Working with Poser 5 Dynamic Hair in Vue 5

The first time I brought a Poser figure into Vue 5 I was very unhappy with how the dynamic hair looked. Initially, it was a problem with Vue 5. However, the problem was fixed. Even then, I was not very happy until I found a way to manipulate the hair in Vue 5. Once I found this out, I was very satisfied. For this tutorial, I am working with blond hair.

Step 1 - In Poser, a portrait of the figure looked like the picture below and the hair in the Material Room was set up according to the picture below on the right.

Step 2 - I brought the Poser figure into Vue through Import Object and the screen capture on the left is of the controls I chose. I do not know whether I chose correctly; all I know is that it separated the body from the hair while still leaving the 4 hair groups that I created in Poser 5. This gave me the ability to modify the different hair groups which I found useful. I did not keep the settings of all the hair groups uniform. Also, when working with Poser files, I make sure that I keep all the files together. I do not keep them on my c drive in Poser. Instead, I keep them separately on one of my data drives.

It needs to be noted that the five groups come in with the same material, even the body is represented by the yellow hair material icon. However, the body renders as flesh color with the correct details. If I had imported the figure not as a single mesh, all the body parts would have been represented by the same body color icon and the hair groups as the yellow icon. One needs to experiment with each figure to see which works the best in each situation.

Material-Hair Icon Material-Body Icon Mapped Picture-All Body Parts

Step 3- This next step is not mandatory and the changes are not very perceptible. However, before I discovered the differences that Material's Shadow Cast and Received made, I added this step. Since there is a slight difference on the blond hair, at least, I thought I would put it in. All lighting stayed the same. However, Step 3 can be eliminated.

If you look at the original Poser 5 hair directly below, you will see that the color of the material is irregular- noise has been added to the color. The new material, shown immediately below on the right, is however smooth. As I stated, this changing of material, which I accomplished by selecting the hair group and then loading a new material, did not make much of a difference. However, it does give one the ability to change the color of the hair.

Original Poser 5 Hair New Loaded Hair Material
Hair from Poser 5 without any Changes - Material Shadows Cast and Received On Hair with Changed Material - Material Shadows Cast and Received On
Hair from Poser 5 without any Changes - Material Shadows Cast and Received Off Hair with Changed Material - Material Shadows Cast and Received Off

 

Step 4- The real difference took place on the Material screen having to do with whether the Material Cast or Receive Shadows for that particular hair group was checked or unchecked. Ignore how the Cast Shadows and Receive Shadows boxes are checked in the screen capture. The screen capture is to primarily show where they are located.

Basically, once the lighting is satisfactory, and remember it was the same for all the Vue 5 hair images shown here, the shadows on the Material Editor make the difference. The following is a table showing all the combinations.

1 - Cast and Receive Shadows 2 - Cast Shadows 3 - Receive Shadows 4 - No casting or Receiving Shadows 5 - Poser 5 Hair

Notice in the Casting Shadows (box 2) how her arm is very visible through her hair. Also, in the Receiving Shadows (box 3) notice the dark spot to the back of her head.

While there obviously is a difference, certainly box 4 is a lot better than box 1. The texture between the hair in Poser 5 and Vue 5 before any changes Boxes 1 and 5) shows the most difference. Interestingly enough, the noise that was added with the original Poser import didn't make much of a difference in the texture of the hair on the render. The screen captures above were rendered in Vue 5 on Final setting without making changes. The Vue 5 image below was rendered using basically default User Settings and the Anti-alias settings below. I am not putting in my settings because I do not consider myself an expert in Rendering and I don't want to mislead anyone. When I tried maxing out anti-alias, but keeping the type of anti-aliasing setting standard, the change in anti-aliasing did not make a difference on the hair. It did, though, on the face. However, the better rendering (User Settings) did make the hair smoother. All were rendered at 640 x 480 and a dpi of 72 because I was making them for the web.

Anti-alias Settings Used in Render User Rendered in Vue 5 with Anti-alias Settings Shown Left Poser 5 - Same as Above

As you can see from all of the above there are three factors that affect the way Poser 5 dynamic hair looks in Vue 5, the material casting and receiving of shadows and the render settings. The reason I have detailed the tutorial with so many pictures other than just a quick statement is that I found the difference interesting and they gave me ideas for special affects., Etc.

If you want to create dynamic hair and don't know how, you might find my tutorials helpful. They can be accessed from Training Curious Labs . This link leads directly to the tutorials on my website of perpetualvisions.com.

© Paula Sanders 2004