hi all! i'm sure almost everyone know about Master Kozaburo....and DAZ.......the question is, who do you think produces the better hair? i think KOZ is better......i have 2 DAZ hair the Up Do and V3 Bombshell.....the UpDo hair has some problems.....first it looks weird overall.....and the front hairline is solid....there is no gradient from the forehead to the hairline.....the hairline IS JUST "THERE"....its like, "BAM!" bare forehead, then next there's solid hair! of course i can easily fix this by fixing each render or just reedit the trans map..... the problem with the Bombshell is that it wont render? why? well cause it hangs Poser up....i tried reseting my comp and nothing running in the background, only Poser 5 SR3, and then loading only the hair with the default textures....the thing hangs up Poser the moment i hit "Render." DAZ hair look weird compared to KOZ hair.....but i like the Las Vegas hair even though the hair line has the same problems as the UpDo....now um stuck with a hair file i can't use------maybe a DAZ refund? i havent asked them yet. ;)

Kozaburo's latest hair (can't remember the name offhand) is the best hair to date. Above and beyond any other I've tried. I'd have gladly paid for it. The fact that it's free is amazing.

Koz, hands down, the best.

...... Kendra

I can't persuade the Bombshell hair mesh to render in Firefly, either, whether it's textured or not. Works with the P4 renderer, though.

Kozaburo's newest hair is the Kyoko Hair MK3 and it FANTASTIC! He is the Master, always a cut ahead. :)

I would agree.
And many great hairs in Market Place here.

Koz is a Hair God. The only one who comes close is Quarker. I love DAZ, but their hair is a generation behind Koz and Quarker's. It doesn't look as good, it's a hell of a lot more expensive, and it's often much harder on the system resources to boot.

I agree, Koz, Quarker and Studio Maya. I love hair that works beautifully every time.

FlyByNight

biggert, it might interest you to know that after some experimenting I can now render the Bombshell hair in Firefly.

Unfortunately, I had to pull the mesh apart, section by section, and then reassemble it before it'd behave. And equally unfortunately, this hoses the vertex order, so the morphs don't work properly any more. But it conforms and renders.

Should be interesting to see if DAZ|Studio has similar problems with meshes like this.

You guys do realize that Hmann has his newest hair at Daz and a few others? ;) Plus Dark Whisper has some of his hairs at Daz, as does Jim Burton. You can find quality anywhere really. Just have to look for it. Koz does great work too of course.

Calypso Dreams... My Art- http://www.calypso-dreams.com

Renderosity Gallery

I've bought a lot of Hair over the years, but when it comes to setting up a render, I keep going back to Koz's, Studio Mayas or Quarkers (in that order) - After all the problems I've had with DAZ hair I've pretty much decided just to not buy any more Hair from DAZ - primarily because even when it does render it still doesn't look as good as many of the free products - Just wish Koz would make more male hair styles ;-).

Yeah, we definitely need more male hair. It's not as easy to fudge male hair as female. Male styles tend to lookd dated very quickly. I've bought some of Jim Burton's and HMann's hair, and, well, to be blunt...I'm not that happy with it. I love the style of Jim's hair (just bought the Vegas hair, in fact) but the texture's not nearly as realistic as the Japanese hair modelers. Yes, you can postwork it...but with Koz's, you really don't have to. HMann's hair is so expensive compared to, say, Quarker's, and while it always looks terrific in his renders, it never looks good in mine. I paid a ton of money for it, and never use it. It's probably my fault, but I never have that problem with Quarker's or Koz's hair. It looks fantastic, without having use special lighting or anything.

I agree, Koz, Quarker and Studio Maya

Koz hands down... at a price that can't be beat. :) Have to say Daz has some nice hair to, espacialy if you are into doing fantasy themes. And I agree 100% with more male hair.. DAz has some nice ones for M3... but not much for M2 :( What I want is more conforming (long) hair for M1/2!!

Oooh and beards... long beards! The only thing I have that is remotly looking OK when rendered for a Long Beard is Anton's Fantasy beard, and in all honesty it kinda shows it's age and requires some post work to make it in tune with the rest of the hair I use.

yeh...but what about the REFUNDS, man? my DAZ hair is defective!! i think we should get refunds (ye right)....anyway, just a thought..... ;) thanks for the input, guys!!!

DAZ will give you a refund, no questions asked, if you e-mail them within 28 days of your purchase.

