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Space Rangers with Cornrows: Methods for Modeling Braids and Curls in Pixar's Groom Pipeline

SIGGRAPHPixar6 citesCFX

Procedural groom tools for generating braids, curls, and edge hairs along hand-sculpted source curves, creating Lightyear characters' hairstyles.

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Abstract

This presentation is a debrief of the processes and methods added to Pixar’s groom pipeline to create the hairstyles of Lightyear characters Alisha and Izzy Hawthorne. The processes include novel ways of generating braids, curls, braid partitioning hairs (edge hairs), and graphic shapes populated with hair.

How to read this

Category: Production talk / groom pipeline breakdown
Contributions: New procedural groom methods for generating braids and curls along hand-sculpted source curves
Techniques for braid-partitioning (edge) hairs and for populating graphic shapes with hair
Application to creating the hairstyles of the Lightyear characters Alisha and Izzy Hawthorne
Context: Extends Pixar's existing groom pipeline and curly-hair work (Iben et al., Artistic Simulation of Curly Hair, 2013), adding authoring tools for braided and curled styles built on artist-drawn guide curves.Builds on: Artistic Simulation of Curly Hair
Correctness: Studio practice, not peer-reviewed; results are production-proven on specific Lightyear characters, so the methods are validated by shipped shots rather than by formal evaluation or comparison.
Clarity: Accessible and concrete; a first pass conveys the tools and the artist workflow they support.
How to read it: Read once for the procedural-along-curves approach to braids and curls; focus on how artist-sculpted source curves drive generation and on the edge-hair partitioning trick, which is the most transferable idea.

Builds on

Artistic Simulation of Curly Hair 2013

Built upon by

Nothing yet.

Related work

Wig Refitting in Pixar's Inside Out 2 2024 / SIGGRAPH
Build Your Own Procedural Grooming Pipeline 2017 / SIGGRAPH
Hair and Fur in an Evolving Pipeline 2020 / SIGGRAPH
Simulating Rapunzel's Hair in Disney's Tangled 2010 / SIGGRAPH

Keywords

braids curls groom pipeline lissajous curve cornrows hair partition edge hairs procedural braids curl morphology cross-section shapes afro-puffs scalp surface orthonormal frames hair guide curves shell proxies

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