The search for most realistic hair
ramon73
Posts: 94
Hi guys, I am posting this in the hope to get some links/names of the best and most realistic (female) hairs that are available on the Daz store.
I have been using Daz for 4 or 5 months now and so far I have only 2 different hair products that I am happy with.
These ones:
https://www.daz3d.com/low-ponytail-hair-for-genesis-3-and-8-females
https://www.daz3d.com/mega-updo-2-hair-for-genesis-8-and-81-females
All other hair products that I have bought I don't use or have refunded, because they don't look realistic and they have issues with head turning, I don't like contacting Daz support every time to refund a hair product so it would be great if anyone have sugestions of some really nice realistic hair products. I am looking for photorealistic hair (the best of the best) with good custimization options to make the hair fit with most poses. If i can have 4 to 6 more usable realistic hairs in my inventory it would be enough already of most scenes.
Thanks in advance, also on behalf of Daz support :)
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Comments
this is highly subjective depending on the person and uses. We also don't know what you have tried and returned and why.
For me, realistic means draping, so I only use dforce hair for longer hairs, anything by Linday is my goto. I also tweak the sjhaders/textures since I find them a bit to shiny at times.
There is also Bonnie hair by Kool which has a very believable hairline https://www.daz3d.com/bonnie-hair-for-genesis-8-females
It's not really that subjective, I even added 2 examples of realistic hair. There are also hairs that look more like a broom on the head of the model, no fine details of single hairs, it just looks old and dated. I have added your suggestion to my wishlist. The hair looks okay, but not so sure about that tail that stick out too much. If anyone else have a suggestion then I love to hear it!
Have you looked at other of Outoftouch's hair https://www.daz3d.com/outoftouch
I have lots of OOT hairs, including those and while the textures look realistic, the way they lay in non normal poses doesn't to me and I don't use them as often, hence why I say subjective. best of luck on your hair search.
ramon73, I'm somewhat with you, not only that certain hair look artificial like a plastic strip wig but often enough they just don't seem to sit right on the characters head.
But on the plastic stripes issue I can tell you: hair shaders. Save a lot of sets.
I have a few of them wiswhlisted and I just bought the '2021-3' hair. The detail and quality is what I am looking for, but just with all loose hair styles I have bought so far it's not easy to setup up the hair when the head is angled or sideways,(hard to make the hair look natural). I am going to refund the loose hair and choose somethning else from this mercant (short hair or a tail). Thanks for the suggestion :)
Edit: I bought a nice pony tail hair style from that merchant just now and it is exactly what I am looking for. I think I will stick with this merchant and buy all his short/pony tail hair (over time).
Have you looked at dForce hair for natural movement? While some are still a bit weird, there are some that look normal and do very well when simulated. But it is very hard to recommend any specific PAs or hairs without knowing your preference for rendering. European, African, Asian - all have different hair textures. Males and females, adults or children, fantasy, modern, futuristic, or Anime.
And I have found that one hair I might use for a simple render, because of its details, I couldn't use for a complex render and would substitute with an older hair that is less resource intensive on my system.
If you have Ati's Add-on for the store, browse through a selection of hairs and look for the forum and gallery links and see what folks said or how they were used. That add-on is an invaluable tool for saving you time before you buy an item. Sometimes on the first day of its initial sale.
It depends on the situation, but for my money, these are just some of the most realistic hair sets in my collection:
DFORCE:
Bang Bob Hair with dForce for Genesis 8 Female(s) | Daz 3D
Classic Long Curly Hair with dForce for Genesis 8 Female(s) | Daz 3D
Two aboslute musts. From Linday, of course.
Natsuki Hair for Genesis 8 Females | Daz 3D
Love this hair! And it's secretly a dForce hair, which it doesn't mention on its product page, which is weird, but there you go. Comes with a bow.
NON DFORCE:
Rose Hair for Genesis 3 and 8 Female(s) | Daz 3D
A short, sideswept hair. Easy on the render time, and very real looking under most circumstances.
MEGA Updo Hair for Genesis 3 and 8 Female(s) | Daz 3D
This hair set, in all the renders I use it in, always looks better than its own promo images. A go-to for me, when I need upswept hair, tied in a bun.
Cathy Hair and OOT Hairblending 2.0 | Daz 3D
Cathy Hair was originally created for Genesis 3, so you'll need to convert it, but man, what a hair set. I can't think of a single image I've ever used it in, where it didn't look real. Comes with a hair band, too.
Flora Hair For Genesis 8 and 8.1 Female | Daz 3D
A great hair set, in a very modern style/cut featuring soft layers and defined pieces. Very versatile. There are a few minor movement quirks, but this hair is absolutely excellent.
Wild Wind Hair for Genesis 8 Female(s) | Daz 3D
I have often said that this is my favorite of all the hair sets I own. Since obtaining some newer dForce hair sets, that's probably not true anymore, but this is still a go-to in terms of realism. There are a LOT of control dials, so this one takes a bit more time to get right, but it's totally worth it. One of the most realistic hair sets in the store.
