Hair problems (low poly)
Hey guys,
I try to create polygonal hair for my character(without alpha-planes).
But i am very new to modeling i dont really know how to start it, are there any good tutorials?
A good example of the hair ,how i would like to create it, is KIngdom Hearts.
Example:
BTW: Is it really that important that the vertices of the hair and the vertices of the head are linked to each other?
( I am using 3Ds Max)
I try to create polygonal hair for my character(without alpha-planes).
But i am very new to modeling i dont really know how to start it, are there any good tutorials?
A good example of the hair ,how i would like to create it, is KIngdom Hearts.
Example:
BTW: Is it really that important that the vertices of the hair and the vertices of the head are linked to each other?
( I am using 3Ds Max)
Replies
Since you're new to modeling here's the best, most useful tutorial I know of:
Observe. Try. repeat.
There is no magic formula or set of steps to make that hair, or any hair, or any thing. Just observe what the result you want is, use the tools you have to approach it and evaluate your results, and adjust your work as best you can.
Almost all the detail in that guys hair is in the texture, the actual strands are just modeled out in strips.
I really tried it , I tried to extrude the hair from the head, I tried it like in the "Joan of Arc" tutorial and I even tried it with alpha-planes.
Alpha-planes:
But that doesn't give me the "Cartoon/Anime/unrealistic" look that i want.
Everytime without reasonable results.
And besides, I have every time the feeling, that I do it incredibly wrong.
There are a few ways to get that gradient.
You can uniquely unwrap each strand and paint the gradient into the texture.
You can use the same strand copied over and over and use vertex paint to tint each strand differently.
You can create a few strands with various darkness and use them where needed.
Anyway you go you need to work on blocking in the big forms and defining shapes.
But my current problem is still that i dont get a good mesh ,it ends every time in a complete mess.
Why don't you try making a single strand with no texture, just a vertex color gradient and placing copies of it in a head? Maybe that could help you understand the structure of it, the direction the hair grows, the weight of the strands etc.
That is how far I am right now, I didnt get that much strands in the Hair, but its my first "working" try.
Did i something important wrong so far?
I don't think the shape is quite right. I'd add a few planes on the side of his head to hide bits of skin that wouldn't be there in a normal hairline (it's too far up I think, especially near the front), and add a bit of a curve to some of the straight strands you've got there.
http://www.paultosca.com/varga_hair.html
making the hair from your reference to me seems very simple since you are working with such a simple alpha. no need for individual straws of hair.
Ok I´ll do that.^^
Thanks,but alpha-planes dont look like the cartoon-style I want.
I dont know exactly what you mean.To extrude some more strands from higher up?
In your last image, the hair is more or less one big shell with some spiky bits, but there aren't any layers. Go back to the original reference image you posted, draw what you think the wireframe looks like on top of that image.
Ok , i think i know what you mean.
I tried it to give it a second layer.(still as a single object)
But i looks pretty bad, would it be smarter to model a second layer as a different object and "put it over" the first one?Or any other tips?
(found on http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87907)
What you're missing the aesthetic execution.
Spend some time observing hair.
The most important parts to getting people to buy textured hair are the specularity, and the depth.
Paint some hair in just 2d for practice. As in find a picture of a real person who's hair you like, and do your best to paint that in photoshop. Look at your results, then see where you can improve it.
A few specific things for painting hair:
The diffuse color of it is similar to how metal is painted. Start dark, layer over with light. Paint the highlights in rather than painting the shadows.
Hair, as a mass, exhibits anisotropic specular highlighting. So you'll have shiny bands against the grain/lay of the hair where the light hits.
If you're going for the painted look, paint this in, and turn your shader's specular off.
Also notice that the hair strands tend to get bright and highly saturated near the highlight area, but a little outside of it.
Many of the shadows in hair also carry more saturation with them than you'll find in solid objects.
All this is due to individual hairs being translucent, and internally refractive.
Sometimes light travels down the hair before being re-emitted, giving its characteristic glow. Deeper hairs can be lit by light which has passed through the upper layers, giving more of that saturated look.
Here's some direct ref:
For low poly painted hair like you're wanting, you're going to just have to bring the look you want artistically. Straight up paint the hair out.
Start with a saturated shadow color, so you have a little room at the bottom, and a LOT of room in the highlights.
1.) Block out your major strand areas with a deeper desaturated shadow. These are going to be the borders of your overhanging layers of hair.
2.)Choose a middle bright and moderately saturated variety of the color of the hair. Mass in the large volumes of how the hair sits on the head. For diffuse only characters a general light from above works well.
3.) Choose your highlight color. Something in the overall spectrum of the hair color, very close to white but not pure white (unless you're doing black hair.. but even then a subtle blue or brown cast works better) Block in the major areas of highlight. Go a little larger than the end highlight you actually want.
4.) choose your "true color" for your hair. This is the brightest and most saturated version of the hair color. Paint it in subtly around the highlights along the grain of the hair, but don't stray too far from the core of the highlight. This adds significant life and body to the hair.
5.) Go in with a small round brush, often 1 pixel works well, and add some flyaways. Little bits of hair that are separate from the main group, or small groups to themselves and catch light on their own away from the main mass highlight. Deepen the shadows in the most unlit areas, and take your small round brush and add some more internal shadowing to the hair masses. You don't need to go all the way down a hair mass, and indeed shouldn't. This is adding more life and visual complexity to the hair.
Often less is more here.