3in1 tutorial: How to process raw extracted hair and convert it to the fatpack system

Thread Started By Drebin Dubious

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Hi welcome to my tutorial I'm going to show you how to process your Raw Hair files but you can wear them in world
if you're using the Raw Hair files that I uploaded to the archive then they're in their raw demo state
this means that although you can import them as is is not a good idea to do so because when you extract here from Second Life or or any kind of mesh that matter it always comes out with doubles
this means that the hair or the body or the object will come out with double the triangles then it is in world
 
This means that you'll be paying more in the upload fee than you need to not to mention that the giant demo sign is still going to be attached to your head as well as the demo strands of hair
 
but don't fear that's why I'm creating this tutorial to help you process your mess beforehand
now I could do this for you you could just straight upload it
but if I did that to all of these hairs then nothing will get posted
because it's kind of time consuming.
 
I'm not going to show you how to extract the hair and they're already tutorials explaining how to extract rigged mesh from Second Life
 
the process for hair is exactly the same
 
so instead I'm going to show you just how to process your hair
and if you have the demo version of the hair and world how to turn your hair into a fully functioning color fatpack.
 
 
for this tutorial you'll need
a copy of Dark Storm or special viewer
a copy of blender
a copy of avastar
a copy of sparkles
and some sort of land where you can rezz items
 
once you have all those parts we can begin the tutorial
 
Beginning the tutorial
It's worth noting that whatever I do a mess extraction of hair I never really extract the hair textures this is for a number of reasons one is because there are so many colors in the hair that exporting him out and then importing them back in cost a lot of money
you could use dark storm or any kind of special viewers feature to apply the uuid from the texture to your hair and save money but even that is time-consuming
especially if you have various hair colors you have to search through the texture packs and find what color you like and then extracted and then apply it all over again
 
This method allows you to take your rigged mesh hair and attach it to the creators original applier system
in order for this to work you do need a copy of the original demo just to make sure that everything goes well
 
So for this tutorial I'm going to be using and Ayashi hair this is the Ayashi -Aya hair
[Image: 1518956952_nyVTyMEC3hZwXOf.png]
as you can see I have the demo hair and the bunch of hair colors that go with us h hair
( you may not need to have the actual demo forever hair as most hair companies use the same system or textures for the alpha and solid so in theory another hair Hair Hut should work on the hair you're working with if it's by the same company but that's untested we just use the same hair)
 
let's look over into blender and we can begin are processing of the hair
 
open blender and import your hair into the workspace
 
[Image: 1518957032_GHIYldGshfb4X7A.png]
 
when you import it into your workplace it should look something like this
the imported into your workspace
you open up blender
and select file > import> collada Dae
navigate to the folder that has your extracted hair
and select the hair dae
it should look something like this
[Image: 1518957057_7hmZg6znSbhLpAB.png]
 
once you have your hair imported into the workspace we are going to begin separating it into the proper layers
this will make it easier for us to select it during the processing process
 
 
to begin separation on the bones of the hair skeleton
[Image: 1518957115_HZ9SRqQ6NL8Y89q.png]
 
then press the m key
and move the bones to a separate layer
( the layers of the small boxes at the bottom of your blender screen select one that does not have dot on it)
for the sake of this tutorial we're going to move the hair skeleton to the last box
[Image: 1518957135_HBC26oUak0w3iyT.png]
 
the skeleton will move to the last box still here but it's out of sight so we won't click on it accidentally
 
now we're going to move to the removal of the demo
 
this hair has three layers of demo protection
the first layer is a giant demo sign above the hair
the second is a demo loops around the hair
and the third is the demo strands located inside the hair
[Image: 1518957176_DtPbuJ85aejyQhp.png]
 
we're going to remove these protections and turn the hair from a demo hair to a usable wearable normal hair
 
first let's get rid of the easy part's and remove the first two layers of protection
the giant demo and the demo loops
 
right click on the demo sign above the hair and press delete on your keyboard
[Image: 1518957207_jnjIAS7pvtKQj7v.png]
you'll be prompted for window asking if you want to delete it
select delete from the menu
and the demo sign will go away
[Image: 1518957224_7pfzzq6mJ4iZbU3.png]
do the same thing for the loops
select them and press delete
[Image: 1518957239_YiLocsjwKtvBVby.png]
now your hair looks pretty normal but it's still hiding the strand of hair this is where we'll begin our removal process of the hair
 
