How would you put curved needles on a cactus or short hair stubble on a face?
I want to work in 3D, so I’m not looking for a 2.5D-only solution, and I want the shapes to be more than just straight protrusions, so a simple alpha solution won’t work.
Using MeshInsert is one possibility. It’s the method used by Francois
Rimasson in his ‘Birth’ tut’. See.
http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Tutorial:_Birth_3#Adding_Eyelashes
I’ll check it out; thanks.
I was hoping for something that would autoalign to the surface normal like the 2.5D stuff does, since it looks like in his method the eyelashes have to be tweaked for orientation. But maybe I will just have to be patient and do it.
i believe that if you set up your needle in the preview window facing you along the z axis, then using one of the two meshinsert brushes should follow the normals, i know i’ve gotten it to work in the past but rarely use them.
There is also the 3d Snakehook brush. Different types of extrusions can be created with different alphas and focal shifts.
I didn’t realize meshinsert was related to brushes. I thought it was a button that let more than one mesh be defined under the same subtool - but I never heard of it at all before this post, so I need to study up on it more.
Snake hook things would be good for needles, but I’m hoping for a solution that generalizes well to sprinkles on a donut or sequins or gems on a garment.
I love that 2.5D action of drawing new tools on the canvas, but it’s 2.5D 
I’ll read up on meshinsert further
If you have access to another 3D app, they usually have tools for this. 3ds Max, for example, has the scatter modifier.
http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp196/myavatarinside/GRASS%20TUTORIAL/1.jpg
here is a quick video i made using the meshinsertdot brush, that one draws along the surface normals.
i wish these brushes would work with different stroke types like the spray, that would be awesome! hint hint pixologic.
cool thanks. I’ll check it out.
I was trying to see this video, but the picture is black for me.
As far as a 3D app solution, I’m using ancient Maya 7. Not sure if there is one. Have to check. I might be able to write a MEL script for doing it with nurbs, but I’m working in polys. Not sure if I can locate points along the surface of a poly mesh. Maybe there is already a Maya 7 tool that solves these issues.
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This meshinsert thing looks like it will work out well for me, though.