Hair Cards vs Fur Baking vs Shaders

CVee

OK so I'm making a cat, kinda like the linked image. I was looking around to find ways to achieve this fur effect and figured that I would use fibermesh and then use it to bake some normal maps out of it. Still don't know if it's the best option. Which then led me to another thought. Aren't there some sort of shaders that can recreate fur? Is there still any point in painting or baking in fur?

Alex_J

Here's what I found : 

https://polycount.com/discussion/200022/finished-attempt-to-get-cougar-fur-similar-to-thehunter-call-of-the-wild-fur#latest


You could probably mostly work with the shader alone, but having some fur cards in key places may be necessary too, like inside the ears.

Google terms : "fins and shells technique" and "multi-pass shaders"

I got in contact with the artist who did the animals in the Hunter : Call of the Wild and he said they had an in-house shader but also used fur cards in places.