HairControl: A Tracking Solution for Directable Hair Simulation

How to read this

Category

Method: directable hair simulation via tracking constraints

Contributions

• Adds artistic control to physics-based hair by constraining a high-resolution detail-hair simulation to follow an animation of coarse guide hairs
• Introduces tracking constraints that hold the center of mass of a subset of detail hairs relative to a reference point on the corresponding guide hair
• Lets artists direct overall hair motion while preserving secondary dynamics and natural collisions

Context

Continues the directable/art-directed hair lineage, building on Directing Hair Motion on Tangled (Simmons et al. 2011) by tracking guide-hair animation rather than fully re-simulating.Builds on: Directing Hair Motion on Tangled

Correctness

Assumes a meaningful guide-to-detail correspondence and that center-of-mass tracking is the right control handle; the input guide animation drives results, so quality depends on guide quality and how aggressively tracking competes with natural dynamics.

Clarity

Accessible; the core constraint idea is intuitive and a first pass conveys it, with a second pass useful for the constraint formulation and solver coupling.

How to read it

Read for the tracking-constraint definition and how it balances direction against secondary motion; a second pass pays off if you implement guide-driven hair control.