I've been patient since P5 was first released hoping that eventually they'd get the hair room working, but I've finally given up. It has never worked for me. No matter how simple the hair is, if I turn on collisions and then calculate dynamics, the program freezes up and I have to reboot the whole damn computer. I have plenty of RAM (over 1 G) and a pretty fast processor (1.8 MHz P4), so its not my system. I've been extremely happy with P5 with the exception of the #$%^& Hair Room. If they don't get it fixed in P6, I'm going back to crayons!! There, I've had my rant, now I'm going to bed.

I agree black cat! I've been styling hairs for a pubic hair prop for three days now! You would think pubic hair would be rather easy compared to head hair but, no-o-o-o-o, it's even more difficult because you can move a lock of pubic hair like you can head hair. I like magic markers myself!

The hair room is a pain. I find it really difficult to create straight lines for grouping areas on the skull cap to make different lengths of hair. Plus, the hair is all one color which makes it look unrealistic as most people have blended highlights.

Does Curious Labs know about this problem? Now, I am getting worried, because I have P5 on my way.

Message edited on: 05/20/2004 23:31

Everything else works great for me. I just really haven't been spending enough time there. Don't get fickle like us just yet! They even say that the Hair Room takes a lot of patience and of course, it doesn't help that I hate manuals. If I understood how it works, I probably wouldn't have near the problems I do. So, don't freak out, you will be happy!

Yeah it does take a lot of patience. I just wish the grouping was a lot easier. I tried to follow NeilP's tutorial but I could never get the straight lines he was getting. Also it would be nice to have the hair look a little more diverse in color.

Someone had a thread a week or so ago about using P5 Shader Nodes to add highlights to dynamic hair. I think it was posted as a fix to Koz's hair, earlier this week??

Straight lines really depend on the underlying mesh. If you have a jagged, trianulated mesh, there's no way you can get straight lines in a group. But if you have a nice quad mesh it's just a matter of following the lines. A good skullcap is vital. PhilC has some for the mill. characters. That said, I haven't used the hair room much, because I think transmapped hair in general looks better, the hair room hair is shiny in a very fake way. Like a cheap wig (at least in most cases) but I find it easy enough to use. It just doesn't look as real as I would like.

It seems to me that the idea behind the hair room is fundamentally flawed. Strand based hair, I mean. One of the first things you learn is a figure drawing class is don't try to draw every strand. Do it as locks. And in you add in that the average human has what, 60,000 strands of hair on their head? You're either going to have a lot of polygons, or a thin-looking hairstyle, or the strands are going to look thick and unnatural.

I would love to see a form of lock-based hair, where instead of individual strands, you grow transmapped planes and style those.

It seems to me that the idea behind the hair room is fundamentally flawed. Strand based hair, I mean. Tell that to Pixar or ILM ;) They're using strand-based hair in all their recent movie FX. Or how would you make Sulley (Monsters Inc) with transmaps?

I think therre are some valid points raised here but I can assure all of you that with a little patience and experimentation, wonderful things can be achieved. I hope my store is testament to that. Do you want more P5 Hair room tutorials?

Yes! Marque

I like the Hair Room. It's not perfect, but you can get some good results with it, with know-how and patience.

As for straight lines for hair groups...that can be difficult. Here are my tips:

1. Don't worry about it unless it's critical. For most hair groups, it doesn't matter.

2. When it does matter (for a part, say), it really, really helps if you have a graphics tablet. Mousing just doesn't cut it.

3. Turn off everything but the object you're growing hair on. Makes it a lot easier to grab the polys you want.

As for the look of it...it does tend to look plasticky if you use the default settings for rendering it. Stew and others have posted tips on which settings to adjust. It makes an amazing difference in how realistic the hair looks.

Maybe this could help? cheers, dr geep ;=] (I had to see if this "edit" thingy works)Message edited on: 05/21/2004 14:47

Attached Link: http://www.perpetualvisions.com/articles-and-graphics/tutorial-poser5-hair.htm

"Tell that to Pixar or ILM ;) They're using strand-based hair in all their recent movie FX. Or how would you make Sulley (Monsters Inc) with transmaps?"

Yep. You couldn't do it simply with transmaps or shaders, at least not to a convincing degree in animation. The problem I see in this community is that it's deeply divided between "ease of use" and "power features". Has a lot to do with the fact that this program (Poser) based it's roots in STILL images, and now is trying to shift gears towards animators. Which is why I'd like to see TWO versions of P6. One higher end, and one for hobbyists.

I do think the P5 dynamic hair needs LOTS of improvements in the animation department (collisions), but it's definitely a step in the right direction for Curious Labs. I'm glad they're finally doing something for us animators (cloth, hair).