Okay, so I've been trying to figure out this hair business, namely the texture/trans map combo, and I think I have it all figured out. HOWEVER...you uv map a hair model, and go to make said tex maps and trans maps...and what the (#@(&?????? Seems every hair model I can find has been so twisted and convoluted that it's next to impossible figuring out where everything is supposed to go. Does it have to be this way? Can't a uv map be simple? The human uv maps are. Why not hair? Someone help!

Have you checked out the Hair Tutorial linked in the 3DLINKS Forum? The author has sample files for download.

You might need to remap the hair, trying for example planar, box maps, etc. I know Floydd has done this for the long hair, and you should check out Steve Cox's site for more help in using the UVmapper. Just be sure to save the new mapped obj otherwise the map won't work.

When I was messing with the hair for the Woman's type three I did something that someone at PFO suggested. Take the standard template and color code the edges and then use that as the map to see what lines up. (ie. This little block red and this little block green and try to match them up) It is a pain and involves a lot of going back and forth but after a bit I figured it out no problem .. Good luck

So far, I have used uv mapper to make a new uv map box style and assigning a gap between um...pieces. Produced a very pleasant, easy to understand texture map template. I then saved the obj as a new one. I colored the new tex map with solid colors to make sure they all went where I think they did. Well, some sides are inside out! Ack. But generally, they went where I thought they should. going to try again to make a new obj and make sure I don't option anything lame. -Darth

Allie..egads. Am I in over my head here? -Darth GoMB...I "have" 3-D painter...(ahem, nudge) but I cant figure out how to use it, being dumb and all. sigh

Avoid Planar mapping, use Spherical. (not sure about box) Planar takes the coordinates for the polys on the "underside" of the hair from the "topside" of the opposite side of the head. (huh?) Ok, kinda confusing, but think of it this way: For a hair model with a Planar map split front-to back, all the polys facing forward use the same area of the UV map, including the outside of the bangs and the polys on the inside of the hair on the back of the head. And all the polys facing backward, including the inside of the bangs and the outside of the hair on the back of the head also share the same part of the map. This means that to put a trans map on the bangs of a Planar mapped model, you would have to place a corresponding tranparent pattern on the back of the head to keep the polys on the underside of the bangs from showing up. (wasted a lot of time strolling down that blind alley)

Ah...that may be the key that's keeping me from not throwing my computer out the window...thanks :) -D.L.

Posted this somewhere when discussing this with Alley earlier but cannot find the thread now. This was to demonstrate how planar mapping swaps sides but spherical does not. The planar map here was split side-to-side (so I could show both inside and outside polys) rather than front-to-back as in the example above.

Dang ... Gotta get stuck doing it the old way since I can't use UV mapper (on a mac) . .. Listen to Allie Darth .... Master of hair and all ...

There is a mac version of uv mapper available from the uv mapper download site. (forget the url right now) It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the pc version but it does make good maps on my 7600. Andrew Houston wander@ilap.com

Steve Cox has a link to a PowerMac version of UVMapper by Steve Martin at his site: http://home.pb.net/~stevecox/

I have been there about 10 times and every time I simply get a string of gibberish. I have even tried to download it with the option key down. Something like this but about 4 pages worth (This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0):&e9@6@&F'9b)%eKBb!,M)Z0+FZFfPd!&09%46593K!!$!Tq)!!%6he6593 K!!%!!Tq)FNaKG30!*!$&JT2$3d699C0BA"CA)J6@&M)$!Z-LidT#3#!H#DGi

These are the MAC instructions I saw on his site: Please note: if you're having trouble downloading on a Macintosh, click on the link, hold the button down until you get a menu, then select download. Hope that helps. -JH.

I finaly got it to work in Internet Explorer ... Actually found a use for it. Normaly it works worse than Netscape ... Thanks