Hair Caps in Carrara: How to make them and use them as needed
Rashad Carter
Posts: 1,799
Me again.
I'm very curious about Hair Caps. One can apply hair directly to a figure, but I've been told that this is not ideal for several reasons many of which I'm not clear on. But I trust the wisdom of the masses on this.
So the preferred workflow seems to be to use a Hair Cap. How does one go about making a Hair Cap?
I assume I would import a Genesis for example, and then I would select the polygons around the head area where hair would grow. I would then invert the selection so as to highlight everything but the area I want to paint onto, and Delete. This should leave me with only the hair cap geometry. But how then do I fit this hair cap to a figure such that if I alter the shape of the figure's head, the hair cap will follow. I am mostly unwilling to build custom hair caps for every single character morph, seems like there should be a smarter way of doing such things.
Any feedback is appreciated greatly. Thanks for your time.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
I prefer a whole proxy head, low poly of course, that way the hair can collide with something head shaped when I'm doing an animated hair physics sim (I also often times use a low poly object for shoulder collisions too) . So the advantage to this method is huge - you can put the same hairstyle on any figure you like, just pop in the low-poly head object, put it on top of your character's head, maybe push/pull with soft selection a few verts here and there to get it with a nice close fit, and made the low-poly head object invisible. Turn off your high poly character's collisions with hair in it's effects tab (as well as anything else in the scene) and you're ready to do very quick hair sims that will be very good for realistic animation (see my link in sig to get an idea what I mean), quick and easy.
I've got some free hairstyles up on share cg as an example, using a low poly head object that Diomede built and donated to community use which he put up on sharecg as well. You're welcome to grab and use if you like, or build new hairstyles as well. I've got some tut videos up on youtube on how to build and animate carrara hair, it's a surprisingly easy process for most hairstyles imo.
Hi again
Under Hair, in the Smart Content, you should have Hair cap for Genesis.
There are also hair caps for V4 etc, included with the Carrara content
so, you shouldn't need to make one,. but you can if you want to,...
create a vertex object,. a simple sphere would do,.. then shape that in the Assembly room (edit mode) "around" the figures head. or as Jon mentioned , you can create a more complete head.
You can grow hair directly onto a figure,. but since genesis is a Sub-D Uni-mesh, this can be problematic if you increase the render time smoothing subdivision breaks the hair selection.
Adding Hair directly to the figure works fine on V4 etc,.
You can also add hair directly to any other model, such as a sphere,. it's a good way to get a grasp of the tools before starting work on a figure hairstyle.
The Hair Shaders can play a major role in shaping the hair,.
You should experiment with those too.
:)
Oh yes, I completely forgot to mention the hair cap object that is included with Carrara that 3dage referred to.
It's actually quite useful not just to grow hair on itself, but to use it as an 'under layer' of hair too. I'll explain why:
In real life, most humans have between 90,000 - 120,000 hairs on their head. You can certainly create Carrara hairstyles with a similar number of hairs, but it can add significantly to the render time since you're adding a lot of geometry.
However, I've found you don't really need to have nearly that many actual hairs to make a perfectly convincing hairstyle, in fact you can have as few as 5,000 - 15,000 hairs with almost no perceivable difference in the hairstyle itself...
Except in one key area, which is if you cut down the number of hairs that much (which will make your render time much much faster) then you will see the scalp showing through, it can make your character look like he/she has extremely thin hair.
But if you use the Carrara hair cap, and simply place it on the head (making it so it doesn't collide with hairs in simulations, again by unchecking hair collisions for it on the effects tab) then it covers the scalp and makes the head of hair look just as full as if it actually was 100,000 hairs instead of 5,000 (as an example). It's especially useful to use this technique in animations, because it's pretty much invisible to the eye but drastically cuts down on render time without sacrificing realism.
Is there more than one? I didn't see...
Is there more than one? I didn't see...
I put up the short hairstyle too, but didn't yet do a video for it (and frankly I messed up a bit and not all the different fits are loading in the right spot for the different characters).
Can I have the link, please? I can't find it.
http://www.sharecg.com/v/81118/browse/7/Material-and-Shader/Lancel-Hair-Dynamic-Carrara-Hair
Consider it a 'beta', I've still got a good bit of fine tuning to do :) However, it's perfectly usable.
I will be exploring these supplied Hair Caps, as well as perhaps trying my own hand at it. Here is a recent OR4C (Octane) render of a hair I modeled last week but it is painted directly onto the figure. It was a static OBJ export from DS so there are no issues with rendering.
I'm managed to get it ti wave and the like. Generally i thin I like Carrara's hair implementation. Feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
Nice :)
Thanks. Okay two new questions.
1. Is it possible to use an image map to assign the areas where Hair will grow? I'd like to use something similar to the distribution maps that can be used with the Replicator. Currently I am selecting the area by polygon but this is too crude to form proper shapes such as eyebrows and mustaches.
