MarkD
07-25-2007, 03:20 AM
My tutorial writing skills are no where near where they should be. So hopefully this explains it well enough. I use this method to save myself hours of drawing hair planes. Once you get it down and start using more complex shapes it really saves a bunch of time.
I had Max users in mind when I wrote this up, but I think the general idea can be applied in other 3D apps just as easily. I assume you have a working knowelge of 3Ds Max, if you come across something thats new, I suggest opening max and checking the help files. Ok here we go!
http://vigville.com/forum_images/Hair04.jpg
1) Plot your hair guides using splines. Align your splines so they will form poly strips. For the purpose of this example it will look as simple as 3.
2) Select the first spline on the left and under the Geometry roll out turn on Attach and click the next spline in the poly strip. You are making the vertical edges for the poly strip.
- Keep attaching splines until all the splines that make up that strip are connected. You should have something that looks like 2. One spline with a few floating edge segments.
- Name this object HairLOW
- Clone the object and name it HairHIGH, we'll be coming back to this in a min.
3) Select HairLOW and under the Geometry roll out turn on Cross Section (should be under the attach button you used earlier).
- Following the same pattern as above selecting each segment. The cross section tool should draw dotted lines from one segment to the next when you are finished it should have built all the edges to your poly strip and should look like 3.
- Add a Surface modifier, then the Edit Poly. You can collapse the history stack on this object if you wish.
4) Select the HairHIGH spline. Apply the modifier Hair and Fur (WSM) it should be close to the top of the list.
- Under the tools roll out > Presets > load a preset hair type, it might take a min to load. You can take this time to tweak the hair or leave it as is.
5) Switch to perspective viewport (hair and fur will not render from the ortho views front, left, right, ect)
- Select the HairLOW object and adjust the object so it fits around HairHIGH.
- At this point it might be a good idea to set your render output size to something square like 512x512 and turn on Safe Frame Mode so you can see the bounds of the render area.
- Render out a 32bit TGA with Pre-Multiplied checked, this will give you a nice alpha mask to use as an opacity map.
Note: If you think you might have to render this clump again, you can create a camera as a viewport place holder. Click Views > Create Camera From View. You can switch your viewport back to perspective so you don't accidentally move the camera. Switch the viewport back to this camera if you need to re-render this clump of hair.
- Apply the Unwrap UVW modifier pick Planar and select align to view and then click fit. The Yellow Unwrap projection should almost match the bounds of the Safe Frame. If not you can adjust it using the scale tool or the UV Editor.
- Hide HairHIGH
6) Create a new material placing the TGA you just rendered in the defuse and opacity map slots. Apply it to HairLOW Under the opacity map > Bitmap Parameters rollout > Mono Channel Output: set it to Alpha.
7) Do that a few more times to get a few different clumps or copy a more complex hair style. Once you get the work flow down, you can block out clumps of hair and fairly accurately copy a high poly hair style.
I had Max users in mind when I wrote this up, but I think the general idea can be applied in other 3D apps just as easily. I assume you have a working knowelge of 3Ds Max, if you come across something thats new, I suggest opening max and checking the help files. Ok here we go!
http://vigville.com/forum_images/Hair04.jpg
1) Plot your hair guides using splines. Align your splines so they will form poly strips. For the purpose of this example it will look as simple as 3.
2) Select the first spline on the left and under the Geometry roll out turn on Attach and click the next spline in the poly strip. You are making the vertical edges for the poly strip.
- Keep attaching splines until all the splines that make up that strip are connected. You should have something that looks like 2. One spline with a few floating edge segments.
- Name this object HairLOW
- Clone the object and name it HairHIGH, we'll be coming back to this in a min.
3) Select HairLOW and under the Geometry roll out turn on Cross Section (should be under the attach button you used earlier).
- Following the same pattern as above selecting each segment. The cross section tool should draw dotted lines from one segment to the next when you are finished it should have built all the edges to your poly strip and should look like 3.
- Add a Surface modifier, then the Edit Poly. You can collapse the history stack on this object if you wish.
4) Select the HairHIGH spline. Apply the modifier Hair and Fur (WSM) it should be close to the top of the list.
- Under the tools roll out > Presets > load a preset hair type, it might take a min to load. You can take this time to tweak the hair or leave it as is.
5) Switch to perspective viewport (hair and fur will not render from the ortho views front, left, right, ect)
- Select the HairLOW object and adjust the object so it fits around HairHIGH.
- At this point it might be a good idea to set your render output size to something square like 512x512 and turn on Safe Frame Mode so you can see the bounds of the render area.
- Render out a 32bit TGA with Pre-Multiplied checked, this will give you a nice alpha mask to use as an opacity map.
Note: If you think you might have to render this clump again, you can create a camera as a viewport place holder. Click Views > Create Camera From View. You can switch your viewport back to perspective so you don't accidentally move the camera. Switch the viewport back to this camera if you need to re-render this clump of hair.
- Apply the Unwrap UVW modifier pick Planar and select align to view and then click fit. The Yellow Unwrap projection should almost match the bounds of the Safe Frame. If not you can adjust it using the scale tool or the UV Editor.
- Hide HairHIGH
6) Create a new material placing the TGA you just rendered in the defuse and opacity map slots. Apply it to HairLOW Under the opacity map > Bitmap Parameters rollout > Mono Channel Output: set it to Alpha.
7) Do that a few more times to get a few different clumps or copy a more complex hair style. Once you get the work flow down, you can block out clumps of hair and fairly accurately copy a high poly hair style.