Introduction
Creating strand-based 3D hairstyles has always been a labor-intensive task, requiring significant manual effort from skilled artists. This process is equally demanding whether crafting a character from scratch or enhancing a capture dome scan, which typically only produces a surface mesh.
Copresence is revolutionizing this field by introducing the world’s first scanning solution capable of delivering a ready-to-use 3D groom directly from your scan. This groundbreaking innovation promises to transform workflows and empower creators with unparalleled efficiency.
How Did We Do It?
At Copresence, we harnessed the power of our proprietary data generation platform to build a robust statistical foundation for AI-driven hairstyle modeling. Remarkably, this process does not rely on personal data, ensuring ethical and secure development.
Our advanced AI groom predictor automatically identifies your hairstyle and refines it based on the images captured through our app. This unique approach bridges the gap between raw scans and professional-quality 3D grooms.
What Can You Do with the Hair Strands?
With the latest version of our app, users can:
- View and Validate: After recording yourself, you can view your avatar with its newly created 3D hairstyle to confirm it meets your expectations.
- Download and Edit: Subscribers (free first month trial available) can download the reconstructed groom embedded in a .blend file, ready for further customization in Blender.
- Standalone Exports: Standalone hair strand exports are available as Alembic (.abc) files, compatible with various editors and game engines. For instance, Unreal Engine users can directly import these assets, leveraging Epic Games’ official documentation for integration guidance.
The .blend file includes:
- Geometry Node Setup: Allows adjustments to thickness (red) and density (yellow) of the groom. The density is further influenced by a dedicated texture (green) embedded in the file.
- Blender Sculpting Tools: Enable fine-tuning of the hairstyle. For smooth edits, users can disable modifiers and work on guide strands before reapplying modifiers.
For those seeking realistic physics simulations, we recommend employing a proxy mesh approach. This technique, demonstrated in this tutorial , ensures seamless animation of hair strands by transferring movements from a proxy mesh. In our demo video, we showcase a result of our hairscan with physics simulations:
What’s Next?
Our journey doesn’t stop here. We are continuously enhancing our hair scanning solutions, groom asset integration, and related services. In the coming weeks and months, you can expect further updates to our innovative hair system, offering even more robust tools and features.
Conclusion
Copresence is setting a new standard in 3D hair modeling and grooming. By automating the most tedious aspects of the process and providing versatile editing tools, we empower creators to focus on what they do best: bringing characters to life. With more updates on the horizon, the future of 3D hair creation has never looked more promising.