Simulating velvet-like fur without extra plugins

[spidergirl1979]

Hello all! Just a quick question that I'm hoping someone could help me out with. I've got a character that I need to simulate soft, short velvet-like fur. I'm pretty sure I can get away with this without using furfx or anything because you won't actually see each hair, it will be the shine coming off of it that will make it recognizable as fur. (Think of it as the soft hair from a show horse's body). Now I've been playing around in Photoshop doing up a picture with noise on it for the mapping. I've tried a b&w image for the noise or even a grey scale and nothing is giving me the look I need.

Does anyone have any advise on how I can go through with this? Am I even on the right track using the noise for the texture mapping? So far I've gotten it so she either looks like she has skin with pores or looks rather plastic-like. Would I need a bump map (I'm assuming so) and would the specular and glossiness map be the same/similar and would I need a speckle like effect for the diffuse map or would the lighting from the bump map et al... give it the velvet like appearance I need?

Like I said I've been playing around with it for a bit but was wondering if anyone had any suggestions? Thanks in advance for any help!

Oh, I almost forgot, I'm using 3ds MAx 7 and Photoshop.

[Brent]

hi girl

ok here`s one I made up with scanline...no fancy plugs.
If you want the file lemme know

[spidergirl1979]

Thanks! That's exactly what I'm looking for!

[Brent]

cool...ok....no photoshop...just shader maps....so it will map over any mesh no problems.
Just send a pm where to send the file.....bye

[Henry_B]

just use a falloff material in the difuse slot change the black off the fallof to the color you want and you will get similar results

[spidergirl1979]

Well, here's what I got so far, needs alot more tweeking but it's a start! :)

Now for my next question....:smug: How can I use these materials and have a bmp set as the diffuse color (for say doing the eyebrows, nostril shading etc...) Can I use the mix material so that the velvet will be the 'base' color and then lay a bmp over top of it for the eyebrow coloring etc... Oh geez that soundeed confusing even to me; lemme start again. I'd like a bmp as the diffuse color and have most parts transparent so that another diffuse map(ie the velvet) will be everywhere except the eyebrows, nostrils etc... Would I use a transparent mapping along with mix material? I've heard of the mix material but haven't a clue how to use it! :smug:

Oh, there's another question I just thought of. My character actually morphs from one person to another (think secret identity) so I also will need the diffuse maps to change as well. (Once I actually get more done for modelling and texturing)

(And just for laughs, here's an earlier rendering of mine, and yes I realize the eyes are wonky!) :haha:
EarlyMorphTest (http://www.jenutech.com/images/Nightcat/danamorph.avi)

EDIT: Nevermind, I just discovered the the composite material "mask" :smug: