Here’s a way to model hair using a cloth sim. You first need a scalp. I used a subdivided octagon that I shrinkwrapped to the characters head shown in the first image. Faces can be deleted in the scalp in a checker pattern to offset the locks or to decrease the number. I solidified and exported the mesh to be extruded in Wings 3D.
The reason I extruded in Wings? It allows scaling of the individual faces simultaneously. I extruded and scaled a few times to produce an earchin shape. Then exported to be imported back into Blender.
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After importing I did some more scaling and added collision info to the figure to get the hair to fall around the head and lay on the sholders. Here’s the goofy looking pic.
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The next step was to run the cloth sim. The results of this technique depend on whats put into the modeling, the # of frames run in the sim, and the amount of post tweaking. This is an example that is rather light on all. I’ll post another with a bit more pre and post work soon but this gives a good idea of the usefullness of this technique. It’s a fairly fast way of modeling hair. It would be great for those wild anime doos. In order to export; the sim has to be applied. In order to apply the sim; it has to be single user. Removing the collision info. from the figure will make it so.
If you try this and want to post a result or if you have a way to refine the technique; by all means post it.
I been testing for a couple of days and here’s what I’ve got. I started modeling the hair in pinned sections like; bangs, back, left, right, and four sections of the crown. I haven’t had alot of sucess mainly because I kept the poly count down. It is looking alot better though. I may be able to clean it up a little by running self collisions. I may be able to make this technique viable. I’m finding solutions for every issue. I’m sure it’ll work with more sections and strands. I’m just trying to refine a low poly form.
Here’s the new pic.
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Interesting idea! The first hair set was ho-hum, but the hair on the second model looks great! I know what would work absolutely perfect with this: braided hair. =D
FYI… Blender has this capability, use “Individual Centers” for pivot while extruding and scaling.
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I’ve had a little more success the past couple of tests. After extruding the strands as individual faces I just changed to edge mode and collapsed the edges to form the taper. I added more strands and sections for better close-ups. I just about have it. A couple more days to a nice render. I like how this technique creates form fitting hair with a somewhat natural flow.
Cardinal4: Thanx for the encouragement. If you give that braid idea a try; post it here.
Pappy: Thanx for the tool tip. I’ve been using Blender for only a couple of years. I still kind of light on the old features because I keep playing with the new ones.
Anyway; Here’s a new screen at just under 15000 polys.
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This is a render of the last screen in light that shows the imperfections. The low poly tests failed due to a much more appearant overlaping. The tolerances in the self collision tool are so high they cause the strands to flail through the entire simulation even with the scene scaled up. It was kinda fun to watch. I’m going to increase the polys to about 20,000 and then 30,000 an do some test close-up renders.
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Hey, that’s pretty cool. I had a thought though. Is there any way to bake the position of the vertex’s at various frames into shape keys? Then you could easily create really good looking animated hair in the game engine. I looked around and couldn’t find a way to do this. I’m thinking it’s possible. I just don’t know how to accomplish it.