How can I make decent grass?
Shag fur makes some decent grass so I worked it into an image. It's not a masterpiece but I like it.
Should I model hair and eyebrows as separate patches?
I would recommend creating patches _beneath_ the skin and apply the hair to those patches. The hair _should_ grow out through the top skin (possible collision detection problem).
Additionally...
In my limited experience this is the only good way. Hide all patches, except the eyebrow area on one side of the head. copy and paste these patches. Reshape them into an eyebrow shape as they usually cover too big an area. Move back (z) into the head about 1/8 " or 3 mm on a full size head (or to scale). Then experiment with hair length stiffness, density and force to get what you want. Copy - flip the patch for the other side and if necessary make a new opposite hair material (busy eyebrows out to the side) (-x for +x force).
Don Swail
Well the thing is that I don't think Fur is well suited to eyebrows at all. When I look into the mirror I notice that my eyebrows lay flat against my forehead and generally the hairs conform themselves to one direction. With fur the best you can hope for really is stubbly hair that pokes straight out.
This is totally false.
If your fur is only spikey, you're not making it thin enough. In addition, each Fur emitter has it's own "Gravity" setting. Increasing the gravity along the X Axis would cause the hair to be "pulled" to the right or left (depending upon whether or not the gravity was + or -).
Anyways, for "soft" hair using different systems, look at the Furby smoking the cigar in our gallery... he has at least 3 different Fur systems on him, notice the eyebrows curving upwards.
This model is available on my website under Models, "F"
Jeff Paries
Anyone had any success using Forces to 'style' fur? As an example, think of how most furry critters' fur kind of sweeps away from their eyes. Is there a way to set up static forces to shape the fur in this fashion?
You can add forces to the model hierarchically and use them to push the hair one way or the other. The thing to keep in mind is that the only dynamic point on a strand of fur is at the end (currently), so if the force doesn't touch the end of the hair, it won't do anything.....
Jeff, Hash, Inc.
I was testing fur the other day and was wondering if it was possible to make the material surface have a different colour than that of the fur. I'd like my model to be one colour and fur another, is there a way of doing this?
A fur material contains a fur emitter that controls the fur length, density, etc., and an attribute node from which the color and other options are derived. They are part of the material, not the model.
Jeff, Hash, Inc.
How do you get hair to work?
Here is how I got hair to work...
Make sure you have the setting of fur turned on in the tools menu tab.
Make your model, choose the group of CPs ya want hair on and name it (make sure the normals for the patches are pointing outwards). Close the model window and save the project or model. Open a new action, and the model will be visible, make a few actions if you wish, make a new cho and add the model to it, and plop the action on to the shortcut to the model. SAVE!
Now make the hair and drop it onto the group name you made earlier, you do not have to have the model window open to do this. Save again. Now try a test render from the action or cho window...
In other words, the hair should be the last thing you add... and with luck you should get a rendering.
Jeff C.
Oh and where the heck is hair!
Make a material, and right click the Attribute. Select Change Type To, and pick Fur.
Okay... how the heck does hair work??
Drag your model to a Choreography window. Hair doesnt' render in the modeling window
Tommy D'Aquino
"Fur" has tremendous potential, but BOY what a time/memory hit rendering takes.
Fur is a speed hit on rendering because the software builds each strand out of patches at render time. This is a speed hit, but an added benefit in that the hair is/can be dynamic, and is also volumetric.
Jeff, Hash, Inc.