Creating realistic Hair in Maya

    


Here is simple work flow to create a real looking hair  with a fast render  time  using   p_hairTK  Shader

And mentalray  in maya

Download and install the p_shader  from the below link , follow the instruction  in the documentation  available in archive for an easy installation 

http://www.puppet.tfdv.com/download/shaders_p_e.shtml
Get ready with your character and hair system 





Now let’s start the shading part of hair.

First you need to crate a polygon/nurbs cube(any object) in respect to the mesh you have generated the hair.  and instance of the three shaders : p_HairTK (Material), p_HairTK_shadow (Shadow Shader) andp_shader_replacer (Geometry Shader).









Geometry shaders, like p_shader_replacer, are actually less like shaders and more like plugins which enable access to features with in mentalray that maya cant normally get to. You don't assign a geometry shader to a surface like you normally would. Instead you hook it onto a piece of geometry using a slot in the transform node. This host geometry can be a simple poly or nurbs surface. It will not be visible in a render. It's only purpose is to be a place to plug in the geometry shader.

Select the cube and go  to attribute editor, under mentalray tab .enable geometry shader .




connect  the p_shader_replacer to the geometry shader (drag and drop the p_shader replacer to the geometry shader Slot)






Remember, the sole purpose of this cube is to hold the geometry shader. With the geometry shader connected ,the cube will not be visible in the render, but geometrycube  must remain visible in the scene otherwise  geometry shader will be ignored at render time 



Now select the p_HairTK  shader in hypershade  and explore the input output connections . 




Select p_HairTK1SG ,and connect  p_HairTK_shadow  to the  shadow shader slot .





Now select the p_shader_replacer  utilitie we created  and connect the  p_HairTK1SG node in the material (shading group) slot 




and enter the name of fur feedback in object slot





and here are some render and shadow settings i have used and the details of shader tweak


Render Settings




Shadow Settings





Shader Tweak




If you need to take an occlusion of character and hair together you can just

 Connect  mib_amb_occlusion1  to the out color node of a surface shader then plug

surfaceShader1SG to the  Material slot of  p_shader_replacer1  same way as we did for the color

enable ray tracing  and render .






and here is a simple diagram for a better understanding..