Good Hair Workflows

Tom MD

Snap Lens Network Member Lens Studio Team

August 01, 2018 15:45

Hey lens makers, was just curious as to how you go about creating good hair within lens studio.

So far I have only tried using opacity textures on planes and primitives, however the final result is always a little basic. And multiple layers often create alpha and transparency issues.

Does anyone have a good workflow for creating hair?

Kaitlyn Benitez-Strine
Snap Lens Network Member Lens Studio Team

August 01, 2018 18:27
Hi Tom,

That's a great start and the best way to approach hair modeling and texturing. To take it to the next step though I suggest you:

1. Model hair planes that follow the general shape of the hair
- E.G. if the hair is long, create long planes and distribute them around your model to create volume
- Note that this is the most time consuming part of the process
- Example Below
2. Create high quality hair textures with a good alpha channel
- This way we won't see any grain or pixelation happening on the texture when applied
- 512x512 resolution for the hair texture alone should be sufficient
3. Have at least 2 different texture planes with different values (one lighter, one darker) and the planes on top of each other so we can see more variation on the hair

4. Include a specular map so you can see highlights on specific parts of the hair when the user moves

Feel free to post screenshots/ grabs of your current work so we can offer suggestions particular to your hair.

Cheers,
Kaitlyn
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Tom MD
Snap Lens Network Member Lens Studio Team

August 01, 2018 19:12
Hey Kaitlyn!

Yeah, that's seems like a great way to do, will definitely take me a while to texture all those planes but I can imagine the result is much better. Will try this technique. Currently using very basic / larger planes to test and no other maps.

I have noticed that when using 2 planes next to each other, and "depth write" on the opacity seems to pass through the one behind it. Is there a down side to disabling the depth buffer, or a particular use for it?

ON:

OFF:
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Kaitlyn Benitez-Strine
Snap Lens Network Member Lens Studio Team

August 01, 2018 19:50
Hi Tom,

Thanks for sharing this.

I think you can work on the hair planes model more to conform to the shape you wanted; that should give you better results when the texture is applied. Also, consider working more on the texture, giving it details like highlights and different shades to make the hair more realistic.

Regarding your issue with the planes intersecting, can you try setting the Blendmode of the Shader to "Alpha to Coverage" and turn on "Two Sided" on your shader? That should hopefully fix the alpha issues.

Cheers,
Kaitlyn
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Good Hair Workflows

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