Digital Art Zone

Hi
I have some hair which is comprised of modelled strips of polgons and alpha maps that I’d like to make dangle and sway automatically with a characters movement. Can this be done somehow in Carrara 8.5? and if so then how?
So far I’ve been playing with softbody but it just kind of crumbles up when the head is tilted upwards so I don’t know if it will really do what I want

any help would be appreciated

HI Son of Belmont

What you’re making is Polygon hair,.

What you’re trying to make is dynamic hair.

You could create Morph targets in the model,. then you can animate those morphs.

You could add bones and weight mapping and then animate the bones,. and perhaps use some physics to effect the bone motion.

Carrara can create Dynamic hair, which can be “simulated” to calculate the hair physics in an animation (pic)

Thanks for your response 3DAGE
I’ve heard of Carrara’s Dynamic hair and it looks pretty cool however I’m going for a very cartoon look so I think polygon hair is my only option

What you mentioned about using physics to effect bone motion sounds interesting, how would that be done?

you might want to set the thicknes on the dynamic hair to large use the clump feature it may also worl for you if you can make yuor charictor smaller so the hair strands look more ropey . just an idea not knowing your set up or desire

What about an IK chain?

You probably only need a few pieces to be physics-enabled (bangs, maybe a ponytail or cowlick) but not all of it (depending on length and gender of the character - since everyone knows girl hair blows around constantly while man hair sits still and holds it’s style with natural male hair gel… it’s genetic in animationland no matter how long the hair is suppose to be…)

HI

I think Holly’s suggestion is a great one,. you don’t need all the hair to be dynamic,. and as Gaffer suggested,. making large dynamic hair could also be a good option,

The physics based option would be the hardest method to make, and get right. since it’s a simulation.
usimg morphs or bones will give you real control over what’s happening..

Dimension Theory did an example video where he used bones, tracking physics sphere’s to drive the animation of a plane to make it like cloth,.. but I think that was before Bullet softbody.

You can now use Bullet Softbody, and Softbody attach to make some sections of the hair “dynamic”, See example clip

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/7907045/soft_hair_test.mov

Note that this is a “proof of concept” rather than a “Best example”,.

3DAGE - 28 November 2012 09:38 PM

Carrara can create Dynamic hair, which can be “simulated” to calculate the hair physics in an animation (pic)

I LOVE this pic, Lighting is great… like an album cover!

maybe a little attention at the sideburns, those hairs seem a little broom like…?

Amazing image…

Thanks Holly

as a mock album cover it has it’s limit’s,.. but,.. is this close…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY

3DAGE - 30 November 2012 09:53 AM

Thanks Holly

as a mock album cover it has it’s limit’s,.. but,.. is this close…

LOLOL!