I've only spent a few hours playing with Dynamic Hair, but so far I haven't been able to make anything that doesn't resemble a really bad rug.  Heh.  :P

I thought it might be nice (and helpful) to have a thread where those of you who have gotten some good results could show off your hair and maybe even post your settings and/or tips and tricks about how you achieved it. 

Here is my first try with hair in C6 - I'll have to play some more before I put a tutorial together though :)

Not sure how many hours spent in the hair room adding curls and curves to the guide hairs (12+ hrs at least). One advanced "tip" I learned during this was to encrease the hair length while working on short bits (bangs, between neck and ears), then change the length back to what you liked before.... In other words, any hairstyle can be shortened or lengthened after it's been styled for different looks without damaging the brush work you've already done.

I also learned to add individual guide hairs to areas where curls were getting too similar so I could get more variation. Before I'd kept turning up the guide hair numbers but it was getting out of control, sometimes more than 800+ guides! Imagine trying to curl 800 guide hairs separately! By just adding guide hairs where I needed them, and selecting individual strands to brush, I got a dense curly style that never got overwhelming. (see attached gif for screenshot)

Remember hair is a modelling room. Practice with the tools (especially Brush) and you will get more control. Relying on number boxes and draping to style and you will only get the same flat Cleopatra hair everytime. Most of the box settings are "to taste", ie: there are no correct or incorrect settings, so do some test renders adding and subtracting from an individual parameter until you get a hang of what each one does. Some affect the render more than the style, so you will need to adjust certain parameters for camera distance, light or dark background, etc.

The technique:
Start with default number of hair guides. Set hair segments to 32 (too few segments and hair doesn't curve, it zig-zags). Do not bother with draping unless you want flat/wet hair (I find draping to be more trouble than it's worth). Use the Brush tool at 100% strength to start a basic shape. Select areas and brush in a little more shape (curve around the face and shoulders, give some height and a "part" if you want), Then select small groups of guide hairs and use the Brush tool at closer to 50% strength with 100% falloff for subtle control and soft waves. Turn the model constantly while you brush to get fuller 3-dimensional curves. For this style I went further and selected individual guide hairs to get a dense curly look.

This is not brain surgery. Carrara is doing all the real work. As you can see from my attatched screenshot, I am creating volume and shape with guide hairs. A few brush strokes can really make hair look alive and flowing.

A few tips in the Hair shader for this image:
Individual strand color variation was created by mixing two colors (light/dark) with the same spots shader at both root and tip. Everyone please stop using the default shader with roots dark and ends light as if the beauty parlor closed years ago at the trailer park. Bleached tips look ok on short hair, NOT good on long hair....

The wave shader makes big Texas boufaunt or big 80s hair. Only use it if you need a messy, teased up look. All the curls in the image above are brushed in -- that's why you can see individual curls. I added the clumping shader to bring out the shapes.

Happy hair rendering!
holly

Same hair, just shorter length (click to enlarge)