Hair For Males - A Few Recommendations

Patroklos

I am not the worlds greatest expert on DazStudio, but I have been using it for some years with some pleasing results.

OK, Hair!

First, get the best out of what you have - get the settings right! Load the hair and fit it to the head. Make sure that the hair stays selected in the "Scene" tab.

Now find the "Parameters" Tab, and look to the etreme top right of the pane within which it is situated. Here you will find a symbol that looks like a right facing arrow over the top of 4 horizontal lines. Click this symbol and a drop down menu will appear. Tick "Show Hidden Properties". Now click the "Parameters" tab, and then click "All". 

Next scroll down to "Resolution Level". and click just beneath it. Mostly you will have only one option - "Base".  If the option "High Resolution" is there, click it (essential!). Just beneath this there is a rather blacked out area. If you hover your curser over this it should read "View SubD level", generally this is set to 1 by default, I suggest setting it at 2, because this allows you to see more detail of the hair in the viewport. Directly beneath this there is another blacked out box area, again hover the curser over it and you will see "Render SubD Level (Minimum)" As you set the above box from 1 to 2, it will also change from 1 to 2. However, I suggest setting it to the highest number available so as to get the most hair detail into the render. OK, thats it for settings.

Now the recommendations; These are the ones that I have had most success at getting a decent hair render from. This is not an endorsement of the styles or anything else.

"Agent Hair" and "Adrian Hair" are the only two that I have that allow a "High Resolution" setting. This is a big advantage, and "Agent Hair" has a huge amount of fine detail in it.

The others are "Basic" resolution only, but still work well in my experience. Aaron Hair, Bowl Cut Hair, Colin Hair, Dax Hair, Edit Hair, Fraser Hair, Gothic Mohawk Hair, Heath Hair, Idris Hair, Kyle Hair, Morley Hair, Oliver Hair, Peng Hair. I am sure that there are other good hairs around, but I have found these to be good.

Finally, there is a product called "UHT Iray Hair Shaders" by Sloshwerks which I have found to be very usefull in getting the best out of hair. There is a later version called "UHT2; Ultimate Colour" which I think I will get soon.

I hope that the above is helpful. If anyone finds other (preferably Male) hair which has a High Resolution setting I would like to know about it.

Have fun!

Havos

You can always add SubD to any hairs that do not have a high resolution option. Sometimes this can do crazy things with the mesh, but mostly if works just fine.

To add SubD, select the hair in the scene menu, and then:

Edit->Figure->Geometry->Convert to SubD

Patroklos

Havos said:

You can always add SubD to any hairs that do not have a high resolution option. Sometimes this can do crazy things with the mesh, but mostly if works just fine.

To add SubD, select the hair in the scene menu, and then:

Edit->Figure->Geometry->Convert to SubD

Thanks, thats really usefull, I will experiment on that!!!

Patroklos

Patroklos said:

Havos said:

You can always add SubD to any hairs that do not have a high resolution option. Sometimes this can do crazy things with the mesh, but mostly if works just fine.

To add SubD, select the hair in the scene menu, and then:

Edit->Figure->Geometry->Convert to SubD

Thanks, thats really usefull, I will experiment on that!!!

Yes! I see that it can work on things other than hair, very interesting.

Havos

I tried it on Wyatt hair, and I did not see a big difference between high and base resolution, so the effect is likely to differ from hair to hair.

With the two hairs you mentioned, ie Agent and Adrian, whilst they are not true mesh hairs, they do consist of many small strands, and this is likely to benefit more from high res. Most trans mapped hairs (eg Wyatt) are larger pieces of modelled mesh, that relies heavily on the trans map to give the illusion of hair, and these type of hairs will benefit less from high res.

I do like Wyatt hair though, as it is one of the few I have where the person does not look like they have walked straight out of a hair stylist.

Serene Night

With men's hair I always check out the hairlines. Too many styles seem to be simply fits of woman's hairstyles with female scalps. I dont find those useful as I find the appearence jarring.

Gator

Look at it in wireframe view first, many of the Genesis 3 generation seem to have a sufficient number of polys, but sometimes I see there is no smoothing modifier.  Adding a smoothing modifier is often enough.

Patroklos

Thank you all for the comments, very interesting

ChangelingChick

Patroklos said:

Finally, there is a product called "UHT Iray Hair Shaders" by Sloshwerks which I have found to be very usefull in getting the best out of hair. There is a later version called "UHT2; Ultimate Colour" which I think I will get soon.

UHT is fantastic as a one-click solution. UHT2 is incredible as both a one-click solution and as a more advanced option. Sloshwerks improved his shader base and the options are amazing. There are very, very few instances that I don't immediately throw UHT2 (and often the fantasy add-on) on a hair when I load it. I've even made a custom UHT2 menu on my toolbar for quick access. There's also the Recipe Builder add-on for it that DraagonStorm made. I highly recommend that if you're considering UHT2, you grab it. It's just awesome.