Amelia Hair for Genesis 8 Female(s) | Daz 3D
If you need this specific type of hair style, this one is perfect.
Is this hairstyle realistic?
https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/user/5207251866353664#gallery=newest&page=1&image=1218328
A list of some hair products that I own and use often.
One thing that can help a lot with hair, especially older hair, is investing in a couple sets of hair shaders. I'd recommend buying more than one set, because each has its pros and cons. Two that I use at the moment are:
Colorwerks Hair Shaders, by SloshWerks. You get a lot for your money with this one. It can sometimes be hard to choose between, say, the 85 different brunette colors, and you do have to be careful about lighting to make the colors look good. But that varierty! It also seems to work with every hair product.
IrayPair Hair Shaders, by Out of Touch. You have to go the The Other Site to pick this one up. Essentually, if you wanted to use some of the great shaders that OOT includes with one given hair product on all of their hairs, and on everyone else's hairs, this is the product for you. Less picky about lighting conditions that SloshWerks, but less variety.
Anyway, the hairs. You'll notice that I don't have any d-force hairs on here. I like them enough, but they can be fiddly, and my system tends to groan whenever I activate the "view the entire hair in preview" option for them.
AprilYSH
Leyton Hair (G3F/G2F): I use this hair a lot. It's very versatile.
Whitney Hair (G8F/G3F): The hair cap sometimes needs some adjustment to look right (and can be obvious in facial close-ups), but other than that this is a very good, relatively lightweight 'wavy' hairstyle.
Emma and Jordi
Liberty Hair (not available on the Daz shop now, but I think it lives on elsewhere) (G8F): A center-part hair, no waves (i.e. long straight hair). Comes with a hat morph and a good color selection.
Kool
Bblythe Hair (G8F): This is a good shoulder-length hair.
Neftis3D
Keyla Curls Updo Hair (G8F): I use this one a lot for more formal renders, like characters at balls or at weddings.
Out of Touch
2021-01 Hair (G8F): I like this one because it has a center part and some nice gentle falls on each side.
Cailin Hair (G3F/G2F/V4): A lot of good built-in morphs for this one, and it takes shaders well.
Caprice Hair (G8F/G3F): Another one that I use quite a bit. Only downside to me is that, for whatever reason, this hair is sometimes tricky with renders, and more likely to generate wayward pixels even under good ligthing conditions.
Hair and Glasses (G8F, G3F): Another center-part hair with a lot of morphs and colors. My only gripe about this one is that it often doesn't fit the head correctly, requiring you to adjust the size (usually by increasing it about 3-5%).
Vintage Curl Hair (G8F): This one is marketed as old-timey 1940s hair, but I find it looks just as good in contemporary renders.
SamSil
Short Curls Hair (G8F/G3F): Short curly hair can be hard to find in the Daz shop; I use this one a lot. Comes with some good shaders.
SWAM
Ktarya Hair (G8F/G3F): This is marketed as fantasy hair, and as such has a gap where the ears are in order to accommodate pointy elf ears. While I wish there were a way to close that gap via moprhs (you can't), this is a versatile 'messy straight' hair product. There are four loose strands in front of the face that I find are easier to erase in the geometry editor rather than morph them out of the way.
Sally Hair (G3F/G2F):For a short, styled hair, this does the job quite well, especially when paired with a hair shader.
Seema Hair (G3F): Another older product, but does a good job of cascading around the face.
WindField
Flora Hair (G8F): Your mileage might vary with this one, only because it sits a little flat on the head (IMO), but I do like the semi-wavy look.
Taylor Hair (G8F): A popular hair product, from what I gather, and for good reason- it's a good all-around short hair option.
I was watching Dreamlight's Youtube channel and he was raving about this one. It does look like old school Veronica Lake hair. Very nice.
One i can recommend wholeheartedly is Adelind hair. Going cheap right now.
The problem has several sides. One of course is the matter of personal taste and a preference of style.
Then there is a technical aspect. How is the draping of the hair? Does it fall in a realistic manner? Swam's hair, as nice as they look, are not usable for me because you just can not move the hair behind the shoulder. So even when you turn a head the hair will remain in front. Which is often enough simply unrealistic. A similar matter happens with quite a few of the otherwise awesome OOT hair, which lets you drape the hair backwards basically just from the collar heighth. So if you tilt a head back the hair has a kink. Doesn't work for me either. Short hair and most ponytails are much easier to pose.
Many strand based dforce hair has a look which reminds me more of foam than of hair, sometimes the hairline is completely off.
The answer to the question for a great and realistic hair can not be an easy one, because it depends on the way you are posing your characters.
If Linday could work their dforce magic on OOT or AprilYSH hair I at least could promise to never complain about hair again. ;-)
Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I have wishlisted some of them :)
Some of your suggestions I didn't agree with which is explained in the post by Laurita, I feel the same. Even the relistic detailed looking hair often has issues with the 'draping' if a head is turned and angled and there is no way to make it look natural. The hair either tries to stick to the body too much or the hair unnaturally starts floating.