Hair Rendering in Cycles Training Series

Blender 2.66 has been released (check out Jonathan’s overview) and with it  Cycles’ strand-rendering. This enables us to achieve believable hairstyles with relative ease, compared to the former Blender Internal method. However, shading and rendering is only half the battle. Strand editing and styling is where the war of believable hair is won or lost.

Create stunning hair for your characters in Blender by joining Citizen for just $10

In this multi-part citizen training series I’ll be walking you through my workflow from a bald-head mannequin to a long and flowing female hairstyle. Along the way we’ll be diving into particle hair systems, strand editing, and strand shading and rendering with Cycles.

The Challenge

Realistic long hairstyles are notoriously difficult to achieve with computer graphics. Several professional plugins have been developed for other apps that are strictly devoted to strand styling and rendering. With Blender’s built-in tools we’re able to get very specific with our groom. This works by creating multiple particle systems, dialing in the robust kinking and randomization settings, and finally rendering cylindrical strands complete with physically correct lighting. When combining these tools with real-world observation and patience you’ll be turning heads with your digital hairdo!

Changing hair color is easy!

Using the strand shader created during the tutorial, changing the color is very easy. This allows you to create a range of variations quickly.

Credits and License Info

Learn to create natural uniformity with particle systems in Blender

Nothing screams nature like a touch of randomness. In this tutorial, though, we’re going to look at how to create natural, uniform, objects with just a touch of randomness. Specifically, we’re going to learn how to create a cob of corn and a cactus using particle systems.

Join Citizen for this tutorial and many more exclusive tutorials and training that’ll push your Blender skills further than ever before. Signing up is the cost of just two lattes, at $10/month. 

What you’ll learn in this Citizen tutorial:

Through this tutorial you’ll learn several techniques for creating a cob of corn and a cactus with particle systems. This includes working with hair strand particles, using objects as particles, distributing the particles along a mesh, adding randomness, and rendering the objects in the Cycles renderer.

Hello and welcome to this tutorial series on creating a realistic head in Blender 2.6!

This is a complete tutorial series explaining the creation of a realistic human portrait with Blender. The entire process will be covered from base mesh modeling, detail sculpting, texture painting, hair growing and styling, sub-surface scatter shading, and compositing. Some of the more time-consuming tasks will be time-lapses with commentary like modeling, sculpting, and texture painting; the other parts will be mostly real-time.

Post Processing for the Final Still

Part 10 is the last video in this series where the scene is organized for rendering and composited into a final still.  Though my workflow is perhaps a different take on tradition render passes and render layers, I’ll show you how to break down a scene into isolated elements for flexible compositing using Blender’s scenes as a render pass/layer system.  Then I’ll composite each element into a coherent image.

NOTE:  The textures used in the video are packed into the blend file, available to Citizens.

Music:  “The Beat” by cdk (http://ccmixter.org/files/cdk/1667).

Hello and welcome to this tutorial series on creating a realistic head in Blender 2.6!

This is a complete tutorial series explaining the creation of a realistic human portrait with Blender. The entire process will be covered from base mesh modeling, detail sculpting, texture painting, hair growing and styling, sub-surface scatter shading, and compositing. Some of the more time-consuming tasks will be time-lapses with commentary like modeling, sculpting, and texture painting; the other parts will be mostly real-time.

Hair Creation

Part 9b is the second of two parts covering hair creation.  In this part I’ll be generating and styling hair for the scalp with the same techniques seen in 9a.  The big difference with the scalp hair is that it needs to be rendered with Blender’s strand-rendering feature due to the large quantity of follicles.  This requires a different shadow method and gererally makes a realistic result more difficult to achieve.

NOTE:  The textures used in the video are packed into the blend file, available to Citizens.

Music:  “Funky Dunky” by fourstones (http://ccmixter.org/files/victor/557).

Hello and welcome to this tutorial series on creating a realistic head in Blender 2.6!

This is a complete tutorial series explaining the creation of a realistic human portrait with Blender. The entire process will be covered from base mesh modeling, detail sculpting, texture painting, hair growing and styling, sub-surface scatter shading, and compositing. Some of the more time-consuming tasks will be time-lapses with commentary like modeling, sculpting, and texture painting; the other parts will be mostly real-time.

 Beard, Eyebrows, and Eyelashes

I will show you how to define a hair system’s density with two methods:  vertex groups and texture maps.  Then I’ll grow and style the hairs in particle edit mode and with the children hair attributes.  Strand materials will also be created and applied to render the follicles as retraceable polygons.

NOTE:  The textures used in the video are packed into the blend file, available to Citizens.

Music:  “Silence Await” by cdk (http://ccmixter.org/files/cdk/17432)

A complete training DVD intended for Experienced 3D Artists that wish to learn Blender! On pre-sale now

This training DVD, by Jonathan Williamson, is intended for experienced 3D artists that wish to quickly learn and adapt to Blender. Through this DVD you will become familiar with many of the standard tools Blender offers, be introduced to the way Blender works and be given a tour of many of the bells and whistles Blender offers through it’s advanced feature set.

