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Grooming and Simulation Methods for Different Hair Types | Andriy Bilichenko | Paris HIVE 2023
Paris HIVE talk on co-designing groom and simulation: how to build hair appearance in Houdini so dynamics enhance the look rather than destroy it across different hair types.
Abstract
Andriy Bilichenko presents five downloadable Houdini hair-style presets built on abstract sphere geometry, showing how grooming and simulation must be co-designed rather than handled as separate stages. He works almost entirely from the guide groom node for manual and grouped guide control, then uses Vellum constraints to hold the main hair volume stiff while letting only the tips wave, and tackles self-intersection on long layered hair by wrapping each clump in a proxy tube simulated as Vellum cloth that then deforms the underlying guides and hairs. For curled spiral locks he stresses that the rest-pose groom must differ greatly from the simulated production frame so the look holds its stiffness, and he uses the guide deform node with rest, t-pose and animation inputs to handle pre-roll. He answers questions on close-up detailing, painting velocities for pre-roll, and using compositing as a fallback fix.
How to read this
- Category
- Production talk (Houdini hair grooming and simulation)
- Contributions
- Demonstrates co-designing groom and simulation so dynamics enhance rather than destroy the hairstyle, across different hair types
- Shares five downloadable Houdini presets on abstract sphere geometry, working mostly from the guide groom node with Vellum constraints
- Shows a proxy-tube Vellum-cloth wrap to control self-intersection on long layered hair, and guide-deform with rest/t-pose/animation inputs for pre-roll
- Context
- A Paris HIVE 2023 Houdini talk on practical groom-and-Vellum workflows, relating to standard guide-groom and Vellum constraint techniques rather than a published method.
- Correctness
- Studio practice, not peer-reviewed; techniques are production-proven in Houdini and tuned per hair type (for example, curled locks need a rest pose very different from the simulated frame), so they are recipes rather than validated general claims.
- Clarity
- Very accessible and hands-on; following along in Houdini with the presets conveys the methods directly.
- How to read it
- Watch with Houdini open and the presets loaded; focus on the guide-groom-plus-Vellum control flow, the proxy-tube self-intersection trick, and the rest-pose-versus-production-frame point for stiff styles.
Related work
Keywords
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