How to use Hair and Fur modifier to make bump map effect?

[willpitts]

This might be complicated. I have a Sonic the Hedgehog model almost ready to render in VRay. Keep in mind that the materials for his blue fur are of the “VrayFastSSS” variety.

The bump map I have for his skin, however, is too small to give fine details, so I’m relying on the Hair and Fur modifier. My question is, how can I use that modifier to make it look like there’s a bump map on it? I’m not trying to grow fur on the fur that’s already there, I’m trying to make the fur I have look like fur itself. This render (which is not mine) is what I’m shooting for.

 

I hope you understood the question.

[Peter M. Gruhn]

This is outside my skill zone.

The only thing I can think of is to set up a fully furred and groomed Sonic. Then render to texture. I'd think you'd have to make an offset (pushed) Sonic bigger than and outside the fur; and that render to texture would have to support a "depth from target" type of channel, or maybe AO would work. I'd try a very quick test to see if what I say is plausible before devoting a lot of time to it.

[Peter M. Gruhn]

I'm not having success with that, but that's probably because it always takes me forever to get render to texture down.

 

Anyway, are we sure this is the right way to go? How about just painting the texture with a bristly brush?

[Corey Beaulieu]

I'm siding with Peter on this one. Unwrap and paint your hair/fur in photoshop. You can try that as a bump, but I think it will look better if you go high poly on your model and then use your map as a displacement.

 

On a side note, You had asked in an earlier post about the texture and lighting for this Sonic image... Check out David Gould's Illustrate Plug-in. its for illustrations and could give you the styling you are looking for. It even exports to vector so you can alter it in AI post-render. The plug in is free for 30 days (full featured).

[willpitts]

I'm siding with Peter on this one. Unwrap and paint your hair/fur in photoshop. You can try that as a bump, but I think it will look better if you go high poly on your model and then use your map as a displacement.

 

On a side note, You had asked in an earlier post about the texture and lighting for this Sonic image... Check out David Gould's Illustrate Plug-in. its for illustrations and could give you the styling you are looking for. It even exports to vector so you can alter it in AI post-render. The plug in is free for 30 days (full featured).

 

I was asking because I just downloaded Photoshop and don't know where to start on drawing hair. The texture (a falloff texture) I've been trying to redraw looks like this: