Tutorials on Hair making?

I am somewhat Interested in making hair, is there a tutorial out there that could help me get started? or if anyone would like to share with me on how to get started? i would appreciate it


Aces

A few pointers even would be great - hear I have to have a basic skull cap

That would be interesting to see... I might be curious and play a bit with hair if I find something out there to guide me. Would love to learn a bit how to make hair for myself.

Well girls I looks like where not going to get a response lol.. Thanks everyone

Ya, I wanted some tips too. It would have been nice for someone to offer some information. I don't want to start a store selling hair, but it would be nice to know where to start on hair just for my own personal use. I have ideas, just don't know how to go about it.

Alright, ladies, um...what I do is seek out a reference picture and seperate it into the various prim shapes that look more like it. (Like a short bob for instance looks like that cylindrical triangle hollowed out and the topside stretched out a bit.) I do make a skull cap like prim to help me map out the form, but I have different types for the hairline and such. It gets complicated, I would say just stick with the regualr "skull cappery" half sphere prim. XD

Um, then I create the shapes I need for the hair (I usually use that torus thingy and the cylindrical triangle. I love to twist em!) constantly referring back to my reference.

Hope this helps, ladykins!

Hi all,
I did not see this post until today. You are right, making hair is a closely-guarded 'trade secret' . I have just started making and selling hair. I think that it is great that people have been out there helping people make clothing/etc with the tutorials. I don't have a tutorial but would offer the following:

1. Buy hair. Spend some time taking it apart to see how it's made. I read a post once that said "the torus is your friend" (sorry I can't recall who wrote that but I have never forgotten).

2. Hair is 1/2 building technique and 1/2 texturing technique. Play with your paint program to create textures. They always look different on the prim than you would think. There are downloadable textures that can be bought on SLexchange if you aren't able to make your own, just to get started.

3. There is a difference between prim hair and "linden" hair. The linden hair template is downloadable from this site - you need to use it to apply to any texture that will be worn directly on the avatar's head. Prim hair can use a regular texture (without an alpha channel) or have an alpha to achieve a "fringy" look. Prims with an alpha are more difficult to manipulate

4. Start with a picture or idea of where you want to go.

5. Use a posing stand - this is critical!

6. Visit the Ivory tower of primitives to learn efficient building techiques - this was invaluable to me - hair is one of the hardest things to make in the game.

7. Be sure your textures are resized to 256x256 - no larger. Also beware of curly, twisted tori - I have made hair that can bring a sim to its knees... (this is bad)

8. Shape each piece, apply the textures, link them, and then wear it and reposition on the avvie.

There is way more, I would be happy to help in game, feel free to IM me. I learned most of this on my own. Best, Mysti

Thanks to you girlfriend! You just answered one of my biggest questions. I couldn't figure out for the life of me how people were making those elaborate hairstyles using the Linden hair template. Lightbulb! I will be experimenting with prims now.....thanks a billion!

Of course I assumed when I read this post that Aces meant prim hair -but it is important also to recognize that some people are able to do wonders with a combination of linden hair plus prims for effect, to keep the number of prims low.

For example:
The first curly head of hair I made was nearly all prims. Over 133 twisted tori. It causes tremendous lag just to rez.

One I made more recently uses linden hair as a base with twisted tori over it. This one is 44 prims. It STILL causes lag but it is significantly better.

The Linden base can be used in many ways, especially to achieve cool-looking short hair styles with just a few prims on top or for bangs, depending on what effect you are trying to achieve.

Also - I recently bought some hair where the maker had made all of the pieces from hollowed, cut spheres. Gives a different effect from the torus, but very cool.

You might try photosourcing hair also in the beginning if you don't know how or wher eto get a hair texture from...

random thoughts but I hope it helps!

Thank you Mystikal and Squee, your tips and tricks are appreciated I have enough to start my new project . hugs

Considering you copied all of this exactly from Madddy Schnook's guide.... *snickers*

I've never seen that guide, and I'd never heard of this Maddy Schnook person until your post yesterday, Silent, but considering this thread here that you've resurected from the grave is well over six months old, how do you know the guide didn't copy from here?

Who's to say which was the chicken and which was the egg in this case?

Oow... very nice. I didn't notice the post was that long ago. I was directed to it from a website and thought.. "Hey, I've seen that somewhere!".... Oh and if you type in search, "I MAKE HAIR"... there's a shop filled with "Dummy Guides".... which would be owned by Madddy Schnook.

also do not let yourself fooled/tempted by these hyper primmy flexi hairs some designer make, its already a very poor work as it will sacrify performances of everybody. A good hair designer will make te texture count as much as the shape, bad designers will compensate bad textures or simply bad skill by adding more and more and more details to bury their poor skill under useless detailing

I would like to watch someone making hair and get instructions here and there, if someone doesn't mind.

i bought one of the dummy guides and cant figure out how to read it. If i attach it to the HUD its huge and if its not huge text is unreadable...any help guys. thanks

I bought the guide myself i am personally very satisfied with the little bit it offers for the price i paid for it ((I think i got a discount somehow... its 500L in his shop but i got it for 250L) anyway.....

if you drag it out of your inventory and drop it on the ground it will rez there.. its very huge mind you ... however with use of camera angling it can be read.. and its VERY useful at least for a beginner... once you get the hang of it the book can be put in the corner and just used as quick reference

hope that helps

Creating Prim Hair Part 1
http://www.mermaiddiaries.com/2007/01/day-129-creating-prim-hair-part-1.html
Creating Prim Hair Part 2
http://www.mermaiddiaries.com/2007/02/day-131-creating-prim-hair-part-2.html
Creating Prim Hair Part 3
http://www.mermaiddiaries.com/2007/02/day-136-creating-prim-hair-part-3.html
Creating Prim Hair Part 4 (Flexi)
http://www.mermaiddiaries.com/2007/02/day-142-creating-prim-hair-part-4-flexi.html

Hopefully the previous post will get added to a more recent request for hair tutorials.

http://www.taunt.com/2006/03/photoshop_hair_.html

This is where i learned it pretty nifty basics of creating hair textures... and indeed, CJ pointed out the tutorials that are handy to start off with

For the more advanced hairtypes you see arround (think of sculpted hair) use a sculp program for that and texture on top of that (I use he free tool called Art of Illusion)

http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2006/09/01/hair-making-for-beginners/

http://www.arikinui.com/Tutorials.html

NCI (New Citizens Inc) also has a tutorial on making prim hair.