before we can take this next step it is very important that you have the Avastar and sparkles plugins installed
if you do not have them installed then this will fail and you will end up with a ruined project
 
the next step is removing the demo is the select all of the hair enjoying it together
to do that we first need to be an object mode
then press A key- this will select all of the objects in our scene
if you followed along that should just be the hair,no cameras or lights
[Image: 1518957262_a0U5nBwUmJxR5jr.png]
once all the hair is highlighted navigate to the tools tab and the join button
and all the hair should turn into one solid object
however because it is now a solid object the individual UV Maps are compressed
will need to use the Sparkles plugin to correct the hair issue
 
to use the Sparkles feature for this create a new window inside of your environment
take your cursor and move it to the top right corner of screen
you will notice that your mouse cursor will change from an arrow to a cross
 
[Image: 1518957276_qLMCtV3GcYIbH7P.png]
 
when it changes into a cross click and drag your screen to the left a new window will form
( if you noticed that the window is creating on top instead of the side press the escape button and cancel the new window creation action , you can then try again)
[Image: 1518957295_8nESU9U09B4eGIg.png]
congratulations you now have two windows
in the second window that we just create it you're going to change it from the 3D View
to the UV image editor
to do that select the little box in the bottom of left hand screen
[Image: 1518957309_TGDhK8Vu6qPBkKP.png]
and select UV image editor from the drop menu
[Image: 1518957326_KkmH7zSqicoJMSG.png]
 
you should now have two windows in your work environment
a 3D window with your hair model
and a 2d window will have your UV images
[Image: 1518957344_FT7zkxJgXV04JiN.png]
in the 3D window you're going to select your mesh hair and going to edit mode
to enter edit mode select your hair and press the Tab Key
[Image: 1518957363_FLWZwYqREMuN334.png]
once in edit mode place your cursor over your hair impress the A key
when you press the A key you will notice a UV map show up in the UV image editor and look something like this
[Image: 1518957383_g0an7TUVVzLAC8a.png]
move your cursor into the 2D window and press the N key
if you have sparkles installed properly bring up a menu On Your Side Bar that says Sparkles tool it may be closed you can open it by clicking on the small black triangle next to its name
[Image: 1518957401_n50Fvps6EONTPem.png]
when the sparkle tool is open you will see a list of names and small check boxes next to
check all of the boxes making sure not to miss any of them
(rest in peace fingers)
depending on how much hair your hair has there may be a small amount of boxes large amount of boxes either way you going to be checking some boxes
[Image: 1518957421_9trOQZ3fkHNkpdW.png]
once you're done checking all of the boxes press the button at the end of all the boxes
it should say copy to something something something something
press that button and wait for it to finish processing
when it's done you'll notice that the Box will go from dark color back into its light color
and the UV map Square will fill up and out in some cases
[Image: 1518957442_ewl5SqLyhfqhA0V.png]
don't panic and don't try to rearrange the UV Maps they're fine
 
once the box has been pressed and all the mapping is corrected, we can continue our processing
 
now we're trying to attention back into the 3D window the hair should still be highlighted
if not press the a key and selected all again
when the hair is selected we are going to press the w key
and select remove doubles from the menu
[Image: 1518957462_lX8MbEpWsECivD7.png]
when you do so blender will give you a notice telling you how many vertices were removed from the hair
screenshot 22
[Image: 1518957477_Sq3E4QcYz0PdzHD.png]
well it doesn't seem like a lot it really did help with your hair upload in the long run
next we are going to press Alt J
and convert the triangles to quads not that it really matters it's just another trick to lower the weight
to be honest with you we're going to decimate this mesh and it will ruin the topology of the hair but the structure of the hair will still be there the texture won't be ruined
the lower the tricount cheaper it will be important back in the world
 
okay now we come to a split in the road
you can do this part now or do it later
by this part I mean we're going to separate the hair back into parts and add a texture to it
this will give us a better visual when we are decimating the model
you don't need to do this but like I said it does make it a little easier
 
so what we're going to do is show you how to properly take it apart
we're going to go in edit mode impress a to make sure that it's all selected
 
when it's all selected we're going to press the P key
this will bring up the separation menu
from the separation menu you're going to choose by material
screenshot 24
[Image: 1518957504_SdDqapN3q1lkoxi.png]
what does does the separates the hair by its material
in Second Life speak that means that the hair is now separated by solid transparency and demo textures
 
