I am somewhat new to Poser, and thinking of learning how to make hair. Not the kind you grow in the Hair Room, but the kind you insert into a scene and conform to a figure. Sadly, I can't find much in the way of tutorials or videos to show this. Is this because it is really hard, or do I need to know some secret handshake to join the club or what? Can someone point me to where I can learn this?

That sort of hair is modeled just like a figure is. You need to get yourself a modeling app and learn how to use it. Start small and work your way up. I have been doing it for about 8 months now, and I won't tackle hair yet.

The other side of the process is learning the material room in Poser. You need to learn how to make tranparency maps and texture maps and how to apply them.

And you will need to learn how to rig in Poser.

Beyond that, there is a membership fee to get access to the secret handshake (I'm kidding).

Thanks for the reply.

I have Silo and can get around in it ok.

I have played enough in the Material Room that I don't think that will be a giant issue.

Rigging I will have to learn. Don't know a thing about it.

My questions are more of the nature of-

1. the hair strips attach to a portion of scalp, I believe. If I copy part of the mesh of the figure to get the scalp, how do I know where to copy and not copy. Or doesn't it matter?

2. How do I attach the strips to the scalp?

3. Is there a width-to-thickness ratio for the strips that is recommended?

A step-by-step rundown would be nice, to see if I even want to mess with hair at this point.

If you plan on redistributing your hair, you cannot take one polygon from any base figure mesh.

I'd suggest getting PhilC's Hair Designer plug-in. It's awesome plus he has tutorials. He will walk you step-by-step on how to create prop or conforming hair. Hair Designer comes with hair pieces and everything you need to create the necessary rigging...and even some textures, although I'd suggest finding something else for the texture part.

http://philc.net/HairDesigner.php

So...

1. Don't use the base figure mesh. That's a good way to land yourself in hot water. Model your skullcap from scratch in silo (from a box around the head) [or use PhilC's product]

2. You're simply looking to touch/intersect the scalp. You do not necessarily have to weld the strips onto the scalp. (In fact, that can be a very bad idea).

3. Width-to-thickness is a personal preference. I would say to look at any hair models you have and like (but don't take anything from them). Thinner strips or even cylinders (see AlfaSeed's hair) can work and even be stunningly realistic, but they tend to get very high poly.

rokket is right. There is some skill and expertise needed for both modeling and texturing. But, if you want to fast-track it, PhilC's tools can help.

Hope this helps. If you make something, post it and let us see. :-)

http://www.art-collaborations.com/Valea_HexHair.pdf

Hair making tutorial by Valea, using Hexagon.

Laurie

You don't have to rig to make hair. Infact most people seem to prefer prop hair rather than figure hair. By that I mean hair that is a prop that gets parented to a person's head rather than hair that conforms. Many feel that it is easier to fit that prop hair to people other than the one it was made for, such as putting Vicky 4's hair on Dawn.

As far as making the hair, you can attach strips to a cap, but if you are wanting to let other people use the hair you cannot use a copy of the top of the head as that would violate copywrite laws.

Keep in mind I have at this time not successfully made and modeled hair, I use the hair room, so the rest of this advice as based on observation and theory and a hair modeler may come along as say I'm talking out my ear.

You can use a skull cap that has been modeled to fit a figure's head but looking at other models I don't think it is necessary. Some models seem to only be the strips. If there is no dynamic simulation, then it doesn't matter if the different pieces are attached or not. They only need to be all part of the same object file that you import. That being said some people feel that is sloppy modeling and that you should weld the pieces to a cap. How you would do that depends on what app you use.

philc.net has a hair designer that is a combination script and prop pieces that you can use to make skull caps for any model and then attach different shaped locks of hair to make your own hair right in Poser.

Again, as I said, I'm not a modeler so some of this advice may be incorrect but someoneis sure to let you know if it is.

Amen to prop (hr2) hair. I'll take prop hair with good movement morphs over conforming hair any day of the week!

AHA!

Just the stuff I wanted. Thanks everyone! Looks like it will be a bit before I have anything to post. Lots to learn here.

Hope you have fun! PM me any time with questions. Phil C also has a forum on his site for his Hair Designer program if you run into trouble.

Kozaburo is one of the pioneers of trans-mapped hair. I thought he had a tutorial of some kind on his site but I don't see it. You still may benefit from looking at some of his models and seeing how they are constructed.

PhilC has a hair designer for poser.

http://www.philc.net/HairDesigner.php

Also this video is insightful for hai creation. Also by PhilC:

http://www.philc.net/HairDesigner_OverView.php