying it will come out that good, but I'll give it a try. ;-) Great example - thanks.

[flashawd]

Also - what would be your best guess - is that modelled individual strands? And are they decalled or a material used on them? Any suggestions.

 

Thanks,

Eric

[John Bigboote]

Barry used a common technique where you model 'swatches' for the hair and then apply a decal with a hairlock texture painted on it with transparency, bump or displacement. The only problem with this type hair is that it gives you 'helmet-head'--- meaning the hair has no dynamic flow or bounce. On a long haired character it would be as if she used a lot of hairspray.

 

Hash's new particle hair renders strand by strand and the new Muhair shaders make it look quite radiant. It reacts to forces and gives nice secondary motion. Is your character going to be very active, or will she merely be standing still?

 

(There is a sample of the new hair in my avatar, and if you hover over the bottom of the avatar a button will appear that will show another movie of this character with the hair reacting to a force...)

[flashawd]

Hi John - what exactly do you mean by "swatches" - like small groups of modelled strands? This actually will work perfect - the character is laying in a hospital bed w/ very little movement, to answer your question. When I get to the point of making the hair, I may need to pick your brain on the decaling. Thanks again - Eric

[robcat2075]

A "swatch" woudl be some simple, mostly flat geometry with a decal on it.

 

If you do get some long flowing hair to work well (like not pass thru the shoulders and all that) that will be good to see.

 

I recall an article about "The Incredibles" saying that Violet having long hair was something they considered abandoning because it was so difficult to manage.

[Fuchur]

was hair material even avail in 2000?

 

Not really... there was Shag-Hair, but that isnt nearly as powerful as the new one.

The new one was introduced in v11 and I think in v9 or 9.5 they got the lock-hair-feature

(which is still available and could be another way to do it, even if it is now more hidden...)

 

Shaig-Hair is although an option, but as I already said: It wont produce very good results, even it will render quite fast.

*Fuchur*

[herbiekun]

Here is a small application to create hair textures called Kami. . It makes the hair texture,bump map{guessing here} and transparency map for cookie cutter style hair. Its from japan but easy to figure out. Hope you find it helpful.

 

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/mn6x847w/folder/313140.html

[flashawd]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions - and the link.