so when we click on it you'll see that the hair is broken down into three parts
where is when we first imported it in it was a bunch of parts all over the place
separating it by material makes it easier for us to apply textures
 
 
now we have to separate them so we can apply it properly
like we did with the bones
[Image: 1518957530_LIEIRLJDBQcwgOR.png]
we're going to click on her hair and then press the m key and send it to another layer
for the sake of tutorial we're going to send it to the second layer
we're going to click on another layer of the hair and submit to the third layer
 
in my case I was left with a single strand of hair after sending the two layers of hair two different layers this is most likely going to be the demo strand of hair
which we can just delete or send to another layer( to ignore)
 
okay we're almost done in the blender processing only a few more steps left to go
 
so now that we have our two sets of hair on their own layer going to give them a texture
select the second layer and click on the hair that's there
right click on the hair and go back into edit mode like before we're going to press the A key
and bring up this hairs UV map
screenshot 26
[Image: 1518957546_3SFa1TSEIyQL39u.png]
now what's the hair still selected go to the bottom of the box and press open
screenshot 27
[Image: 1518957564_rkwrBExJ8T6J9Ql.png]
when you extracted your rigged mesh you are supposed to check the include texture spots when you're extracting this will provide your hair with an asset folder that contains the textures for your hair.
we're going to navigate to that folder( it says your hair name) assets
in my case it will look like this: \[^.^Ayashi^.^] DEMO Aya hair_assets\
 
when you go to the folder you'll see a bunch of files with the j2c format Don't Be Afraid we can still use these textures in most cases you may not be able to see them blender comes with a J2c format reader so you can view them in blender
simply press the button that looks like 4 Pages or little tiles here
screenshot 28
[Image: 1518957600_1T24XHtBzIyWa2Q.png]
and it will turn your file names into thumbnails so you can select the right texture
for the tutorial we're going to select the solid texture during the transparent one for now
 
[Image: 1518957618_RHjpyNymjTp3uqq.png]
what we select the texture it looks as if nothing has changed although the texture has been applied to the hair to see it we need to turn our attention to the the object toolbar\
if your toolbar is not showing put your cursor in the 3D window impress the N key
then the toolbar will show
when the toolbar is showing select shading
( you may have to press the small triangle arrow in case is closed)
and check the textured Solid box
screenshot 30
[Image: 1518957638_PZi6Ibz24wVTfQW.png]
now we just have to do the same thing for the other hair
 
exit edit mode and go back into object mode
select the other hair layer and and repeat the process
 
if Done Right both hair should have a texture applied
now that both sexes have the hair texture applied to it hold down the shift key and select both layers.
if Done Right both hair layers should be selected there layer boxes darkened and the hair would look combined in the 3D window
screenshot 31
[Image: 1518957658_AvI6XSJ0XJHMUfE.png]
place a cursor and the 3D window and press A selecting both hair layers
then join them together
screenshot 32
[Image: 1518957709_law9cwYwQvN8AAQ.png]
the hair should be combined and now on one single layer
now we're going to get to the part where we decimate the hair and reduce its upload cost as well as it's tricount.
 
