Prez Midnite wrote:
> 
> Hello...
> 
> I've been trying to develop some characters and have run into a
> block....
> 
> I need a way to create (or fake) semi-realistic, long, flowing hair...
> furry animals... facial hair, etc... (essential elements of wizard
> stories!)
> 
> Does anyone have advice on how this can be done, particularly with the
> possibility
> of later animation in mind? I'm not necessarily going for
> photorealism...

Well. There is the obvious brute force way.  If you're any good at
spline math etc, you could represet each hair strand as a curve. One xyz
fixed on the head, the other xyz dangling, obeying some simple momentum
(swaying). Optimize it down a lot... and write all the motion code in a
c precomputing proggie :) and it might be managable if you have a lot of
patience. ;)

One trick you might try would be to notice that most people's hair
obey's movement in  groups called "locks of hair". This would be one
optimization. The idividual strands in locks move a jitter's worth
compared to the movement/distortion of the whole. Also locks are
composed of variable numbers of hair strands -- none are the same either
in strand termination length or component numbers. You could call it
"lock theory". :)

HMm. You could make use of color_map to suggest poor dye jobs or fraying
hair strands as well.

--min


-- 
Lewis A. Sellers: writer and contract Multimedia Website Developer
mailto:lse### [at] usitnet (The Fourth Millennium Foundation)
http://www.public.usit.net/lsellers/ & http://www.intrafoundation.com
http://brain-of-pooh.tech-soft.com/users/critters/bios/sellers_lewis.html

You can bug the living bejesus out of me live on ICQ @ 491461
(If I don't get back to you within a month, I'm out of prozac in some
dark corner somewhere screaming things quite unintelligable but -- most
curiously -- thick with a sumerian accent.)

"The comedy is over" -i pagliacci

Post a reply to this message