Garibaldi Express: Hair and Fur Plugin [Commercial]

1313234363756

Comments

  • GoneGone Posts: 833
    edited December 1969

    Well, if that's what it takes to realize your vision then more power to you.

    My poor jalopy starts complaining if I go over 2 mil --- and if the scene has very many transmapped and/or reflective surfaces then it's game over. :-)

  • orcadudeorcadude Posts: 24
    edited December 1969

    32 gigs of RAM and i've moved my virtual machines off that computer.
    Would be a shame to let them go to waste ; )

    I wish i had a vision, LOL.
    Sometimes i get the feeling playing around with shaders, lights and rendering engines is all i can and will ever do :D

  • GoneGone Posts: 833
    edited December 1969

    Show off. :-)

    Playing around is actually the pinnacle of my aspiration. :lol:

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    Here is a fun project I worked on last week using Garabaldi. It was a study practice in detail and light using a stock photo from David MacKenzie as a guide.

    I missed my goal of making it photo real but it was a fun learning experience anyway.

    Link to the actual stock image: http://jagged-eye.deviantart.com/art/Chun-Li-Sporty-4a-200337821

    Chopsticks_31May14pCrop3.jpg
    852 x 1352 - 183K
  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    I'm not sure if we can post animated gifs but here is a loop of the WIP test renders.

    Chopsticks_Aimated.gif
    365 x 560 - 4M
  • GoneGone Posts: 833
    edited December 1969

    Finally! Someone else is posting images. :-)

    At a guess, I would say there are at least 6 hair nodes --- and, of course, you used your own lights ---- right?

  • orcadudeorcadude Posts: 24
    edited December 1969

    That's a really nice work! :)

    Might do with a tiny bit of colour grading and vignetting in post to make it look even more realistic.

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    Gone said:
    Finally! Someone else is posting images. :-)

    At a guess, I would say there are at least 6 hair nodes --- and, of course, you used your own lights ---- right?

    There are 4 hair groups: One on each side for the hair going back to the buns, one fr the bangs and one for the wisps of hair on the wearer's left forehead down and in front of the ear.

    There are 4 lights: Advanced Spot for the backdrop - no shadows. An Advanced spot that illuminates the hair only set to specular only to give it just a little extra highlight. An Advanced Ambient for fill - Diffuse only. And a mesh light I have been working on as a key light.

  • GoneGone Posts: 833
    edited December 1969

    Ahh! Both wisps on the same node. Makes sense -- for some reason I got the idea that they were separate. It was hard to tell if the side burn was combed down or separate so I guessed wrong there as well. :-)

    A mesh light, you say? Colour me interested.

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    I was going to do the sideburn and the wisp seperate but it accidentally worked out using one group and the auto parting setting.

    I say accidentally because, on this project I just learned that it is easier to remove density than to add more in. This is because, if you add density later, new guide hairs will appear in that area and you have some work trying to get them to match with the already styled guide hairs.

    Because I was now painting more density area than I thought I would need, I had those extra hairs hanging down for the sideburn. They looked pretty good in the test render so I just went with it :)

    That’s a really nice work! smile

    Might do with a tiny bit of colour grading and vignetting in post to make it look even more realistic.

    Thanks orcadude! Sorry I didn't see your post when I replied earlier. Yeah it definitely needs some adjustment. I think I need to rework the specularity too. Maybe some glossiness maps to make some areas shinier and others more matte.

  • GoneGone Posts: 833
    edited December 1969

    Just learned? Oh my!

    Quick tip --- it's probably a good idea to turn on "show follicles". When any paint falls on a poly, guide hairs are generated at all four corners of the poly. This can happen even if you can't see any paint in the poly - all it takes is a tiny spill over from the fall off zone of the brush.

    Why is this important? Consider this. You spend time meticulously styling the outermost layer of guide hairs to get a cool cowlick or something. Check the preview and ---- nothing happened! Turns out the guide hairs you styled are so far away from the actual generated hair that they have no effect. What you needed to do was style the hairs next line in.

    This would be immediately obvious with follicles turned on but is not apparent with follicles off. I got caught by this too many times to ever work with follicles off now.

  • orcadudeorcadude Posts: 24
    edited June 2014

    Remember how i asked how to map hair length to a texture?
    I finally found it! No idea how i kept missing it...

    It's under Tweak, Reduce Length Settings.

    The idea is to set a max length via other tools, then the map regulates the shortening (black = original length, white = shortened all the way to the root).

    Post edited by orcadude on
  • GoneGone Posts: 833
    edited December 1969

    Good to know.

    When you mentioned that random length wasn't it, I assumed you also tried reduce length since it is right there.

    To be honest, I've never used it, so I don't really know what it does other than what the name implies.

    I've been doing a lot of things in the style pane that could probably be done more easily elsewhere. Case in point, this would be an excellent way to do tapering.