go to the right of your screen and select the wrench icon
this icon is the modifier icon
screenshot 33
[Image: 1518957674_rRLGIA02eCvfqkS.png][Image: 1518957709_law9cwYwQvN8AAQ.png]
when you select this a drop menu will show, from the drop menu you're going to select the decimate modifier
a new modifier will appear and the toolbar
screenshot 34
[Image: 1518957733_rzwM0n2eKv541IW.png]
now when you come to the decimate it will reduce tricount of your mesh the downside to it is it will destroy the topology in the process
this isn't necessarily A Bad Thing by reducing the try count your mesh will be a lot lighter and a lighter mesh means that it will be cheaper to upload in world
this is why I added to texture because you're going to need to keep an eye on your mesh as you decimate it, we're going to decimate it as much as we can before the mess starts looking wonky.
once it starts looking wonky or too low poly then we stop
at this point you can change your UV window back into a 3D window and rotate the view behind the mesh hair that way you can see the decimation on both the front in the back.
screenshot 35
[Image: 1518957752_FgKiKVQQXih5V5Q.png]
now we're going to begin our decimation
bring your cursor over the ratio box click and hold I'm slowly dragging it to the right
keeping your eye on both the mesh and the tri count
screenshot 36
[Image: 1518957767_n9uqM2xsomjHJTV.png]
this is an example of the hair being decimated about halfway
screenshot 37
[Image: 1518957789_yEmkbb2UeWrWzMN.png]
as you can see the ratio gauge is a little half
look at the dramatic dip in the tricount
I press the apply button and this is the result
screenshot 38
[Image: 1518957807_CzvLGpzo9Pm2xm7.png]
number to Tri-County still a little high in this ranking in at 57k for the hair
Second Life Bikes low poly objects you want to keep your items mostly between 10- 20 k range 25 at the most. so this being so high we can still decimated a little more if you want
I'm going to decimate it some more but for your hair you can keep it at this if you want and just skip to the next part
screenshot 39
[Image: 1518957826_guQx0FmgttW5Mex.png]
this is an example of the hair decimated a second time it's worth noting that it is better to Destiny into segments rather in one Full Burst
so I would do 1/2 decimation apply then decimated again another half and see how it looks apply and if I think I can take it a little further I made decimated a little more
I tried to push it a little more than I should have and I got it down to 19 k
so from like 116 k to 57 k down to 19k this is the power of decimation
although I didn't like how I thought it looked when I got it to 19k so I pressed undo and went back to 25k.
now we need to do is bring in Avastar
this will allow us to converted into a avistar rig and if we need to adjust it to fit the skull of our character
if you have a custom shape you can use the import as avastar feature here
however I forgot to export my shape for this tutorial so we're just going to use a default Ruth rig
 
so let's go to a new layer
an add our Ruth Rigg
go to the bottom toolbar in select add>avastar> you can use quads or triangles it doesn't matter it's all the same
screenshot 42
[Image: 1518957965_gBHCL7KvqLi3BW3.png]
Your Ruth should be important and look like this
screenshot 43
[Image: 1518957945_mHzjjYDGcVV6iuW.png][Image: 1518957965_gBHCL7KvqLi3BW3.png]
press the to deselect the Ruth
then down the shift key and enable both the hair lair and the ruth layer
screenshot 44
[Image: 1518957991_baj3FHvVKPBJy0R.png]
the hair layers should be selected and looks sort of like this
if the hair is not selected click on it and it will be
 
what the hair selected press the r key and rotate the hair fits on the Ruth Avatar
it is worth noting that blender supports rotation commands
tell to get precisely on the Ruth Avatar you can enter the following command/ press the following buttons( with the hair selected of course)
R Z -90
and the hair should rotate on to the Head
feel free to make any adjustments you need this is great for if you have a custom shape and your boobs are too big hair and it's going into your boobs you can select the edges of the hair that's going into your chest pull the mouth as well as adjust in style it anywhere you want.
screenshot 45
[Image: 1518958016_iTCrmCTcQZQyMOu.png]
I'm going to leave it rotated
now once the modifications are done we're going to go back over to the modifier tab
the little wrench we used earlier
 
there should be one modifier activated on this hair and that is the Armature modifier
we're going to modify this Armature
by default the object will have Avatar listed as the Armature the hair is rigged to
we're going to click on that and change it from Avatar to whatever avastar rig is
in this case the avastar rig is named Avatar . 001
screenshot 47
[Image: 1518958076_iBww09lI5l7PBOk.png]
now when we move our Avastar's rig you'll see the hair move with it
( side note: if your hair is not moving because the Creator used fit mesh bones instead of classic bones to rig the hair you may need to enable all the stars Fit mesh Bones from the avastar fitting tab, just select half way)
 
okay last step in blender
we're going click on the bones and press alt R
to reset rotation to default
 
 
click on the hair and go back into edit mode( press the tab button)
and like before we're going to press p
and select by material
screenshot 48
[Image: 1518958098_7AZMh3iBklZ0d1e.png]
select the hair layer and press A selecting all the parts again
the part selected go to file > export> Collda Dae (Avastar)
save it in a project folder and upload to Second Life
you're now free to close blender we're pretty much done with it now
 
