Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=25210

I've never managed to get a render with good looking hair. And then I see images like those of the Sirya character (see attached url). I have already contacted the vendor, but didn't yet get an answer how the hair was done. Can anybody enlight me how to achieve such results?

Thanks,
myce

It says right at the bottom of the product page. The hair is added in Photoshop. The textures are brilliant though. There were some threads earlier that the vendor is in a spot of trouble due to a fire. Don't hold it against her that she is not responsive to your e-mails.

I thought the one that had her house burning down was Cath Harders, not Stefy?

I could be wrong, but I think that's a photograph of real hair merged with the character render.

No, I don't hold it against her. I'm just working on something and would like to add good-looking hair. So I thought I'll ask in the forum (where even some differnt suggestion than her way of doing it might come up).
Neyjour: Yes, that was what I assumed as well. I hoped for a confirmation. This approach gives awesome results (obviously) but is a bit hard to apply. You have to have a photograph of the hair from just the right direction with the same lighting as you use for your setup...

Sooo, any suggestions? I tried Kozaburo's short hair, but got some weird results.
Maybe someone could point out his favourite image (hair-wise) and tell how it was done? Low-Postwork approaches would be preferred...

Regards,
myce

You link is now not returning an image, but rather a notification.....

You link is now not returning an image, but rather a notification..... I noticed that too while in the MP when trying to open to a new window. Great stuff, heh!?!

You have to have a photograph of the hair from just the right direction with the same lighting as you use for your setup... Wrong way around :-) You have to get a good photograph and mimic the lighting in your poser set up. This is not too difficult with practice for studio photographs. Colm (of RDNA) had a good tutorial about studio-style lighting in Poser 4. For photorealistic hair in Poser - Kozaburo does the best but his hairs can render with some "noise" when using the Firefly render engine. There are a couple of different approaches - I like to use a math node to add a little displacement to the hair texture, which tends to smooth it out. Other options: Hmann (here and at DAZ) does excellent realistic hair and his textures render well in firefly. His hairs look expensive at first glance, but he includes so many options that each one is several hair styles in one - you get your money's worth.

You are right Arien, Cath Harders is the one who lost everything in the fire...Not Steffy...

myce, The secret to getting realistic hair in Poser itself is to render to a high standard. The higher the render settings, the more detail you will see in the hair, including whispy strands, etc. The render settings for firefly that make a difference are: Min Shading Rate between 0 and .84 (the lower the better) Pixel Samples 3 and above (the higher the better) Then, the lights/shadows. If you are using depth map shadows: bias: .01 - .02 (the lower the better) map size 3027 (the higher the better) With these four settings you can amplify the detail on both "prop" hair and on dynamic hair. If you push the settings to the extremes I am indicating, you will get results. You will also get VERY long render times. But that's what it takes. Even though Koz is loved and admired, he and many other vendors place highlights on their hair models. As stated above, this then controls the lighting in the scene; you have to light the scene to match the painted-on hair highlights. Moveover, they are useless for animation, because as the model moves under the lights, the highlights painted on the hair do not animate! I always go for hair with no highlights painted on, and create my highlights with lights. I just bought Wild Hair from Polymage, and am headed into experimentation with it, with high expectations. WARNING: Raytrace and dynamic hair hate each other! If raytrace MUST be on (because of AO, for instance), be sure every element of your hair has 'visible in raytrace' checked OFF. ::::: Opera :::::

eirian, >> I like to use a math node to add a little displacement to the hair texture, which tends to smooth it out. << This notion interests me. Can you talk about it a little more and/or post an image of your node tree so we could see your settings, etc.? ::::: Opera :::::

*Wrong way around :-) You have to get a good photograph and mimic the lighting in your poser set up. This is not too difficult with practice for studio photographs. Colm (of RDNA) had a good tutorial about studio-style lighting in Poser 4.*If you try to mimic an existing photo, you are right. But if you are setting up a scene freely, this is no option... :-( But IF you try to redo a photo in Poser, setting up the lights is not too difficult, that's true.

You know sometimes when you go to a hair salon they have hair books along with the mags for you to look at. You may want to ask the shop owner or manager for an old book or two. I did and they gladly gave me a couple of old hair style books. The books my be falling apart but pictures inside are very large and nice. You can scan the photos then add the hair using your photo editing program.

Opera, this is the kind of setting I mean. Plugging the math node into the texture map in effect turns it into a standard bump map - you don't have to alter the defaults at all. Then just decide how much displacement you need. It works well (IMO) with Koz's maps *because* he uses sharp highlights - you get a nice, contrasty bump map. The result is still a bit "noisy" using the draft settings but it looks great in a high quality render. I've started experimenting with GlowWorm and this technique. I think that if I use quite a high displacement value for the light passes (high enough to look horrible in a normal render) I'll be able to get highlight and shadow in the hair to look great after some postwork. I'm not there yet, but some early attempts are looking promising.

Attached Link: http://www.runtimedna.com/mod/forum/messages.php?ShowMessage=143845

take a look at post 1, then 7 at the link. I've tried this node setup with some success.

Ok thank you both, you guys have some serious mojo going on there, I'm going to gradually absorb it. Right now I am on a frontal assault mode, meaning straight-forward hair prop (Wild Hair) with all the settings cranked up and the render time be damned. Image and post coming soon. Thanks og