Adding Eyebrows to characters

[Hisako 100112]

i'm just curious; how do you add eyebrows and eyelashes to a character?

 

i've tried using the hair systems but they are to thick or just don't show up in the group (i guess the area is too small; when i apply it to the whole face it shows up then.)

 

or would i use decals?

 

if you use decals, how would you position them correctly on the face? also where would i find eyebrow/eyelash looking images/materials? is there a website that supplies that kind of stuff for A:M?

 

thanx - hisako

 

ps - also looking for skin & hair textures too.

[Erik van Schaaik]

I tried all kinds of fancy stuff. But then I noticed the way the models were constructed for Ratatouille. Just simple, dark lines for eye lashes and eyebrows. Looks great, renders fast.

[rusty]

hisako,

 

I almost shied away from responding -- too many questions -- don't have time to write a book LOL (many will shy away due to this). First, the forum helps those who help themselves; almost all of your questions are answered already in this forum and you need to do some searching on your own before asking us for help. Look in the tutorial forum -- there are at least 3 skin tuts and also many hair tuts. Also there are many models on the AM and AM-Extra CDs and you should load one and take it apart and see how they have done it. I have a skin tut on my site in the Gallery section (URL in signature) -- it is a very complex tut but you will learn a lot by working through it.

 

I will answer your first question on brows; some people just use a dark brown decal (color) with a bump decal (see my tut). I use hair on a separate mesh which I place just under the face mesh and attach to the same bones as the forehead mesh... and then of course I also save a copy of my work in my resource pool so I can reuse them directly from the AM library... or, send them to people like you.

 

Brows01.zip

 

Merry Christmas! The attached was created before hair grooming was available and uses maps. I would certainly use groom now to comb the hair in the right direction. FYI, I do the upper lashes the exact same way except on a much thinner mesh. If you put them on the model mesh, when you close the eyes, the mesh twists and does crazy things. I do the lower lashes the same way except these it create right on the model mesh.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Cheers,

Rusty

[Hisako 100112]

Maps... ( i see those a lot in my other program Poser 7 ). how do you make your own maps? can AM do that? (i'm still learning this program just now had it for a month or so)

 

ps thanx 4 the brows.zip

[rusty]

Maps... ( i see those a lot in my other program Poser 7 ). how do you make your own maps? can AM do that? (i'm still learning this program just now had it for a month or so)

 

ps thanx 4 the brows.zip

 

'Maps' or just images or pictures applied to a model via drag and drop or, more often using decals. The default map type is color which shows the image but there are many other types of maps besides 'color'. Flip through tut on my site -- it shows in detail how to create and apply different kinds of maps for skin creation.

 

Cheers,

Rusty

[CreativeAustinYankee]

Eyebrows, it all depends on how much detail you want, how close the camera is going to be, etc..

 

Depending on how the face is modeled, you could get by simply by changing the color on some of the patches.

 

If that's not going to work, for most work you should be pleased with the results of the image maps.

 

I recommend only using hair if you're going to be doing some up-close shots of the face.

 

Image maps (color map, bump map, transparency, etc..) are created with an image editor such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photopaint, etc...

 

There's a free one available.

 

http://www.gimp.org/

 

OR

 

If you want some incredible flexibility with your maps, try 3DPainter for A:M. Check out the web site.

 

http://www.3dpainter.com/index.php?page=main

 

Well worth the price: $99

 

Steve P.

[Hisako 100112]

thanx for the ideas guys gotta get that A:M painter after i get some more money (i'm broke )

 

i found some hair textures in my Poser 7 runtime folder (just have to convert all of the images to targas now)

 

but one more question:

 

rusty,

 

i like all of those skin texture effects Adobe Photoshop can produce; read your tutorial, but its too complicated for me; i've only had A:M for a month, but i'll work on it. my only other problem is i don't own Adobe Photoshop do you think i could do that with any photo editing program? I own Jasc Paintshop Pro 7 (it's manufactured by DELL. have you ever heard of it? i know a lot of people i asked haven't; it works pretty good but i'm not sure if it can do all of that. And it's not compatible with A:M in any way that i know of). maybe i should invest in Adobe Photoshop...

 

hisako

[rusty]

thanx for the ideas guys gotta get that A:M painter after i get some more money (i'm broke <_>

 

i found some hair textures in my Poser 7 runtime folder (just have to convert all of the images to targas now)

 

but one more question:

 

rusty,

 

i like all of those skin texture effects Adobe Photoshop can produce; read your tutorial, but its too complicated for me; i've only had A:M for a month, but i'll work on it. my only other problem is i don't own Adobe Photoshop do you think i could do that with any photo editing program? I own Jasc Paintshop Pro 7 (it's manufactured by DELL. have you ever heard of it? i know a lot of people i asked haven't; it works pretty good but i'm not sure if it can do all of that. And it's not compatible with A:M in any way that i know of). maybe i should invest in Adobe Photoshop...

 

hisako

 

hisako,

 

Well that's kind of a bummer but on the bright side, Paint Shop Pro 7, to my knowledge, will do everything that Photoshop does (at least as far as my tut goes or, as far as you need it to use with AM). However, I'm sure things work a slightly different way and I don't know how to use it anymore (I used PSP for many years... 10 years ago). PSP will do everything you need for AM (its just as 'compatible' with AM as Photoshop which is to say that compatibility is not a concern -- if the program outputs image formats that AM accepts, and both do, that's all that matters). Whether you get Photoshop or use PSP you going to have to learn how to use the program and learn to use it well. I think PSP is easier to learn. BTW, do not waste your money on Photoshop Essentials!!! Its a piece of crap! Photoshop costs $650. Both programs are as 'large and deep' as AM. There are free tutorials and how-tos all over the web, you just have to search for them (i.e. google 'PSP Paint Shop Pro learning tutorials") and you'll have to work, work, work. If it were easy, everyone could do it. Once you start though, its lots of fun.

 

Cheers,

Rusty

[phatso]

How to do hair and lashes depends greatly on what effect you want to achieve; there's lots of ways of doing it.

 

I'm modelling an anime character and the last thing I want is real hair-based eyebrows; that would completely ruin the effect. The upper lashes will be spiky, as if loaded with mascara; the lower lash will just be brown line.

 

So it all depends.