I would like to make a braid to add to Poser hair styles. I have old versions of Carrara and Cinema 4-D, but have only learned Silo with any "fluency". Does anyone have any suggestions or tutorial links?

Typically, a realistic braid would require 3 cylinders or tubes. I personally prefer to model them as splines first, then convert those to polygon objects. I don't know if Silo has splines, and I haven't seen a good braid tutorial done with Silo (although i'm sure it's possible). Here's an old Maya tutorial, showing one way to model a hair braid:

http://www.3dtotal.com/index_tutorial_detailed.php?id=1196#.VjaWurerSUk

Here's the method I prefer, in 3dsmax, using splines to create any number of braided strands:

http://kevinjohn3d.blogspot.com/2007/12/creating-braid-in-3ds-max-method-2.html

And another older video, again for Maya, but this time in video format:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMFcN6hzzCo

This video is another example, similar in every way to the Maya technique, but in 3dsmax:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9_POQtruKE

Clearly, all of these tutorials are based on the same technique. So hopefully there is some information therein which you can glean, and utilize in your own application.

Thank you LuxXeon. I don't think Silo does splines, but Carrara does. Maybe I'll give that program another shot after I look at these tuts. I have tried "braiding" 3 cylinders in Silo, but couldn't get the right effect. Thanks again.

You should be able to follow those tutorials in Carrara, if it has splines. Blender has decent spline modeling, if all else fails.

maxxxmodelz posted at 10:43PM Mon, 02 November 2015 - #4236408

You should be able to follow those tutorials in Carrara, if it has splines. Blender has decent spline modeling, if all else fails.

Thank you. Blender seems like a different animal to me. I never could get my head around it. I may give it another shot some time. I have 3 books on it someone gave me, including the "Dummies" version!

VolcanicMink posted at 4:18PM Tue, 03 November 2015 - #4236604

maxxxmodelz posted at 10:43PM Mon, 02 November 2015 - #4236408

You should be able to follow those tutorials in Carrara, if it has splines. Blender has decent spline modeling, if all else fails.

Thank you. Blender seems like a different animal to me. I never could get my head around it. I may give it another shot some time. I have 3 books on it someone gave me, including the "Dummies" version!

If you ever decide to take a serious run at learning the application, I might recommend you start out by using the Pie Menu addon, Dynamic Spacebar Menu, and Icons:Dev addon, all of which will help reduce the need of hotkey memorization requirements, and provide easier navigation of modes and functions. If you check out my Youtube channel, I also have several tutorials for Blender that might help get you up and running with intermediate modeling in Blender. The tutorials are basically beginner-friendly exercises that utilize many of the basic, to more advanced modeling tools in the software, as well as teach you some useful topology tricks and techniques along the way. The longest video is only about 30 minutes, but by the end, will employ the utilization of at least a dozen modeling tools, and problem-solving topology strategies. I haven't used the spline system in a video yet, but I have a few exercises in mind that may show that as well.

Thank you, LuxXeon. The hardest part about all of these applications is usually getting started, and many tutorials are written as if you already know the program. Getting into a busy season, but I will take another look at that program again, and the tutorials.

VolcanicMink posted at 11:15AM Wed, 04 November 2015 - #4236800

Thank you, LuxXeon. The hardest part about all of these applications is usually getting started, and many tutorials are written as if you already know the program. Getting into a busy season, but I will take another look at that program again, and the tutorials.

My tutorials definitely assume you have at least a very basic knowledge of modeling in general, and a rudimentary understanding of the Blender UI, but should be simple enough to follow even by the most inexperienced user. I wouldn't recommend them to someone opening the software for the first time, however. In that case, I would suggest following some of the beginner tutorials at the Blender For Noobs channel. Once you have become comfortable with how to do basic tasks, like going into edit mode, applying modifiers, and navigating the viewport, then you might wanna try a few of my tutorials. Of course, I'm always on my Youtube channel, or here in the forums, if you get stuck or have questions.