ZBrush FiberMesh to strands compound

[floeberle]

my, things go around

just wanted to let you know that i finally managed to give the compound a little more love
i've packed the whole thing into an addon, so it's mainly a single click solution now.
and i've prepared the strands so it's possible to work with the built in Strand Dynamics setup now.

i will post some kind of documentation (maybe even a little video) and some examples tomorrow. (fingers crossed)

in the meantime just grab the zip i attached, unpack and install the contained addon.
after installation you'll find a new menu entry Get>>Primitive>>FiberMesh To Strands.
just select your imported Fibersand run. if things go well you'll have your FinerMesh converted into strands.

have fun
flo

btw. very cool model Toonafish!

fe_FiberMeshToStrands.zip

(19.05 KiB) Downloaded 263 times

[fjg]

Got this error: OLE error 0x80020101 (Line 104)
Also these lines were noted: 105, 133, 155, 2

[floeberle]

the error states that soft can't find the necessary compounds as they don't seem to get registered when installing the addon

solution:
after installing the addon you have to either restart soft or click the little update icon on the nodes panel (right next to the search field) in any icetree, so the compounds get loaded.

that should get you started.
let me know if you still have problems

flo

[fjg]

Its working now, Thanks for the info - I'll restart next time I see that error. Thanks for sharing this!

[rray]

thanks for sharing the compound btw ;)

[floeberle]

nullo problemo rray ;)

so here's a little video showing how the 'FiberMesh To Strands' works.

download the addon here:
http://www.florianeberle.com/downdown/F ... trands.zip
(creates the menu entry 'FiberMesh To Strands' under Get>>Primitive)

or the bare ICE compounds here:
http://www.florianeberle.com/downdown/F ... pounds.zip

and here's a little extra information:
http://www.florianeberle.com

have fun
flo

Newcomer (<20 posts) alert: please use the URL tags - HB

[floeberle]

i have updated this plugin to integrate the new ability of ZBrush R3 to export the FiberMesh as Guide Curves.

there are three new features:

- FiberCurve .obj import
- convert FiberCurves to strands
- and i added an option in the compounds that make them work together with Melena

you can read more about it here http://florianeberle.com/2012/02/29/fib ... ds-update/

and grab the addon from here http://www.florianeberle.com/downdown/F ... trands.zip


have fun
flo

[rray]

That was fast cheers!

[rray]

Got a chance to test it -- works great.

When exporting, ZBrush has a bug that makes it occasionally write #INF. for the coordinates of a strand - these files don't import correctly. After editing the obj file in a text editor, looking for "INF" and deleting those strands, it imported nicely:

[floeberle]

nice one ;)

never had that happening, but i haven't worked with fibermesh a lot lately.
any chance you can send me one of those corrupted .obj files.
i could have a look at skipping these particular fibers on import then.

thanks
flo

[rray]

Cool cheers! Will do once I encounter such a file again. The mentioned evidence was destroyed by being repaired

It's a great hair styling tool for short to medium length hair. Maybe also long hair but that's much more difficult.

[Kerro Perro]

Hey i've gotting this to work and render nicely but can anyone tell me how to make it stick to a mesh for animation/dynamics?
I googled on it a bunch of times but can't find much about it - let alone how to do it in SI...

I hope it's not a limitation of technology that it just creates "floating" haircuts, would make it pretty pointless for animation...

Why is hair always such a headache? ;)

[Mathaeus]

Hey i've gotting this to work and render nicely but can anyone tell me how to make it stick to a mesh for animation/dynamics?
I googled on it a bunch of times but can't find much about it - let alone how to do it in SI...

I hope it's not a limitation of technology that it just creates "floating" haircuts, would make it pretty pointless for animation...

Of course it is possible, there are many ways to do this in ICE. From my understanding, it seems to be implemented as Melena operator (maybe I'm wrong). If so, you'll be able to simulate like anything else in Melena. Probably best way is to take look at docs again, or ask author.

Method could be specific , usually you won't find exact procedure on internet.

[Kerro Perro]

Well i'm not sure what you mean by it's implemented as a melena operator...
I did look at melena docs but that system is based on having a "generator" - nurbs or polys or curves, i could not work out a way to do it from those docs.

You say it can, great! Any pointers on how other than "go learn ICE"?

And as for asking the author he posted in thread so i think this is a good place to ask.

[Kerro Perro]

Oh oops i've just read flo erbe's blog and noticed there is an "fe_Fiber Emit Location" node included in his add-on...

I don't have time to test now but i think that might be a good start... sorry stupid of me!

[rray]

This could help, I think I remember there is (was?) a video somewhere on the author's site also where he explains dynamics etc.

Btw.. random tip using this compound... Before importing the fiber curves, make sure no 3D view is open. Only open a 3D view after converting to a point cloud/deleting the fibercurve object. Saves minutes of your lifes!