Styling Hair with a Spline Emitter

Styling Hair with a Spline Emitter

Working with Hair Presets

 

Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials > Hair and Cloth Tutorials > Hair > Styling Hair with a Spline Emitter > 

Generate the Hair

Set up the lesson:

1. Open the file spline_emitter_start.max.

   The scene consists of a simple head mesh and three shadow-casting spot lights that are hidden at this time. Instead of using the mesh as a hair emitter, you'll create a spline-based outline for the hair.

2. Select the head in the scene and right-click it. From the quad menu that appears, choose Freeze Selection.
3. On the main toolbar, right-click the Snaps Toggle button to open the Grid And Snap Settings dialog.
4. The only snaps option that should be on is Face. As necessary, turn off any other options and turn on Face.
5. In the Grid And Snap Settings > Options panel, turn on Snap To Frozen Objects.

   

6. Click the close button in the upper-right corner to exit the dialog, and then left-click the Snaps Toggle button to turn on snapping to faces.

Create the spline cage for the hair:

In this section you'll create the splines for the hair. In that respect, you have to consider the design of the hairdo and the parting of the hair. The red line in the following illustration shows where the hair part will be. You will use it as a base line for the hair splines as they flow on either side of the head.

1. Go to the Create panel and choose Splines > Line. Make sure Initial Type and Drag Type are both set to Smooth.
2. In the Perspective viewport, position the mouse at the front of the parting line seen above, and then click to start the spline. Move the mouse partway down the left side of the head and click again. Move it farther down and slightly back, click again, and then move it down and closer to the front to create a nice flowing curve. Right-click to end.

   The four-vertex spline is not smooth enough to follow the contours of the head. You will make the necessary adjustments later but for now, press F3 to view the scene in wireframe mode.

   ImportantBefore you create additional splines, make sure that Start New Shape (on the Object Type rollout) is turned on. Each spline should be its own object until you attach the splines later.

   

3. Continue adding splines. Start the next one a little further back from the first. Likewise for the third and fourth. Continue around the back, always placing the spline base points along the parting line of the hair. use the following image as a reference.

   

Adjust the spline cage

1. Go to the Display panel. In the Hide rollout, turn on Hide Frozen Objects. This hides the head object from the scene.

   

2. Select the first spline you created: Line01, and then go to the Modify panel.
3. From the Geometry rollout, click the Attach button.
4. Attach the splines sequentially, moving clockwise around the head. The sequential order of splines in the spline cage is very important for the hair modifier to work properly.
   NoteThe names of the individual splines are not important to this step. What is important is the order in which you attach them.
5. Go back to the Display panel and turn off Hide Frozen Objects.
6. With the spline cage selected, go to the Modify panel and rename the object Hair.
7. Go to the Vertex sub-object level. Looking at the top of the head, select all the first vertices representing the hair roots.

   

8. Press Ctrl+I to invert the selection.
9. From the main toolbar, choose the Scale tool and set the scale pivot to Use Selection Center
10. Scale the selection up so that the splines flow more naturally around the head.

    

11. Adjust the individual vertices so they fit the shape of the head nicely, floating just above the mesh. Make the necessary adjustments to follow the design of the hairdo you have set yourself to achieve. If necessary, click Refine to add vertices to the splines, and then shape the spline cage with more detail.

    

Generate the hair:

1. Continue working on your file or open the file spline_emitter_hair.max
2. With the Hair object selected, apply a Hair And Fur (WSM) modifier.

   

   Hair And Fur modifier applied to splines

Adjust the hair settings:

The settings described in the following steps were arrived at through experimentation. You might find other settings that work better for your hair, so feel free to experiment yourself, and revise the suggested values.

1. Open the General Parameters rollout and set these values:
   • Hair Count =1200
   • Hair Segments =25
   • Hair Passes =4
   • Root Thick =6.0
   • Tip Thick =4.0

   These settings control the number of hairs, their curvature, and their size.

2. Open the Material Parameters rollout and set these values:
   • Occluded Amb. =0.0
   • Tip Color = dark brownRGB (34,28,13)
   • Tip Color = dark brownRGB (29,24,11)
   • Hue Variation =15

   These settings control the material properties of the hair, such as color and shininess.

3. Open the Frizz Parameters rollout and set this value:
   • Frizz Root =80

   This setting adds a certain amount of noise to the root of the hair, making it look denser and more natural.

4. Open the Multi Strand Parameters rollout and set these values:
   • Count =5
   • Root Splay =0.85
   • Randomize =15

   These parameters add a certain amount of clumping to the rendered hair.

Render the hair:

• Render the hair in the Perspective viewport.

  

  The final result

  If you have time, try rendering the hair from various angles.

  

  The same hair, rendered in a partial profile

  

  The same hair, rendered nearly from the back

  To see our final results, open the scene spline_emitter_final.max. Your results might differ significantly; there are many variables in projects like this.

  Also if you have time, try adjusting spline vertices to further style the hair. Notice that as you adjust the splines, the display hairs in the viewports are updated interactively.