2. Is it possible either directly or via some plug-in to export Carrara hair as a .obj?
Thanks again for any insights.
Thanks. Okay two new questions.
1. Is it possible to use an image map to assign the areas where Hair will grow? I'd like to use something similar to the distribution maps that can be used with the Replicator. Currently I am selecting the area by polygon but this is too crude to form proper shapes such as eyebrows and mustaches.
2. Is it possible either directly or via some plug-in to export Carrara hair as a .obj?
Thanks again for any insights.
Solved number 1 for myself. It's so simple. Still curious about number 2. Thanks in advance.
Wasn't there a bit in the Octane thread about using Carrara hair in Octane by using the Assembly Room's generated preview hair?
Otherwise, for the number two question: No.
Yes, sighman, the Octane plugin developer now has updated it so that it recognized Carrara hair and renders it (which is awesome btw) but I don't think the process involves exporting the hair as an .obj in any way, as far as I know there's currently no way to do that.
Hi Rashad,
Glad you sorted using the minus tool as that is invaluable, especially when you have a low poly figure and not just heads (eg I make furry clothing for prehistoric people).
I also use hair for eyelashes as well as eyebrows!
These eyelashes showed up well for a book cover giving a more natural effect than with the" beauty fashion" lashes that come with models. This is a closeup of one of those characters, so her lashes are not tapered as they were in shadow and the face was not close-up. Works great for men, especially for bushy brows, stubble beards/staches/sideburns.Chest hair, arm hair.... everywhere hair!
And for blending in hairlines or parts when using non Carrara hair products.
:-) Silene
I had never thought to use the hair modeler for eyelashes. Thanks for posting.
Then you need to check out the procedural skin shader I made for V4. It uses hair for the eyelashes and eyebrows.
http://www.sharecg.com/v/77436/view/7/Material-and-Shader/Carrara-V4-Procedural-Skin-Shader-and-hair
I've been playing around with one for Genesis 2, but had to put it on hold for awhile.
Here's a sample of the V4 shader with dynamic eyebrows and eyelashes and a sample of Olympia 6 with the procedural shader and dynamic hair eyebrows and eye;lashes.
NOTE: In C7.2 Pro I can hide shading domains in the VM and they remain hidden in the Assembly room. C8.5 fixes that one-of-a-kind useful bug, so you will need to apply an alpha shader to the eyelash shading domain to hide the eyelash mesh.
Then you need to check out the procedural skin shader I made for V4. It uses hair for the eyelashes and eyebrows.
http://www.sharecg.com/v/77436/view/7/Material-and-Shader/Carrara-V4-Procedural-Skin-Shader-and-hair
I've been playing around with one for Genesis 2, but had to put it on hold for awhile.
Here's a sample of the V4 shader with dynamic eyebrows and eyelashes and a sample of Olympia 6 with the procedural shader and dynamic hair eyebrows and eye;lashes.
NOTE: In C7.2 Pro I can hide shading domains in the VM and they remain hidden in the Assembly room. C8.5 fixes that one-of-a-kind useful bug, so you will need to apply an alpha shader to the eyelash shading domain to hide the eyelash mesh.
Oh I forgotten you did them in your procedural...which I shocked myself by using successfully for the skin!
My eyelashes, of course, are much more 'rough and ready' done very early last year. Yours are much more sophisticated, much much better!
:cheese: Silene
Oh I forgotten you did them in your procedural...which I shocked myself by using successfully for the skin!
My eyelashes, of course, are much more 'rough and ready' done very early last year. Yours are much more sophisticated, much much better!
:cheese: Silene
Yours also look great. Don't short-change yourself!
Then you need to check out the procedural skin shader I made for V4. It uses hair for the eyelashes and eyebrows.
http://www.sharecg.com/v/77436/view/7/Material-and-Shader/Carrara-V4-Procedural-Skin-Shader-and-hair
I've been playing around with one for Genesis 2, but had to put it on hold for awhile.
Here's a sample of the V4 shader with dynamic eyebrows and eyelashes and a sample of Olympia 6 with the procedural shader and dynamic hair eyebrows and eye;lashes.
NOTE: In C7.2 Pro I can hide shading domains in the VM and they remain hidden in the Assembly room. C8.5 fixes that one-of-a-kind useful bug, so you will need to apply an alpha shader to the eyelash shading domain to hide the eyelash mesh.
You are correct, I had seen it before. That is an excellent procedural skin texture, BTW. I plan to apply some of the principles to my own low-poly figures.
Memory is going.
Memory banks getting full? That's the trouble getting older, the wiser bits seem to go adrift!
:-P SileneUK
I noticed that I have a Carrara Hair Cap for both Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 Female installed in my computer. Is there a Carrara Hair Cap for Genesis 2 Male?