[Tinusch]

With a little help from Funfetus and a lot of experimenting on my own, I finally figured out how to make decent-looking hair. I know a few people were desperately looking for help on how to make hair a while back, so I thought I'd make up a little mini-tutorial.

First, make a new layer on top of the picture you wish to add hair to. Then begin.

Step 1: Make a blob of color in the basic shape that you want the hair to be in. It doesn't have to be exact, as it can be reformed later, but it would work best if you make it slightly bigger than it needs to be.


Step 2: Make a new brush consisting of randomly placed dots, similar to the one shown here. Works best if the dots are not touching each other.



Step 3: Make uniform sweeps along the color blob in the direction you want the hair to appear to be going.


Step 4: Use Burn(Highlights) and Dodge(Shadows) to make the shines and shadows on the hair.


Step 5: Erase all of the sloppy excess from the edges, and erase around the hair to get it into the desired shape. Reburn and redodge any shaded spots that got erased.


Step 6: Set the Smudge tool to about 80% pressure and use the smallest brush available. Smudge up from the background over the hair, to get small wisps on the bottom.


Step 7: Now smudge from the hair down onto the background, to make the wisps appear longer.


I know it's not spectacular, but it's relatively easy and if you know what you're doing, you could probably use that method or a method like it to make some fairly decent hair.

[eclipse]

That is one of the most useful things I've ever seen in this forum. Thanks.

[proximo]

ok maybe im missing something .. i tryed the tut and it comes out looking like some run over turd rather then hair could you possably clear this up for me ? like when you burn and stuff like that are you useing the same brush and thing like that ? its just not happening for me! eheh

[Tinusch]

The multiple-dot brush used for making the wisps shouldn't be used to dodging and burning. For those, use a medium-sized soft brush, amd set them on a low exposure.

[4s]

cool cool, thanks.
this multiple dot brush? .. is made in painter? ... i've only used photoshop so, i'm curious.

[CyberArtist]

No, just make a couple of dots, make a square selection around it, goto the brush window and click on the little triangle in the corner of the window. Select "Define Brush" and you should get a new brush in the brush list.


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-CyberA(rtist) aka Ben Golus

Cyber...

[Leo]

eclipse: nope, just wide open your eyes and you'll find many interesting things.

Tinusch: bah, how about posting this stuff as a stand-alone tutor? Well, nice technique (for Painter lovers) but for PS it dosen't work at 100% - need some help from custom brushes.

And last note: hey dudez, take a look to the gameart's spotlight ( www.gameart.com ) - i've found some cool Painter's tricks there! Eh how to transfer them into PS :-\ ?

/Leo



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IN ART WE TRUST

[Tinusch]

This is for Photoshop. I don't know a thing about Painter... If you have a tablet, then this hair technique should work fine. If you use the mouse, then just remember to keep the brushes at about 10-20% opacity at all times, and just keep working over the same area until it's as dark as it needs to be.

[Giant Hamster]

ive used a similar way of doing hair, to get this hairish result:
1.make yer blob
2.make some big dodge and burn streaks on it to make dips in the hair.
3.use a small brush and just sit there making lines flowing around with a darker color than the blob.
4.dodge and burn with a little brush and make strands. get a 1 pixel brush and make smaller stands.
5.do the big brush dodge and burns again to highlight. then sharpen your image if needed.
6.duplicate the layer and work on the bottom one with the smudge tool. this way it doesnt completely smudge shit out. and make that layer darker with the curves controls.
7. do not put in jpeg...it crappifies everything...argh! =)

after all that, you "might" have the said result,

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-JameZ the Giant Hamster-
the Hamster Alliance
www.mp3.com/jamezthegh
ICQ: 43691064
Musician,2d/3d artist, programmer,overall guru :)

[dennison]

nice hair

[Xcal]

Hey, this is a great, simple tutorial. I'm not extremely experienced with Photoshop, and I'm really glad I saw this. Thanks for the great tutorial.

