3ds Max Hair And Fur Tutorial

Hair & Fur in 3ds Max

This tutorial is dedicated to the use of Hair&Fur; in 3ds Max, a modifier that grows hair and fur over any object. Usually H & F is used to generate hair: in tufts, sparse, curly, long, short, braids, etc. ... but will occasionally be used for other purposes too. This short tutorial will show how to create and animate sea anemones in a few clicks (Fig.00).

Fig.00

Create a seabed by modifying a plane as you like. This will be the distribution object (Fig.01).

Fig. 01

The second step is to create an anemone strand. To do so you can add a lathe modifier to a spline. Be sure to add enough subdivision to the mesh as you will have to bend it (Fig.02).

Fig. 02

Apply the H & F modifier to the plane. If needed it's possible to select single faces for the distribution. Initially hairs are oriented by the face's normals in a uniform way (Fig.03).

Fig. 03 d_h_&

Fig. 03 d_h_

At this point, open the panel "tools" of H & F, then click in the empty box "Instance node" and pick the anemone object. Instance node allows you to use any mesh instead of the default hair object. Settings like hair segments, passes, etc will be ignored. Certain qualities belong to the mesh used as instance, so if you want more subdivisions you have to edit the original mesh (Fig.04).

Fig. 04

Now you will see the distribution of anemones on the floor. The scene is beginning to resemble a seascape. Next you need to refine some settings as while certain settings are ignored, others are not. Density, scale, thickness are still influencing the shape of the anemones. Increase the size of the hairs (Fig.05).

Fig. 05

Try to use frizz and kizz parameters and watch how they influence the anemones. If the base mesh isn't subdivided enough you'll see sharp and unrealistic corners (Fig.06 & Fig.07).

Fig. 06

Fig. 07

Now that you're confident with most parameters, try to set them properly. Then if you go in the rollout dynamics you can add a simulation to the anemones that will make them behave like hair, falling and folding. If you click on the "live" button you'll see the mesh gradually deforming (Fig.08).

Fig. 08

Do not forget that they will always remain "hair", so why not comb them? The toolset for hairstyling will work, so you can use it to achieve an interesting look (Fig.09).

Fig. 09

Once you are satisfied with styling you can assign a material and proceed to render, and your anemones will finally be alive (Fig.10)!

Fig. 10

You can change the density or even assign a map to it. Here are some examples of what can be done (Fig.11 - Fig.13).

Fig. 11

Fig. 12

Fig.13

Now, if you really want to add life to anemones, the steps to do this are very simple. When you turn on the "Live" option, every strand bends down. To make the strands float you can raise the parameter "root hold", although if you set a high hold value then the mesh becomes totally rigid. To avoid rigidity keep the root hold value low, and set the gravity to negative (type -2.33) so that it will be "attracted" to the top. Now create a Space Warps > Forces > Wind and put it on a side of the scene. In the panel of H & F, add it to the dynamics rollout "external forces" (Fig.14).

Fig.14

The deformation can be stored by pre-computing the simulation. Set the folder in which you want to save the individual files for each frame and click "Run". After the calculation, simply pass in "Pre-computed" and you'll see the single anemone animated.

Here's a video example of what can be achieved: https://vimeo.com/7816099

Hair & Fur can be used to create a wide variety of objects, from normal hair, in dreadlocks, feathers ... and why not? For anemones too! I hope you liked this unusual use of this tool.