    I really should break out of my rut --- but ruts are just so dang comfortable. :-)

  • orcadudeorcadude Posts: 24
    edited December 1969

    Gone said:

    When you mentioned that random length wasn't it, I assumed you also tried reduce length since it is right there.

    That's the thing. I don't know how i've missed it.
    I distinctly remember playing with the root rotation (thinking i might emulate the length by rotating hairs flatter to the surface), but it's like i never ever saw the reduce length option, despite it sitting right there between the reduce length and root rotation.

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for the tips Gone.

    Something that would really help me is if I could see more than one group while styling one of them. Is there a way to do that?

  • orcadudeorcadude Posts: 24
    edited December 1969

    Don't think so, but you can make a single group and split it into selection groups, then work on them individually and still be able to see them all.
    That is, if you don't need different shader settings for different groups.

    Speaking of... What would also be really useful is to have props and clothes visible while styling and painting texture maps.

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    I don't usually find a need for a different shader per group. Honestly I find the opposite... It is often hard to match the color settings across groups.

    Using the selection tools is great and would serve me just fine except that the parting and clumping is often not enough when using long hair. You get hairs trying to blend between the hair on the left and right shoulders causing hair coming out the chin. The issue is not exclusive to Garibaldi, Carrara hair does that too. Only solution I found was to create 2 or 3 groups; left, right and back. More are needed if you have long hair falling both in front and in back of a shoulder.

    It's not that big of a deal really. But getting the part in the right place in the above render sure would have been easier if I could have seen all the groups at the same time without having to keep doing test renders.

  • GoneGone Posts: 833
    edited December 1969

    Selections are one way to go but I've had good results using multiple maps in one node.

    Using your render as an example, you would paint each of the maps in the same node as well as a "whole head" map that would encompass all the nodes. In the distribution pane, you can select left side and do the styling as required. Then switch to the right side map and do the same, etc. At any time, you can select the whole head map to see how it's all coming together without having to leave the editor.

    As you already found out, you need to make sure that all the guides are accounted for or there will be unstyled guides left behind. The simplest way to avoid this would be to paint the whole head map first, then copy it and erase (paint black) the parts that will not be used for each of the partials - make sure partials don't overlap or the hair in that section will be pulled back and forth between styling. You can quickly test the results by selecting each partial and combing in a unique direction then select the whole head and see if any guides are left out - or been pulled in a different direction. You can then use the surface attract tool to stand all the guides upright again and start working for real.

    When finished, make sure the whole head map is selected in the distribution pane and exit the editor.

    You still only see the hair that corresponds to the selected map but whatever styling you do remains for that section of hair when you switch maps and the whole head map will show the final result. If you plan to change the root/tip widths for any part, then that will have to be a separate node since a node can only have one root/tip width setting.

    For parting, there is the autopart selection and you can also switch interpolation from smooth (default) to linear which makes the hair follow the guides more aggressively. You can also paint a map to use in the autopart texture slot to help control the part. This will definitely help if the part is going to cross poly boundaries as it will force the parting where you want it.

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    Ohhhhh! All that sounds interesting. i have a feeling I was missing some important feature. "Multiple maps in one node"... hummm. I have another project going at the moment but I'll try to look that over tomorrow.

    So far, I've just been creating a new Garibladi hair for each area. Doing that isn't hard at all other than matching of the hair colors and sometimes seeing if they line up properly near parts. Having one hair object, one shader to adjust and be able to see it all in the window at once does sound like the way to go though :)

    Thanks for all the info!

  • GoneGone Posts: 833
    edited December 1969

    Why is it a problem matching colour?

    In the Distribute pane, you set the base/tip colour the same as well as the salt and pepper settings. In DS Surfaces, you select a node and set it up the way you need it then copy the settings. Select each node and paste the settings. Now all nodes have the same colour and shader set up.

    How you light the scene can make the nodes look different but you would get the same effect with one node anyway because that's a function of the light interacting with the hair.

  • SpyroRueSpyroRue Posts: 5,020
    edited December 1969

    I thought I'd poke my head into the Baldi thread. Has been a while... So much has been going on, its only recently Ive actually got back into it (At least in between work lol) I wanted to mention that when creating hair with multiple nodes, the new DS feature Edit>Duplicate>Duplicate Node(s) is extremely useful for Garibaldi, and in my attached render I indeed used it to create Spy's hair.

    I know Ive done a single hair node with two sections combined as Gone has mentioned. I posted about it long while back. Funny enough I haven't done it since tho, and since my absence I seem to have forgotten about it as I never tried with this render LOL, but it was particularly useful for making Mohawk/Military cuts when I first worked out how to do it. The Linea interpolation is very touch and go, the roots tend to stiffen very easy, but certainly can help.

