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gunslingerblack
06-08-2005, 06:23 AM
sorry forum leaders if this isn't in the right place, i wasn't sure if it was supposed to go in the dynamics forum so i figured i would post it here, if it's a problem please move it, or delete it and inform me and i'll repost in the proper forum

ok now onto the question, posted below is an image of a project im currently working on, as you can see from the concept design by ian mccaig it is a young master yoda. next to it is a copy of my models head. my question is about hair creation for this model. i want to follow the concept design pretty faithfully which means that i would be giving yoda a mediumlong length mohawk style haircut, and probably some sideburns as well. i've been trying to find fur tutorials for maya and i've been reading up, apparently fur is best used for character with short to medium length hair, since this is kind of borderline i want to know what you would suggest i use.my attempts at modelled strips mapped with a hair texture and transparency map have ended in glorious failure so i would like to try and stay away from that if i could. i would like to create as realistic looking hair as possible using maya as the solution. so i would also like to stay away from "dude just get shave and haircut" comments only because i can't get my hands on awesome plugins like that.

sorry for such a long winded post and thank you in advance for your assistance.
yenvalmar
06-13-2005, 10:43 AM
will produce results such as the following, if its what you want. its pretty easy to add dynamic motion to it also. and it renders fast. basically its the bomb.

http://www.yenvalmar.com/commercial/rendered/stills/images/3dface.jpg
gunslingerblack
06-13-2005, 04:38 PM
wow that's really nice, any way you can explain to me how to achieve that look? if you dont want to do it on the public forums feel free to pm me or im me at t3amz3r0 on aim if u have msn messenger just pm me with ur email and i'll add u to the list (reason being i dont use msn unless i have to) thanks for the reply, i had given up all hope of this thread ever getting a response.
kennez
06-13-2005, 05:24 PM
Is that Maya hair of PaintFX converted to polys?
yenvalmar
06-13-2005, 08:41 PM
i made this before the maya hair came out, and i have not had to do hair since, so i havent used the new maya hair. but it is my understanding that maya hair actually runs using the paintFX technology, so they probably just automate a lot of the steps i did by hand in setting this up.

its pretty straight forward, just make a bunch of control curves about how you want the hair to flow in various places on the head, make some paint FX hair brushes (use thin line or paint type brush and play with the settings), then put some splines all over the top of your head that the hair will grow out of, attatch the paintfx brush of your hair to those curves.

now there will be hair on the head but it will be growing straight out, or sideways, or anyways wrong. the key part, is to set the brush to follow the controll curves, and tweak the settings around so it actually follows them closely. viola, instant hair styling that you always dreamed of, its rally fun to just make different hair dos.also those controll curves can be converted into softbodies and respond to dynamics so its easy to add dynamic motion.

but like i said i think the maya hair feature does all this automatically, i'd check it out.

if you feel brave and want to do all this manually, don't be afraid to use a LOT of controll curves, and set your paintfx brush to render a LOT of hairs, if you want it to look realistic. i probably have 100 controll curves to shape how the hair goes. if you make things in a grid and name stuff, like row 1, 2, etc, its not that hard to keep track of.

http://www.yenvalmar.com/commercial/rendered/stills/thumbnails/hairy.jpg

this diagram should make it all perfectly clear :)
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06-13-2005, 08:41 PM
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