Question on Linden hair base template

Hi there,
I've been using the linden template to make base head hair but am having difficulty getting it to not have a line across the back hairline at the nape of the neck where the fringe would begin - is there another hair template that would work better when trying to make short hair? No matter how I move the sliders, I have a little bitty horizontal piece poking through. Suggestions out there?

Do you mean that you're trying to paint a hair base on the head texture or are you talking about using the LL deformable hair object that you can morph into different styles in appearance?

I created my own hair texture as well, since the default hair texture that comes with your avatar doesn't exactly look very hair-like. I also used the LL hair template, but had some problems actually 'reading' the template. Worked nice though once I found a method to do the job (used LightWave with Sasquatch to render a few hair images, then morphed the sides of them in ElasticReality and did the rest of the work in Phothoshop).

I also saw the ugliness you describe in neck (tip of hair in neck or down your spine depending on length of hair). Tried to paint myself out of the problem with the alpha channel, but it didn't work. To me it seems to be a problem with the mesh/uv map of the hair, since hair texture is suddenly rotated 90 degrees in that area.

One thing that comes to mind, that I haven't tried myself, is to actually cut away a lot of the hair in the back from the alpha channel, and compensate with sliders to make it a bit longer.

If anyone got a clever tip, I too would be happy to hear about it.


Lis

Ahhh, if you're using the template for the LL hair object to paint your own texture, here's what I recommend... make sure you're looking at the wireframe layer (I think it's turned off by default). A disproportionate amount of the template is taken up by the fringes). I found it helpful to paint the horizontal rows of polygons different colors and then upload it and make hair from it. That helps a lot in figuring out what ends up where (because it's anything but obvious from looking at the template). Take some screenshots for reference. That will help you figure out what part of avoid so you don't get the line that's bothering you. For short hair I'd probably avoid extending the texture onto the back fringe polys at all. The back fringe looks odd with short hair.

Thanks - that was what I was asking about. that bit that pops out when you use the slider just seems wrong It would be great if anybody's got a pre-baked template they would like to share that actually has the fringe cut away on the alpha channel.

I will experiment some more...

Hi! I use that template all the time, since it's not, in fact, a template at all but the UV Map for the Linden hair. There's nothing else that we can use. But yeah, that one is the worst of the lot, for a whole bunch of reasons.

And no, if you have anything on the back fringe at all, you can't get rid of the line at the back. The same thing with the front fringe and the line at the front.

The problem is that the map is made so that the back fringe overlaps the main hair piece. It is impossible not to have anything at all on the back fringe, unless you make a good bit of the back of the hair transparent as well.

Let me show you what I mean.

This hair has an alpha that exactly follows the outside line of the UVs on the main hair piece. That means that about a third of the back fringe also has texture on it, as you can see from looking at the UVs. There is a small, but visible, line where the fringe extends through the hair, and you can see it.



For this one, I made an alpha with a totally transparent fringe, which means that it also has a large section of transparency on the back of the hair. This makes the hair look hollow, which most people would find unpleasant (I think,) and it still doesn't completely eliminate that line.



So, as far as I can tell, those lines are one of the things that we are just stuck with, until the Lindens change the Avatars so that the Fringe is withdrawn completely into the hair at the lowest slider setting.

The good news is, it will only be seen at very close range; and most people never notice it at all. It's even less noticable with darker hair colors.

Anyway, if you want a template without the extended fringes, here it is. Just paste this into the Alpha channel. (If you're using a 1024 texture, enlarge it first, or don't paste it in until after you've made the texture 512 for uploading.)



Sorry I can't give you better news!

Good call, Robin. I never noticed that line before. Would increasing the volume a bit hide that sliver of fringe?

Thank you so much Robin for such a detailed analysis of the problem. I am not so skilled that I would have understood. Thanks also for the alpha - it is hugely helpful. Robin and Chip, we who are learning are so lucky to have you in the community!

You are very welcome, Mystikal!

Chip, not so's you'd notice. It seems to move with the outside of the hair, not the inside. But I haven't tried exhaustive tests. If someone else has found a setting that hides it, I'd be interested to know what it is.

The only thing that I've found that helps (besides actually using the fringe, of course,) is to make the hair quite long. When you do long hair, it kind of folds over at the bottom, and those tag ends of pixels are mostly hidden.

I'll do more testing when I have a chance.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Strange that I never noticed that before, but I've done textures mainly for long hair.

And thanks Mystikal Personally I think Robin and Chosen should be nominated for SL sainthood.