New Particle Hair Long Hairdo?

Support Basics & Interface
1

Hey guys. I’ve been using the new particle system trying to make a good looking long hairdo, but I can’t come up with anything. :-? Are there any more advanced tutorials on this? I’ve already read the wiki, the info on blender.org, and I’ve watched the video tutorial, but I still can’t get a good long hairdo. Do any of you have a .blend you wouldn’t mind sharing, with the hair and maybe a head? Or maybe some pointers about how to make a good hairdo? Thanks in advance.:slight_smile:

DwarvenFury

2

Creating a nice looking long hairdo is currently not possible without pulling your hair (pun intended).

In other packages, like 3DS MAX8-hair, Ornatrix and Maxon HAIR, you can use guides, which are automatically grown from any mesh you want hair on.

In Blender, you could get mostly the same results by planting guides (paths or curves) onto the subject, enable the additional curve option for each of them and use the min/max distances to control the area over which the hair (particles) flows along the hair guides.

But the biggest issue is this: To get nice and realistisch results you won’t get away with only 10 guides, because real hair tends to clump and such (in other packages, that happens along each curve) and that’s not possible with those few guides. So realistic hair would need hundreds of guides (depending on what results you’re looking for).

If you’re really mad enough and can’t wait for real hair styling tools in Blender:

  • duplicate the to-be-hairy object (a part of)
  • assign particle hair to it
  • give it a common length, not too long, randomize it a little
  • start creating paths (curves) and put the first vertex (in other packages it’s called the ‘root’ of the guide) on the object
  • when all guides are there, with the right settings (min/max/fall-off), you can start playing with the tips (and all other control vertices, except the ‘root’ one)

Here’s my try, one guide is nicely styled. The other guide is pointing upwards, waiting to be modified:
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/gprogress.png
(I’m not going to upload this file, sorry)

Because I got tired after a bunch of tries, I started looking for altnerative ways on how to automate this guide planting process.

I think the fiber script could be modified to create guides, but you’d still need styling tools then (afaik not impossible when using a space handler and a few additional scripts, but it requires some work and skills to implement).

3

Here’s someone I’ve been working on just to learn the character workflow in blender, part of which was to try and figure out a way to control long hair…

http://www.ultramedia.com.au/blenders/kristina.zip

There’s no joint correction, I guess she’s sort of abandoned because I was happy with what I’d learned, and am in a rush to move past test characters to the cast in my film project/hobby/crazed obsession…

http://www.ultramedia.com.au/blenders/kris_test_10.jpg

4

Thanks for the suggestions and thanks for posting the .blend, Blenderer. I’ve been working on some hair now, and it looks like using multiple layers really comes in handy. If I come up with a good enough hairdo, I’ll post it in a new thread for all to behold.:wink:

DwarvenFury

p.s. The secret to hair in Blender…work…work…work…particle system…multiple meshes…curve guides…layers…more work…and work.:stuck_out_tongue: