3ds Max® 2009 Bible

Chapter 39. Animating Hair and Cloth

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Enabling hair dynamics

• Simulating cloth dynamics

The specialized hair and cloth systems can create believable, realistic hair, but the real benefit to making hair and cloth come alive is found in the dynamic abilities of both.

In this chapter, you'll look at the dynamic abilities of both the hair and cloth systems. Using these systems, you can simulate hair blown by the wind and cloth that drapes over and around underlying objects.

Note

Creating and defining both the Hair and Cloth systems is covered in Chapter 28, "Adding and Styling Hair and Fur and Using Cloth."

Using Hair Dynamics

Being able to style hair is great, but have you ever left the barbershop and had the wind do its own styling job on your hair? The Dynamics rollout for Hair and Fur lets you define specific forces and let the hair fall where it may.

Tip

Be conservative with the forces that are applied to a hair system. Too many forces or too extreme forces can easily destroy any styling that you've created.

Making hair live

The Dynamics rollout is available only if the Hair and Fur (WSM) modifier has been applied to an object. At the top of the Dynamics rollout are three modes: None, Live, and Precomputed. If you select the Live mode, then the hair around the growth object immediately becomes subject to gravity and other forces in real time, causing the hair to droop about the growth object. Moreover, if you move the object within the viewport, the hair flows about the object ...