Day 136: Creating Prim Hair Part 3

This is part 3 of the Creating Prim Hair tutorial.



In this tutorial, we are going to add some styling to the prim hair we made in Creating Prim Hair Part 1 and Part 2. We are going to add some curls and some styling to the bangs. Also, we are going to lengthen the hair on the sides and back in preparation for adding flexi in Part 4.



You will need the hair you made in Part 2 of this tutorial. If you did not complete Part 2 or if you have already modified the prim hair, you can pick up a clean copy from the Prim Hair Texture package at Sirena Hair & Fashion.

Lets get styling :)

First, make a copy of the Tutorial Prim Hair. That way, you always have a clean base to go back to.



Next, go ahead and Wear the Tutorial Prim Hair. It may also help to stand on a pose stand while working on the hair.

1. Adding Curls

Curls are fairly common features on most prim hair. They are mostly made from tori (toruses) with a high number of Revolutions (up to the max of 4).

We are going to put one curl on each side of our head.

Right-click on the Tutorial Prim Hair on your head, and select Edit.

Click on the checkbox for "Edit linked prims".



Select the 2nd long lock of hair on the left side.










Enter the following settings:

     Size (meters) X: 0.500
     Size (meters) Y: 0.030
     Size (meters) Z: 0.030

     Path Cut B: 0.000
     Path Cut E: 1.000

     Revolutions: 4.00



This should produce a curl poking through your eye. :P

OK, now we have to move it into place. And heres the tricky part, because you have to kinda wing it... The goal is to get the curl to go straight up and down.

Press and hold the Ctrl key. You will see the 3 color wheels for rotating a prim. You need to rotate both the Red and Green wheels until the curl is about straight up and down.



Theres a trick that may help you when doing this. Lets say you are working with the Red wheel. You would normally click on the Red wheel and move your mouse around to rotate the wheel and the prim. See the white circle with the tick marks? If you move the mouse outside this white circle, you will stop only on the major tick marks. This will help you make things go straight, or up and down.



Now use the 3 Red/Green/Blue arrows to move the curl into position between the first and third lock of hair. Once it is in place, you will need to rotate the hair slightly using the Blue wheel to hide the top end.



Now, do the same thing to the right side.










Here is a video of the above steps. (Dont make fun of it, OK? Im not going to be an actress anytime soon :P)



Curls are great, because they are very flexible styling elements. You can adjust the amount of Revolutions (from 1 to 4). You can adjust the width and depth of the curl by changing the Size Y and Size Z settings. You can make little curls that just hang off the side of the head, or big curls, like what we just did. Take a look at the prim hairs in your Inventory and see how the professional hair designers use curls in their designs!

2. Styling the Bangs

Bangs are probably the most important part of any hair style. Its the first thing people see on your face. So its worth spending a few extra mins to make them look nice.



In this particular hair base, we have set aside 7 locks of hair to use for the bangs. You can of course add more locks or take some away. But in order to do so, you have to Detach the hair and rez it on the ground. You cannot add or remove prims while wearing an attachment. So for now, lets just work with the 7 locks.

Here is where I give you some general guidelines and turn you loose with your creativity. Remember, hair styling is an art :)

Here is a suggested way to style the bangs. Feel free to try different settings.



Change the Size X to 0.300 on all 7 locks. This makes these locks thinner.

On the 2 locks at the ends, change the Size Y to 0.200.

OK, now lets start rotating and moving these locks around.



Start by pulling out the 2 locks at the ends and rotating them until they frame your face.



Then use the Blue wheel and rotate the 2 locks on the right towards the right, and the 3 remaining locks towards the left. Now, start arranging them by rotating and moving them around until they look nice :)

3. Lengthening the Back and Sides

Finally, we need to lengthen the hair on the back and the sides in preparation for adding flexi. We will be adding the flexi in Part 4 of the tutorial.

We need longer (and more even) back and sides because the flexi hair will be passing through this static hair as you move. Having a longer base allows a freer range of movement for the flexi hair (and it also looks nicer :) ).



Start with the Back Center Lock (the lock of hair in the back and in the middle). Change the Size Y to 0.500. Now use the Blue arrow to move it down so the top fits in with the rest of the locks (but dont pull it out towards the back).



Now edit the 4 locks on both sides of the Back Center Lock and change their Size Y to 0.500. This will be a total of 9 locks in the back.



Now move them down until they are even with the Back Center Lock. You will notice that as you do this, it will create a bald spot on the back of your head.



Pull the locks back until the bald spot is comfortably covered. Remember that SL has a display issue: If you are barely covering the bald spot, the bald spot may show when viewing from a distance. So give it a little extra coverage :) You may need to adjust the hair up and down as well for a better fit.

Thats it for the back!

Now the sides.



Lets work on the left side first. Find the furthest back lock you havent worked on yet. Change the Size Y to 0.400. Continue moving forward and do this for a total of 7 locks. There should only be 1 lock left before the curl.

Now move these locks down so they are even with the rest of the hair.



Finally, do the same thing on the right side.



What a difference a little styling makes!

This prim hair may look a little thin in the back at the moment, but we will be filling those gaps in with flexi hair in Part 4 :)

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