I forgot Neftis! She's at Daz too now, and I love her hair!

Calypso Dreams... My Art- http://www.calypso-dreams.com

Renderosity Gallery

I'd love her hair more if it played nicely with Firefly. But she does nice work, and she's one of the few who does male hair, and I have to give her credit for that.

theyll give me a refund??? KEWWLLLL!!! i figured my $25 was out the window!!!! thanks!

DAZ may not be the most efficient company I've ever dealt with, but they treat their customers right. If it's a recent purchase, you can always change your mind and get a refund. Or if it goes on sale within a month of your purchase, you can e-mail them, and they'll honor the lower price, and refund the difference in price. Call them during business hours, or e-mail their sales address. You probably won't get a reply until they are back in the office on Monday, but they'll give you a refund.

Koz and Studio Maya are tops for hair, IMHO. Add to that Wenke's free hair textures and you have it made. :)

Brynna

"Occam's Razor: The simplest explanation is almost always that somebody screwed up." - House

   

Dell Desktop XPS 8940 i9,  two 14 tb External drives, 64 GB DDR4 RAM, NVidia RTX 3060 12 GB DDR5.

Monitor - My 50 inch Hitachi TV. Works great!

Daz Studio - whatever the latest version is. Haven't decided if I'm upgrading to Poser 13 or not.

Photoshop.

I'm creating a Steampunk Tarot Deck. There's an older version in my Gallery, then a newer version.

Koz is King and Danae is Queen!! I love Aeris and Primal and Windy Hair. I don't think anything at DAZ comes close.

I am just wondering why people dont use Poser5 hair (dynamic hair). They are free if you have P5.

Recently, I am using Dynamic Clothes, and love them.

I use dynamic hair, but it is very resource-heavy. Takes forever to render, especially if you want long, flowing hair. And it doesn't look as nice as Koz's hair. I used dynamic hair on my Halloween pic, and garnered many comments on how the subject looked like she needed some conditioner. :-P Dynamic clothing generally renders a lot faster than dynamic hair. And it looks fantastic, making it worth the wait.

Newer "P4" hair has morphs which make the hair bend with the main character -- Critical for longer hairstyles. To do the same with P5 hair, you have to run a time-consuming "simulation". I was never able to get my simulations to run properly.

Attached Link: mixed hair

Yes, it's just so easy with well-designed P4 hair. Dynamic hair simulations are an incredible PITA, and even when you do get them to run, they don't look all that great. For still images, I sometimes mix dynamic hair with P4 hair. The link is an example from my gallery. The top part of the hair is Quarker's Silky Long Hair. The long bottom part is Poser 5 dynamic hair. Using only a small portion of dynamic hair makes the simulation bearable. And speaking of dynamic hair, the most amazing use of it I've seen lately is over in the DAZ forum: http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=995 Scroll down to Stew's post. He used it as very convincing rat fur!

Randym77,
It is great. It seems very interesting idea to use mixed hair. Maybe you can give a short tutorial.

Sasquatch hair and fur for LightWave seem very nice.
I was wondering if Poser 5 hair could give a similar result, if we adjusted the parameters very well.

Yes, that darned old rat looks really good in Stew's hands. sigh.

No debate...no contest: Koz hair all the way! There are other very good hair models, and creators...but Koz hair is easy to fit, modify, and is simply the best hair around in my book.

Kozaburo is the master in my opinion but the last time I compared his work to that of DAZ's hair, Anton, who made most of DAZ's hair was highly offended and made no beans about it in his posts...so much that it made me go back and remove my post because I didn't like being publicly humiliated for my opinion....I had stated in my post that Anton does fantastic work but hair wasn't his best area...but he missed that part....of course..

Very classy Dizzie. I do get easy offended by tackless remarks. Always have..always will :) -Anton

-Anton, creator of ApolloMaximus: 32,000+ downloads since 3-13-07
"Conviction without truth is denial; Denial in the face of truth is concealment."

NEW The Poser FaceInterMixer

KOZ hair is very easy to use.....and it fits almost any figure.....hell its so universal my dog could wear em and look like a supermodel!!! =) But who is this Quarker? it sounds like he has some good stuff!! where can i find some of his FREE work? FREE is what i want right now.....after all i just spent good money on DAZ hair..... any lead greatly appreciated!!! =) thanks in advance!!!!

