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How to 3D Model and Texture Hair✨[Low Poly Tutorial] — Transcript

by Crashsune Academy · 3,451 words · 494 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00The most frustrating part of the 3D
0:02modeling process by far that I get the
0:04most questions about is modeling the
0:06hair. Where do you even begin? It is by
0:09far the most painful part of the
0:11process. It can be so hard to manage all
0:14these disperate little pieces of hair.
0:16And it's really hard to just simplify
0:18that down into a low poly model. It's
0:21difficult to find where to even begin
0:22and what each step of that process looks
0:24like. That's why in this video today,
0:26I'm going to break down all the
0:28different steps I use to make low poly
0:30hairstyles just like the ones you're
0:32seeing on screen right now. And by the
0:34end of this video, I think you're going
0:35to have a much better idea and a whole
0:36lot more tools in your tool belt in
0:38order to make any low poly hairstyle you
0:41can possibly imagine. But without
0:42further ado, let's jump right into it.
0:47Make sure to like this video and
0:48subscribe to my channel if you'd like to
0:50see more content just like this. and
0:52comment below if you find this video
0:54helpful. Thank you. And I have some
0:55bonus tips at the end of this video for
0:57how to texture low poly hair. So, make
0:59sure to stick around to the end. This
1:00tutorial is going to be a little bit
1:02more advanced. So, if you're brand new
1:04to Blender and just starting out, I'd
1:06highly recommend you start with my low
1:07poly character modeling series, which I
1:09will link in the description below this
1:11video. Before we break down all the
1:12different shape types of low poly hair
1:14and talk about my actual workflow for
1:16making low poly hair 3D, let's talk
1:18about the absolute fundamentals first.
1:21In order to model low poly hair in 3D,
1:24it's really essential to understand the
1:26core behind what we're actually doing
1:28here, which is simplifying. In real
1:30life, the hair in our heads tends to
1:32have between 90,000 to 150,000
1:36individual strands. That is obviously
1:38far too much detail for us to model in a
1:41low poly model. So, in order to make any
1:43hairstyle low poly, we must simplify it
1:45into its fundamental shapes using as
1:48little geometry as possible. If you've
1:51ever studied drawing before, you may
1:52have heard that simplifying the complex
1:54forms of the human body into simple 3D
1:57shapes helps us draw and shade the human
2:00form. And in a similar vein, taking
2:03thousands of strands of hair and
2:04simplifying them into simple geometric
2:07shapes helps us model hair in 3D. As a
2:10result, finding references of the
2:11hairstyle you'd like your character to
2:13have, and tracing low poly geometrics
2:15forms on top of it can actually be a
2:17pretty great way to plan out your 3D
2:19model's hair. And in general, using
2:21references when constructing your low
2:23poly hair can be very, very helpful. One
2:25of the best resources for finding low
2:27poly hairstyle references are websites
2:29such as the models resource, where you
2:31can download characters from games such
2:33as Mega Man Legends and study how their
2:35hairstyles were constructed on such an
2:37incredibly tiny triangle budget. Any
2:40character models you can find on this
2:41website from the PS1 to PS2 era would
2:44probably be a very great source of
2:45reference as you're building out the
2:47topology of your hair. SketchFab also
2:49has really excellent 3D model resources
2:51available on it as well. But don't be
2:52afraid to get references of high poly
2:54hairstyles or images of actual hair
2:56because any hairstyle can be simplified
2:59down into low poly hair using the
3:02different hair shape types we're about
3:03to discuss right now.
3:06Modeling just about anything in 3D is
3:09easier when you split it into chunks. As
3:11a result, I like to split my low poly
3:14hairstyles into shape types. Keep in
3:16mind that this is just how I like to
3:18break it down for my own projects. And
3:20this is not a definitive list. Just a
3:22lot of tools, techniques, and shapes
3:24that you can use in order to model your
3:26unique hairstyle. But let's start with
3:28the most fundamental shape type of hair,
3:30which I'll call the head base. You can
3:32think of this part as the overall shape
3:34of your character's skull. Even if you
3:36have a crazy hairstyle that goes all
3:38over the place, beginning your hair by
3:41modeling in this headbase can be a great
3:43reference point for you to place other
3:45layers of hair on top of, such as the
3:47next low poly hair shape, planes. Planes
3:51are exactly what they sound like. These
3:53are literally planes that have no
3:55thickness, so they're paper thin, that
3:57represent the strands of hair that lay
4:00on top of the headb. These represent
4:03parts of your hair such as bangs,
4:04curtain bangs, cowicks, and more. I
4:08always start these with a literal plane
4:10in Blender that I then extrude from and
4:12align with my turnaround drawing. I
4:14often extrude from this plane and have
4:16triangles in these hair strands, which
4:18is fine because we do not need to
4:20subdivide our low poly hair. If any part
4:23of the hair I'm modeling is symmetrical,
4:25I try to put a mirror modifier on it as
4:27soon as possible because I'll be able to
4:29model it in 3D twice as fast. And that
4:31goes for planes very often. The next
4:33shape type though is what I call hair
4:35spikes. You can make these by extruding
4:38from a plane, then merging it at center
4:40in Blender. These are usually on the
4:42sides or the back of the hair. You see
4:44hair spikes in a lot of anime inspired
4:47low poly styles, such as the Mega Man
4:49Legend series, and you can see some
4:51examples of them here. Another useful
4:53shape type, however, are curtains. That
4:55name actually doesn't make that much
4:57sense in hindsight, but whatever. The
4:58name doesn't matter. They're the part of
5:00the hair which hang off the back of the
5:02head base directly for longer
5:04hairstyles. These are often just plain
5:06shapes with some loop cuts in between.
