Hints on Creating Hair in Poser 5 #4

This hair style is totally different than the others I have created. I will give an example of the final product first, and then show how to create it. Again, I render it directly without any change in materials or lighting from the default settling in Poser. All I do is click on Render>Render.

Hint #11 For this hair style, I created 11 Hair Groups. Aside from keeping track of the Hair Groups which you can by renaming them, it isn't harder to deal with more. In fact, it is easier because you can vary the lengths and the direction of the hairs from the start. This is important for a short hair style.

The hair in the two front groups and the side group nearest to the face (2, 1 on each side of the head), will be very short and turn toward the face. The length of the Guide Hairs in all Hair Growth sections was 0.1500.

Hint #12 This is the first time I used the Scale Hairs Tool to create hair styles. If you look at the middle picture above, you will notice the tail of hair hanging over her shoulder. For this style, that tail was divided into small sections and bent . To blend it, I used the Scale Hairs Tool, shown in the first picture below, because it would shorten some of the strand in one section as I bent it. I alternated between using the Scale Hairs Tool and the Translate Hairs Tool. But it is important to Constrain the length and only work from the tip of the strand. This method insures that the hair will not be pulled flat on top.

Hint #13 The trick to selecting a few hairs is to first zoom in on the image. Then to using the Selection Tool select a few hairs. Then, using the Remove Hairs Tool, remove all the rest. It is not hard to select 1 Guide Hair.

Work from the lowest part of the hair toward the top. Next add the hair on the sides closest to the face. The length of the Guide Hairs should be 0.1500. The hair should look like the pictures below.

The positioning of the hair above the ear is illustrated by the pictures below. Before using any of the styling tools, I set the Growth Controls as illustrated. To shorten the hair in front of the ear, I selected it, and used the shortening/lengthening dial on the Styling Tools menu. As it turned out, I later lengthened them and blended them with the front section.

The next section I added was the one on the same level but abutting the back of the head (7). To correct the tail, I used the Translate Hairs Hairs Tool as described many times previously. I worked in small sections with a few hairs at a time. The ragged appearance of the bottom of this hair line is not critical because the lower level will blend into it. Theoretically, I should have worked from the lower to the higher level as I did with the front of the hair, but, there is another way to smooth out the back if necessary and I will address this at the end of this discussion. Notice that the settings are the same for both side Growth Hair sections.

The bottom section of hair (8) behaved in the same manner as did section 7. The settings were the same and the manner of working with them were the same. The major difference was that the Guide Hairs at the nape of the neck had often to be isolated and straightened and made the same length.

Hint #14 To straighten a hair, I used the Translate Hairs Tool with Constrain Length on. Then, I would remove the Constrain Length and with the Translate Hairs Tool push it back a little. If I had a number of hairs or I didn't want to change how the hair was positioned (flat or puffy), I changed the length with the Lengthen/Shorten Slider. I, also, of course, could shorten or lengthen a group of hairs with the Translate Hairs Tool.

When I finished the hair style, I did not like the way the back looked, so I added another section of hair in the back. You will see it identified in the beginning of this tutorial as "added later." I let the hair extend in the back to just below the ears and blended it in with the Translate Hairs Tool.

Hint #15 The number of hairs per section is very important when rendering, especially for a short hair style. I tried a number of combinations, and I found, the fewer the better. This makes sense because if one has short thick hair, it is often thinned when it is cut so it will lie flat. Counting both sides of the head there are 11 sections in all.

Section Name
Number of Hairs Per Section
2 Front Sections 200
2 Side Sections Abutting Face 300
Back Top Section "Added Last" 500
Rest of Sections 800

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