Simulation - Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish - page 274

second is Point Select Mode , which shows each of the key points on every parent strand. These points are
selectable and transformable via the normal Blender methods, although to right mouse button select points,
you will need to set the grooming tools to None . The last is called Tip Select Mode , in which selecting
the endpoints of a strand selects the entire strand. The Limit selection to visible button is usually enabled
because it prevents your selections and grooming tools from going “through” the mesh and selecting and
grooming things on, say, the other side of the head. Of course, if you are trying to create a symmetrical hair
style, you could turn this option off, letting your grooming tools work on both sides of the head at once in a
side view.

Here is an example of how these selection modes can be used to your benefi t. Let's say that you only want to
adjust the outer ends of your character's hair style. The overall shape is pretty good, but the ends are a little
wild. To do this, switch into Point select mode and choose Select Last from the Select menu on the 3D
header. This will select the endpoints of all parent strands. Then, choose Select More from the same menu
(or use Ctrl-Numpad - ), to grow the selection one point inward. The result is that only the fi nal seg-

ment of each hair is selected. Now, the styling tools will affect only those selected parts, allowing you to
nicely groom the wild ends without affecting the underlying structure.

At the beginning of this section, we mentioned that there was a second way to add strands to a model, in
addition to setting a number in the Amount fi eld. This second way is through the Add tool on the particles
panel. If you have a model with a fairly sparse confi guration of parent strands, but need more control over
the children on, say, the character's face, you can use the Add tool to add additional parent strands. Be careful
when using this because it can add strands very quickly!

The best advice is to set the Strength low—between 1 and 5—before proceeding, and to use a small, well-
controlled brush. Figure 14.67 shows the results of dragging an Add brush across a mesh. It actually “paints”
new strands into the particle system. If you do so with the Interpolate option enabled, Blender will attempt to
add the new strands in such a fashion that
they blend in (interpolate!) with the parent
strands already in existence.

So it is possible to begin working on
a character's hair or fur with a particle
Amount set to 0 ! You start with a com-
pletely blank slate and use the Add tool
to place parent strands precisely and only
where you want to have them. If you are
going to use this method, you must make
sure to set some Normal velocity in your
particle setup, even though you are not
“launching” any particles with the standard
tools. Strands created with the Add tool
will use this as their initial condition. You

Figure 14.67 That's a nice cut, but I don't think your boss will go for it