So  i needed a mental  break  from  rigging this figure I have been  working on -  I needed a break  BADLY -

So  i decided today ....  a nice diversion would be.... to  model  some hair for the figure.

I am not so  sure how you  fix  this problem  I am having .

The hair is made of 2 base layers of mesh  and then  it has some strips of mesh on the outermost  to  act  as free flying strands.

In the image, the gold layer has almost no  trans....I would like this to  cast shadows.  the gray  mesh  has a trans map  that  is somewhat " stringy" and the pinks are of course very  fine and stringy trans mapped.

i do  not ever want shadows to  be cast  by the gray  and pink  meshes in  the picture.

but i  DO  want the  gold to  always cast shadows.

this thing is  ONE  OBJ  and  3  diferent mat  zones.

So  all  i know how to  do  right now is turn off shadows for the object  as a whole -

and you  can  see the difference in the sample renders -

right now I am  stuck  with  all or nothing  with shadows.

the render  far right  with no  shadows  is very  much  better -  but b/c  i have to  turn  shadows  OFF for the  whole object , i get no  shadow on her face  from  the gold layer of mesh.

HOW  can  I get around this ,  for instance is there a way  to  turn  off shadow in  the mat  zone ??? or the shader???

Thanks

( OH  BTW just for clarity....  I know there is  some mesh  strips crashing  thru near the back ....that is just  a little slopiness  not fixed up  yet -
I really want to know about the shadow issue  Thanks

If you make it into a figure, you can have the option of having different body part which selectively cast or not cast shadows.

great point -

but I am thinking I might still  have a prob .......b/c  all  of the parts in  this hair model  will  all  make  the best  sense   aligning  with the body  part HEAD, ( since I will want it to  conform  to the figure)

In this case, I do not think it necessary to make it a conforming hair, but rather just PARENT it to HEAD.  It will keep relative position and you need not worry about names for body parts conflicting with something on figure.

By observation, I see most CR2 hairs use NECK as conform point and container of morphs.

excellent -

so  no problem  PARENTING  a  figure to  a figure??

sorry  for the dumb question -  i just  never happened to  try it before !

You should be alright; "Kione Hair" by AprilYSH works as a parented figure :)

Have you tried lowering your Shadow Min Bias on your main light to 0.1?  This allows finer detail to cast shadows.

but the real  sollution  was to  soften  the trans map of the outer stringy layer by blurring it a bit.

now the shadows that  fall  from  the outer layer  onto  the inner are softer.

Now I have a new prob  and  I have indicated it with the yellow arrow.( click  to enlarge)

I have the poly edges showing up  on the back  face of the hair  OBJ......

This is render settings  101 but I dont know it

soprry  to  be a pain in the rear.

Thanks

Poser Display Unit = feet?

Shadow Min Bias = .22 - but what units. If feet, then .22 feet, which means no shadows within .22 feet of the shadow casting object.

Thanks  I was set to  "feet"
I am now set to  inches and I am  having success   tweaking  the SMB in a better understandable scale in order to  fix  the shadows -

still  wondering why i see the polys  of  the backside of the inner hair mesh, though.....

I have not seen that particular pattern before. SMB may still be too large? (guessing)

Is it an artifact that persists when rendering without shadows? 

On your render settings, check box that says "Remove back facing polys"

Quote - On your render settings, check box that says "Remove back facing polys"

Indeed that would solve it 

BUT  then.....what  you  are telling me is ....I have to  build a hair model that is completely  "closed" against the figure's face 

i.e.  no backfacing polys required to  represent the hair.

IS THAT WHAT YOU ARE TELLING ME  I NEED A DRINK

2nd post of the thread -

the image -

a ton of backfacing polys -

basically the same hair model -

same light/shadow settings

same render settings -  and no  issue  with crappy looking back  facing polys .

and yet now I have the prob.

I'm  scared.

I need a hug.

the 2  hair layers  are  exact duplicates  and they  are only very slightly offset in space