Paint Hair Follicles

You can use the Paint Hair Follicles Tool to add dynamic hair to a NURBS or polygonal surface, to remove hair, or to paint follicle attributes of an existing hair system.

The Paint Hair Follicles menu item is located under the nHair menu in the nDynamics menu set (nHair > Paint Hair Follicles).

For more information, see Create your own hair on surfaces and Paint hair follicles. See also How Artisan brush tools work of the Artisan guide.

Paint Hair Follicles Settings

These are descriptions of the options in the Paint Hair Follicles Settings window. For descriptions of the attributes in the Tool Settings editor, see Artisan Tool Settings of the Artisan guide.

Paint Modes

These are descriptions of the Paint Modes you can select in the Paint Hair Follicles Settings window.

Create Follicles: Adds follicles to the surface as you paint. The follicles that are created and their appearance are based on the Density, Points Per hair and Hair Length settings in the Paint Hair Follicles Settings window.

To create a new hair system, select Create New from the Hair System drop-down list and then paint on the surface. To paint hair on an existing hair system, select the hair system from the Hair System drop-down list and then paint on the surface.
Create Passive Follicles: Adds passive follicles to the surface as you paint. Passive follicles draw their attributes and behavior from their neighboring active follicles/curves at the start of the simulation. For more information about passive curves, see Passive Fill.
Delete Follicles: Removes follicles from the surface as you paint.
Edit Follicle Attributes: Modifies the follicles you paint based on the settings in the Paint Hair Follicles Settings window. Specify which hair system you want to paint or all hair systems in the Hair System drop-down list.

TipIf the hair appears to start “off” the surface, you can paint the Surface Inset attribute.
If you paint Curl Mult, but the hair doesn’t become curly or curlier, then the hair system’s Clump Curl value is set to 0.5, which means no curl.
Trim Hairs: As you paint over the hairs they are trimmed based on the Value you specify for the Replace operation in the Paint Hair ToolAttribute Editor. The length that is trimmed is relative to the existing hair Length value.
Extend Hairs: As you paint over the hairs they are lengthened based on the Value you specify for the Replace/Add operation in the Paint Hair ToolAttribute Editor. The length that is extended is relative to the existing hair Length value.

Paint Hair Follicles options

These are descriptions of the options you can select once you’ve specified a Paint Mode.

Follicle Attribute: Select the follicle attribute to paint using the EditFollicle AttributesPaint Mode. Specifically, you can paint Clump Width Mult, Damp, Start Curve Attract, Attraction Damp, Density Mult, Curl Mult, Clump Twist Offset, Color Blend, Braid, Hair Scale, Inclination, Roll, Polar, Surface Inset, Stiffness.
Hair System: Select which hair system to paint.
Output: If Paint Mode is Creating Follicles, then select the type of hair output. For descriptions of hair output types, see Hair Output.
Follicle Density U: If Paint Mode is Creating Follicle, this value represents the number of follicles to create in the U direction.
Follicle Density V: If Paint Mode is Creating Follicle, this value represents the number of follicles to create in the V direction on the surface.
Points Per hair: If Paint Mode is Creating Follicles, this value represents the number of points (segments) each new hair has. As this value increases the hair curve becomes smoother. If the Paint Mode is Trim Hairs or Extend Hairs, this value represents the number of points along the hair affected by the operation.
Hair Length: The length of the hair in world space units (default grid units in the scene views). See Length.
Follicle Override Color: You can specify a follicle color override if you select EditFollicle Attributes as the Paint Mode and then select Color Blend as the attribute. You control the value of the Color Blend by adjusting the Value in the Tool Settings editor. A value of 1 means the follicle color overrides the hair system color; whereas a value 0 results in the follicle color having no effect on the hair system color. A value between 0 and 1 results in a blending between the Follicle Override Color and the hair system color.