I'll gladly add my voice to the long list of Kozaburo's admirers. What I like about his hair is the fact that it's easy to work with and doesn't slow Poser down. The only area I think Koz hair could be improved is in the addition of more morphs. And it seems that the latest hair is getting better in that regard. But in the end, when you factor in everything--ease of use, attractiveness, price--Kozaburo's hair is hands down THE BEST in my opinion. The man is a definite Poser hero. LOL I think Curious Labs should have thrown money at him a long time ago for making their product that much more appealing!

Kudos to Kozaburo. His hair is the best and costs the least. Of course there are (and I have) other good hair props too. Everything said already... As for male hair, I join the chorus: There could be more. And more longer styles. But there are good male hairdos too. I've got and love Amante hair from April YSH. It's really wonderful. And: it's long! Another favorite of mine (in the male section) is Mihai Hair from Neftis.

KOZ hair hands down. no question

https://www.darkelegance.co.uk/

Commission open.

Attached Link: dynamic hair tutorial

Quarker has a store here in the MP. Not free, but his prices are pretty low. His hair models sell for $5 to $8.95, compared to $20 or $30 or more for other hair that (IMO) is not as good. His store is [here](http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?Who=Quarker).

Dynamic hair...the link is to my favorite tutorial. The tough part of dynamic hair is getting the hair settings right, and that tute will get you started.

One tip not included in the tutorial: check the "hide other objects" box in the group editor. It will save you much frustration.

Another tip: if you're not animating, don't run a simulation at all. Hair simulations, unlike cloth simulations, don't look that great. You'll probably get better results by just styling the hair with the growth controls. With very long hair, don't go crazy. If the hair passes through the figure, and it doesn't show from the camera angle you're using, or you can easily hide it with some post work, don't worry about it.

As for mixing P4 and P5 hair...there's really no trick to it. The good thing about dynamic hair is that you can make it any color you want, just by adjusting it in the material room. I generally use trial and error. :-) In the "White Witch" example I gave above, I blended the hair with some postwork, but in this example, there was no postwork. (It was for a contest which didn't allow it.) The matching in texture and color was done using the "wind" morphs in Quarker's Silky Long Hair and the Kink dials in the hair room. And the various color dials in the Material room, of course!

Definitely Kozaburo! His latest one is unbelievable. The hairline is so realistic it's frightening. :) And this generous man is now allowing commercial use of his latest creations. What a guy! My two cents worth: Yes, please, more long male hair! Melanie

Thank you for the tutorial link, and your nice picture.

Thank you for the tips. I should seriously consider dynamic hair. When I used it before without adjusting material, it seemd somewhat like wires. I think it could be improved by using a proper material.
Do you have any tip for a good material.

I love Quarkers hair too. Most of my recent works use Quarkers hair.

I love Antons products. My hard disk is full of his products.

Rather than simply agree what has already been stated here (about Koz being the absolute master) I am intrigued by the fact that his outstanding quality is offered to us for free. Who is this mysterious Kozaburo? Has anybody else wondered? Selfless philanthropist? Spiritually advanced do-gooder? (Anton, the word you were seeking is "tactless." And dizzie, I encourage you to always speak your mind. Remember, this is a "safe" forum and an occassional flaming by sensitive artiste types can do you no real harm. In fact, it will serve to strengthen your constitution.)

Oh, yeah, Anton's Changing Ponytail is one of my favorites. And I LOVE his Wild and Messy hair. I also love Hmann's hair, but I do agree that his is a bit too expensive. One of his newer ones is so tempting, but after spending all my extra cash on a new monitor (mine gave up the ghost), I can't afford it. Neftis is another favorite of mine, and Lourdes does some good work with hair. Studio Maya, for sure! Melanie

I have yet to get dynamic hair to look as good - as soft and shiny - as Koz's. Dynamic hair does have a tendency to look a bit wiry. (Hence the "she needs conditioner" comments.) Even the pre-made dynamic hair that comes with P5 have this look, so it may be inherent. Maybe someone will figure a way around it. It would probably look softer if you make it finer and have more vertices...but of course, that will take a lot more system resources to render. Perhaps this problem will be solved with more powerful computers...or DAZ Studio?

Thank you for the tips. I should seriously consider dynamic hair. When I used it before without adjusting material, it seemd somewhat like wires. I think it could be improved by using a proper material. What's also making a huge difference are the render settings: To get smooth looking hair, increase the number of pixel samples and switch the post filter to a 2 pixel sized gauss or sinc filter. For the final touch, use depth of field.

randym77 thanks for the tips!!!

