Redistributing Poser Dynamic Hair without the base figure - a solution

[Cliff Bowman]

Obviously I'm using a "greyish" colour to the fur. Here I've pushed "Density-" several times since the last render.

 

[eclark1894]

Oooh, a dust mop with legs!

 

[Cliff Bowman]

Sorry I'm being a bit slow guys - not only is my PC not the fastest but customers keep insisting that I WORK for a living.

Here's the same cat with Bullet draped fur (no Bullet parameter changes made).

 

[Cliff Bowman]

Keeping the Density low is a good way of being able to see how much "body" Length+ hair adds to the figure.

Bullet draped again.

 

[Cliff Bowman]

Density+ once

 

[Miss B]

Whoa, now that's a hairy little kitty for sure.

 

[eclark1894]

Can you designate WHERE the hair grows on the figure?

 

[Lyne]

Looking REALY good... one thing I'd do, is not assign long (just VERY short) hair to EARS.... no cat has fur draping over the top of the ear.... but that's my personal preference. VERY much "waiting in line, cash clutched in hand" for this product!!!!!!!!

 

[eclark1894]

Can you designate WHERE the hair grows on the figure?

AND how much? The hair on the head is not going to be as lengthy as it might on the rest of the body.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Even if it proves too difficult to automate shorter hair on certain body parts, we can always go into the hair room and make those adjustments.


I love what you've done Cliff! It will take a lot of the tediousness out of body hair!

 

[Glitterati3D]

Really amazing stuff, Cliff! Nice to see you using your creative talents so effectively.

 

[Cliff Bowman]

Can you designate WHERE the hair grows on the figure?

Yes, yes you can. It currently operates on a list of materials to match to, but I'm thinking of having two icons to make things easier - one for animals (my default) and one for people. I'll need to install more people today (assuming I get the time) to test on.

AND how much? The hair on the head is not going to be as lengthy as it might on the rest of the body.

Not currently intended. This is meant very much to be a "leg-up" to creating hair/fur, not a replacement for the Hair Room. Gently does it...

Maybe for version 2. Maybe. At the moment I could get 5 sales for all I know - so I'm basically writing what *I* need to make fur easier for *me*. This should ensure some quality as it's the same basic force driving what I make as usual, but could also limit it because I am comfortable with quite a bit of Poser work. If it can be done easily using existing techniques out of the box then I'm less interested in making "yet another way to do it". Replacing the Hair Room isn't on my to-do list - this is an accompaniment to the Hair Room to reduce the effort required to create fur/hair. The "Load" capability is there to enable people like Tiny to be able to work their magic and provide a more polished hair design than I can automate.

IMO it's not difficult to go change the length of hair for one or two material zones - please feel free to argue with me.

MODERATORS NOTE: I DO mean "argue with me". I am open to discussion, to seeing proof and being told I am wrong. This is how I learn. I don't learn from being told I'm right! I do NOT mean "have a go at me", so if anyone does that feel free to smack them down to protect my (admittedly sensitive) soul. But if all they're doing is arguing their point for a feature they'd like to see, that's fine by me whether I come round to their way of thinking or not.

Even if it proves too difficult to automate shorter hair on certain body parts, we can always go into the hair room and make those adjustments.

Absolutely! And thank you. You can also go in and refine the hair groups - give more space around the face if the figure doesn't have a convenient material zone boundary like the chimp has. The various functions tend to work on a "relative" basis to the existing hair (if any), so when you make hair longer the hair increases in length by the same percentage across the body - so hair that is short will become long, other hair that has been made longer in the Hair Room will become even longer.

@Glitterati3D It's nice to be a good place for doing such things Many thanks for kicking my butt over here

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Cliff Bowman]

OK - I've got an idea that might help. I was reluctant about adding fur to the inner ear in the first place so here's my plan for today. Aside from installing some human figures and maybe testing on Genesis as well as V4 and so on, how about I increase the range of default "CoverInFur" icons to 3?

1. CoverInFur
2. Add Hair
3. InnerEar/ShortHair (maybe)

Those wouldn't be the final selection, but something like that so one can QUICKLY double-click one or the other (or, perhaps, the other). That looks easy enough to use and possibly more useful than just the one icon, without adding to the user interface significantly?

