Quick and easy ways to make hair look wet?

Diaspora

So, I know that a cheap and easy and relatively fast way to make skin look wet is to use a geometry shell and a water thin iray material but what about hair? That trick for skin ends up making the hair look wrapped in plastic rather than damp or wet, what's a better alternative?

It doesn't have to look perfectly physically accurate in every way, per se, just a step in the right direction but able to be done relatively quickly. Suggestions?

Griffin Avid

Plan ahead and choose a hair item that comes close to the numerous wet-hair products in the store.

Swap theh dry hair with the wet one.

Uthgard

There are plenty of factors that make us think of wet hair, and just nailing one of them leads to an image that is incongruent. The easiest way is, as Griffin said, to use a wet hair that resembles the model you use for scenes when it's not wet, but in case that not an option, here's how I would approach the problem (please note that I am no expert by any means and somebody else will do a much better job, both in process and in execution):

- Wet hair looks clumpy and is weighed down by the water clogging it. The clumpiness can only be solved by playing with the opacity maps and making them less feathery (or cannibalizing them from a wet hair product, if at all feasible) so that no individual strands will be seen; the weight can be taken care of by draping it with dForce (this product has a good preset just for that) though it is likely you will need to paint a weight map so that it doesn't fall off from the skullcap.

- Wet hair doesn't look at all like dry hair: it is darker and glossier. This can only be solved in the surface pane, and the adjustments depend on the render engine you use. For Iray, I would suggest darkening the base color and increasing the top coat strength. Maybe you can also decrease bump and normal strength to make the clumps look flatter.

- Some modern hairs have individual strands or even a few fibermesh parts to give them a more realistic look and volume, which is great, but these parts may stand out badly if you try to dForce them, so I would suggest hiding them with the geometry editor.

- In case you are using dForce strand hair, I would just suggest increasing the gravity of the simulation and friction in the surface simulation settings, it will just be a matter of trial and error.

- Also, try using reference photos to see how a hair with the color you are using behaves when wet. It shouldn't be that hard to find actors who have acted on beach scenes to compare a before and after (hey, a legitimate excuse to watch Baywatch, those don't come every day).

fred9803

Yes clumping is the big issue compared to shader. And yes it's probably best to use products designed to look like wet hair rather than trying to do it yourself.

I like this short wet hair for G8F. dForcing it had unexpected consequences LOL.

Sera

fred9803 said:

Yes clumping is the big issue compared to shader. And yes it's probably best to use products designed to look like wet hair rather than trying to do it yourself.

I like this short wet hair for G8F. dForcing it had unexpected consequences LOL.

What hair is that? I can't seem to find it in the store. 

zombietaggerung

certaintree38 said:

fred9803 said:

Yes clumping is the big issue compared to shader. And yes it's probably best to use products designed to look like wet hair rather than trying to do it yourself.

I like this short wet hair for G8F. dForcing it had unexpected consequences LOL.

What hair is that? I can't seem to find it in the store. 

https://www.daz3d.com/short-wet-hair-for-genesis-8-male-s-and-female-s

Diaspora

Thank you for the answers!

MelissaGT

Many hairs can be converted to dForce (cloth) and can be made to look weighed down. I've had great luck with AprilYSH hair. 

hansolocambo

fred9803 said:

Yes clumping is the big issue compared to shader. And yes it's probably best to use products designed to look like wet hair rather than trying to do it yourself.

I like this short wet hair for G8F. dForcing it had unexpected consequences LOL.

Disable Self Collide for any hair with dForce applied. dForce algorithm trying to separate all threads from one another respecting the collision distance (that's why hair goes all puffy) and struggling with the ones entangled (polygons crossing one another) probably causes what you see in the second screenshot.