• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Note

No guide hairs are available when the Hair and Fur modifier is applied to a selection of splines because the splines act as guides. •

Using the Style interface

In addition to the hair properties, you can change the look of hair by using the various hair styling features. These features are found in the Styling rollout. The Style Hair button activates an interactive styling mode in the viewport where you can brush, comb, and manipulate the individual hairs. The Style Hair button is activated automatically when the Guides subobject mode is selected.

Within the Styling rollouts are several icon buttons. These buttons are described in Table 29.1. The brush size can be interactively set by holding down the Ctrl and Shift keys while dragging the mouse when in Brush mode, or you can change the brush size using the slider located under the Ignore Back Hairs option. The Distance Fade option causes the brushing effect to fade as it gets closer to the edge, resulting in a softer effect at the hair tips.

When you're finished styling, click the Finish Styling button in the Styling rollout to exit styling mode.

Tutorial: Creating a set of fuzzy dice

Fuzzy dice. What could be cooler?

To style the fur applied to a set of fuzzy dice, follow these steps:

1. Open the Fuzzy dice.max file from the Chap 29 directory on the CD.

2. Select one of the dice, and choose the Modifiers⇒Hair and Fur⇒Hair and Fur (WSM) menu command to apply hair to the selected die.

3. Open the General Parameters rollout, and set the Hair Count to 20000 and the Scale value to 50. Then open the Material Parameters rollout, and change the Tip Color to white and the Root Color to Red. Then open the Frizz Parameters rollout, and set the Frizz Root and Frizz Tip values to 0. This makes the hair strands straight and red.

4. Open the Styling rollout, and click the Style Hair button. In the Utilities section, click the Pop Selected button to make all the hair stand out. Then select the Hair Brush icon, and drag downward in the viewport near the guides at each of the top corners. Click the Finish Styling button when completed.

5. Drag the Hair and Fur (WSM) modifier from the Modifier Stack, and drop it on the unselected die.

Figure 29.6 shows the resulting pair of dice.

FIGURE 29.6

Hair can be styled by changing the position and orientation of the guide hairs.

Using hair presets

If you have a specific set of parameters that create a unique hair look that you're happy with, you can save it using the Save presets button in the Tools rollout. Hair preset files are rendered on the spot and added to the Hair and Fur Presets dialog box, shown in Figure 29.7. To add a preset configuration to the current object, simply double-click it.

FIGURE 29.7

The Hair and Fur presets dialog box shows rendered thumbnails of the available presets.

In addition to presets, hairdos—created by styling the hair—also can be copied and pasted onto other hair selections.

Tip

If you ever get into trouble styling hair, you can click the Regrow Hair button in the Tools rollout to reset all the styling to its original state. •

Using hair instances

Although the default hair looks great, if you ever wanted to replace the hair splines with an instanced geometry, you can do so by using the Pick Instance Node in the Tools rollout. The X button to the right of the Instance Node Pick button is used to remove the instance. Figure 29.8 shows a funny head created using a matchstick for a hair instance.

Tip

Be sure to adjust the Hair Count value before selecting an instanced object. Complex instanced objects should be used only with manageable numbers. •

FIGURE 29.8

Mr. Matchstick head has all his hair replaced with matchsticks, an instance.

Rendering Hair

You can change the hair render settings by opening the Effects panel using the Rendering⇒Effects menu. The Render Settings button in the Tools rollout provides quick access to the Effects panel. The Hair and Fur rollout includes settings for the Hairs and Lighting