8
530 Chapter 8: Modifiers
smaller polygons in areas with shorter hair. For
example, the polygons on an animals paws are
usually smaller than the ones on the chest, and the
chest fur tends to be longer.
Cut Hair [C ]—Lets you trim the guide hairs.
To cut hair, press the C key while the brush circle is
over selected vert ices to cut. Follow this suggested
procedure:
1. In Selection mode, choose any selection
method.
2. Drag the mouse to select guide hairs to trim.
3. Press and hold the B key, and then move the
mousetosizethebrush.ReleasetheBkey.
4. Position the brush circle over hairs to cut, and
then press C to cut the hairs. Hairs with vertices
inside the brush circle are shortened so that
their endpoints touch the brush circle.
Note: Cutting hair doesn’t ac tua l ly remove vertices;
it only sca les the guide hairs. You can restore guide
hairs to their original length with Scale or one of
the
Pop commands
.
Left: Hair guides before cutting
Right: Hair guides af ter cutting
Co mb Away— Combs selected guides away
from the current viewpoint, while also keeping
it bent parallel to the surface itself. Because of
tangency (the fact that the hair tries to remain
parallel to the surface), the hair wil l go around
low-grade corners well, but it will not likely be
satisfactory for a realistic hair flow in itself.
This is a good starting point for fur. Generally,
before you begin fine tweaking, you want to get
thecombright.Thisdefinestheflowofhairovera
surface.
Recomb [R]—Makes a guide parallel to the
surface, using its cur rent direction as a hint. Here’s
a suggested procedure: Go into Brush mode, select
guides using the Whole Strand method, and then
move the guides around not worrying about skin
penetrationorhairshape.You’rejusttryingto
indicate the direction of the hair flow. Press R
(Recomb) f requently, and you will soon start to
see hair flowing smo othly w herever you want it to.
Onceyouhavethisflow,youwanttogodoyour
other editing. W ith this tool, you probably won’t
needtouseCombAway.Onceyouhavetheflowas
you like it, you can go in and start styling in sca le,
cutguides,andmovesomeofthetipsaround,
“shaping” or “styling” the hair.
Undo [CTRL+Z]—Reverses the most recent
action.
Done—Accepts all changes and returns you to the
3ds Max interface with the hair styled.
To cancel changes and exit, click the Close button
(X) in t he upper-right corner of the dialog.
Splitting and Merging Hair
Yo u c a n u s e t w o k e y b o a r d f u n c t i o n s f o r
subdividing hair into distinct groups for different
stylingneedssuchasapartoracowlick.Tosplit
off selected guides into a group, press the S key. To
recombine selected g uides, press M (merge).