im experimenting with hooks and crap like that. ill post a blend if i can get it to work.
Here:
https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33528&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=44
I think the .blend file mentioned is still posted so… enjoy!
(PS I’ll be using this technique in this weeks animation contest so keep an eye out!)
Hi!
Here is a picture of my last work in the search of realistic hairs.
Modelling a shape and texturing it using UV mapping and LSCM seems to be the best way to get natural looking hairs which can be easy to animate and need very few computing resources.
I have also found that the basic texture used for UVmapping is better if you set the saturation value to zero after drawing it (you get a grayscale tone picture) and then add a global color to the image used as UV texture.
This method allow you to chose various colors on the basis of a single texture, without the need of creating a lot of textures.
As you generally don’t have hairs of different colors, the differences between individual hairs are mainly due to the specularity and translucency. Using a single color texture give a more natural effect.
The hairs are still too thick at the root side, because I have used a too low resolution texture. Using a higher resolution could be a good way to allow the drawing of thin hairs.
What do you think about this work ?
It is far from perfect, but the best I’ve done for now.
:-?
Philippe.
do you have seen this?
https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39091&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Argh ! Gillan, you killed me !
Let me cry on my work !
You did a very god job. I’ll have to work more ! :-?
Philippe.
Hi ! New pictures.
I use 4 bell shapes mapped with the hair texture, with various little deformations.
I have had a bad surprise with the animation: I have used two hooks.
The second hook is linked to the first hook by a constraint “copy location” with a force fartor 0.5.
the two hooks are used to animate all the bell shapes.
Everything is ok in the 3D view when I run the animation.
This time I didn’t forget to write in the Hook parameters fields, but at rendering, only the outer bell shape is deformed by the hooks. The outer shape was the first I added a hook to.
Next time I’ll try with one or two hooks for each shape and parent all the primary hooks to an empty…
[!] Nothing noticeable on these still pictures. I put them only for fun and comments !
Philippe
I have started worse of that
Hi !
Do you think that it is possible to deform several meshes with the same hook and render it in an animation ?
I haven’t tried yet to solve my problem, because of a lack of time.
Philippe.
Did you see my post above?
I don’t know if this is original or not, but I’m trying something; let me know what you think:
First I take a Path, and shape it like an individual strand of hair. Then I Bevel a Bezier circle along the length of it, which gives my strand some thickness. It’s actually thick enough to be a clump of about 200 hairs.
I created a nice hair texture with an alpha channel, and since I can’t uvmap it, I attach it simply as a material.
I place this hair plug on the mesh, and make copies of it. As I duplicate it, it is very easy to manipulate the strands, being that they remain as curves.
Next, I add an empty, and one by one I select the strands and add a “stretch to” constraint, with the empty as a target. Divide the head into about 8 sectors, each with it’s own empty. What also makes this nice is setting different amounts of influence for the different sectors.
After I have worked it all out and have something worth showing, I will post it. But I thought it was a nice enough idea to share to see if anyone else would like to try it; then compare results. Let me know,
-Brian
Yes, Ammusionist.
I use a method that looks like this, but
my problem is that i want to drive several different meshes with the same Hook. It works fine on the 3Dview, but at rendering, only one mesh move… I’ll have to make other trials, but for now, I don’t understand why.
Philippe
Hi!
It seems interesting for the stretch control, but I have worked a long time on extrudedhairs, and the number of verticies was so high on the final head, that I gave up : between 5 Millions and 55 millions of verticies and a huge rendering time…
So I came back to the UV map method.
How many verticies in your model ?
Philippe.
I haven’t finished yet on my final mesh; I’m still playing with the resolution of the Beveled Circle, and tweaking the material to try and come up with a nice combination. So far, if my Circle has a U resolution of 4 and the Path has a U resolution of 4 I get a smooth, thick, hair-plug of 336 verticies. I am going to assume I will need 80 of these for my final mesh, which will be controlled by 8 empties- each assigned 10 hair-plugs… for a grand total of 26,880 verticies for hair alone. Again, this is still conceptual, so I don’t know if 80 plugs will do it. But that is what I am trying if anyone else wants to try and duplicate my efforts.
Brian
You can use a circle made with 3 verticies only, using subsurf level 2.
The main problem I encountered with extruded hairs was that if the amount of hairs is not sufficient, the head skin is visible trough it.
A solution could be to make each hair thicker, and fake individual hairs with the texture, but it doesn’t look nice for me.
Though, I think that extruded (beveled) hairs can be used in small groups to improve a model using the UV map method. The uv map method gives flat hairs on the tip of the head. It could be an idea to add here a tuft of modeled hairs that could be animated, to show the wind effect.
You’d get few verticies, and freedom in the animation, with less hooks…
Philippe.
Sorry…
because of my bad english, I hadn’t understood that you were modelling strands, instead of individual hairs… this time, I agree with you. 
Philippe
Sorry…
because of my bad english, I hadn’t understood that you were modelling strands, instead of individual hairs… this time, I agree with you.
I thought your English was great, I didn’t even realize it was a second language to you.
You can use a circle made with 3 verticies only, using subsurf level 2
Unfortunately, I cannot subsurf this, or uvmap it, because it is a beveld bezier circle around a curve path. Here is a link to my blend; just look under the download Information section:
the file is called hair test.
have a nice day,
-Brian
Hi Brian !
I have downloaded your example file, but the texture wasn’t packed in, so it is difficult to see yhe real effect.
I will try by myself with a texture, when I 'll have time.
Thanks.
Happy Blending.
Philippe.
Oops! the file I uploaded isn’t correct. It doesn’t have the texture packed in or the empty with the constraint. I will fix the file and upload it again, with the texture packed in as well. Thanks for pointing that out, Philippe.
- Brian
Ok, the link is fixed now. The texture has been packed in, and I added the empty and the constraint, along with a few more hair-plugs; constrained to the same empty. I definitely need to work on my texture and materials, but this was something quick to get the point across. I hope you enjoy,
Brian
I changed the file again; this time adding more hair-plugs and empties. I also added a basic uvsphere. This time the zip file is called hairtest 2.
Another benefit to this method is that it is easy to add & delete verticies, being that they are curves. You can also edit the constraint Influence as an IPO curve
Brian
This time, it is good ! 
Very interesting method. It seems quite easy to com hairs, but
As the texture is not UV mapped, I wonder if strange deformations of the texture couldn’t occur during the hair animation, making specular waves or other weird effects…
Needs to be studied in details, but it is a good idea at first sight.
Other question mark : I have no idea of the needed computing power to animate a large amount of beveled curves.
Philippe.
Hi !
You will find here a link to a page showing my last trial in hair animation.
If you have already visited it, it may have been updated since your last download.
I wanted to simulate the effect of a slight wind… It needs a lot of hooks and Ipo. More hooks and a better texture should let me achieve a better result…
The head mesh has a lot of polygons and was not supposed to be animated, so it is now difficult to add efficient RVK. The topic is hair, and
I work mainly on it.
http://securimax.chez.tiscali.fr/starblend/hairs.html
Comments welcome.
Philippe.