STEP-BY-STEP Model HAIR with ORNATRIX

01 create your SHAPES

I created a clean mesh for each part of the hair on top of the shape I wanted, and then split the shapes into strips using the Detach tool in Maya. It helps to have the strips created as quads so that Ornatrix can properly interpolate how best to generate the hair. If you sculpted the hair shape beforehand, the easiest thing to do would be to decimate and retopologise it in Maya.

03 control THE Direction

For strips pointing the wrong way, I used the Editing tool; I selected these strips and rotated them. This was important in order to maintain consistency in the direction of the nodes. These were controlled with easy to use ramps. For more precise control, I clicked the arrow to make it bigger. The points control the profile of single hairs for radius, or the whole style to control the frizz volume.

02 edit your ATTRIBUTES

I used the Add Hair From Mesh Strips in the Ornatrix shelf to generate my hair. This gave me a node, hair, and attribute editor. Here I was able to edit attributes like volume, hair number per strip and distribution. I added a frizz, render and detail node. Frizz added a bit of variation, render determined hair radius and detail determined how smooth it was when rendered.

04 apply a SHADER

I used Arnold to render, and when I was satisfied with how the hair looked, I applied an alshader using Ornatrix. The settings I used are above but you can find more in-depth information on how to use the shader online, depending on your preference. I found Ornatrix very intuitive to use and I’ll definitely be using it again in the future.