I have seen some tests of the new hair system on the forum but they were all short hair or wild rotating balls.
Up till now my attempts to create long hair for a character ended up with either with hair crossing the head, or hair vibrating and going in all directions. Moreover precise mesh collisions takes way too much processing time.
I found something out today : instead of mesh collision, a spherical repulsion field works fast and much better. (amount=500 -> simulation at 2 frames/second)
I put an empty with a spherical repulsion field with sphere boundaries so that the shape of the field would cover the surface of the cranium. And it works : the hair don’t cross.
Fields can also be used to give a shape to the hair without locking its movement (using softbody “goal” feature would prevent the hair from moving freely).In this example I used a spherical attraction field (a spherical field with negative strength) to make the bottom of the hair bend towards the neck.
>The test (Google Video)<
(for some unknown reason, sometimes google says the video can’t be found. Maybe because I just uploaded it, I don’t know. If it happens try to refresh.)
Thanks but I can upload it to my own website (besides, polorix.net says “coming march 08”… I don’t know how I’d be supposed to upload)
In fact, the settings aren’t refined at all - I got to this result very quickly with this method. The strength value used for the repulsion field is quite random… It just happened to work that way so I kept it so. If you find tricks/settings to improve the result, just tell me.
Here is the file. I haven’t included the simulation cache, it will only take less 2 minutes to re-create it.
It was made with a very fresh version of blender (compiled two days ago). If it doesn’t work consider using a fresher version. 2.46RC1 is probably fine. I don’t know as I don’t use it.
spiffyandy: Well, I’ve just subscribed to box.net, and the upload doesn’t work. When I select my file to upload and accept it says I haven’t selected any file… And after that the file selection window doesn’t want to open again… There’s too much javascript on that site, IMO. Unnecessary javascripts cause bugs.
How come you can’t access my site? It’s weird to get restricted HTTP access. I’d understand if it was a peer-to-peer/FTP download.
I’m going to send the file to your MSN address. I guess you can download from there.
To get back to the topic : slightly increasing GMin value (around 0.2) seems to improve the result. Increasing the sphere field radius a little allows to make less “flat” hair as well.
I’ve just tried again at box.net, and still got the same issue.
Spiffyandy, check your MSN mailbox, I sent the file to you yesterday (to the address in your profile). Have you received it?
I’ve made a hairband with a “belt” of small cylinder-shaped fields (see attachment). It’s not working all that well but it’s worth mentioning the idea.
I cant believe how stupid I am, I tried making hair a few time but never thought about making it a softbody, I always thought it followed some sort of curve guide.
Did you use softbody?
I still hadn’t tried the new hair particles, reading your thread I investigate a litle and I find out that the hair sistem now is all mighty
Your hair has a very natural and at same time anime cartoony look and feel very good.
Yea! Force fields deflectors work allot faster then Mesh deflectors and they are good for most of the cases, I’ve used them allot :yes: Mesh deflectors are only needed when the force fields for some reason can’t handle the task, and even then you can make a proxy mesh deflector, with allot less polys then the original, to faster things a bit. Good work!
Is there a way to style the hair after you’ve run the simulation? I’m still trying to figure this out. The hair resets when I got to particle mode or try to render.
very good.