Experimentation Page: Hair

           I’ve been working on the wolf this week—the second of the three mythical animals I’m making. One of the things that I was questioning during the phoenix as well was the hair (which I use as an umbrella term for feathers, fur, and scales). The thing about hair is that while it looks good, it’s really time consuming, finicky, and generally unreliable. As such, I was initially thinking of simply avoiding it; however, as I have decided to make a cycles render and a blender-rendered animation separately, I’ve decided to revisit the idea. This will also help me with the female I’ve been working on, and I was toying with the idea of modeling vs. implementing a particle system for it.
            One of the first things I looked for was a tutorial on fur; of course I found one, and even it is a bit long, it’s fairly helpful.



The video gave me an idea as to how I’m going to make the fur for the wolf as well as the feathers for the phoenix, which is something I might go back and modify. Initially, I will start with a hair particle system and then go from there. By changing modifiers such as clump, I can achieve different yet simple affects for both the wolf and the phoenix. The hippocampus, however, is another story entirely as it has scales. I will most likely create a particle system and create a small variety of scales and then group them together and apply them to the model—a technique we learned in digital modeling.
            As for the female model, having a hair particle system was out of the question fairly early, as I want to animate the girl as well—and she will, of course, need hair for that. Hence, I turned to hair modeling, something that can create anything from semi-realistic to completely unrealistic hair without the hassle of particle systems. This also works out well as I’m fairly sure that my model’s hair will be a wig in the context of the animation I am think of creating.



The technique used in this video pertains to a pony-tail, however I can easily adapt it to my needs. My challenge, however, will be in keeping the hair and the model two separate entities throughout all the movements of the animation. However, the video is still far off, and I have plenty of time to modify my techniques and ideas as best suits my needs.
            Particle system hair, in reiteration, is a fickle facet of animation; it is especially out of the question when creating a full-length animation. However, single-image renders and modeled hair allows for the inclusion of what may be considered a fairly important human feature.

Work Log:
Monday 11/5: Started wolf model
Tuesday 11/6: Worked on wolf model
Wednesday 11/7: Worked on wolf model
Thursday 11/8: Worked on wolf model
Friday 11/9: Worked on wolf model

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