Basic Hair And Fur Tutorial Part 1

by Didik Wijaya

Hi, today I will show you how to use Hair and Fur Modifier in 3ds max. I guarantee, this is going to be a very interesting tutorial. Hair and Fur modifier is used to create realistic hair for human or animals fur. In this tutorial, I will create hair on top of a human's head. Also, I will show you the difference of Hair and Fur Modifier usage in 3ds max 8 and 3ds max 9 / up.

1.First of all, you need 3D model. Actualy you can use any object you want, like sphere, or anything. But you can simply download human head used in this tutorial here. Use 3ds Max 8 or up to open. There's a low poly bald human head in scene.

2. Select object, go to Modify tab. Apply Hair and Fur Modifier. This modifier is listed in World-Space Modifier (WSM) Section. Now, you can see human head is covered by splines that represent hair.

3. Do a test render. Human head is like a furball. We will fix that. Note: hair can only be rendered in Perspective or Camera viewport.

4. Next, you need to apply hair only to several part of the head. In Modify tab, go to Selection rollout. Click Polygon selection. In Left viewport select polygons on top and back of the head like image below (Hold Ctrl while selecting to select more than one polygons). When finished, click Update Selection button. All hair will appear on selected polygons only.

5. Do a test render. Nice looking punk girl.

6. Let's modify some settings. Go to General Parameters, use Hair Count=15000 to add more hair. And use Root Thick=6. If you use 3ds max 9 or up, the settings already use Hair Count=15000 and Root Thick=5. But in my experience I need more hair amount. You can use Hair Count=30000. In my opinion hair rendering result in 3ds max 8 and 9 / up is different. It seems much smoother and thinner in latest version.

Next, you can modify hair color. To create blonde hair, use Tip color=yellow, Root color=dark yellow / light brown.

Next, you will become a hair stylist. Sound like fun, doesn't it?

1.Continue previous lesson. To modify hair shape, you can use Style Window in 3ds max 8. Open Tools rollout, and click Style Hair button. Meanwhile, in 3ds max 9 or up, Style window is already integrated as Styling rollout. To begin styling, just click Style Hair button.

2. In 3ds max 8, you can begin styling hair after opening Style Window. Notice that, Hair Brush and Translate is active. These are the main tools to modify hair shape. Click and drag to modify hair shape. When finished click Done button. If you don't click done, your changes will not be saved. Below I also list some useful shortcut in Style window.

3.In 3ds max 9 or up, you can begin modify hair shape after clicking Style Hair button. Notice that Hair Brush and Translate tool is active. I suggest you click Recomb button. This option will make hair following head contour, then you can click+drag to modify. Use your own creativity. When finished click Finish Styling..

4. If you want longer hair, click Scale button. Then, click+drag in selected hair.

5. Do a test render. In 3ds max 8, you may surprised because rendered result is not the same with preview. For example you want straight hair, like image above. Iinstead, you get result like image below. If you use 3ds max 9 or up, there's also difference but not as extreme as in 3ds max 8.

6. Go to Frizz Parameters rollout. Frizz option is used to control hair volume. Give a low Frizz Tip value or Frizz Tip=0 and you'll have nice straight hair. Isn't she cute? :)

6. Another option you can use is Kink. This option useful to create curly hair. For example use Kink Tip=10 and see the render result.

This tutorial is finished. Hope you like it. More to come, I will show you more interesting way to use Hair and Fur Modifier.