I apologize if anything is unclear or confusing. I'm not sure if the attached pics will make sense, but at least they are labeled
Hair Tutorial: 10 Steps to Making Prim Hair
First off, this tutorial presumes you have a basic understanding of building and torturing of prims. You will also need to be acquainted with the Edit Menu.
I will explain each basic step for creating a ponytail including how to shape the prims. Feel free to experiment and change things about to create a design uniquely your own.
I give the measurements used in this style where applicable so you can follow along easier and get the hang of prim mutilation…I mean building hair ☺
Supplies:
- Posing Stand
- Bald Head (use a bald cap if necessary)
- Patience
- Hair Texture
1. Stand on the posing stand with your beautiful bald head.
2. Create a Hair Base:
-Rez a Torus. Shape it to your head using the Stretch option in the edit menu or ctrl+shift. (size: .189, .274, .211, Hole: 1, .35, Taper: -1, -1, Skew: 0)
- Place the Torus into your head so that it follows the curve of the skull. You may need to rotate it a bit (Ctrl) in order to have it fit properly.
- Holding down Shift, click and drag the main Torus to the side creating another piece of your Base. You may need to change the size of this and subsequent Torii in order to get them to cooperate (Size: .124, .274, .240)
- Rotate the 2nd Torus to the side, but watch the edges of the two prims. You will notice that if they are not aligned properly the texture will appear jagged and your hair will not look good.
- Continue dragging and placing the base prims until you have covered the head.
- Pay special attention to the front of the head where the Torus meets the forehead. Try to place the prims so that they do not create a jagged hairline.
3. Bangs:
- Rez another Torus.
- We want this prim to be long and gently curved so use the following:
-Size: .141, .151, .172, Skew: -.65, Hole Size: 1, .25, Taper: -1, -1)
- Place the prim just in front of the ear.
- Shift Drag the Torus forward. Lengthen it a bit by using the Stretch option or ctrl+shift. Place it in front of the first piece of the bangs. Continue around the front of the face.
4. Ponytail holder:
-Rez another Torus (the Torus is our friend). (Size: .083, .121, .110, Skew: 0, Hole Size: .50)
-This one will have to be rather small, so shrink it close up the center.
-Place it at the back of the head where the ponytail will be attached.
5. Flexi Ponytail:
- Rez a cylinder (fooled ya! Thought I was going to say Torus didn’t you!)
- Go to the Feature tab and mark the Flexi Path box.
- Now everyone has their own preference as to how they want their Flexi hair to behave. You’ll have to play around with this until you find a flow that works for you.
- Make the cylinder: Size: .131, .167, .960, Taper: -.85, -.70)
- Move the ponytail to the small Torus at the back of the head.
-Texturing the Ponytail: in the edit menu choose Select Texture. Click on the TOP flat portion of the ponytail and the BOTTOM (hold Shift to select both). Choose a transparent texture.
- Select the outside of the ponytail. Choose a Fringed texture.
-IMPORTANT: When texturing the ponytail make sure that the fringe does not go to the bottom of the prim. Another thing to keep in mind is that if the texture is too high, you will get a line along the bottom of the hair and this will be the difference between great hair and trash. I see this all the time on very well made hair and it drives me nuts! Just a few extra minutes of work and your hair will look so much better. /rant.
6. Stand up
7. Make the Parent Prim:
- Rez a sphere (gotcha again!)
-Note the coordinates for rotation are: 0, 90, 0. LEAVE them. Just remember when you go to wear your hair, these are the coordinates you should have in your rotation area of the Edit menu.
- Shrink to .03, .03, .03
-This prim will make it easier to adjust the hair the first time you wear it so it will be the last prim linked.
- Place the Parent Sphere so that it will not be seen when the hair is worn.
8. Link Prims:
- Drag Select or hold the shift key down and select each hair piece. Select the Parent Sphere Last,
-Link by holding ctrl+L or choosing Link in the Tools menu.
- Give your hair style a cool name
9. Texturing:
- Again, this can make or break your hair style, so take the extra time to line up the highlights.
-Keep in mind that different size/types of prims will need to be textured differently.
10. Wear:
- Right Click, attach, head, skull
- Hop back onto the posing stand and Right Click, edit
- Adjust the hair how you want it, remembering that the Hair should be rotated at 0, 90, 0 degrees just like the Parent Prim was before you wore it. This will help you adjust it.
Try using different prims to make bangs, or twist the Torus to make curly bangs…a hollowed cylinder, etc.
MAKING FRINGE TEXTURE
Just so everything is in one thread:
Make your hair texture. If you need help with this go to www.taunt.com for Twiddler's tutorial. Gotta love a helpful (frisky) Pirate! =P
For Photo Shop:
- on an alpha channel use a soft brush w/White and make a zig zag pattern horizontally across the page at about 1/3 of the way down: \/\/\/\/\/\/
- fill in the top of the page with white
- using the Smudge Tool (The hand with the finger...NO Not THAT finger!) (say around 70%) drag vertically up and down across the zig zags. Try to keep them as vertical as possible with no overly large lines. Softness is the key.
-Use the Blur Tool (between 18%-30%) if you need to soften it more.
- The result looks like an x-ray of the ends of hair
-make sure the white does NOT go to the bottom of the page or you will have some bleed where the fringe ends and the other begins. That's a real bear when you're texturizing the hair. If needed use black and a soft brush across the bottom to ensure you don't have this issue.
-For your hair texture with NO fringe, save as a 24 bit TGA file. With Fringe, save as a 32 bit TGA file. This way you can make one texture and just paste the Alpha and have both the fringe and non-fringed textures without having too much work.
Then copy and save it so I can use it over and over.