*Even the pre-made dynamic hair that comes with P5 have this look, so it may be inherent. Maybe someone will figure a way around it.* The pre-made hair looks crappy with the default lights and render settings, but can look a lot better with tweaked render settings - see the image. *It would probably look softer if you make it finer and have more vertices...but of course, that will take a lot more system resources to render.* Don't increase the number of vertices - IME, the vertex count of P5's sample hairstyles is too high already. Rather reduce the number of verts per hair and instead use more and thinner strands.

About the only hair props I've found that works as well as Koz are anything by Neftis -- resource hogs but well worth it. They leave almost everything at DAZ in the dust (sorry, Anton).

hehe. :) This may be just an old glamourized rumor. But I had heard Koz was well beyond any finacial woes and has no interest other than part time fun. :) I want to be able to say that. I have a hand tremor which makes a stylus very difficult for me. A mistake I make in the past was making my older hair models too flexible in their capabilities reducing the quality of any one look. From now on I will probably only ever do "one look" styles. In all fairness though I was pretty innovative in my day. hehe. I was the first one to do layered and curly hair and to reintroduce conforming hair and use handles. I did the first conforming beardand anuthing that wasn't a bob or ponytail. :) Most of the stuff was really well liked when they were new cuz they were unique. My trans maps are pretty basic but I can model a pretty hairdo. lol Even Koz changed to using my technique of repetative strand hair and shared uv map regions. I need to hire someone to do my textures or find a new way. Damn hands. Pretty handy with a mouse though. lol I will have to look into making new hair so I can regain some standing in the hair arena again. It is true the older hair stuff is getting dated. I think my two best are Wild&Messy and CoolCoils. lol Oh it is cold at the bottom. :) Anton

-Anton, creator of ApolloMaximus: 32,000+ downloads since 3-13-07
"Conviction without truth is denial; Denial in the face of truth is concealment."

NEW The Poser FaceInterMixer

Stewer, thanks for the tips. Are you the Stew who did that amazing rat fur over at DAZ? That's truly stunning. I see what you mean about the render settings...but I still think Koz's hair looks better. :-) In particular, the edges of the dynamic hair still look like vinyl Barbie hair: along the hair line, and the hair ends. I guess it's just too thin. More hair would probably fix it...but getting enough to look like real hair would really bog the render down, I suspect, especially if you used juiced-up render settings. OTOH, with dynamic hair you can get a truly unique look. The main drawback to Koz's hair is that it looks so great, works so great, and is free, so everyone uses it - and so it's awfully recognizable.

Anton, I sympathise with the stylus problems-- got myself the size tablet I wanted and my hand went out, pretty much for good. Two people I recommend for texture-- Tiff[there's some #s here but I forgot them] and MysticWinter. They can add softness and versatility to any great style. If it wasn't for MW I wouldn't be using Hmann's gypsy hair or your ponytail. And I can render Bombshell hair on Firefly -- with a lot of memory. Use Smooth polys and it looks like buttah! Emily

Anton, you're not at the bottom, any more than Mercedes is at the bottom of luxury cars - they may not be as desirable as a Lambourghini, but they're still pretty damn fine!

Anton, I paid full price, not PC prices, for your hair... and I'm pretty picky. However, if this thread gets you to modeling again... :wicked grin: Carolly

Stewer, thanks for the tips. Are you the Stew who did that amazing rat fur over at DAZ? Yes, that's me. I usually use "stew", but that one was taken when I joined Renderosity. I guess it's just too thin. More hair would probably fix it...but getting enough to look like real hair would really bog the render down, I suspect, especially if you used juiced-up render settings. I think the default hair styles that come with Poser use too many vertices per hair - e.g. HMann-M-Mohawk: 5,000 hairs, 28 verts each. If you reduce the number of verts to 7, you can go up to 20,000 hairs and still use the same amount of RAM. For comparison, Sulley in Monsters Inc uses 2.3 million hairs with 10 verts each.

You know, I don't get the strand based hair. I just don't think it's a good idea. In any drawing class, what's the first thing you learn about drawing hair? DON'T DRAW EVERY STRAND. It will never look natural. I think it's the same problem here. Pixar can pull it off, but who here has their equipment? ^_~ I would really love someone to make a utility to make lock-based hair. Similar concept, but instead of strands, using transmapped planes. There's a feature I would pay for.

