Hair: Problems and Solutions

Yesterday was LONG. I had two tricky software problems yesterday.

First, I was working on Creed's hair, but every time I went to render the scene, Maya would crash. I finally figured out what was causing the problem, after hours of Googling. A forum on Digital Tutors had the answer. It was a little tricky to follow though, so I created a tutorial on how to fix it.

After that, I transferred Anna in her work clothes from zBrush to Maya, complete with all the maps, and set up the skin shader on Anna's body. I set up a turntable, though when I went to render it, Maya wouldn't do it. I don't remember the original error. However, I updated Maya 2011 with the latest release, and then the batch rendering was even worse. (Batch rendering is when you create all the images for an animation.) Maya would simply report that the render was starting... and then that it was done, of course with no images rendered out.

After a few more hours, I went back to the former version I have of Maya 2011, and it worked fine.

Maya is a harsh mistress.

Actually, it kind of feels like Maya is a wife and zBrush is a mistress. I'm glad they get along so well.

Here are two new vlog videos! The first shows a bit of how I'll be working with Shave on Creed's hair, and the second is the tutorial on how to get the skin shader and Shave to cooperate.