It is done at long last ;) One last spin past a couple of testers for system resource tests, then to finish out a few props, upload to the stores... will be out to you all soon :) And yes, as you can see, it leans back very nicely ;) There is no pose I have found in fact, that cannot be achieved with it. I am including not only many poses for working with the hair, but a few good Poses for Vicki also, to get you rolling ;) And MAT Texture files :) And some Lights (though all work seen here, and all development work has been done under default lights only). And some ribbons and bows and combs and various other props... And many cool natural (and unnatural) colors... What else would you all like in a hair package? :) What are you willing to pay for the best hair package on the market? ;p Feedback would be lovely ;p

It's lovely Mehndi! I love that it is poseable! Is it just for Vicki though? Or does it work for Posette too?

It works for Posette too :) with a tiny bit of scaling. To keep file sizes down, I am probably going to include the scaling directions in the readme file for Posette, for folks to hand set up, then resave out to their libraries... though alot of that will depend on how large this zip zips up to when I am done. It is pretty vast so far.

I bet it's vast! Any hints on what the price is going to be? I won't be able to afford anything for awhile, but I would like to know since I intend to get it as soon as I can! LOL!

I was hoping some of you would tell me what you all think about prices a bit :) I have a ballpark figure in mind though, however I would like feedback on it.

Probably $20-30 worth.

I agree - $20 to $30. I think you'd sell much more at $20 though ...

Some of the features of this hair: o Fully animatable with keyframe animation o Fully posable figure, not a prop o Additional morphs added for Waves, Loose Curls, and Wings styles o Seven Hair colors so far o Ready to use Pose library, for both easy to setup poses, and easy to setup ready to use "styles" and "morphs styles" o Library of Hair Accessory Props such as decorative combs, pins, hair sticks, and bows.

The price I'm willing to pay also depends upon how flexible it is in overall appearance... if it is just a long braid with a variation in the fluff around the face, it can't be used on different characters within a scene... or for different periods than contemporary. Can a person wrap it in a coronet braid around the head? Spanish bun under a comb and mantilla? Chignon? Can all that fluff be sleeked back neatly? (Messy may be popular, but it dates a character as much as does a "50s page boy" style.) I'm so glad to have alternatives to plastic, and your braid itself is starting to look more like braided hair (mine are below the waist, so I'm rather familiar with braids ). So these comments are meant to encourage you. Carolly

Does it just have the braid style, or "regular" hair, as well? Also, how large is it? I have a number of the "latest" hair for Poser, and, in my opinion, they take so long to render, that they are not worth using...(Not that they don't do what they are supposed to...but, just not worth the render hassle times.) Looks good, though. $20, $30, either is fine, if it does more than just being a braid, and does not take forever to render. Pop...pop...pop!

*smiles* I have attached some wicked fast renders (mind you very fast ones, sorry no fancy work here) of various transparency mapped areas turned on and off, to as you can see, make certain parts of the hair invisible. This hair has 18 Mapping Areas in the model, so that one can literally "turn on" and "turn off" any part of it you wish at any time via the maps alone :) I am of course though, including a ton of MAP files already set up with various "No Mess", "Bangs Only", "Bun Only", "No Braid Tail", etc settings to make this a fast and easy process for all :) As to how large it is, there are in fact two versions coming with it. A medium resolution one, which should run amply well on a machine with 64 megs of Ram. This one has full functionality in posing, however it does not contain the Hi Resolution Morphs such as Wavy, Loose Curls, and Wings, due to the fact that the mesh resolution would not support these. There is then also included, a High Resolution version as well. This one would work amply well with 64 - 96 megs of Ram. It has all of the features of the medium res one, + the extra morphs that allow various wavy and curly looks. What I have found tends to slow down renders unbearably is when the geometry has not been optimized, nor have the textures. In the case of both the medium and high resolution versions, I have spent a great deal of time optimizing them. Also the textures are nicely optimized, giving very good detail, yet not hogging up the machine like some of these 3000 x 3000 res textures one sees out there. And lastly, there is no need for a bump map in this hair, which again greatly reduces render time. I am personally having no trouble at all rendering it, even on Vicki 2, with all of her morphs and her high resolution Vicki 2 textures :)

It looks fabulous Mehndi, I definitely want this :o) I think $20 is a very fair price to pay for it.

