Creating Hair for DAZ Victoria 4.2 in Poser 6 or 7

Part II

This tutorial will give the directions for creating hair for Victoria 4.2. in Poser 6 or 7.

Step 1 - To access the editing tools for the hair, click on the icon with the head of hair. It is circled in red.

Step 2 - I, usually, start with the sides and configure them roughly; then, I do the back; and, lastly, the front. But each person will develop their own system. If when you want to select a hair group Current Group says "no hair," just click on any part of the skullcap and the Current Group will reappear. Or choose props and select skullcap to open all of them. The latter way is a better way of doing it. If you choose a hair group to open all the Current Groups, that group will always appear red.

Step 3 - To make styling easier, setup the Growth Controls. The numbers for Pull Back, Pull Side, and Pull Down are set just as a basic setting. It can vary. When you are setting the "Pull Side" for the right side it must have a negative number or it will go toward the front.

right side -0.00035
left side 0.00035

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Step 4 - I have labeled the tools I use the most. To start, make sure under Current Groups you have the part of the hair you want to change. I had "side left" selected and chose the "from left" camera view, also. Select a small section of hair toward the front of the face and pull it back using the Translate tool. Then, choose the hair that sticks out in the back and do the same. Do this for both sides. Don't forget to Clear the Selection between steps

Step 5 - Choose back hair and click Grow Guide Hair (picture on left). Select all the back hair with the Selection tool. Then, choose the Translate tool and with the image facing back, pull it down until the hair looks something like the right image.

Step 6 - Click Grow Guide Hair for the front hairs.

Step 7 - Now it is time to style the hair, etc. How you do this is really up to you. I'll just show what I did.

(A) Select the front most hair and with the Translate tool move it to form bangs.

(B) While still selected, use the Lengthening Control on the Hair Style Tool to shorten them. Do the same using the camera "from right".

(C) Take the rest of the hairs and select a group on the left and using the Translate tool pull the hair down toward the left side. You will need to vary the camera views, "from front" or "face camera" (depending which you used) to "from left". After you have deselected the hairs and selected some from the right, do the same on the right side. For any stray hairs in the middle, pull them toward the back using the"from back" camera view.

Step 8 - Next you will need to lengthen the hair.

(A) Select the lefts side and use the Lengthen Control. You will notice it goes out to the side. Do that for the right hair, also.

(B) Now lengthen the back hair.

(C) Select the left side and with the Translate tool, move the hair toward the face. Do the same with the right side as well as the back. You might have to select groups of hair more than once.

(D) Select the back hair again and, then, deselect with the Deselect button the lower yellow nodes. Lengthen just the upper part of the hair. Keep working with it until you are satisfied.

Step 9 - Go back to the main controls. Under Styling Controls, change the controls for setting the curl.The settings I chose are on the right.

For sides and back, respectively: 15.00, 100.00, 0.10, and 40.

For the top hairs (also called front since the bangs were not a separate hair group) the settings are respectively: 10.00, 100.00, 0.10, and 20.

Step 10 - When you populate the hair, the fewest number to get the look you want is the best. I started out with front 1,000 and sides and back 2,000 each. Do a test render with the Populate box checked to see how it will look. You will probably have to modify your work a little .Notice, how the render has shortened the hairs and they look straggly.

Step 11 - You are now at the stage to turn the hairstyle into something you want. Look at the render and decide what you don't like. In this case:

(A) Lengthen the hair to the back and sides.

(B) Increase the number of hairs for the back and sides to 3,000 per group and for the front 1,500.

(C) Select long ends and shorten them. Keep doing this until the bottom of the hair is partially one length. Do not have "Show Populated" while working because it can slow down the process.

Step 12 - Finally, select the left side and, then, the right and with the Translate tool. Push out the hair a little. Remember to look at the setting of the Falloff Slider and see where you need it to be set. This control is very useful and it will make a difference on how the hair you are working with responds to the Translate tool.
Step 13 - I changed the lighting so it was more even and changed the hair color. I did not do anything else in the Material Room because this is not a tutorial on using the Materials Room.

If you did not see the tutorial on Creating a Skullcap for Victoria 4.2, go to Part I.