This is where I'm at so far in my struggles to make the Poser hair look more natural using custom transparency, texture and bump maps. The model is the Karin hairstyle from Fun Stuff. These are just renders, no retouching. The hair maps were all made by me, and comments, suggestions and constructive criticism on them will be VERY gratefully accepted... :-> -Nemo

very nice the texture is very realistic. you might want to have it just a little longer by the ears. but i would take it as is.

I'm completely flabber...flubber....befooz..... THEY'RE AWESOME! I'm speechless! Coldrake

That's the best one I've seen yet. It looks like real hair. Can you do more? Maybe one for the left part style?

Nicely done! We definitly need more realism in the hair styles. This will be another great step forward to the poser "life" styles. Radart.

BANG Another myth ("Poser hair will never look real.") shot down cold!

Cripes, and to think I posted the picture out of total disgust after three all-nighters and still not getting any results I'm satisfied with... :-> Pretty soon I'll be able to make a custom texture just by scanning all of the hair I've been ripping out of my own head over this project. Thanks very much for the nice comments! However, I still think there's a long way to go before these maps are really in good shape. I'll post the hair texture, bump and trans maps on Fun Stuff if you guys would like to have them for use now, but they're still very much in beta. If anyone downloads and uses them, I'd really, really appreciate input on how to improve them. -Nemo

I agree with the others here, you're making fine progress towards really improving the hair. Please post the textures and maps if you don't mind - if for nothing else, it might inspire others to try and make improvements. The Photoshop blend technique is getting a little recognizable...any new efforts are well worth exploring! SnowS

GRRRRR! I've messed with this for about 4 hours since I saw your post and still can't get the hang of the trans. surface materials settings. Please share, with this tranparency newbie, what values you are using to get the edges to fade so gently at just the ends. When I get the ends to fade I get holes in the middle also.

Ahh, laddie, the secret be in the transparency map... ;-> The values I'm using are min trans 10%, max trans 100%, falloff set midway between the two. But on your transparency map, use the black of the background to color between individual strands and locks of hair at the ends of the hairstyle... that gets the ends to fade gently. Unfortunately, the mesh will still show as an outline, which is why I'm working with this particular hairstyle in Amorphium right now to try and make that razor-sharp bottom edge a bit softer and more irregular. Now, care to share how you got those box maps working? :-> -Nemo

Thanks! I'll give that a shot. I posted a Box-Mapped hair model in FunStuff for ya. Off to work now but ask away if not clear. I'll check again late tonight (EDT) -floydd