Cinema 4D Hair Pack #1

Like making character renders, but not sure how to add dynamic hair? Love cinema 4D but not sure how to use their hair system? This pack is for you!

I've put together 5 unique hairstyles that you can use on technically any 3D model you have. Add them onto an OBJ or fbx, and boom - you've got some stylish hair for your animations. Only requirement is that you have Cinema 4D. I have Redshift hair materials on top of the normal C4D hair material, but that is not necessarily a requirement. Just makes the hair tone and colors look a bit more real.

The pack includes these 5 styles:

1. long ponytail
2. short men's style
3. half-up style
4. Mohawk
5. long straight hair

Hope you guys have so much fun trying these out! Please let me know if you have any questions or issues, i've never made a hair pack before so this is kind of the kick-off! You can message me on instagram (@virtuallyvisual) if you'd like! Likewise, any ratings or comments mean the world! I appreciate you all taking the time to try out the things I make!

Happy creating, my friends!

-Jess

Check out some of my other free & paid stuff:

- FREE sponge shader (C4D): https://virtuallyvisual.gumroad.com/l/sponge_shader

- procedural terracotta shader (C4D): https://virtuallyvisual.gumroad.com/l/terracotta

- procedural ceramic shader (C4D + HOUDINI): https://virtuallyvisual.gumroad.com/l/Ceramic_Shader

INSTAGRAM | BEHANCE | LINKEDIN | YOUTUBE

HOW TO SNAP HAIR TO YOUR CHARACTER (picture below)

• move the hair group into position over your model.
• navigate to the 'shrink wrap' layer under 'baldcap' and clear the model selection in the 'target object' area.
• drag your model's body/mesh into that area, once cleared.
• Voila! The hair now should 'shrink' to fit your model's head better.

HOW TO ADD THE HAIR TO A MOVING CHARACTER(FBX)

• follow the steps above first
• add the rigging 'constraint' tag to your baldcap layer
• check on the 'parent' option inside
• in the parent tab, drag the 'head' joint from your character's rig into the empty ;target' area field. see the photo below.

IF THE HAIR IS TOO STIFF - DO THIS:

• lower the 'Rest Mix' and 'Rest Hold' percentages under the 'Dynamics' tab for each hair layer. Some areas you'll want to keep the percentages as is, or similar (the ponytail and the mohawk for example, use high numbers for these to help keep their shape).
  

IF HAIR IS MOVING THROUGH CHARACTER (picture below)

• make sure you have a 'hair collider' tag on your model! You can find the tag by going to 'hair tags' --> 'hair collider'

HOW TO EXPORT ANIMATED HAIR AS AN ALEMBIC:

• firstly, you gotta cache your hair. head to the 'cache' tab for the hair layer, and cache. This may take a while.
• after this, head to the 'generate' tab. Uncheck 'render hairs' and where it says 'type' choose one of the shapes. 'Flat' will be the most performance friendly, followed by 'square'. This will render your hairs as actual geometry; however, you will not be able to use the regular hair materials on the generated alembic, so keep this in mind.
• Right click on your hair layer, and hit 'bake as alembic'. This will take a long time, but will then generate an alembic file of your hair as geometry!
• *if you get two layers after baking, just delete the alembic hair layer with the green hair icon. The one you need should be the geometry object.

HOW TO EXPORT HAIR AS AN ALEMBIC TO UE (for example):

• slightly different than the above. Style your hair as if it's resting on your character, or head to the 'dynamics' tab and 'animation' section and hit the 'relax' button to help the hair fall naturally. Then head to 'simulate' in the top c4d menu and go into 'hair edit' and select 'set initial state'. Then you can uncheck 'dynamics' in the dynamics tab. Unreal will handle the forces for us.
• Then, back in the hair layer, in 'generate' section, choose 'spline' for the hair 'type'. Make sure render hair is unchecked.
• Hit 'cmd/ctrl + d' on your keyboard, and head to the 'cineware' settings tab. Check 'save polygon cache' 'save animation cache' and 'save material cache'.
• Right click the hair layer + bake as alembic; make note of the file location.
• Open Unreal. Head to plugins and search for 'groom'. Enable 'groom' and 'alembic groom importer'. Restart Unreal.
• When you reopen, also open your folder in your documents with the alembic hair file. Drag this .abc file into your content browser. For the import options, you shouldn't need to change anything. Maybe rotate on import, -90 degrees for X and 180 degrees for Z axis.
• Drag into your scene, when it imports. Voila! You've got hair, congrats!
• For dynamics, double click on the hair/groom object you've now imported. When it opens the smaller window, find the little icon in the right panel for 'physics'. Check the 'enable simulation' and save your hair, and it should now have movement! :)
• you can also watch this video for these same steps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apsy58s2jAs