5:09And if you're keeping notes, you'll
5:10notice that on the back of Panty
5:12Anarchy's hair here, you can see little
5:14hair spikes interspersed with the back
5:16of her hair. That's an example of
5:18combining these different shape types.
5:20This next shape type is more like a
5:22technique in order to utilize image
5:24transparency. Hair cards. These are
5:27transparent clanes that have a texture
5:29applied to them that has hair drawn onto
5:31it, allowing you to have extremely round
5:35smooth shapes in your hair or highly
5:38detailed hair types that just typically
5:40wouldn't normally be achievable in a low
5:42poly count model. You can use this for
5:45very wavy or curly hair if you want a
5:48very smooth look in your low poly
5:50character's hair. or you can use this to
5:52add so much more detail to your hair
5:54without actually adding any more
5:56triangles to your model whatsoever. So,
5:58if you want to save on your triangle
6:00budget, this is a really fantastic
6:02technique. Another trick I like to use
6:04with hair cards are taking them and then
6:06duplicating them into a circular shape,
6:09allowing for complex shapes found in
6:11things like bunny tails or cheerleader
6:14pom poms. You can even set these up to
6:16be tracked to the position of your
6:18camera so that it's always following it.
6:20kind of like a sprite in Doom might.
6:23Games like Mario 64 even do a trick
6:25where some elements of their body are 3D
6:28whereas other parts are 2D. Doing so can
6:30really help you save on that poly count.
6:33That's called billboarding. Though I
6:34don't personally do that in Blender
6:36often. Finally, the last shape type
6:38we'll discuss here are what I will call
6:40boxes. These are the parts of your
6:42models like ponytails, pigtails, or buns
6:45that are made of 3D box-like shapes.
6:48Boxes are extremely useful for larger
6:50hair shapes and are usually made up of
6:52quads, but sometimes end in tries. You
6:55can see examples of these shapes in my
6:57Juliet and Carmelita models here. Notice
7:00how they combine different shape types
7:02together. With all these different
7:03techniques and shape types out of the
7:05way, how do we actually model hair in
7:073D? Let's jump right into my actual
7:10step-by-step workflow for modeling hair
7:12in 3D. Before I ever start modeling
7:16hair, I model the face of my character
7:19first, usually with this very simple
7:21face topology. I have a tutorial on how
7:23to model faces right here if you'd like
7:25to check it out. The first part of the
7:27hair I model, however, is the head base.
7:30Or maybe it'd be more accurate to call
7:32this the hair base because for my own
7:34workflow, I only start with this simple
7:36face geometry. Then after modeling my
7:38face and getting that face geometry in
7:40place, I spawn in a cube that I then add
7:42a series of loop cuts into as needed in
7:45order to make it more round and shaped
7:47like hair. It's always better to start
7:49with too little detail in your low poly
7:51model than to start with too much. I'll
7:53also delete half of my cube and put a
7:55mirror modifier on this so that I can
7:57get it in place much faster. So I don't
8:00have to model everything twice. It'll be
8:01way faster. And this part of the hair is
8:04usually symmetrical anyway. So to start
8:06off with, I almost always add a mirror
8:07modifier. After I've added a few loop
8:09cuts onto my cube, I shape it in a way
8:11that better represents my turnaround
8:13drawings front and side view. If you
8:15don't know how to place turnaround
8:16drawings in Blender, I have a tutorial
8:18that covers that right here. And as you
8:20continue to refine your hair shape, you
8:22can move some of the geometry on this
8:24cube a little bit more outward if your
8:26hair has a bit more volume in the sides
8:28of it or if it's a little bit more wavy
8:30and floofy. And every piece of low poly
8:33hair I ever build either begins as a
8:35plane or a cube. For example, I always
8:38model bangs with simple planes, whereas
8:40things like ponytails are modeled with
8:42cubes that I then modify as needed from
8:45there. And while I have actually modeled
8:47this hairstyle before, it still took me
8:49quite a few attempts off camera to get
8:51this looking correct. Even for me,
8:53modeling hair is not easy and takes a
8:56lot of trial and error. And if my
8:58hairstyles bangs are not symmetrical,
9:00like they're not in my case here, I'll
9:02apply my mirror modifier, then start
9:04extruding from my hair base directly.