I am keen on keeping the basic, initial impression VERY simple - I want it to look to someone new to Poser as if it's "just something Poser does". Like visual effects, it shouldn't "stand out" from the rest of Poser at this stage.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Cliff Bowman]

OK - I've got an idea that might help.

But it was stupid. Human figures don't have enough material groups to need a "Cover In Hair" type routine, and their material zones typically either cover FAR too much of the head (i.e. all of it) or FAR too little (i.e. not the top of the head!). For example, Victoria 4 - there's only 2 groups created (one for the neck and one for the back of the head) and her ears are the same material as the back of her head, so they end up absolutely full of hair, as shown in the image.

Horrible, HORRIBLE idea. So I think I'll stick with the single "Cover In Hair" routine and let the hair designer work out relative hair lengths for different areas.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Cliff Bowman]

Dawn fairs slightly better - her ears don't sprout hair, but the single head/neck material zone does lead to a rather lionesque hairdo. Interesting, but probably not very useful for the majority of renders.

So - best to concentrate on the K.I.S.S. principle, I think!

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[eclark1894]

I'm not going to argue with you Cliff. I lik the hair, Room, but just wish I could find a way to make it more user friendly and easier to use. i gave up on the HW cat primarily because you have to create so damn many hair groups, especially in the tail! At the least with the body you only need to do one side and mirror the other side. So If I could just pick a body part like legs, tail, etc. and "cover in fur", That'd be a big help!

 

[Cliff Bowman]

I don't have the HW cat yet, but if it's anything like the HW Big Cat then "cover in fur" should do a decent job of covering the whole critter in fur - then you use the Length- and Length+ buttons to get a good "average" coverage for your chosen critter (and potentially other dials too) and after that you go in and start tweaking it, reshaping hair groups, deleting any hair you don't want, making the hair groups on face and inside ears smaller. Much of the drudgery should be removed by this kit, but there's still room for extensive tweaking. It should take a matter of seconds to go from "Bald" to "actually I can see that it's taking shape" rather than the traditional "If I add another 53 ~Hair Groups then this might start to look furry!" situation.

I'm currently rendering a stupid animation of Dusk shaking his Lion's Mane full of hair around. Because I am easy to distract

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Cliff Bowman]

If I google the definition of "argument" I get two answers:

1. an exchange of diverging or opposite views, typically a heated or angry one.

I have little use or time for heated or angry arguments. However, the second definition...

2. a reason or set of reasons given in support of an idea, action or theory.

is invaluable. Clever people use arguments all the time to push forward their own thoughts on diverse topics, and I am all in favour of "type 2 arguments"

I'm rendering an animation. Does it show? Fortunately although my PC isn't THAT fast (it's a 1st generation i7 based PC) I have a few of them. While some of them are busy I am able to put 4 of them to work on this silly render just because it tickles me - and being amused is a good thing too, especially when I have to do real-world work alongside Poser stuff.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Glitterati3D]

Dawn fairs slightly better - her ears don't sprout hair, but the single head/neck material zone does lead to a rather lionesque hairdo. Interesting, but probably not very useful for the majority of renders.

View attachment 32590

So - best to concentrate on the K.I.S.S. principle, I think!

Cheers,

Cliff

LOL, Cliff. Something tells me we can now clearly understand the necessity of the skull cap.

But, hey, many of us are planning some circus themed renders when the elephant is released - we could include the Bearded Lady now!

 

[eclark1894]

I don't have the HW cat yet, but if it's anything like the HW Big Cat then "cover in fur" should do a decent job of covering the whole critter in fur - then you use the Length- and Length+ buttons to get a good "average" coverage for your chosen critter (and potentially other dials too) and after that you go in and start tweaking it, reshaping hair groups, deleting any hair you don't want, making the hair groups on face and inside ears smaller. Much of the drudgery should be removed by this kit, but there's still room for extensive tweaking. It should take a matter of seconds to go from "Bald" to "actually I can see that it's taking shape" rather than the traditional "If I add another 53 ~Hair Groups then this might start to look furry!" situation.

I'm currently rendering a stupid animation of Dusk shaking his Lion's Mane full of hair around. Because I am easy to distract

Cheers,

Cliff

You and me both. But while I like the idea of something that would let me cover the whole in fur, I'd also like something that would let me exclude certain areas. After all, as you pointed out, you're not trying to replace the Hair Room. So areas like the head, and ears, etc, I can refine in the Hair room.