Strand-based hairs shader (fur)

[LittleFisky]

Is there any way to make Studio's hairs look like this on octane's renders?

These pictures were rendered with IRay, using a special shader, which making possible to apply the texture to hairs root and tip

I can't attach the shader file here, but I'll share it if you ask.

[RGUS]

Nope... Octane don't do strand based hair stuff.
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=71635

[LittleFisky]

Nope... Octane don't do strand based hair stuff.
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=71635

I know. But it can render them if I'll tick "Preview PR hairs". Maybe there are some tricks to make it work?

[rajib]

If you have LAMH based fiber hairs then can render it easily. Here are 2 examples of the custom materials I am using on the wolf's fur.

Wolf 1 LAMH

Wolf 2 LAMH

For Daz strand based hair you can do Preview PR Hairs and set the Viewport Line Tessellation Sides to something like 3 to see the hairs in Octane and then add materials to it to show properly in the render. I guess the issue will be how dense the preview will be. Not sure if it shows 100% of the strands in the Daz Viewport that IRAY render will show.

Husky 1 - Daz Strand based Hair

Husky 2 - Daz Strand based Hair

Here is a quick test. The Husky rendered using the Daz strand based hair with the Preview PR Hairs and Viewport Line Tessellation Sides set.

All rendered with PT Kernel, HDRI environment, 1000 samples. Each render is 900x600 and took around 6 to 9 seconds to render. The LAHM wolf has around a million hair strands. Not sure about the Husky.

The wolf and husky both are using the image map that came with them plus the custom material. But I think the texture applies to the full hair. No difference between the root and tip. I guess it can be done but probably need to do some RnD. Wolf has full custom materials. Husky, I just did a quick edit. Have not tweaked the materials yet to make them look better.

Update:
This thread mentions about how to color from root to tip : viewtopic.php?f=87&t=66992. But it is related to C4D. Hopefully can be done in Daz plugin NGE.
Found another link viewtopic.php?f=30&t=57862&hilit=hair+gradient. Talks about W Color / W Coordinate. I don't think we have that option in the Daz Octane plugin.

[rajib]

Hi LittleFisky,

Here is the Node Graph of my custom Hair Material for the Wolf that you had requested. I am posting it in the forum as maybe others may also find it useful or as a starting point.

Fiber Hair Node Graph (NGE)

And here is one of my story scenes I did in which the wolf is shown prominently. The original render was 4K but for this post I have reduced it to 1280x720.

Scene from my story about my character Miho.

Basically in the Node Graph, you will see I am using a mix node with a diffuse and specular. There is transmission, Absorption and Scattering to add SSS to the hair. The specular node is used to add translucency and the shine. The transmission in that is different than what I am using in the diffuse. In diffuse I have a habit of using the same color in the transmission (or slightly darker using a color correction node if necessary specially when using whitish texture). I do this so that the transmission matches the fur color. This way darker part of the fur will have less transmission than the lighter part as it should be. You can play with different values to see what it actually does. You can ignore the rounded edges node, it is basically the default values for it. I added a Sheen node to the diffuse to add a little bit of sheen to the wolf's fur.

I have not tried the new Hair Material in 2020.1 or the Random Walk SSS yet. Will post again when I do and if I get a better result with it.

In the above image you can see the subtle SSS and translucency of the fur. The sun is on the back left of the wolf. If you need any clarification on the Node Graph, feel free to ask.

You might have noticed there is no Bump or Normal map being used. Fiber based hair don't need them. Also in the Specular material, you can control the roughness to control how concentrated or dispersed the shine is.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Rajib

[muchogrande]

LAMH works in the Daz Octane renderer? Can you give any tips on how to set that up? I'm trying and seeing nothing so far.