ZBrushCentral

Creating Hair with Alpha Skinning

ZBrush Artworks
#35

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> That last one looks awsome, please post a full hair style. Would love seing that done with this tech.

I said “Hi” …

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Heh … when I saw ur sig … and thought about my sig … it made me laugh :slight_smile:

Its like ur answering me. hehe.

#36

tdrs- Yes it does look similar to the Fibre Brush/Fibre Shader, but the above method creates an editable object which can be styled to your own tastes, whereas the Fibre brush/shader is a post Render effect and is limited to the brush settings.

#37

Hi Cwahl
Just a little precision :)on for the waiting demo users of the Zb2
In each of your super tuts I don’t see the moment where the “3d creation” is building (like a sort of “make alpha3D” Zb2 ?
What step I have missed ?
Or it’s the Alpha skinning who make automaticly the 3D ?
Pilou

#38

hi cwahl!
i like your variation ! you can do exactly the same thing with groups of my cone hair
once youve made a batch -with the added benefit of each strand having a much lower poly count because they can be as primitive as your prepared to go with the initial strand.
applying the bunches with dragdot is ace though isnt it! that was forum user mestela’s cool idea when we were brainstorming yesterday. makes it so easy to apply.
i cant wait to see what comes up next!

#39

Hi Frenchy

Firstly, this isn’t a Z2 process. I’m a Mac user, so all hair processes shown by me are done using Zbrush 1.55b! So anyone can do them…including Z2 users. :wink:

Secondly, making an alpha into 3D hair is done in the alpha-skinning stage, by choosing the Alpha-skinning settings then pressing the ‘Make 3D’ button. This 3D object is then stretched using the Tool/Size (along the Z plane), to make it into long hair.

Ron- The added advantage of using the skinned object with your method, is that since the hair object is based on a flat alpha, the created object is already aligned to the flat plane. No need for offsetting. And optimizing the object makes it as easy to handle as the primitive.

…but now it sounds like I’m trying to outdo you, Ron. Which is not the case. ALL of these methods have their own individual uses. And if we can combine ideas to make a better process, all the better. :+1:

#40

absolutely ! cwahl ! this bouncing back and forth is just the best way to come up with stuff ! i’m gonna try some more samples today . :+1:

#41

Hi Cwahl
That’s was that !
The moment “pressing the make 3D button” was not signify :slight_smile:
All is clear now!
Pilou
ps because I had very often used this button, I was confused to not see it on the text :slight_smile:

#42

An extension of the techniques ron and I discussed yesterday, here’s a quick stab at feathers/scales:

A few other things we worked out; using the ‘m’ hotkey to mark makes drawing out your objects incredibly fast. You quickly work up a rhythm of drag, m, drag, m, drag, m etc…

The other thing, which isn’t strictly needed, is you put your base object on one layer, and do your hair/feathers on another. That way your base object is protected, allowing you to try several approaches if need be.

-matt

#43

Hey Matt.

Good to know there’s a shortcut for marking.
The ‘M’ key. Derrr…I should have known. :rolleyes:

That’s an interesting armoured look you have going there. It’s obvious that this is not just a process for making hair.

Ron- A bit of friendly competition’s always good. :wink:

#44

Results from Alpha-Skinning using the ‘Double-sided’ option.

#45

Alpha Skinning = Make3D :slight_smile:
Pilou

#46

Thank you for sharing, although I don’t make hair often, this could be an interesting method for creating grass and other types of plants. If I can knock something out, I’ll post an image. Keep up the experimenting! :smiley:

#47

Hi mestela, that image looks like the one I saw on evasion|3D site look at meshpaint gallery and see what I mean.

See ya,
Jinxius.

#48

Heh, so it does:
Their gallery is a great source of ideas:
http://www.evasion3d.com/mp_gallery.html

Thanks for the link!

Cheers,

-matt

#49

I love what you two are doing and i been trying to get the hang of it. I’m still pretty newb at this as i am not the best at experimentation.

So, i got 3 questions

  • where do i find the Optimize button?
  • how do you get the hair to taper near the ends like that? My attempts don’t seem to do that.

last one, - When you guys style it with deformations are you using the gyro or clicking edit?

#50

Forlocks,
thats a pretty old thread - we havent heard from Cwahl in a while.
heres a thread with a zscript he posted to make this kind of hair.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?p=40704#post40704

Optimize is in the the geometry section of the tool pallette -
I think this hair was figured out in 1.5b from reading the threads -so there might be slight procedural differences.
Deformations is in the tool pallette too

H

#51

Excelente manera de resolver el pelo cwahl:+1:

#52

can u anybody tell me how to do the alpha stoke

#53

i guess im the only person that cant do this tutorial for strands of hair… i just dont really follow any of it…

“making dots uniform”?

“alpha shin with mesh with smoothness at 1?”

i dont suppose you could dumb it down a little more or maybe even just make a simple video?:frowning:

#54


  1. Choose the Tool>SingleLayerBrush and the Spray stroke type. I also recommend Alpha 14 for its hard edges. I use the single layer brush because it allows you to adjust RGB intensity and Z intensity separately.
  2. When you have the Spray stroke type selected, go to the Stroke palette. There you will find settings that affect the stroke. Set Placement to 1, Flow to .25 and Scale to 1.
  3. Set Rgb Intensity to 100 and Z Intensity to 2.
  4. On a blank canvas, use a couple very brief strokes to create your alpha. It should a pattern somewhat similar to the Spray stroke’s icon – fairly round if you want just a lock of hair. Of course, if you wanted a layer of hair you could create a line of scattered dots instead.
  5. Select the MRGBZGrabber tool. Drag a stroke on the canvas that boxes in the alpha that you just painted. When you release the mouse, you’ll have a new item in the Alpha palette called DepthGrab01.
  6. Now that you have your custom alpha, you can clear the canvas. If you want, you can create more alphas as long as you have everything set up for it.
  7. Make sure your custom alpha is selected. In the Alpha palette, set MRes to 256, MDep to 100 and MSm to 1. Turn off DblS. Now click the Make 3D button (which is right next to those modifiers). A quick message will appear, then a new tool will appear in the Tool palette. This is a 3D mesh created from your 2D alpha. It will become your hair.
  8. Draw the new mesh on the canvas and enter edit mode. Rotate the view a bit so you can see what’s going on.
  9. In Tool>Deformation, turn off the X and Y modifiers next to Size. Only Z should be active. Now repeatedly set the deformation to 100. Your hair tool will double in length each time. After several such deformations, it’ll look like a lock of hair.
At this point you could use deformations to shape it. But ZBrush 3 makes it easier. Try appending the hair to a head and position it so that one end is barely inside the scalp. Now you can use TransPose to style and shape the hair. With multiple strands like this, you can quickly build up an effective hair style.

Don’t want every hair in the strand to be the same length? Try this: Before you convert the alpha to a 3D mesh, increase the Alpha>Rf (radial fade) setting slightly. Values of 2-5 should be ideal. Then press Make Modified Alpha to convert that setting into a new alpha. The resulting 3D mesh will have the longest strands in the center.