The 10 Minute Blender Particle Hair Tutorial

I've made a simple PDF tutorial for using the new Jahka particle system in Blender.
The previous .EXE tutorial I made and provided before on this site was Ok-ish but this new one is far better!
The file size is about 650kb and deals with making basic hair material, emitting hair particles and then rendering layers so that you can render the mesh model and the particles seperately and then composite them later in Blender's sequencer.


Also, this tutorial is based on the latest version of the particle system as used in the Blender 2.45 SVN AAO build available on www.graphicall.org

You can download the PDF tutorial here
http://www.mediafire.com/?cjdnjllzotz

Any questions or comments leave 'em on the site.

Shane

Edit 23/Jan/2008: This is a newer version of the PDF Tutorial provided in a compressed .Rar format. It includes more detail and tips.

Edit 03/Feb/2008: OK, here's something I just realised whilst testing the latest Blender SVn Build from www.graphicall.org.
In a note at the end of the rendering section of my "10 Minute Blender Particle Hair Tutorial" PDF file, I wrote this:

"You might have a few problems when moving from rendering one layer to another.
For example, during my tests when I'd finished rendering the Mesh only shot and moved on to do the
Hair only, the wrong shot would render. The only way to rectify this was by restarting Blender and
rendering the Hair shot again seperately. A strange bug - probably."

Well, ignore that statement! The solution to this is very simple and I have given myself a slap for not figuring it out sooner.
All you have to do is this:

Instead of selecting the "Single" button in the Render Tab (in order to only render the selected render layer) - don't select it at all.
Just make sure that you click the little correction marker beside your layer name to "disable/enable this Render Layer".
Of course, make sure you only choose the layer(s) you want to render in that particular pass.
That's it. Simple really.

Check it out by doing a quick test by rendering "mesh only" first. Then in render window press J key to view other buffer. Now select a "hair only" render pass and press F12 to render. When this is done, press J key in the render window to compare the two shots by toggling between them.

Now you shouldn't have any problems.

Shane
www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com

OFFICE HOURS: Hair (Again!)

Well by now I'm sure you know how much I like the new Jahka particle system in Blender. It really is a good as I've made it out to be. Hair modelling was always a pain but now it's become something I like doing!
The image above (which is a zoom-in from a larger image, by the way) shows the old and new particle systems side by side. The hair on the characters head is Jahka stylee. while the eyebrows and beard are the old method. Kinda obvious which looks better, isn't it? :)

One thing though that I've noticed from trying out the experimental particle build of Blender: the little button in UV options which you normally click to make all selected polygons the same type (ie; alpha enabled, or nor, etc) isn't there. Kinda annoying, but you can always do that stuff in the regular version of Blender and then import it back into the experimental build by appending...
Oh, and by the way if anyone can't find the UV mode in the experimental build it's accessable by selecting "Edit" mode, then in the little box beside it where you change view modes, just select "Texture Mode" icon. It's actually much more user friendly that way than the previous versions.

Leave any comments on the site.#

Basic NEW particle System Tutorial

Following on with my tests with the great new particle hair system I thought I'd put together a simple basic tutorial on how to use it for anyone out there not familiar with it.

The file is a .EXE executable that you can download from here or
http://www.mediafire.com/?8kmmr0yanud
The file is compressed with 7Zip. You can download 7Zip free from 7zip.org.
(Note: this is from Mediafire.com upload site. The previous crappy upload site failed)

Or even better yet, Download the NEW 10 Minute Blender Particle Hair Tutorial (Jan 2008) provided in PDF format. It covers the basics of particle hair creation, hair material and render layers.
http://www.mediafire.com/?cjdnjllzotz


Once downloaded, uncompresss the file, then just select the file and follow the on screen instructions to move through the images and descrpitions - it's as simple as that. To exit the tutorial press the escape "ESC" button on your computer.

Below is an image created using the new particle hair system. Click on the picture to view it large. The hair literally took about 20 seconds to make. It's rough but it does go to show how siple the new Jahka particle system is to work with.



Again, download the BASIC JAHKA PARTICLE HAIR TUTORIAL from here.

Download the NEW 10 Minute Blender Particle Hair Tutorial (Jan 2008) provided in PDF format.
http://www.mediafire.com/?cjdnjllzotz

Edit 23/Jan/2007: This is a newer version of the PDF Tutorial provided in a compressed .Rar format. It includes more detail and tips.

Any questions or comments post 'em on the site.