[Dakkan]

on the topic of hair, i did this piece just yesterday... took me about 15 min.



if the pic doesn't show up, just go to http://secret_island.tripod.com/silent.jpg

[Silico]

Hey, thanks Tinusch for the Tutorial! Man that's gonna be so useful for me oooohh man you have no idea how much it just helped me! Thank you so much!

[n8]

while everybody else is posting their hair...this is my very first attempt at it from a few months ago...i was pretty pleased with the result....and now since i seen all dis other hair....ill fix it later...hehe

[Jess]

gianthampster is tha man...

[Wildkat]

Tinusch, I've been trying your technique... and I gotta prob.. when I make the new brush with the dots.... then go to paint with it, it just paints a long row of dots like this..........................
not solid lines...

It there a setting I'm omitting or something?



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Wildkat

[Tinusch]

It's possible that your computer is too slow and you're painting too fast, but more than likely it's just a spacing problem. Double-click on the brush and change the spacing around.

[hennifer]

this is my inaugural post on the sijun message boards. i know a bunch of you folks already (funfetus, leo, napalm etc) but i see a fair number of unfamiliar names...

anyways, i've got an image here that's got a lot of hair in it. with this image, i basically just drew what i saw. no fancy techniques, just airbrush & paintbrush in photoshop. with the oil-paint look that i was going for, this technique works quite well i'd say.

for more, check my webpage - http://www.spindexx.com/jpdesigns . i jump between different styles on a regular basis, so you might be surprised on the basis of this picture.




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hennifer

[Wildkat]

Thanks!!!

I never knew what the spacing was for... it's working now....

~maybe this isn't a bad hair day after all~



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Wildkat

[napalm]

nice hair henny, it matches the style of the portrait quite nicely. damn you and your two hour painting skills... although I should probably try to adopt your "hey, im not getting paid for it so i better do it fast" philosophy so I can pay the rent this month

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napalm (cia productions)
http://www.creators.org

[ArtKeo]

Hi guys,

I'm new here and I need some help with this painting concerning hair. I have read some of the tips given in this thread. But, I would like to know if it is possible for me to colour the hair with a mouse and have equal good effects. Do all of you own digital tablets? I don't have one at the moment.




thanks.

[yesniyah]

hey how do you create a new brush similar to the one shown above? I'm using pshop 5.02 . Thanks for yur help.
-LEO

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Live long, stay hard, keep juggling, learn how to block eddy and frag anything that moves!!!

http://www.redrival.com/yesniyah
ICQ #50110302

[Tinusch]

Heh... I forget... Anyone wanna help out here?

[yesniyah]

you forgot? If I could only rreach out and cyber slap you. he he he

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Live long, stay hard, keep juggling, learn how to block eddy and frag anything that moves!!!

http://www.redrival.com/yesniyah
ICQ #50110302

[Trance-R]

You select the brush area with box marquee tool. Then click on that arrow in the brush window. Choose define brush, then you're done.

[yesniyah]

thanks. i tried that but i couldn't get it to work. Could you be a bit more specific?

[Trance-R]

Ok... You draw something...mebe a black patch with your airbrush. Then use a selection tool (marquee, the square one) and select the black patch. In the "brushes panel" (there should be a window with different brushes in it, if not, click on window->show brushes). Locate that arrow around the top left corner of the brush windo (the arrow, not the cross). Click on that thing, then a menu pops up. click on define brush. And you should find your brush at the bottom.
It's as simple as that. I couldn't explain it any better. =)

[yesniyah]

thanks for the help. It actually worked this time. Problem was I didn't make the little dots first. he he

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Live long, stay hard, keep juggling, learn how to block eddy and frag anything that moves!!!

redrival.com/yesniyah
ICQ #50110302

[Fallen]

I just draw my hair strand by strand, the old fashion way.


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Transcend.

www.giveintosin.com

[proximo]

this is how you do hair