Very nice hair.

Definately looking forward to this. Beautiful work. I is perfect for a project I am working on. I love the fact that when you could have marketed just the braid, as there is a deficiency in realistic looking braids, you went beyond the extra step and gave us a whole variety of options. Incredible. Whatever you charge, dear, I am there. Just remember, you may sell to a more people at a lower price, but this work is worth much more than we pay for a single hairstyle with limited possibilities. So set the price by what you feel. Most of us will still be there to get it. Great work again, Angela

Thank you so much Angela :) It is words like yours that give me the courage to go on slaving over a hot computer now for the last 3 months on it :) It has been a process... this hair. I backed up and moved off the machine all my old files for it yesterday, onto CD, only preserving the most recent ones... and it took 5 CD's... around 3 gigabytes of old files. I was amazed ;p

Just in time for the June 15 release of the Tomb Raider movie too! Once it comes out, there'll be a huge demand for people wishing to render Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft.

When you consider that some texture maps sell for over $20, I don't think that a price that low is realistic for a hair object like this. When an artist delivers the quality that Mehndi does, I think the community should recognize it. $35 minimum, in my humble estimation :)))

Well, I bought Total Hair for 30. and I was so disappointed with it. I won't ever spend that again on a hair model. Look at the WonderWedge over at Daz - that's a hell of a lot of hair for the money. I'm not crazy for the thinness at the ends of the hair - seems only very straight or very curly styles are around. I'd love to see some real luxurious, thick hair for a change.

Billygoat, alot of the reason that the "ends" of the various hair models are "thin" is that they are created for transparency mapped hair. The old style hair models were indeed thicker on the ends, these are the "plastic" hair ones, but they do not take a transparency map very well. To get a "thick" hair model that also can take a transparency map, one would have to layer many many layers over one another, which would increase the size of the model a great deal, probably to the point that it would be unusable on most machines. Yet, most people prefer the transparency mapped hair :) As to Total Hair for the 30.00, I cannot speak to whether it was disappointing or not, since I have not purchased it myself. If I had, I might have grown lazy on making my own ;) By depriving myself of hair models, I have instead forced myself to learn to make hair now ;p I can say though, this hair is not a bit like Total Hair. From the front it appears full and fluffy, just as from the sides, 3/4 view, etc. So far the beta testers on it, including Marque, who herself was disappointed at first in Total Hair complete, have sent me glowing letters about this hair :) If I can get their permission, I will post some of their words. As to price, though I have not made a completely final decision, after weighing out the amount of time I have spent on it, and the value of the variety of the package itself, I am inclined to set a price at 24.95 for an introductory period, then go up to 34.95 after that period of time has passed. But as I say, I am still taking the pricing matter into consideration. Another factor in it will be what Daz3d says, since it is likely this will be marketed there. I am not certain if they have price constraints or not.

Id pay 25 dollars for it easy. :) This is amazeing looking hair and you put alot of work into it. Id even go up to 40 for it. :)

Thanks Mehndi, that does answer my questions. It will be possible for our ladies to look "elegant" as well as "fun" with this hairpiece. The central images are indeed what I'm looking for. A coronet braid, BTW, wraps completely around the head at an angle (so it doesn't quite fit like a crown on top), but it looks like there is enough length and flexibility to the braid to do this. :) Carolly

smiles since I prefer "period" looks, "elegantly old fashioned" was my first concern in making this hair. It is modelled a good bit after my aunts hair, and she is now almost 80... when I was a little girl, there was no joy I thought so immense as watching her unwind her coronet braid down to below her hips, unbraid it, then braid it all back up again around her head. I thought she was ravishing :) As to wrapping it into a coronet, it was designed specifically for that, and I only hope I have time to do the pose to get that sort of wrap, as it will be a bit harder (fussier mind) to get posed right, as opposed to the piled on top look, and the piled behind look. But it is on my list of ready to use "styles" I wish to get out with it :) I also plan to do some updates to the hair in the future in free stuff, additional textures, pose styles, etc as well. I have run flat out of time for this project as it is though, and need to get it in somewhere, since it is now a huge file just as it is, even zipped... and I am needing a tad bit of money for bills too, don't you know :)

