Hair-textures on same texture-map?

goekbenjamin

When dealing with hair i would do it like that:
generate hair with xgen than render highpoly to lowpoly.

But than again i realize that the character has eyebrows eyelashes too and probably also a visible scalp.

Is it possible to have maps where all hair-things (hair, brows, lashes, scalp) are combined and not separated?

I guess i can do combine hair with lashes and brows, but how would i combine that with the scalp?

Here it is separated:
https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/006/187/435/large/iris-yurtsev-muse-08-maps-hair.jpg?1496679791

Do you have any reliable methods to combine different maps together?
Or is that even a bad idea to merge those textures together?

Alex_J

combine them if you can. it's more efficient. But the more you jam into a single texture, the less resolution you get.

so if you need really fine, realistic hairs, you may only be able to achieve that by putting a few hair cards into a single 2k map. Then you might put your brows and lashes into another. Just got to test it out and see.

You can combine maps however you need using photoshop and/or substance painter (and probably some other programs as well but this is what I use.)

as for a scalp, i think in most situations painting that onto the head textures would be fine, if you need it at all.

goekbenjamin

Thanks for your advices!
For a short man haircut i guess there is no way around to not use a haircap, especially for the sides.
but i think i could draw the short hair in substance painter too onto the head texture

Alex_J

i'd recommend to do your testing just with alpha and albedo maps only. if you take the time to create the normal maps and all that, then have to do a lot of merging or separating of maps, that's a lot more work. So easier to do the testing with minimums to ensure you got the right number of cards at the right resolution, then go full scale with normal and AO and spec, etc.

goekbenjamin

Thanks again BIGTIMEMASTER really appreciate your advices in this forum!

musashidan

You should have plenty of res at 2k if you leave out the scalp cap. Just stack more hair card layers to give it volume and fill all the gaps so you don't see any scalp. If you fade out the roots alpha texture it will blend nicely to the scalp.