On the search for real quality hair - possibly in the v4 sale?

brainmuffin

Richard Haseltine said:

Unfortunately strand-based hair is very "expensive" in terms of the system resources it uses, and - particularly in the past - was not something most users' computers could handle. It was also hard for PAs to create. There are now a few strand-based hair models, mostly created using the Fibremesh tools in Zbrush, but the problem of system demands remains. You don't say which application you are using, but Poser has built-in strand-based hair (and there are a limited number of products using that), Carrara has a similar system with a few hair sets using it, and DS has two add-ons (Garibaldi Express and Look at My Hair) for strand-based hair - all of these avoid the worst of the system load by generating the final hair only when you render.

I bought Garibaldi Express. Maybe one of these days I'll figure out how to use it or even find it.

kleinefotoman

bad4u said:

Not sure which ones you are talking about ..?

There were some more tutorials from Sveva in the 70% off sale. These were the "SV Texturing for Beginners" and "SV Texturing for Beginners II - Details 01". It seems that they are meant for Poser.

@ ropeman
Did you buy it long ago? not sure what you mean with "or even find it". did it get lost in your DIM? or do you mean it is just to difficult to use?

bad4u

Ahh, okay. First lets say these tutorials are worth the money and they are a steal at this low price with 70% discount. I have a lot of Svevas tutorials - not reading all of them yet, but it's something that will not get old in short terms. You will still be able to use them in few years if you like.

The first one about texturing is 50% about working in Photoshop with tiled textures, making a clothing texture, etc and 50% setting up the texture files for the item in Poser then. The PS part obviously is same for Poser/DS users, the difference is when it comes to setting up the textures in the program of your choice and you might need to find some information how to do that in DS. Still the tutorial is very helpful for beginners with PS work if you want to try doing your own textures for clothing (or even other items that already have been UV mapped, like most in the stores).

The second tut about texturing is about adding details to the textures and is 95% about the technics and tricks you use in Photoshop, so no problem with that one, but it is build on the first one and it is recommended you read that one first.

So if you need help on the Photoshop part doing your own textures - buy it. How you apply the textures in DS and add correct material settings you should find elsewhere (e.g. on forums). If you're not sure - buy one, have a quick read through it and if it looks useful get the rest. If you already have the hair painting tutorial, have a look and see if you like Susans way of teaching things ;)

Finally it's all about if you really want to do your own texturing - if you start doing textures and so do not need to buy only one or two texture sets later, they already paid for themselves (and you have exactly what you really wanted). But if it's only 'buy because it's cheap now and eventually I will find use for it some day' think twice and maybe save your money.