Shaping Locks of Hair
In Figure 7.26, you can see the basic steps to follow to start creating locks of hair.
1. Select the top faces of the head; the hair will be created from them. Duplicate them (Shift + D) and separate them into a new object (P). Also, once the object is separated, apply the Mirror modifier (press the Apply button in the modifier’s options), as from this point on you will be doing different things on each side of the head so the hair looks more realistic.
2. Delete some of the faces from the sides of the head to prevent every lock of hair from extruding from the same height on the scalp. (In the image, the Subdivide Surface modifier has been disabled so you can better see what’s going on, but it will be enabled again for the next steps.)
Tip
At this point, to make things a little easier, you can send all the objects you’ve created in the scene to one layer (press M and select one of the squares), the cap to a second layer, and the hair to a third layer. This will allow you to work on the hair and be able to show or hide the components of the cap very quickly (by pressing Shift to add or subtract a layer from those that are visible on the 3D View header). Keep in mind that you have to be in Object Mode to enable or disable layers, and that you can also use the numbers on your keyboard, not those on the NumPad, to show or hide layers.
3. Select all the faces of the scalp, go to the Faces menu (Ctrl + F), and choose Solidify. Adjust its options; you may want to select everything again (A) to scale the new model up or down as needed to give it just enough thickness to stay on the head’s surface.
4. Select some of the faces created by the thickness of the Solidify tool. You’ll be extruding the locks of hair from them.
5. Make a couple of extrusions and make sure to scale the final face down a lot so it looks like a spike when subdivided. Adjust the vertices to how you want the lock of hair to look. The lock in the image is adjusted to the face’s surface.
6. Add some thickness to the lock by moving the edges that are on the lock’s front side.
Now, continue to do the same thing all around the head. Turn on the visibility of the cap layer now and then to see how the hair fits with it.