Anyone Can Tell Me How to Make Hair Texture?

I am sure this post might be repeated somewhere. But I would like to know how hair designers make their hair texture. I just need a guide. I would love to play in PS making different hair textures.

Just a basic idea would be appreciated, or if you can guide me to any old post here. Thanks again.

Here's a really quick way to make a simple hair texture in about 5 seconds using Photoshop. More advanced users will probably find this a little lacking, but for the beginner it's a great way to get started. Note that this is for prim hair. If you want to make hair for the avatar hair template, the process is more complicated. It would start pretty much the same way though, so this is worth knowing, no matter what you're doing.

1. Create a new file.
   I recommend a canvas size of 256x256.
   
   
   
2. Select the Gradient Tool and give it the following settings (as seen from left to right across the tool settings bar at the top of the screen):
   1. Don't touch the first dropdown menu box at the top left of the screen, the one with the picture of the gradient tool in it. Just leave it like it is.
      
      
   2. The next dropdown menu to the right is the Edit Gradient box. Select the dark to light standard gradient, the first one on the list. This should already be done by default, but if it's not, do it now.
      
      
   3. Moving right along, the next option is the gradeint type. These are shown as a row of 5 tiny thumbnail buttons, Select either Linear (the first one) or Reflected (the second from the right).
      
      
   4. For mode, select Normal, and for opacity, select 100%
      
      
   5. Keep Reverse unchecked for ease of understanding at this point. Dither isn't a real big deal, on or off. Transparency doesn't really matter for what we're doing here; on or off is fine.
   
   
   
   
3. Choose your colors by going to the color picker on the toolbox. Give the foreground and background seperate colors. I recommend using two colors that are fairly close to eachother. For examle, don't go with red and green unless you want really bizarre hair (like clown hair or punk rock hair). For normall-colored hair, use, well, normal colors. Go with, say medium brown & light brown, or brownish yellow & yellow. If you want to be abe to control the color inside SL, use a shades of gray.
   
   
   
4. Apply the gradient by clicking on the canvas at or near the top, and draging all the way to the bottom.
   
   
   
5. Add noise by going Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise. In the Add Noise dialog that pops up, select 100% for amount, Gaussian for distribution, and check Monochromatic. (If you want finer hair, use a lower setting on amount.)
   
   
   
6. Apply a motion blur by going Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur. Now it will look like hair. Set the angle to 90% so that the hair flows vertically. For distance, somewhere around 80 pixels is usually good, but experiement with other settigs as well. Lower settings will give the hair a more open-cuticled (frizzy) look. Higher settings will give a smoother look. Very high settings will give a wet-combed "shampoo commercial" kind of look. (Just so you know, VERY low settings will give you a brushed metal or wood grain look, so this technique works for more than just hair.)

There you go, hair in 5 seconds. Okay, so maybe the first time was more than 5 seconds, but it takes much longer to read than to do. Once you've got the process memorized, 5 seconds is actually overkill. Hair (and other grained textures) is just one of those things that's rediculously fast in Photoshop.

By the way, for a more varied look, ditch the gradient tool, and start with clouds in the beginning instead (Filter -> Render -> Clouds). For wavy hair, play around with the twirl, wave, and ripple filters. For short hair like body hair, facial hair, fur, etc, check out David Nagel's free Photoshop brushes.

WoW! thanks so much!! just what I needed... you are the best!!

Yes he is...what I would give to crawl into his bedroom as he sleeps ( calm down I know you 'think' I am going with this...but wait ) and with a spoon in one hand and a gag in the other...scoop out his brains put them in my back sack and eat them for breakfast then I can absorb all the knowledge Chosen has gained in years and years and I can become
'Tremendous Texture Woman' with my Pen and Tablet (not used yet LOL ) and rule the pixelated world


MUWAHAHAHAA!

Aw, and just when I thought the term "Chosen groupie" was finally going to pay off... Guess my startdom's not there yet.

Seriously though, thanks for the compliments, guys. Now where did I put my bike helmet? I shall thwart you and your spoon-weilding ways!

rofl

No seriously, I dont haunt the forums too much but your always here giving and helping and I seriously think there should be awards for helpers like you Chosen, how many ppl have gone on to make items or a name for themselves following your advise?

You are the father of so many content creators in SL I am sure and I for one would like to thank you on behalf of all those ppl whom you took the time out to unselfishly help & guide.

Ok since we're talking hair textures. I'm finding issues with the texture when its on its prim. It seems to be grainy or like its moving. Not sure how to explain. It's like the jaggies are moving up or down.
Anyways, the solution I found was to make the hair less detailed or widened so the texture wasn't so thin. I still would like the keep the number of hairs per prim high without the glitch or whatever it is. Is this how it needs to be done?

I had the same problem mcgeeb. I played with the distance on the motion blur. It helped but it's still not quite right

There are countless tutorials on the web for making hair textures -- remember that some other software, especially games like Unreal, Sims, etc. all can use player-created skins and hair, and some other graphics programs like Gimp, Bryce, Maya, and others are also used for creating hair textures. The basic concepts will be similar to Photoshop.

There are also Photoshop brush plug-ins available for creating realistic looking hair.

A few minutes doing creative Googling will get you more source material than you could wish for -- One example.

From another thread here on this board a few months ago: