How do I achieve this finish in Vray?

[AlexP]

Some great pointers. Thanks!

FWIW I was able to get vrayfurstyler to work in 2014, I just put the 2013 plugin in the 2014 folder.

[Mokiki]

I can confirm what AlexP said. Usually 2013 compatible plugins work in 2014.

[vlado]

I really wish FurStyler was in VRay as a default. It's not currently available for Max2014, and really should be native with the vray installation.

You can use the 2013 version, it will work just fine. Other than that, the VRayFurStyler plugin uses a part of the 3ds Max API (painter interface) that is not very well documented; also working with it is a bit quirky, if we include it in the installation it needs to be easier to use.

Best regards,
Vlado

[cheerioboy]

Another test with the VrayFurStyler



This is using the Brown matted preset, with a texture half influencing the diffuse. Lit with an HDRI

I can't believe I hadn't been using this before - I think I had just been avoiding VRayFur all together. Is there a way to bake the vertex color map to be used as a regular RGB map in the bend/direction slots of VRayFur? Would be great to just make a few maps that mess up the fur for times when you don't have time to sit and style.

[vlado]

Is there a way to bake the vertex color map to be used as a regular RGB map in the bend/direction slots of VRayFur? Would be great to just make a few maps that mess up the fur for times when you don't have time to sit and style.

Yes, you can use texture baking for that (f.e. put a VertexColor map in the color slot of a VRayLightMtl material).

Best regards,
Vlado

[AlexP]

is there any way to blur the egdes of the brush more? Im finding it too brutal and end up with circular stamps all over the place like crop circles.

[cheerioboy]

is there any way to blur the egdes of the brush more? Im finding it too brutal and end up with circular stamps all over the place like crop circles.

Maybe reduce the Max value and work on the fur with multiple strokes?

Attached my last test - in the render I tried rendering a baked vertex map - the left is a 32-bit EXR, the right is a jpg. So not much is lost in the loss of info


And here's the image I used in both the Bend & Initial directions. You could make a composite material or mix map that uses half one of these images, and half vertex color info so you can still add extra control over it.

[AlexP]

Looks great

I tried putting the vertex colour in a composite with a couple of noise textures to add some randomness, but didnt work too well for me. Probably because the noise only has 2 colours, and really you need 3 for this I guess.

[cheerioboy]

Yeah - I'd try using noise only for mixing other baked vertex maps or a vertex channel map that you control with the fur styler. Here I styled one square of fur, collapsed, and then copied the geometry as elements, rotating as I went to reuse the painted vertices



maybe style 2 or 3 squares and then place them together, rotating to add variety and see how that looks

[AlexP]

Is that using Vray Hair material?

[cheerioboy]

Is that using Vray Hair material?

Yeah, I'm also mixing in a texture in the diffuse to help break up the color