For those who are concerned with the size of the hair file, I would like to just add this. Some days ago, Mehndi posted in this forum, asking for a couple of people who had 64MB of RAM to run system tests prior to release of the Ultra Salon Hair. I volunteered, since I am probably one of the few members of the community still struggling along with insufficient RAM. Thus far, even with Vicky2, High Res Texture Map, Clothes and accessories, the longest render time I have seen is 7 minutes. With most maps, render time is substantially less. I have not seen anything like a crash yet. (And if it was going to happen to anybody's machine, it would have happened to mine.) Hope that sets at least some minds at ease :))))

I think $24.95 is a fair price. I will most likely miss the sale period though, which rankles slightly. I also bought Total Hair and was very disappointed. I can't seem to get any of the styles in the advertisement photos. Which was the whole reason I bought the hair. The only part of it I have used was the skull cap. It's a little annoying that I spent my money on hair that I use less than I use Kozaburo's free hair. I will have to be a little more reserved this time. I don't think I will get it until I hear a bit of people's opinions on it. I have to hear that it's easy to work with to achieve the styles displayed. I don't want to get burned again.

smiles You will be happy to know that all of the styles displayed, and more, are just as simple as selecting the pose you wish, and applying it :) Sometimes though, due to complexity of Mat, Map, and Pose files nowadays, it is a three step process, such as: A) Select the color - MAP file B) Select transparency options - MAT file C) Select Pose Voila ;)

Your right! I am happy to know that! I will pick it up when I can afford it then! :o)

The frontal and far away views look fabulous but the side view textures don't look very photorealistic. Since I like to create detailed images that are as photorealistic as possible this would deter me. I think I would pay $20 for it as is since I would probably have to do quite a bit of work on the textures to get it to where I would be happy. But as much as $30 if the textures supplied were improved. I was just about to buy total hair complete until I read this post! Can anybody go into detail as to why they were disappointed with it?

David, before release, I plan to do one last revisit of the textures to work again on improving them as much as possible in the scalp area. This area had to be hand painted mostly, as opposed to using scanned hair for the other areas of the hair, so though it comes very close to matching, there is work there I still need to do :) This is why it is still sitting in Auntie Mehndi's workshop, instead of in a store near you... working to perfect little details right now, mostly in the scalp textures and in lots of cute little accessories!

Mehndi, My Great Aunt wore her hair braided over her head, too. :) I've seen pictures of turn-of-the century women with floor-length hair, but no one in my family has managed to grow it that long... yet. I mostly wear my braids down, and very occasionally let the hair loose!), but being able to put it up and have it look decent is a major plus with braids. Elegance? A crown of natural healthy hair is better than diamonds. Carolly

Mahndi, I have to say that; to date , I find you to be the cruelest artist I have encountered here at rend. . You are teasing ( torturing ) so many with what I believe to be the best hair prop I have ever seen. You have a mean streak a mile wide. ( LOL.....) Kidding aside the hair looks marvelous!!! Can' t wait to snag it. ------In awe, ++++++++Deberus

Getting out her cat-o-nine-tails and handcuffs and winking at Deberus Why thank you sweetiebaby... come on over here and let Auntie Mehndi show you her new hair up close... smiles But seriously, it is actually gonna be released soon folks... I promise ;) Sometime very soon. I am like this on everything, don't know what possesses me to suddenly on the last moment decide to tweek it right into a new month, instead of release... but there are just so many cool things I wanted to do for you all. Do lots of MAT files for fast texture changes for all the accessories, build a few more accessories, work on fine tuning the transparency map behind the ears so that close up shots from the side look pretty and need less postwork... I guess I should learn to be one of those artists who says, "Im gonna release next Wenesday..." and then releases, no matter if it is done or not... ;p Ah.... the curse of being a perfectionist :/

WHEN??? I can really use it ASAP - Yesterday would not be too soon to release this one. (hint, hint, hint) I have a character all ready for it, in fact, I'm using the prop version of this hair that came with Wysteria as a place holder. Pretty Please, Mehndi, will it be available soon?? Huh? Will it, huh? Kate the Impatient

Kate, it is in the store pending. It HAS BEEN TESTED AND APPROVED but is caught in a long wait behind other files that have not yet been tested and released ... I am not certain dear. Maybe page Vette or Tammymc to ask?

Yay! Thanks kiddo. I am sooo looking forward to this one. :) I'll drop Vette or Tammymc a note and find out what I can. Kate