Serguei Krikalev, a very talented artist from Rio de Janeiro, created another masterpiece in character look and design called "Sweet Girl". Flexing his unique modeling style he utilized Maya. Mari, and Ornatrix to achieve this great result. This project builds on Serguei's previous awesome render of "Russel", also made using Ornatrix for Maya.

Read on to see how the hair and cloth in great render were created.

Hair distribution setup

The first step was to create black and white distribution maps to denote the places where hair is to be placed on the character mesh. In the previous project, Serguei used a separate scalp mesh for hair placement. While that is an option, using a map can allow a better workflow if you choose to modify the geometry of your mesh at a later point.

The distribution map was saved as an image and file assigned to Ornatrix Guides from Mesh and Hair from Guides operators.

Styling the guides

Once the guides were placed on the mesh using the distribution map the next step was to customize and style the guides. New guides were planted in strategic places like the character's banks. Then comb, length, and smooth brushes were used to style the hair and define its shape. Many more brushes are available in Ornatrix, however, mainly these three were used on this character.

Tweaking dense hair shape

The guides define the overall shape of the hairs. Ornatrix Hair Stack was then populated with parametric operators which generate the dense hair from the guides and further refine the look of this hair. Guide channels, special data which can be defined per each guide, were used to customize the amount of clumping in different places of the hair. Guides were also broken down into groups to make them easier to visualize and manage.

Hair material setup

Maya's node editor was used to create the material shading network for the hair. V-Ray was used as the primary renderer due to its robust integration with Ornatrix.

Making the dress

To add realism and style to the character Serguei decided to add fine hairs to the dress, making it soft and fluffy. The hairs were added using Ornatrix Surface Comb operator which allows quick and easy setup of fur for any character mesh. Sinks were created to direct the hairs along the surface depending on their position on the mesh. Distribution map was used to make the hairs more dense in certain places.

The material for the hairs on the dress was created with a shading network in Maya. V-Ray hair material was used to create the soft furry look.

Making the boots

Boots were also made furry to expand on the cuteness of the character. A very basic Ornatrix hair stack was added using the Quick Hair option to create the desired look almost in a turnkey fashion.

The material for the boots was also pretty out-of-the box with most configuration going into the colors.

Conclusion

Using the right tools Serguei Krikalev created another stylized character which is faithful to the intended concept and look. Ornatrix for Maya was used for all of the hair and fur on the character, including the eyelashes and the cloth materials.

Ornatrix is currently in beta process and anyone is welcome to participate in testing and helping us to make it great. Please drop us a line if you want to beta test it.

Marsel Khadiyev (Software Developer, EPHERE Inc.)