Attached Link: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-983898.html

*Pixar can pull it off, but who here has their equipment? ^_~* You maybe? Pixar is using ordinary Intel 2.8GHz Xeon CPUs in their current Linux render farm (see the link) and judging from threads like "your computer" over in the DAZ forums, it seems not uncommon for Poser users to have CPUs in that speed range. Admittedly, Pixar has 1024 of those CPUs, but do you render 90min movies at cinema resolution?

Stew, how many hairs on your rat, if I may ask? If you're doing short hair, you don't need too many vertices. But for long hair, you get an unpleasant zig-zag look without a lot of them. Fyrespiryt, interesting idea. Maybe something like Animedoll's modular hair, only more detailed and more realistic? One thing I've done is make "locks" with dynamic hair. I grow them on primitives like small cubes or spheres, then save them in my library. Saves some styling time, anyway. You can bring them into a new scene and place them so the sphere they're growing out of doesn't show. It's easier than making a whole hairdo, and can add some individuality to widely-used styles like Koz's. Maybe someone more ambitious and skilled than I am would actually make a kit, with smart-propped or conforming locks...

It's in the range of 22,000 hairs, but would need a few more - it doesn't have hair on the legs yet. BTW, this is what 100,000 Poser hairs look like:

Wow! That looks fantastic! I can't believe that's dynamic hair. It looks like postwork! But it's also very short. I can't help wondering how it would look, not to mention render, if the fur were longer. Do a Persian Millennium Cat, and you'll have a convert. ;-)

My message got eaten... dratted computer! Persians, persians, persians! Sheesh! The epitome of what it is to be a cat is the Norwegian Forest Cat. It is the same as the cat mentioned in the sagas (remeber Thor trying and failing to lift the cat from the hearth?) because the breeders haven't messed with it. Wegies not only are elegant with foxy noses and triple-layered fur coats, but they can walk on snow without noticing it, play like kittens no matter what their age, and are sweet-tempered loving companions. Skrogg is not a show cat (you should see her kinfolk!), but she is handsome. Maya with all its plug-ins couldn't render this cat. Carolly

The epitome is the Maine Coon! They too have lovely coats and frolick in snow, and are playful regardless of age, and have been left alone by breeders. ;) Ele (think Ellie) is not a show quality kitty, but she can put on quite the show. :D

Calypso Dreams... My Art- http://www.calypso-dreams.com

Renderosity Gallery

LOL oh Caly tell me she was yawning LOL looks like she's about to take someones hand off if they touch that shoe...

Thank you very much for useful information.
I should learn Dynamic hair.
Actually, Poser 5 has many nice features.
If some problems are fixed, It may be one of best cost-performance programs.

*Do a Persian Millennium Cat, and you'll have a convert. ;-)* I don't fear the rendering, but styling that hair would take a while (plus I don't have the Millenium Cat). However, here's an example of longer hair rendered properly - Poser's default draft mode is horrible for hair.

lol yes, Ele was just yawning. :) Stewer, nice, but the image looks blurry?

Calypso Dreams... My Art- http://www.calypso-dreams.com

Renderosity Gallery

Pretty cats! Skrogg looks like my neighbor's Maine coon cat, only not as big-boned. That hair is nice. I think it's supposed to be blurry. The gauss filter and the depth of field adds a softness to the render. Gets rid of the wiry look, but also makes it looks a little blurry.

Here's Ele looking more herself. :)

Calypso Dreams... My Art- http://www.calypso-dreams.com

Renderosity Gallery

What makes it blurry is my tendency to overuse the depth-of-field effect. Don't confuse the gauss filter in Poser with the gauss filter in Photoshop: FireFly's filter work on subpixel level and are the deluxe version of Poser 4' "Antialias" checkbox. Filtering is a necessity in every sampling process (and rendering is a sampling process) which is why you will find similar controls in almost every decent renderer.

I have been playing with the dynamic hair of Poser5.
It is very slow to load the hair from hair library.
Probably it takes about 10 minutes.
Is it normal? My computer is WindowXP with 2G speed.

10 minutes is way to long. I have a 2GHz computer too, also running XP, and loading a dynamic haircut takes maybe 4 seconds.

Only 4 seconds. Something wrong with my Poser5. It is also slow to open Poser5 even without Figure, compared to LightWave or Cinema4D which is very fast to open.

I was playing with Poser 5 Dynamic Hair. I will post some results in a new thread.