OFFICE HOURS: Blender Particle hair

Here are some images with descriptions regarding some tests I've been doing with the latest version of Jahka's particle system for Blender 3d.
Stying 3D hair has been made a whole lot easier with this version.

Click on the images to view them full size with detailed descriptions and advice.


You can download the experimental version of Blender 3d here.
Or you can download the latest stable version of Blender (v2.45) from it's homepage.

Email Dwarfed Films or leave a comment on the site

Blender 3D - experimental particle version

Ok, yesterday I downloaded an experimental version of Blender which is still a work in progress. The reason I wanted to get my hands on it was for the new particle system. And although it's a little buggy and tends to crash quite a lot, the updated particle system looks really great!

On Office Hours I experimented with lots of different ways of "doing" hair and if you look back over previous posts( by hitting "hair" or "particle hair"in the TAGS) you'll have seen the various tests I've tried to acieve a believable - though not necessarilt realistic - look. The female chracter in Office Hours has been proving a problem in the hair department. I've tried particles before and then reverted to UV mesh-style options. So far I have'nt been satisfied with how it looks. From some angles and with certain lighting it can look and move alright but it is a really difficult thing to get just the way I want it to be.

So back to the Experimental version of Blender. In previous and the current stable official release of Blender, hair is formed by using curve guides on a mesh that has a number of particle effects applied to it. To get a vaguely real-looking hairstyle can take anywhere from 6 to 20 curve guides and an awful lot of time twaeking and testing. Also - and this is a major downer - the hair must be split up into different groups such as "left side", "right side" and "fringe", and each of these must be kept on seperate layers. This is because the curve guides affect only the layer that they are on, but it means that you can end up wasting at least 2 or more layers just for hair - and Blender offers 20 layers (This may seem a lot but whenyour animating a character in a scene and the scene has lots of locations and cars and other objests which each need their own seperate layer for easy access it can become very annoying).

The new particle system uses a different method. You physically "comb" and ""cut" the hair - a bit like the "Sculpt Mode" modelling tools added a couple of releases ago. This is a more intuitive way of "making" hair. You push, pull, comb and chop the hairstyle you're looking for. I'm testing it out at the moment to see if I can make better hair for the female character in the film. Early tests have proved hopeful but I gotta keep trying to make her hair work.

Ok, at the moment it is buggy and prone to crashing but this is a major strp forward - in my humble opinion - for Blender. Modelling hair is one of the most hardest things to do in 3D animation and at last the workload of Blender users may just have gotten a little more manageable!

You can download the experimental build of Blender with the particle hair system here.

So far it is only available for Windows operating systems I think.

Email Dwarfed FIlms or leave a comment on the site here

Office Hours: male polygon hair re-style

Ok, I know you're probably as sick of seeing pictures of this character from Dwarfed Films' "Office Hours" as we are but I think it's interesting to the see the complete development of the 3D model and the various stages of redesign that happens.
These images are accompanied by some brief text notes describing what has changed.
Click on the images to view them full scale with annotations.
What you will see is that polygon hair modelling techniques have been applied to the male character. This is combined with particle hair for the beard and stubbly patches on his scalp.
The reasons for using polygon hair is described in the text accompanying the images.
I think you'll agree that this character looks way better than before by utilising a combination of these two styles.

(Note: I just realised that this is our 99th posting on this site. Stay with us for the century!)

Email Dwarfed Films or simply leave a comment.

Office Hours: hair again

In early postings I showed particle hair images from the film. Animating particle hair can be a problem sometimes - it is unpredictable and can end up going through the body and other weird effects. I've been experimenting with polygon hair for the female character instead. Polygon hair
is easier to animate and faster to render.
The first two images show dark brown hair from the side and behind. From this distance it looks pretty realistic but up close it still would need a bit of work.
The third image shows a blonde hair style with basic flat lighting. Not bad - but maybe needs more work to stop it looking too "stiff" and static. When animated it moves really well and behaves far better than it's particle hair equivalent.
You can click on the images and view them better but these are only about a quarter the size of what the full rendered versions will be.

Contact Dwarfed Films with any comments/opinions

Office Hours: even more particle hair

You can never have enough pictures of hair, so heres some more! Styling 3D hair particles in Blender can be a headache sometimes but it's worth the effort.
Office Hours is the latest 3D animated short from directors Shane Sheils and Paula Sheils of Dwarfed Films.

Contact Dwarfed Films here.

Office hours: more hair

More hair style tests for Office Hours.
Contact Dwarfed Films here

Office Hours: adding hair

Check out these hair tests from Office Hours.

Contact Dwarfed Films here