Comparison - Fiber Mesh Hair Shader - Base Color Effect

linvanchene

 

A common practice in photography is to set a light source behind the head to create a rim effect on the hair.

You can achieve the same effect with fibermesh hair and Iray by setting the "Base Color Effect" to "Scatter & Transmit" when a light is oriented properly to shine on the head from the back.

 

You may need to readjust the color of the hair when switching from "Scatter only" to "Scatter & Transmit".

The effect you can achieve also depends on the thickness of the fibermesh hair.

- hair strands consisting of points (connected vertices in a hair curve) have no thickness -> no refraction, no subsurface scattering, just backlighting effects.

- a thin cylinder volume in the form of a hair strand features an increased point count that allows for thickness -> refraction, subsurface scattering is possible

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The hair in the screenshot is from the "George Hair Set" and was autofitted to Genesis 3 Female.

https://www.daz3d.com/george-hair-set

The shader was set to Scatter & Transmit.

Some other hair shaders may have set the "Base Color Effect"  to "Scatter only" by default.

-> make sure to check the surface settings of the hair shader if you are interested in a rim effect on fiber mesh hair.

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fastbike1

You can also use a photometric light to get the same effect (oddly, like a studio light )

nonesuch00

thanks