So, since RL is buddy-buddy now with Epic and we have the new Hair System coming out for iClone soon, does that mean the new hair system is actually Joe Alter's old Shave and a Haircut, that Epic recently bought out?

Please tell me it is.

No new hair system coming out soon.

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Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

Yeah, I know. I'm wondering if it's Shave and a Haircut. Epic Games bought it from Joe Alter and then open-sourced it almost immediately. While not exactly "the best", it's the first of it's kind and a powerful piece of kit. I enjoyed using it back around 2010-2011, with my old job.

I'm getting a major soft-spot for iClone and if their new hair system is based off Shave and a Haircut, I'm going to be really happy. :)

No -- you miss what I'm saying.  There is NO new hair system (not this year, not next).

CC3 will have some new hair shading options, and there will be some built in polygonal mustache stuff that will conform, but no new hair system, not like what you are talking about.  What we have now is what we will continue to have at least until 2022.

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Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

Oh! Okay. That sucks. Shave and a Haircut is integrated in UE.

No it isn't integrated in UE4.

I have always though it would be nice to implement Nvidia HairWorks into iClone (or more likely, Character Creator).  Even that is quite old in computer years now.  But as Kelleytoons said, no plans for any such hair extensions (pun intended) have been announced.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
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What a confusing thread lol.

To clarify for anyone reading: Unreal Engine has a “new” (past year or so, but still being improved) hair system that is “strand by strand”. It is incredibly realistic. Much better than just having a mesh for the hair (like a lego doll), or the previous standard system of “photo realistic” hair which involved “cards”.

But to use “strand by strand” hair in UE, you have to generate that hair (called hair “grooms”) with certain specific programs, and export them to unreal engine in a very specific way (an allembic file made of strands, with the hair groom named in a specific way). UE cannot make hair itself, despite what the previous poster said.

Maya is one of the programs that can create the right type of hair groom, and the plugin for maya called “shave and a haircut” has been an industry standard for a long time. Epic recently bought it, and it’s now free to use. So if you have Maya, you can use SAAH to make the grooms and export them as a properly formatted allembic to unreal.

Does Iclone support strand by strand hair? No. Are there plans for it to in Iclone 8? No.

Hope that helps!



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virtualfilmer.com | youtube

What are the improvements to hair and beards that they are advertising for this year? Updates to functionality of existing system?

Nathan

Not "hair".  And not "beards", really.  What they do have is a polygonal beard/mustache that will follow the visemes (as it stands now any such facial hair won't move as the lips move, although the main beard will move as the jaw drops).  So IF you use this polygonal piece (which I suspect will be allowed to be "tailored" via the use of opacity maps) you can have facial hair which deforms with talking, etc.

That's about it.

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Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley