I have an insane hair idea. Is this possible?

anise_leinen_390fa63a2b

Hey all,
So I'm just starting to work on textures... hopefully, some fun things will be coming soon. :) And I've been thinking about hair. It's almost like hair is the last frontier in realistic renders. EVERYTHING else can look perfect, and then there's just something about that hair... I don't know if I've almost ever seen anyone do truly, 100 %realistic hair, whether it's in a 3D program, vector drawing, paint and canvas, whatever. Because I'm using 3D software basically for the finished product on book covers, that's something I've been thinking about.

So I have an IDEA... on analyzing hair and what gives it the shape it has, I started looking at individual hair follicles. And I realized there's one thing in nature that I've never really seen in a material or texture for hair... The follicle is shaped like a tube covered in microscopic overlapping scales. So it's as if EACH hair follicle has a teentsy individual bump map of its own.

Is there any way at all to put this into bump maps for hair? Could sections of hair be mapped this way? Have people tried doing this?

WendyLuvsCatz

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WendyLuvsCatz

in theory, using LAMH or Garibaldi converted to obj one could uv map each hair and do that(they CAN share maps
but
10 000+ strands of hair!!!
eeek
I opened a LAMH obj in Hexagon and Carrara's vertex room and it was a nightmare to work with just soft selecting and in the latter weightpainting!
so
good luck on that one! LOL!

anise_leinen_390fa63a2b

Ha... well, I was actually thinking more of a map solution, because the painting programs are what I've used for so long.

(thinks)

I picture a bump map for the hair that is basically what we see now for texture maps.

Here's a lovely texture map for Lavender Hair:

Here's a diagram of a hair follicle:

We would only be using that overlapped-scale structure on the surface.
So the idea is that the structure of the hair follicle is somehow overlaid over each section of hair. (Even I'M not nuts enough to try to paint it on every strand. :) ) The first thing I thought of was a template of one strand of hair as a vector drawing. But you know, I think there's a much easier way to do this. Create a PS brush from the shape of a hair follicle, reduce the size of the brush to about 1 px, and then paint over each section of hair. The layer would then be rasterized and shaped into place,following the structure of that particular piece of hair. There would then be a bump map matching each hair texture map. Yay!

I'm going to try this... ;)

icprncss

It's easier to achieve the highlights using an anistrophic shader applied in the material room. Providing the texture does not have baked in highlights.

Vanguard

I agree, hair does seem to be the area with the most potential for improvement, when it comes to realism.

I don't know who made the Radiant Jaguar hair, but i love it and think it renders the most realist of an I have used so far.

It still has problems with the jaggies on some ends, but texture wise it is gorgeous.

anise_leinen_390fa63a2b

I like it! :)

I agree about the highlights... of course, with their being called "anisotropic", I might have a bias. ;)
I just don't know if this has been done with bump maps before. Now, there might be a good reason why not... ;)

Chohole

There are some hair models that come with a bump map, not done as individual starnds as you are describing, but as an overall bump to increase realism.

I think some Neftis hairs come with bumps, for a start.

IgnisSerpentus

You probably could, but it would require individual strands to be modelled, and if u could manage that simply (and u can nowadays, with various things -- fibermesh, LAMH, etc) it would all have to have its own place on a map, its own mat zone, etc. But what you'd end up with is a mesh that is way too polyheavy (for decent coverage) or a lack of poly to it, thus causing it to be overly blocky, not morph well etc.

The reason for the lack of realistic hair comes down to the very nature of it. Billions of strands... yikes lol Most of us are content to fake the overall effect, and get a happy medium that works well, and looks good. A project of that caliber would probably not be very lucrative, besides (it would just take too long to get a good return on it)

Eustace Scrubb

There's bump maps out there for some of the classic older models (I'm thinking Kozaburo), but even when there aren't, I learned a few years ago to plug the Opacity Map into the Bump or Displacement (usually Displacement) channel and sculpt the surface that way.