How to make hat chops for TS4 hair
Dec 21, 2021 17:55:23 GMT -5
gisheld, Fwecka (Lolabellesims), and 4 more like this
Post by mauvemorn on Dec 21, 2021 17:55:23 GMT -5
The tutorial is beginner-oriented, which makes it a bit long, but it takes max 5 minutes to do this.
WHAT ARE HAT CHOPS?
Many TS4 items are made of multiple parts to tune each of them differently. On this forum we refer to these parts as meshgroups.
Hair items are made of 3 meshgroups: 2 hat chops ( for two types of hats ) and the base shape (worn without hats).
"Hat chop" is what we call a version of the hair mesh that is missing the top area to prevent it from clipping with a specific type of hats.
Hair items are made of 3 meshgroups: 2 hat chops ( for two types of hats ) and the base shape (worn without hats).
"Hat chop" is what we call a version of the hair mesh that is missing the top area to prevent it from clipping with a specific type of hats.
HOW TO MAKE HAT CHOPS?
1). Prepare the scene:
Please name everything as I suggest just this time to not encounter problems while following along.
3). Duplicate the Base:
Please name everything as I suggest just this time to not encounter problems while following along.
- clone ( Create 3d mesh/Stanalone ) a hair item that is similar to yours ( Yours covers breasts? Find a similar one ), export the blend file, name it Reference;
- open Reference.blend file, select any s4studio_mesh, double-click to rename it to “r(eference)_(the last digit of its cut number)”. Do it for the remaining meshgroups, deleting the one with 0002 (it is always a base shape). Do not have S4Studio CAS Tools and cut numbers in your Blender?
- File - Append ( or Shift F1 ). Find the .blend file with your hair, choose it, then Object. Select the meshgroup of your hair, then Append. Rename the appended meshgroup to Base;
- Select Base, change Type to GEOM, Cut to 002;
- Delete all rig.00x and bone_bone_shape.00x.
2). Prepare the hair to be modified:
There are a few extra steps you can do to get better results. All steps can be done to Maxis match/Clay hair but do not remove doubles on Alpha/Realistic hair (it will remove its inner side).
- Quadrangulate the mesh if it is triangulated. Turning tris to quads will minimize the number of vertices that will be created as a result of Bisect operation. Select Base, switch to Edit mode, select the whole mesh with A, Mesh - Faces - Tris to quads. Enabling Compare UVs will ensure no edge that is on the border of uv islands will be removed.
- Remove doubles. Doing this will prevent the mesh from splitting during the shape adjustment process. Again, do not do this to Alpha hair because it is made differently. If the hole inside the hairline is not covered, in Edit mode (TAB) select the whole mesh with A, Tools - Remove doubles with Merge distance set to 0.0001. If it is covered, you should not remove the doubles along the hairline, can mess up the vertex paint. (Optionally) hide the whole head area under the rig, disable Limit selection to visible, select the vertex in the middle, Select - Select Linked to select the whole geometry, Select - Inverse to select the rest of the hair, Tools - Remove doubles with Merge distance set to 0.0001;
- Marking seams. This can prevent you from accidentally deleting the edge that is on the borders of uv islands if you will decide to manually clean up the cut. In UV editor simply click on UVs and choose Seams from islands.
3). Duplicate the Base:
- Select Base, in Object mode in 3D view press Shift D to duplicate, then Esc to confirm;
- Rename Base.001 to Hat_chop_0, change its cut number to 0000;
- Repeat the process one more time, renaming the copy to Hat_chop_1 and giving it 0001.
4). Cut the mesh:
There are a number of ways of doing this but I think the one with Bisect is the fastest.
If you were to look at the reference, you'd see that it is cut along the straight line. However, in most cases doing it will cut out a bit too much, so I suggest you to reshape the back of the hair first.
- Switch to orthographic ( NUM5 ) side ( NUM3 ) view. Make r_0 visible, select Hat_chop_0. Change Maximum Draw Type to Wire ( or you can change the shading of the whole scene ). Disable Limit selection to visible, switch to Vertex select. Enable Proportional editing. Select a few vertices at the back, press G ( to move ) Y ( depth axis ) or click on the green axis. Scrolling the mouse wheel up, adjust the radius as you move them until the mesh reaches the border of the reference. Do not worry about everything else for now, it will be easier to adjust once the mesh is cut;
- Select the whole mesh, choose Bisect, click-and-drag at the front part of the hair until the cut matches the border of the reference. Right after that mark it as sharp;
- Holding Ctrl, click-and-drag to select the top part of the mesh, Select - Select linked ( or Ctrl L ), choose Sharp. Press Delete, choose Faces.
- Select Hat_chop_1, make r_1 visible, repeat the process;
- If you want, you can clean up the cut further by dissolving edges and adding new ones with Knife tool. This, however, won't reduce the polycount by much, so I'm just letting you know how to do it if ever needed.
5). Modify the shape of the hair if needed:
In real life, the hat affects the shape of the hair. It is the same in TS4. In the image below you can see that the hat chops are not just missing the top area but are shaped a bit differently.
- Adjust each hat chop to be closer to the scalp. I suggest you to start by adding two more 3d view windows. Either change UV Editor to another 3d view, or open two new one. To open a new window, click and drag in the corner of the existing one. To close it, RMB-click on the line between the two and choose Join Area;
- Make sure proportional editing is enabled. You can select vertices in the side view, move/shrink ( S X ) in the top view ( NUM7 ), watch for clipping in the front view (NUM1 ). To switch to the opposite side of the current view, use NUM9;
6). Finishing touches:
- Delete references;
- Make sure cut numbers of all meshgroups correspond to those of the original ones;
- Make sure all 3 of them are visible before saving;
- Import the .blend file in the package of the item you used as a reference;
- Test in CAS, try different hats.
