To create a rendered image of hair for either the render region or rendering to file, you apply a shader to it, just as you would for any other object in a scene. The default shader that you use to render hair is the Hair Renderer shader. This is a surface shader that allows you to set the color, transparency, etc. of the hair.
You can also use the Hair Geo shader. This shader lets you set the color shading and transparency on the hair using gradient sliders which allow you lots of control on where the shading occurs along the hair strand. See Using the Geometry Hair Shader for information.
You can also use the standard Softimage shaders on hair because it creates real geometry (for example, you can use the Phong shader or a Toon shader). You can use the shaders by plugging them directly in to the hair’s Material node (see Connecting Shaders to Hair).
The Hair Renderer shader gives you control over accurate strand coloring, transparency, and shadows than do other Softimage shaders. You can optimize the render and take advantage of final gathering.
The Hair Geo shader lets you set the color shading and transparency on the hair using gradient sliders which allow you lots of control on where the shading occurs along the hair strand.
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Many of the parameters of the Hair shaders are mappable (any one with a little connection icon For an example of this, see Connecting a Texture Map to Hair Color Parameters. |
To modify the parameters for either of the Hair shaders
• Open their property editors in one of the following ways:
- Select the hair and choose Modify > Shader from the Hair toolbar.
or
- Double-click the Hair Renderer or Hair Geo Shading node in the render tree.
or
- Click on the Hair Renderer or Hair Geo Shading shader’s icon in the explorer.
• For information on setting up all parameters in the Hair Geo shader, see Using the Geometry Hair Shader for information.
• For information on lighting and shadows with the Hair Renderer shader, including shading models for hair length, see Lighting and Shadows for Hair.
• For information on coloring with the Hair Renderer shader, see Coloring Your Hair.
• For information on setting transparency with the Hair Renderer shader, see Setting the Hair’s Transparency.
The Hair Renderer and Hair Geo shaders use a geometry render type for rendering hair. This type is used by default unless you activate the Instancing option to render instanced geometry instead of hair—see Rendering Objects (Instances) in Place of Hairs for more information.
With geometry rendering, the same shading algorithm is used as for any Softimage surface shader. Each hair is rendered as a flat ribbon geometry (a special hair primitive) by the mental ray renderer.
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If you want to quickly render a scene without rendering hair but don’t want to put the hair in a separate layer, see Deactivating Hair for Rendering. The hair is still generated, just not rendered. |
Autodesk Softimage v.7.5
), meaning that you can connect texture maps (not weight maps) to them to create specific effects.