Making Low Poly Game Character Hair - Paul Tosca [Page 1]

1.Hairstyles

2.Game models approach

3.Example of hairstyle

* 3.1.Tools used

* 3.2.Painting the hair texture

* 3.3.Hair geometry

* 3.4.Using normal maps

4.Varga

This is not a step by step tutorial.I will nail down the main stages for creating hair for game characters using lots of images and some printscreens directly from the application used ( maya/photoshop etc ...). The idea for this tutorial came from the polycount forums ; for the Dominance War II contest i joined Polycount team and the folks there asked me if i can make a little tutorial about Varga's hair so here it is ...

1.Hairstyles

This tutorial is about women's hair but the technique work for men as well ;is just that i like long hair for women and my Dominance War II entry happened to be a chick. I can write countless words about the importance of the hairstyle and the effect that the hairstyle adds to the personality of the character;we pay a lot (especially women) for a hairdo and we spend a lot of time styling our hair ,or at least i am (every day in the morning i have to spend a few minutes to put some gel/foam in my hair, it does not matter if i will stay all day long at home and no one will see me ,it's just that i am not feeling ok if i do not have my hair done) so i can not stress it enough that the hairdo will reflect the personality of the character ,that will add a strong touch to the mood.

Where do we find interesting hairsyles?

Well ,there are a lot of sources of inspiration.First you have the internet where you can find tons of cool pictures, then fashion magazines ,entertainment mags (playboy will do the trick ;) ) and a lot more ... people you see on the street ... for Varga's hair i was wandering around in a supermarket to buy some food and on a shelf i saw a box for taft gel , ultra strong or something ... and on the box there was a picture of a guy with his hairstyle in big clumps pointing in all directions that i liked a lot... it was before entering the Dominance War II competition ... after i started drawing the concepts i went in the same supermarket searching the One box :) because didn't manage to find it on the internet ... found it ... took a picture and left.

Below there are a few variations for the hairstyle , some of them will be covered in this tutorial.