9:06And again, don't be afraid to use
9:08triangles on your hair or intersect your
9:10face geometry with your hair geometry
9:12when needed because we do not need to
9:14subdivide our low poly model. So having
9:16tries on our model is perfectly okay.
9:31And throughout this part of the process,
9:32I'm pressing Alt + C to turn on X-ray
9:35view so that I can compare how my 3D
9:37model is looking directly against my
9:40front view turnaround drawing. I could
9:42also move my turnaround drawing in front
9:44of my model and just lower its opacity,
9:47but this was just a little bit faster in
9:49my case here. I'll also occasionally use
9:51the knife tool, which is K in Blender,
9:54to make new loop cuts around my model,
9:56along with the merge tool, that's M on
10:00your keyboard, uh when I'm in vertex
10:02select in order to merge verts together.
10:10[Music]
10:20Now that the basic shape of my low poly
10:22hair is in place, I try to combine all
10:24the different chunks of my hair along
10:26with my face geometry and merge verts
10:28together to fill in any visible holes in
10:31my geometry as needed.
10:35Something I'll do a lot during this part
10:36of the process is go to edge select,
10:39then I'll shiftclick two different
10:41edges, and then press F, which will
10:43essentially bridge those two edges
10:45together. Uh, which is really useful
10:47when you're trying to kind of fill in
10:48these holes here. And again, I'm not
10:50worried about creating tries here
10:53because this is a low poly model. It's
10:55not getting subdivided and it won't
10:57really be an issue.
11:02[Music]
11:08[Music]
11:15Heat. Heat.
11:23[Music]
11:31And here I'm kind of just playing with
11:33different vert positions and trying to
11:34clean up my geometry overall because
11:37just because something looks accurate to
11:39your turnaround drawing does not always
11:41mean it looks great in 3D and sometimes
11:43needs some final touches. And after my
11:45hair base is modeled here, I used it as
11:48a point of reference as I start blocking
11:49in any other hair shapes that the
11:51hairstyle requires. These are the hair
11:54shape types we just discussed. So things
11:56like bangs, ponytails, curtains, cowl
11:58licks, etc. This is just a quick demo,
12:00so this top apology here isn't perfect,
12:02but that's my hair modeling workflow.
12:03With all those techniques and shape
12:05types, you can model just about any
12:06hairstyle you can imagine.
12:09After you've made a few low poly
12:11hairstyles, it becomes much faster to
12:13make new ones after that point. That's
12:15because you'll be able to take an
12:16existing hairstyle from a model you've
12:18already made, then copy and paste it
12:20into your new scene and remix it into a
12:22new hairstyle rather than needing to
12:24start from scratch every single time.
12:26You can do this by going to file,
12:28append, then locating the blend file you
12:30want the hairstyle from on your
12:32computer, then clicking on the object
12:34folder where you'll find your hairstyle
12:36object. Just make sure you've named your
12:38hair object properly in your blend file
12:40before you do this. Not only does
12:41remixing hair save you a bunch of time,
12:43but it can also be a great way to study
12:46different hair modeling techniques. In
12:48fact, that's why I'm including every
12:50hairstyle you see on screen right now
12:52into a hairstyle mega pack. Earlier, we
12:55talked about the importance of having
12:56reference. And this mega pack gives you
12:583D reference of the actual topology and
13:01texturing techniques I use to create
13:03almost every low poly hairstyle I've
13:05ever made in 3D. This pack contains a
13:08blend file with all these different
13:09hairstyles, including all their original
13:11hair textures. In order to see exactly
13:13how I've built the geometry and textured
13:16these hairstyles, you can even use this
13:17topology to quickly remix these
13:19hairstyles into a brand new one. You can
13:21download this pack on my Patreon page
13:23today. Plus, this hairstyle mega pack
13:25just got added as part of my Gumroad
13:27course that teaches my full workflow for
13:29creating any low poly character. And I
13:31really do mean my full workflow. We talk
13:34about the fundamentals of character
13:35design, drawing turnaround drawings,
13:37painting textures, rigging your 3D
13:39model, animating it, and more. The price
13:42of this course increases on the 10th of
13:44August, so make sure to get it today if
13:45you're interested. Link to both my
13:47Patreon and the Gumroad course are in
13:49the description below this video. But
13:51now, let's talk about texturing hair.
13:54Hair texturing technique can vary wildly
13:57from different artist to artist, and
13:58there's a lot of options with low poly.
