Working with Hair Presets

Set up the scene:

• Continue working on your file or open the file spline_emitter_final.max.

Save your work:

Now that you have adjusted the hair parameters, you will save a hair preset for later recall.

1. With the Hair object selected, go to the Modify panel and expand the Tools rollout.

2. In the Presets group, click the Save button.

3. In the dialog that appears, name the preset Brown_Hair and then click OK.

Load a new preset:

1. In the Tools rollout > Presets group, click the Load button.

   The Hair And Fur Presets dialog appears. The preset you just saved is displayed in a thumbnail called Brown_Hair.shp.

   

2. Double-click the platnumBlond.shp thumbnail to load that Preset.

3. Render the Perspective view to see the results. The character now has light blond hair, but the parameters need adjustment.

   

   Platinum blond hair: default preset settings

   Presets are a good way to load hair settings, but often you need to adjust the preset parameters to get the effect you are aiming for. In this case, it looks like the hair ought to be finer and straighter than the default settings show.

Adjust the preset settings:

1. Change the hair settings as follows:

   • General Parameters > Hair Segments =30

   • General Parameters > Root Thick =4.0

   • General Parameters > Tip Thick =3.0

   • Frizz Parameters > Frizz Root =50

   • Frizz Parameters > Frizz Tip =0

   • Multi Strand Parameters > Multi Strand Count =4

   • Multi Strand Parameters > Root Splay =0.2

2. To test the results, render the Perspective view again.

   

   Blond hair after adjusting the preset settings

   Feel free to experiment with other settings.