Taper Groups Of Hair In SBH

Dark45

Over the last couple of days I have finally figured out how to get the color and highlights the way I need them in SBH. So, one issue down but another has cropped up for me. I'm looking for a way to be able to taper for example from finger tips to shoulder in SBH. I was using LAMH previously and that had the function to do this but tbh, I did not like LAMH due to it's animation limitations. If SBH is unable to do something simular is there another software that I can export to to get the desired result?

Thank you guys in advance, I really appriciate any help.

I attached some examples. Just did the guide lines since they are easier to see. SBH no taper and LAMH with taper.

barbult

Did you comb the SBH in the direction you wanted it to "point"?

Gordig

Create a greyscale weight map with a soft gradient using a base texture map, then apply that to the length parameter.

Dark45

Hey guys, thank you so much for the replies.

@barbult - I've positioned the fur the way I need it with styling. What I'm now needing is to gradually reduce the length of the fur from the finger tips to the shoulder. This will allow the fur to transition from the shorter finger tip fur into the longer torso fur without any banding.

@Gordig - This is sounding a bit more like what I was thinking. Is this sort of a way of creating a density map?

Gordig

It's the same principle as a density map, just for a different purpose.

Dark45

I'm sorry, Gordig, but I may have another question for you. I wanted to figure it out on my own but I'm needing a bit of help figuring out how to make the weight map and then adding it to the length parameter in SBH.

Gordig

Actually, disregard what I said, because I just tried it for myself, and the length parameter only exists for dForce hairs, not SBH you create yourself.

Dark45

Understood. You are kinda on to something though, there is a "lengths" parameter when creating in SBH under the tweak tab. In the paint tab there is a way to add a texture set as well. I've tried to add a texture to it which is just the base map of my model's arms for testing reasons but it wants the .png to be 1024 x 1024 which is fine and easy enough to do. I tried to add the resized base map to the paint tab and it still gives the error that it "could not be matched to available mesh".

 

I've been doing trial and error of some other concepts. In SBH, the paint tab you can essentially load in some layers for example, first layer is density, second layer I would create is called lengths. Density layer I would just make pure white for my case so that's self explainitory. On the lengths layer I would have to paint a gradient from 100% opacity (white) at the shoulder to about 30% opacity (almost transparent) at the finger tips. I went ahead tested this, obviously the brush in the paint tab is quite limited and I couldn't make a great gradient but it was enough to test it. Over in the tweak tab I changed the lengths parameter from no map to the lengths map I made and it does work, just not great since I cannot make a perfect gradient this way, but when I adjusted the lengths, the white area's of the texture were greater affected than the almost transparent parts of the texture which which much less affected, creating that tapered look.

 

Is there a way I can add something like a gradient to that texture set area without it giving me that error?

Dark45

I just did the test with the torso. I remembered last year back in April I had played a little with SBH and wanted to add the torso texture map to it and I don't remember how but, I had got that one working without an error.

 

I added that as a lengths paramenter and yeah, the darker side fur would taper into the white stomach fur when I adjust the lengths, so this will work. I just need to create the white and black graded texture map using the base arms texture and then figure out how to get it to load into the paint tab of SBH without it saying it cannot match the texture to the mesh.

Dark45

Ok, sorry for the triple post but, I figured out how to add it and now, I can finally say after all night, it was a success lol. Thank you guys.