Hair Models and Materials

Credit to MutantDemocracy for the writeup.

This page will teach you about setting up the model and bones for your hair.

• Mod3 Editing
  • Basic renaming
• MRL3 Editing
  • Which materials to use
  • Hair materials
  • Standard Materials
  • Coloring hair

Mod3 Editing

Basic renaming

There are some instances in which a hair mod3 can be directly used from a helmet. All that needs to be done is a rename to the proper hair. It seems that this mostly happens when the bones and mesh are very simple. For instance, the hair below is using the exact same bones and armature as the Banbaro Beta hair. [] This works because the hair is very simple and does not clip. The more complicated the bones become, the more likely it is that you'll need to edit the mod3.

In the instance you have a more complex model/bones or you want to be extra sure that everything looks proper, you can use model edits. For example, we have Banbaro Alpha hair here as a player hair. It's using an unchanged mod3 that has been renamed. Notice how the braids in the front clip through the arms? [] In this instance, the mod3 has been changed to properly use a player hair armature, so the braids behave much better and clip a lot less. []

Here we have a player hair, specifically hair105. You'll want to notice the bone located near the middle of the head. []

You'll then highlight all of the bones and the mesh, deleting them. Be careful not to delete the armature that sits in the middle, though. This gives you a clean slate to import your hair mesh and new bones. []

You'll now make sure to open the mesh and bones you want to use into a separate version of Blender. []

From there you need to select the mesh and all of the bones(Shift + Right Click) that you want to use. You'll specifically want the bone located at the face, in this case named Bone.002, as your focus and select everything connected above it. Note that although the bones located at the bottom of the braids are below the bone located in the face, it has lines only connecting to the bones located above your focus bone. This means everything is parented in connection to that bone. []

You'll now copy your selected mesh and bones(Ctrl + C), go back to your mostly empty mod3, and paste(Ctrl + V) your mesh and bones. []

You now have your bones already set up where they need to be, while your mesh will be higher up. You'll need to select and move the mesh back down to fit where it's supposed to against the bones. You will want to use the helmet model that you copied from as a reference for where the mesh needs to be located in relation to the bones. Do not move the bones. Use the blue(y-axis) and green(x-axis) arrows to move your mesh. []

After it is lined up properly, you will want to select the bone located where the face is and then select the armature. You'll then parent the bone to the armature while keeping transform.

You can now export after clearing up warnings or errors.

MRL3 Editing

Which materials to use

When modifying hair materials, you may be wondering which materials you want to use for that hair. The two main types of materials used for hair are Standard, such as Ch_Pl_Standard_Mt_12, and Hair, such as Ch_Pl_Hair_Mt_00.

Hair materials

This are generally more shiny, look smoother, and have a value you can edit to change how shiny it is. There are also less hair materials that will naturally support a fur map(FM) and don't seem to naturally support color maps(CMM). [] []

Standard Materials

Usually more matte and tend to naturally support fur maps. They don't have a value to edit for shine. They have more of a grainy and realistic look to them. []

Coloring hair

When using a material for your hair in an armor, you'll want to use one that will use your CMM. A CMM set up properly lets you color any area properly colored in that CMM. Conversely, when using a material for player hair you will not be using a CMM, because player hair does not use the same system for color.

Here we see a value of zero in the red box. This tells the game that your material will not be using CMM and can instead be colored when used as a player hair. []

This coloring does not work when used in an armor slot. Standard materials don't generally have this value set to zero, but it can be set to this to allow it to be colored when used as a player hair. []

Setting it to zero on an armor can also help by negating the use of a CMM on a material that you do not want to be using one. This means you won't have to black out a CMM, but can instead just change the value to zero.

Here we see a value of four inside the red box. This tells the game that you will be using a CMM, if one is properly able to be used by that material and the file path has been set up correctly. []

You can set this to four in the instance that you have a part or parts of your hair's model that you don't want being effected by coloring.