Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Degrees The strand renderer renders hairs
in a sequence of straight sections, and this
value determines how many degrees the
underlying curve must bend through in
order to create a new section. Smaller values
will result in smoother-looking hair but will
take longer to render as they will generate
more sections.
Steps This option determines how many subdivi-
sions are used to draw the hair in the 3D View-
port (as in the render options). Set this higher if
you need to work on complex hairstyles or lower
if you need a more responsive 3D Viewport.
Children
Here, we get to the most powerful aspect of particle
systems. Child particles work by treating each origi-
nal parent particle created by the particle system
as a guide for creating further particles. Not only
does this let you define relatively few particles and
then create a great many more, but it also allows you
to add novel features, like clumping, twisting, and
even braiding, to the hair around the parent par-
ticle guides, making your hair look more varied and
interesting.
B-Spline This method uses a Bézier-like curve
to render hair strands, resulting in much
smoother curves but with some loss of
detail in the shape of your edited hair as the
curve is smoothed out.
Steps This method determines how many
sections in total are generated for the hair
curve, expressed as the number of times the
hair is subdivided. For example, a value of
3 will make the hair twice as smooth (twice
as many sections) as 2, and a value of 4 will
make the hair curve twice as smooth again.
None/Simple/Interpolated Simple particles are
a basic option that creates a basic bundle of
child particles around each original parent, all
of which follow the same path as their parent.
Simple children aren't attached to the mesh
surface, and they don't use vertex-group inputs
to influence how they are generated. Other
than in basic hair systems, simple children don't
usually look as good as interpolated children.
This is because interpolated children are gen-
erated from the surface of the mesh just like
parent hairs, and then they interpolate their
paths from the various parent particles around
them. Interpolated children generally give nicer
results, so assume for this chapter that we are
using interpolated child particles.
Display
This panel works like the Render panel but defines
how your particles appear in the 3D Viewport.
Turning these settings down can often speed up the
3D Viewport when working with complex particle
systems, while turning them up can give you a bet-
ter feel for what your rendered particles will actually
look like.
None/Rendered/Path These options allow you
to determine how particles appear in the 3D
Viewport. Setting this to Rendered will use the
display type used for the render. None prevents
the particle system being drawn at all in the
3D Viewport, and Path draws particles as paths
regardless of the render type.
Display Determines how many child particles to
create and display in the 3D Viewport.
Render Determines how many child particles to
create at render time.
Display (Percentage) This option sets the propor-
tion of the total number of hairs visible in the
3D Viewport. Lower settings will reduce the
strain on your machine when working with
complex hair systems.
Seed Lets you choose the random seed for use
in generating child particles. If you have a few
child particles that you really don't like, try
changing this value.
Size, Velocity, Number These options will draw
the corresponding datum for each particle on
screen next to that particle datum (that is, the
particle's size, velocity, or ID number).
Virtual Parents Creates extra virtual parent par-
ticles before generating children, which gives
the children more targets to clump to or kink
around, making the hair look more varied.
Color (Material/Velocity/Acceleration/None)
This option is more relevant for emitter particle
systems. Leave it set to Material for hair particles.
Clump Causes child hairs to clump together
around their parents, making the hair look
matted or spiky. Negative values cause hairs
Search WWH ::




Custom Search