Attached is a render of a simple sphere. It has two materials (a red one and a blue one). I would like blue fur to grow where the blue material is (and only where the blue material is), and no fur at all in the red part.
Well, or vice-versa, I don’t mind. Red fur in the red material part and no fur at all in the blue is also ok.
If I create a particle system for the sphere, all the sphere is covered with fur (and all the fur is the same colour -the colour selected in the Render > material selector in the particles tab) How can I apply fur only to a material, and to make the fur take the colour of the material?
Using blender 2.5 (freshly build from official sources every night).
In order to accomplish what you want you first need to select each face you want hair coming out of and add it to a new Vertex Group (Object Data > Vertex Groups > Plus-button > Assign).
Next, under Vertexgroups in your Particles tab you can use this group in the Density field.
If you want a different hair emission for your other material, simply repeat this process for a second Particle System.