How to Make Hair in Maya 8

Maya is the premiere software package for creating amazing CGI images and effects. It is used in everything from commercials to major motion pictures. One area where Maya excels over other CGI products is in creating hair and fur.

Things You'll Need

• Maya 8

Instructions

1. Open Maya. For this example, we will place a "Primitive" in the scene by dragging a sphere into it.

2. Go to the Hair Menu, and click on "Create Hairs." In the dialog box that pops up, adjust the settings. Set the "Output" to "Paint Effects." Otherwise, go with the default settings.

3. Go to the "Hair Systems Shape Node," and increase the "Hairs Per Clump" by using its slider, until you like the density. Keep in mind that the more hair you add, the greater the strain on your computer's memory.

4. Adjust the "Sub-Segments" by using its slider, until the hair is no longer jagged, but is instead smooth and flowing.

5. Adjust the "Thinning" by using its slider. This will change the ends of the hair clumps so that they don't all end at the same point, which would look unnatural. Now click "Play" down at the bottom to see your hair fall naturally into place.

Resources

• Autodesk Maya