Personal Progress Log 05 - Hair Poly Cards

The final step of making the fur was the use of hair cards. This was a completely new process to me, so I had to learn the technique and at the same time make the character look good.

The cards are created by applying an Alpha blend texture on them of a hair simulation. These cards are then placed through out the model to give the impression of thick fur. Below you can see a short demonstration of this process. The hair cards are then attached to Bezier curves so I am able to manipulate the fur to flow in the right direction.

I did eventually get the hand of it but this had taken hours and with the deadline of this character being in a day I unfortunately don't see that its possible to apply this to the model. Though even that this wont be in the final character art or the game I'm happy I did this process as it did introduce me into the basics of game ready hair that's rendered in real time. Moving on from this I think its best to plan to make a character over summer that incorporates fur or hair so I can nail this process down on a character.

Below you can see the texture bakes for the hair cards.