14:00In my texturing style, I like to keep
14:02things extremely basic and divide my
14:04hair shading into three separate chunks:
14:07base color, shadow color, and highlight
14:09area. My hair's base color is usually a
14:12pretty bright, whereas my hair's shadow
14:14color is usually at least 20% darker and
14:17more saturated. My hair's highlight
14:19color is often pure white, though
14:21sometimes it's a tinted color. You can
14:23find examples of either in so many
14:25different animations and illustration
14:27art styles, so the color choice is
14:29completely up to you. For the edge
14:30highlights I have on my hair, that's
14:32actually achieved using a Goo Engine
14:34exclusive shader effect called a
14:36curvature node. I get a lot of questions
14:38about this, so here's what my node setup
14:40looks like. This shading effect is
14:42unfortunately Guine exclusive for the
14:44time being. However, I guarantee this
14:46will eventually be a part of Main
14:48Blender after they've developed their
14:50NPR rendering pipeline a little bit more
14:52over the coming years. After I figured
14:54out my hair's base color, shadow color,
14:57and I've designed its highlights, I will
14:59put all three of those onto my texture
15:02map. For example, here's how that setup
15:04looks like on my low poly ALO model. I
15:07ended up putting these on Aulo's face
15:09texture here. However, I could have also
15:11added this to his body texture, and that
15:14would have been perfectly fine as well.
15:15I have my hair's base color right here,
15:18its shadow color right here, and its
15:20highlight color, and the design of its
15:23highlights right here on my texture map.
15:25For UV unwrapping, I like to unwrap all
15:27my hair models faces into three
15:30different sections of my UV map. One for
15:32my hair's base color, another for its
15:34shadow color, and a final section for my
15:37hair highlights. Before I start this
15:39process though, I will select all the
15:41geometry on my character that makes up
15:43their face and then press P to separate
15:45it from the rest of my hair just so that
15:47I can more easily UV unwrap my
15:50character's hair. For my hair's base
15:52color, I'll just UV unwrap it after
15:54selecting all the faces on my hair
15:56model. Then I move those faces in the UV
15:59editor to the section that has my hair
16:01base color. In the case of my panty
16:03anarchy model, I utilized a texturing
16:06technique called gradient texturing.
16:08Gradient texturing is where you add a
16:10gradient onto your texture that, in our
16:12case here, will smoothly transition from
16:14the hair base color to its shadow color,
16:17which gives my hair a really nice
16:20fall-off that makes it feel, you know,
16:21more 3D, less flat, and gives it some
16:24more color depth. And for my shadow
16:26color, I actually do the exact same
16:28thing that I did for my base color of my
16:30hair, where I select all the faces on my
16:32hair that I want to have my hair's
16:34shadow color. Then I move plus scale
16:36those faces in the UV editor to the
16:38section on my texture map that has my
16:40hair shadow color. And then finally, for
16:44hair highlights, I use my turnaround
16:46drawing as reference for where I would
16:48like to place my hair highlights on my
16:50hair. Keep in mind that at this point
16:52I've already essentially copy and pasted
16:54the hair highlights I already drew on my
16:57turnaround drawing and I've pasted it
16:59into my texture sheet. Then I go to the
17:02front orthographic view in Blender. Then
17:04select all the faces on my model that I
17:07want to receive hair highlights. Press U
17:09on my keyboard and click the project
17:12from view option. That will project my
17:14selected faces from the perspective of
17:17my camera, which I can then move and
17:19scale in the UV editor to align with
17:21wherever I put my hair highlights in my
17:23character's texture map. I try to do
17:25this for both the front and the back of
17:27my hair so that I can have additional
17:29detail on that side of the hair as well.
17:31And when UV unwrapping my bangs, I will
17:33sometimes use the project from view
17:34option after selecting them, then rotate
17:37their geometry in the UV editor so that
17:39the underside of my bang is getting a
17:41slight shadow on it. This is a nice way
17:44to add detail. And ideally, you have
17:46your hair base color on top of your
17:48shadow color or directly below your
17:50shadow color in your UV map vertically
17:52or horizontally so that this transition
17:54looks nice and sharp. But that about
17:56covers modeling and texturing hair. If
17:58you want to take the next step, my
18:00Gumroad course that teaches my workflow
18:02for creating any low poly character, and
18:04that's everything from how to draw
18:06turnarounds to texturing your characters
18:08and rigging your final 3D model, now
18:10includes my hairstyle mega pack as well.
18:13The value on this is insane, and as a
18:16result, the price of the course is
18:17increasing on August 10th. So, make sure
18:20to get it today if you're interested.
18:22Link is in the description below this
18:23video. Thank you so much for watching,
18:25though. Please like the video and
18:26comment below. and subscribe if you
18:28found this helpful.

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