    I have spent allot of time painting up matching Parting mats to what ever hairstyle I'm making at the time, is a slow process to get it right and allot of backwards and forwards between Paint room and Tweak/Clump room but its a neat alternative for partial refinement of the parting. Basically all surfaces are WHITE, and you paint in Black where the hair is supposed to transition harshly. I do this especially for the crown, and sometimes the temples if need be. The trick is to set the brush to radius 2.0, Oppacity 1.00 and Grey Value 0.00. Its literally a dot, that you speckle over the area desired, the outer edges less dense than the center.

    Since G2M arrived I have been remaking allot of my characters, being another figure Ive also had to remake all the hairstyles, brows, lashes, the works. Was time I upgraded my Avatar so last night worked heavily on Spy. before MIA I worked hard to find a solution for his full hairstyle with a queue, I returned and went with the idea of using a mesh braid prop with a hair tie that allowed hair distribution from it. The render uses 6 hair nodes. Kye his brother uses 3. I have allot of new characters coming, their textures are slowing me down lol

    BLTribeKye_SpyroRue.png
    1077 x 1429 - 2M
    BLTribeSpy_SpyroRue.png
    1077 x 1429 - 1M
  • GoneGone Posts: 833
    edited December 1969

    Well, it's about time you poked your head in! :-)

    Always a pleasure to see your work and more tips and tricks are always a good thing.

    The DS Duplicate Nodes is interesting. Usually, when I have multiple nodes, I make the base hair, save as a wearable, then keep reloading and modifying as needed for the extra nodes.

    Now, don't be such a stranger! :lol:

  • SpyroRueSpyroRue Posts: 5,020
    edited December 1969

    Yeah in the past I always reloaded the scene and taken the duplicate hair from the 2nd character. I never worked out the wearable with Garibaldi, Though I should do it, save them as assets. Is wearable the one that allows multiple items to be saved together? I recall doing that with a set of custom made accessories for genesis, Im assuming I did it with wearables after saving out a supported figure/prop asset

  • GoneGone Posts: 833
    edited December 1969

    Saving as a wearable is pretty straight forward.

    If I have multiple nodes for the hair, I usually put them in a group. It isn't necessary, I just find it more convenient. You then need to parent the hair to the figure. I just drop it on the root of the figure - the hair knows where it belongs - and it makes it easy to find without having to expand the figure tree beyond the first level.

    Once that's done, select the figure and go to File->Save as Wearable(s) Preset. It will open a dialog box showing everything that has been parented to the figure. Uncheck everything except the hair and save.

    You don't want to save it as a supported asset because any subsequent use will not save any modifications in the scene. So, if you have a long hair then comb it out to blow in the wind and save the scene, the next time you open the scene, the hair will reset to the shape it was saved in. You won't have this problem with a wearable.

    Now, any time you load a compatible figure, you can go to where you saved the hair and double click to load it like any hair prop. The hair will load to the root of the figure (if that's where you parented it) but if you want it to load as a separate item in the scene, you can go to the parameters tab General->Wearable and turn on "unparent on load" before you save the wearable. The hair will load to the figure selected but will show as a separate item in the scene tab.

    Personally, I prefer to keep the hair parented to the figure. That way there is no confusion as to which figure has which hair.

  • SpyroRueSpyroRue Posts: 5,020
    edited December 1969

    Thank you Gone :) I myself always place the hair in the figures hierarchy too. Same with clothes, allot older stuff doesn't automatically do that, the newer G2 stuff mostly does which is nice. Will be nice to set up a personal folder of garibaldi hairs Ive made haha. Cheers :)

  • GoneGone Posts: 833
    edited December 1969

    So --- do we get to see any of your other creations - or are they a secret? ;-)

  • SpyroRueSpyroRue Posts: 5,020
    edited December 1969

    LOL! They will come :D I am juggling about 6 render projects at the moment, all big ones... and I have many characters to make, clothing variety is a killer. In terms of garibaldi, well I use it on almost every character of mine, unless its a style better suited to trans hair. The majority of my own characters are in texturing stage since they are all moving to genesis 2 (At least those close to/or human).
    The render of Spy is a hint to one of the six big renders and essentially a test render, the one of Kye I did for the baldi thread, as I not long did a big render featuring him, I got a really good response to that one on DA so will likely do a follow up render.

    There is also an 'interesting' creature I have close to completion, he uses lots of Garibaldi and I intend to post him here when hes done ;)

  • GoneGone Posts: 833
    edited December 1969

    Does that mean we get a "sneak peak" when he's done or are we just going to be in the posting queue?

  • ArtXtreme101ArtXtreme101 Posts: 68
    edited December 1969

    Hey guys! I think this question is answered somewhere in this forum, but I couldn't find it so I thought I'd ask...can Garbaldi export hair to OBJ to be rendered in (for instance, Reality?)....

  • orcadudeorcadude Posts: 24
    edited December 1969

    Yup. There's an Export OBJ File option in the File menu.

Sign In or Register to comment.