Hash-Hair has improved! OR- maybe I'm starting to understand it a little more.

I've been playing with the Hair feature since it was new in V11, and I swear I tweeked those settings a million times over trying to get it to go. I got so frustrated that I abandoned particle hair altogether and went back to the 'helmet-hair' technique. The thing to remember about a feature like hair is that different users want it to do different things. Some just want simple grass, christmas tree needles, a mohawk- but I always shoot the moon... I want hair that looks like the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. The new Muh-Hair hair-shader is a BIG step in the right direction.

Well Martin got me going recently thinking about Ku-Klips beard, and so I am taking another look at Hair.

The 2 things that always seemed mandatory (to me) in hair is 1) styleability/workability 2) collision-detection. I am familiar with Hash's styling features, and think they, like most things in Hash- are minimal and workable...they get the job done. So, I started testing collision-detection and came-up with a technique that might just be crazy enough to work!

I'm posting a short test with this, and will summarize on the technique which I hope to implement on a character soon. Hopefully, people get some use of this.

The test shows a simple lock of hair, under collision cirumstances with a simple object, and a pose-slider enforcing a hairstyle from tight to loose. It was made with 13.0n-PC, multipass1, shadows on, MuHair, 5 seconds per frame ave.

At first, I made a simple hair material and applied it to 2 models. Each were simple squares the same size, one was 1 patch, the other was 25 patches (5X5 splines) I thought that like cloth, hash-hair needed a denser mesh to help collision detection work, and while the denser mesh DID better at CD, it had some visual problems that made the 1 patcher the winner. The lesson learned there is that you want to split the difference in density, so a 2X2 4patch would be optimal. I always group my CPs and apply the material to the group, as opposed to the entire model.

I had made the hair settings long (30+") so when I look at it in the model, I can see it in what could be called "the electrocution-pose" meaning it shoots away from the geometry directly, and this is a good way to leave it as a 'starting pose'. All I adjust in grooming mode is the length, making it longer where it needs to be and shorter where I foresee it needing shorter, and you can always come back and adjust.IMPORTANT: In the hair property's, set the 'constraint' and 'drag' to zero--'is Rod'-ON. A pre-roll of 1:00=/-. And here's the million dollar trick to getting good styling AND CD...set the 'control points' option to a higher setting...it goes from 3 to 25...I tried 22. Most of all the other settings adjust to taste.

Next, make a new pose called 'HairStyle' or something...a 1-100% type, not an OFF-ON type. THIS will control the difference between a wet 'just got outta the shower' look or a dry 'too much hair-spray' look At 100% is where you will style the hair and adjust the settings for constraint and drag. You will need to dig thru the 'actions' to find the new pose/relationship's action, and clik the 'show more' option to find the hair property box that we want to adjust. Once found, turn on Dynamics...set constraint to 100% and drag to 100%. (NOTE: You will want to get in the habit of turning the DYNAMIC setting on and off to suit your needs...OFF when styling and preview speed..,ON when testing and rendering.ALSO- the pre-roll set back to zero helps speed styling, but you will want it on 1:00 or so come testing time!) That said---turn dynamics OFF in BOTH property windows (the main and the one in the action window) and return to the pose at 100% and play barber/beautician...style away!

You are now ready to test in an action or chor.(Remember---turn dynamics back ON and set the pre-roll from zero to about 1:00) In MY test, you can see the hair loosening on its style and then tightening back up. The CD is pretty durned good! can't wait to try this out on a character! GOOD LUCK! Happy Holiday from John BigBoote, wife Dawn and cats Purrscilla and GizMoe!

OOOOPS! After ALL this typing I see I can't upload a movie here... I'll put it in the main WIP section...

Wow---the forum is freekin me out. I could'nt upload with MoZilla, so Explorer worked. I see we have an 8mb limit nowadays! WOW! Here's the test mentioned in the above blabber... I'm starting on applying this simple hair techniqueto a character. Keep fingers crossed, knock on wood.

Looks very promising, Matt!
What sort of patch density is the cylinder?

Pretty sparsical.

Nice test John. Did it take long(er) to render?

Mmmm! I like!

I rendered it while I typed, and I huntNpeck. about 5 sec per frame. I forgot to mention in the ramble how I like the feel of hair nowadays...it's got a faster tactility, crashes LOADS-LESS frequently than historicly, works nice and smooth in previews. SOMEONE in Vancouver has been working on this feature, and it shows!

nice test John! thanks for letting us know!

-Ethan

Hey John,

thanks for the inspiration. I had to have a go as well. I've needed a scraggly beard for a while for another character.

So I threw a quick test together. Not bad indeed.

Well I had a cool video to post but It looks like attachments are no longer allowed. Cest la Vi.

edit again.. looks like the attachments are broken for Firefox heres the video of the beginning of a hint of a beard ;-)

Click to view attachment



C