This training has been created and reviewed by professional artists with a wealth of experience with commercial 3D packages.

 Available through the blender.org e-shop!

Every purchase of this DVD goes directly to the Blender Foundation to support its projects and the further development of Blender.

Sample Video: Using the Search Tool

Sample Video: Extrude and Inset Tools

DVDs will be ready (and in your mailbox) before August 5 – we also will spread free copies at the Blender Siggraph booth.

A perfect gift for your Maya or Max friends!

Training Outline

(Note: outline is subject to change)

Chapter 1: Getting Started
Touring the interface, the key basics to survive Blender quickly: Selections, transforms, and search!

Chapter 2: Making Blender work for you
Customizing the UI, preferences and changing shortcuts.

Chapter 3: Mesh Modeling
Based on common tools and metaphors from other programs, the modeler is being explained in 20 short sections.

Chapter 4: UV Unwrapping
An introduction on using Blenders UV tools. These tutorials will quickly explain how it works.

Chapter 5: Using Blender’s Animation System
This chapter gives the big picture of the Blender timeline, dope sheet, graph editor, working with key-frames, animation curves, and using the rigging system.

Chapter 6: Materials, Lighting and Rendering
Both Blender render engines are being introduced, including the new node-based shading system for the Cycles raytrace engine.

Chapter 7: Using Add-ons for Extra Functionality
Many python add-ons are bundled with Blender for additional features and tools to better optimize your workflow. This chapter gives an overview of several key add-ons.

Chapter 8: Solving Common Problems and Tips for Success
Perfection does not exist; also Blender has half working features and bugs. This chapter shows some of the current issues, bypasses and especially how to get support and your issues solved!

Chapter 9: Bells and Whistles
The show-off chapter; Blender offers a wealth of advanced features that go well beyond the usual fundamental tools. This includes a quick look at the fluid and smoke simulator, the particles system, the compositing and post production tools, and more.

Hello and welcome to this Blender tutorial series on creating an island environment in Blender 2.6!

In this three-part tutorial series by David Ward you will be taken through the complete process of creating a tropical, island environment in Blender 2.6. With David’s guidance you will go from a barren landscape to the lush, final result that you see below in just about three hours.

What you’ll learn:

Through this tutorial you will learn how to use the ANT Landscape Generator add-on to create the landscape, how to use the OceanSim modifier, how to make easy trees and vegetation with alpha-mapped textures, how to populate your vegetation with particle systems, and you will learn how to create easy procedural rocks with a displacement texture and modifier. You will also be taken through the steps needed to composite the final render together, including add depth to the horizon, adding the clouds background and much more.

Hello and welcome to this Blender tutorial series on creating an island environment in Blender 2.6!

In this three-part tutorial series by David Ward you will be taken through the complete process of creating a tropical, island environment in Blender 2.6. With David’s guidance you will go from a barren landscape to the lush, final result that you see below in just about three hours.

What you’ll learn:

Through this tutorial you will learn how to use the ANT Landscape Generator add-on to create the landscape, how to use the OceanSim modifier, how to make easy trees and vegetation with alpha-mapped textures, how to populate your vegetation with particle systems, and you will learn how to create easy procedural rocks with a displacement texture and modifier. You will also be taken through the steps needed to composite the final render together, including add depth to the horizon, adding the clouds background and much more.

Hello and welcome to this Blender tutorial series on creating an island environment in Blender 2.6!

In this three-part tutorial series by David Ward you will be taken through the complete process of creating a tropical, island environment in Blender 2.6. With David’s guidance you will go from a barren landscape to the lush, final result that you see below in just about three hours.

What you’ll learn:

Through this tutorial you will learn how to use the ANT Landscape Generator add-on to create the landscape, how to use the OceanSim modifier, how to make easy trees and vegetation with alpha-mapped textures, how to populate your vegetation with particle systems, and you will learn how to create easy procedural rocks with a displacement texture and modifier. You will also be taken through the steps needed to composite the final render together, including add depth to the horizon, adding the clouds background and much more.

Hello and welcome to this tutorial about creating a tornado using Blender’s smoke simulator.

This Blender tutorial will take you through the complete process needed to create a destructive tornado with Blender’s smoke simulator and particles, complete with flying debris.

What you’ll learn:

While watching this tutorial you will learn how to setup a smoke simulation that is controlled by particle movement, how to influence the particles/smoke with multiple force fields, how to make an object break apart in the strong wind of the tornado, and finally you’ll learn how to render the tornado with a Volumetric material.

Part 01 of this tutorial covers how to create the simulation, particles and setting up the force fields to define the shape of the tornado. Part 02 will finalize the simulation and cover rendering.

Author

You can see more of Thomas’s work here: http://tomwalks.deviantart.com/