Locking Selected Points on Strands

 
 
 

You can lock selected points of the hair strands to the emitter object's surface, letting all the unselected ones roam free. For example, you can use this to create ponytails by fixing the points on the hair strands where the hair would be held together by a rubber band. You may also want to temporarily lock some hair points (such as tips) when styling to change the effect of the style operator on the hair. Then unlock the points after you've finished styling.

The locked points move with the emitter object, and you can move the locked points themselves, but the points stay locked down in relation to the strand when you apply dynamics or styling operators. The selected points are locked in space relative to the closest polygon on the hair emitter object.

To lock points on hair

  1. Select some points on hair strands and choose Modify Surf. Lock Lock on the Hair toolbar. By default, locked points are displayed with a little blue padlock icon.

    Guide hairs with selected points that have been locked.

  2. Add dynamics to the hair or apply a styling operator. The locked points are not affected, but all other points on the hair strand can move freely.

    TipFor a ponytail, you may also want to lock down all points for hair that are near the head so that they're not affected by dynamics.

To unlock hair points

  1. Select either the hair or just the locked points that you want to unlock.

  2. Choose Modify Surf. Lock Unlock. This makes them available to be affected by dynamics and styling.

    NoteIf you scale hair tips with locked points, the hair snaps back. Make sure to unlock any points before scaling, then relock the points, if necessary.

To hide or display the hair lock icons

  1. Press Shift+S or click the eye icon in a viewport and choose Visibility Options.

  2. In the Camera Visibility property editor, toggle the Locked Hair Points option on the Attribute page.