 
now I uploaded this hair into second life and it cost me 22 L
it would have been a lot cheaper upload each part individually because I'm putting them in together seem to fail ( which sucked)
anyway both pieces of hair are in world in rezzed on the ground
while they're on the ground I'm also going to create a small box
now we're going to link the hair meshes and box together
making sure that the Box is the parent Prim and the hair is a child Prim
you do this by selecting the Box last. it's done right the hair should be highlighted in blue and the Box should be highlighted and yellow.
screenshot 49
[Image: 1518958110_dzqZS2DEGlUjzkv.png]
I made a copy of this just in case I was wrong
The Next Step requires you to have the original hair's demo
because we're going to take the script from it as well as his texture coordinates
so let's begin
first you're going to need to decide which hair has the transparent texture in which hair has the solid texture
the rule of thumb is usually the hair with the most pieces is the solid hair
why the thinner hair is the transparent
this is why I made a duplicate just in case we were wrong
( also as a side note make sure your demo hair is rezzed on teh ground, if it has a no rezz script in it, go to a sim with No scripts enabled and rezz it there)
 
click on the hair and apply to texture you think work
We can use the texture eyedropper for this part as when we select the hair HUD it'll overwrite the hair texture anyway( so no need to spend anymore money)
Click on the hair and open up the second life build menu
check the edit linked box, then select the texture tab
click on the texture box and it will open the texture menu
Select the eyedropper and place the eyedropper on your hair selecting the solid texture
screenshot 50
[Image: 1518958134_JzpxZZj7RORB9YA.png]
Click on the second hair mesh and repeat the steps only this time select the
transparent/ Fringe hair
 
if that does not work you can always the hair from the asset menu
because they're in the JC2 format you'll have to bulk upload them
 
Okay now click on your hair grabbing the solid part
switch to the texture tab and press the copy button at the bottom of the menu
screenshot 51
[Image: 1518958151_Kt6Erlp7vTMc4S2.png]
now select the imported hair that you textured solid and press paste
Do the same for the transparent hair and the just in case duplicates
your workspace should look like this
screenshot 52
[Image: 1518958165_pY919ANwfzFZzRp.png]
alright let's part
adding Scripts
open the build menu and select your demo hair
go to the content tab and drive all of its contents into your inventory
screenshot 53
[Image: 1518958178_f4Sx2EnxMAQwEwV.png]
while still in build menu select the edit link button then select the general tab
click on your demo hair and look at the name of the hair
you'll notice that the hair links with the transparent the name Alpha while the solid parts of the hair have the name 0 Alpha
screenshot 44 and 45
[Image: 1518958214_bGeNVKilxF98LMa.png][Image: 1518958224_11OYiB9pI3FLDIJ.png]
we're going to copy the names of the hair exactly how it's written and place them on are imported hair
so we're going to name our solid imported hair: 0alpha just like the demo
and are transparent/ fringe imported hair: alpha just like the demo
screenshot 56
[Image: 1518958288_XfA73pTrqBkP17s.png]
now all that's left for us to do to drag the scripts we took from the demo and place it inside the hair
open your hair color hood that came with the demo and press a button on their testing the hair color
if done properly the hair should change colors now
screenshot 57
[Image: 1518958385_aKCCTKNMS88rDWl.png]
now what to do about those boxes
we need to make them invisible
and small so right click on the boxes and go back into build mode,
select stretch and make it as small as possible then turn the transparency to 100
and now all you have to do take it into your inventory and press where and wear it on your head
screenshot 58
[Image: 1518958403_npzOrT8IzH1389J.png]
see now I have all the colors of the rainbow and no demo( I think this is the backwards one..ignore this results screen, yours will look much better XD)
the downside to this is because description no mod no transfer the hair also because no mod new transfer
so if you want to give this to your alts or something like that you'll have to buy the demo, remove the scripts and just give them the hair that's already been named and given the proper texture coordinates, have them add the scripts to the hair and wear it
 
Reply


#2
:ThumbsUp: 

Great job with this tutorial.  I need download the software and try it. 
Have you tried no_cloud hair?  Same process?

rep sent
Reply


#3
I haven't, in theory it should since alot of these companies seem t o use the same texture system
i did try this on Ayashi, Truth, LCKY, and Exxes hair so far.
Reply


#4
Great Tutorial!
Reply


#5
hi i love your videos :)
Reply


#6
do you have a copy of sparkles 2.3.4 that you would be willing to share? :P
Reply


#7
okie dokie sounds good
Reply


#8
thanks for giving me this
Reply


#9
Thanksss I appreciate
Reply


#10
Looking forward to seeing this! Thanks!
Reply




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