Stretching the basic styles

Last updated: 08.07.2001

"Parted left, parted right, straight down the middle.
Scientists say your hair never lies.
They've done lots of research, it may be just hype
But the latest findings cause me to tremble.
They categorize us into three basic types
By which of the Three Stooges we most closely resemble."
["Hairstyles and attitudes", Timbuk3]

Even recent versions of Poser ship with only a limited number of different hair models, and you can quickly get tired of seeing the same five hairstyles on all your Poser figures. Fortunately, you can extend the range of hairstyles available to your figures at the turn of a dial.

The basic technique is as follows. First, click on the hair model to select it. With the hair model selected, you can now change its shape using Poser's parameter dials. The dials you use are the xscale, yscale and zscale dials. With these, you can vary the dimensions of the hair along three axes. The figure below shows the effects applied to two basic hair models.

Not all combinations work equally well, and you should be careful not to exaggerate. Because of the way the models are made, over-increasing the value on the yscale dial can generate particularly unrealistic effects (the parting tends to become excessively deep). However, even distorted models that look strange when first rendered can be useful as the input to post-editing.

As well as changing the dimensions of the hair, you may need to shift it slightly. For example, if you shrink the hair vertically, the figure's skull may show through the hair. In this case, you need to move the hair upwards slightly. This is best done using the parameter dials once again, in this case the xtran, ytran and ztran dials.