The Head -- Ponytail

STEP 1: Load head10.lwo into Modeler. (If you just want experience modeling a quick ponytail, you may load head10.lwo from the CD-ROM).

STEP 2: Go to an empty layer and create a Cone (Create > Objects > Cone) with the following settings in its Numeric panel: 

    Axis: Y
   Sides: 3
Segments: 8
  Bottom: 1m
     Top: 1.4m
Center X: 0m
       Y: 1.2m
       Z: 130mm
Radius X: 50mm
       Y: 200mm
       Z: 50mm
This cone will not be set until we enter another selection mode or use another tool. Plus, its tip points in the wrong direction. (Figure 1) We'll solve both problems in the next step.

Figure 1
Figure 1

STEP 3: In the Right View, move your mouse pointer over the center of this cone, and tap r twice to rotate it a total of 180 degrees around your mouse pointer. It should now point "downwards."

STEP 4: In the Top View, Rotate the cone until its triangular cross-section points towards the positive Z axis. It should now look like Figure 2.
 
Figure 2
Figure 2		 Figure 3
Figure 3

STEP 5: Let's grow the cage for a ponytail holder. Zoom in on the top of this "ponytail" in the making and select the triangular "base" of this cone. Type q and give it the surface name of "Kara Ponytail Holder." Activate the Smooth Shift tool and right-click on this polygon once. With this polygon still selected, use the Stretch tool in the Top View to make its diameter slightly greater than that of the "ponytail" underneath it. Smooth Shift this still-selected polygon outwards, until it looks like Figure 3.

STEP 6: Deselect everything. Select the three quadrangles that you grew in the previous step, and use BandSaw to slice them into three bands of quadrangles, as shown in Figure 4.
 
Figure 4
Figure 4		 Figure 5
Figure 5

STEP 7: Deselect the upper and lower bands of quadrangles, leaving the middle band of the ponytail holder selected. Smooth Shift these polygons inwards, until it looks like Figure 5. (If the corners start looking funky, increase the Max Smoothing Angle setting in the Smooth Shift's Numeric panel until the corners look normal again).

STEP 8: Deselect everything. Hit the Tab key to turn everything into SubPatch surfaces.

STEP 9: Select the SubPatch surfaces that represent the ponytail holder. Use the Size and Rotate tools to make it match the angle of its counterpart in the model sheet.

Note: Let it float slightly outside the mesh of the elf-girl's head rather than intersecting it. Intersecting geometry will not give you an Edge where the ponytail holder meets the back of the head. Instead, the Edge that traces the geometry of the ponytail holder would get buried right along with it inside the back of the head.

STEP 10: Select all of the ponytail SubPatch surfaces except for those that touch the ponytail holder. In the Right View, Stretch them downwards until the top of the second-lowest section touches the topmost line of the lower ponytail holder in the model sheet.

STEP 11: Now to create a section for the lower ponytail holder. Deselect everything. Select the lowest two sections of the ponytail, activate Smooth Shift, and right-click on it once. Then use the Move tool to move this still-selected section straight down, until its topmost points touch the underside of the lower ponytail holder in the model sheet.

By using a combination of Smooth Shift and Move instead of Knife or Bandsaw to help us create this section, we ensure that the points of the top and bottom of this section line up in the Top View. We want this ponytail holder to have a consistent diameter -- a cylindrical shape, not a tapered shape.

STEP 12: Deselect everything. Select the SubPatch selection you just created and apply the "Kara Ponytail Holder" surface name to them. It should now look like Figure 6.
 
Figure 6
Figure 6		 Figure 7
Figure 7

STEP 13: Do not deselect this band of three SubPatch surfaces for this entire step. Smooth Shift them outwards, until its thickest part matches the thickness of the ponytail holder in the model sheet. With the Smooth Shift tool still activated, right-click on them to create new geometry while moving it as little as possible. Then use the Stretch tool (and the Ctrl key, to restrict its effects to one axis) to vertically shrink these three SubPatch surfaces to fit the inner horizontal ink lines of the ponytail holder in the model sheet. Last, but not least, Smooth Shift the (still) selected SubPatch surfaces inwards, until it looks like Figure 7.

STEP 14:  Deselect everything. We ought to round out the curve of the hair where it joins the upper ponytail holder. Knife through the uppermost band of the non-ponytail holder SubPatch surfaces and Drag its rearmost point out in the Right View, until the rearmost SubPatch line looks more rounded at the top. Worry about the curve more than slavishly forcing the SubPatch line to fit the ink line of the model sheet right now -- we'll "puff" this geometry out later if necessary with Smooth Scale. (Figure 8)
 
Figure 8
Figure 8		 Figure 9
Figure 9

STEP 15: Deselect everything. We need a surface name for everything outside of the ponytail holders. Select all of the hair geometry (any SubPatch that does not form part of a ponytail holder) and apply the "Kara Hair" surface to it. (Figure 9)

STEP 16: Deselect everything. If you think the ponytail could look thicker, select those bands of "Kara Hair" SubPatch surfaces that do not touch the ponytail holders, and Smooth Scale them out by a centimeter or two to "puff" them out. (Figure 10)
 
Figure 10
Figure 10		 Figure 11
Figure 11

STEP 17: Deselect everything. Zoom in on the tuft of "Kara Hair" geometry below the lower ponytail holder. In the Right View, Drag the point at its tip to the tip of the ink line in the model sheet.Then, to sharpen the geometry at the tip, draw the Knife across the hair tuft geometry slightly above the point at the tip. (Figure 11)

STEP 18: In the Right View, Drag the points at the middle of the hair tuft until the tuft follows the general curve of the ink lines in the model sheet. In the Back View, spread apart the two points closest to the negative Z axis to thicken the tuft. (Figure 12)
 
Figure 12
Figure 12		 Figure 13
Figure 13

STEP 19: Deselect everything. Select all of the "Kara Hair" SubPatch surfaces that form the hair tuft. Cut and Paste them into an empty layer.

STEP 20: A copy of this geometry still safely exists in memory, ready to be Pasted again. Exploit this as you Select everything but the uppermost three SubPatch surfaces. In the Right View, use Rotate and Size on the selected geometry until the hair tuft matches the general shape of one of the tiny hair tufts. Then type v to Paste a second copy of the original large hair tuft into this layer. It should look like Figure 13.

STEP 21: Deselect everything. Select the lower half of the large hair tuft again, and distort it until the geometry matches the other hair tuft in the model sheet (you may use Knife on this selected geometry if you want). Then type v to Paste a third copy of the original large hair tuft back into this layer. It should look like Figure 14.

Figure 14
Figure 14

Note: The ink lines of the tiny tufts will stop at the point where they get buried in the mesh of the large hair tuft. Remember this as you adjust the model -- you control the Edges at the modeling stage more than anywhere else.

Because we only distorted the lower halves of the copies of the large tuft to create the tiny hair tufts, the topmost three points of all three hair tufts overlap at the top.

STEP 22: Deselect everything. Type m to Merge all points. Six of the nine overlapping points at the top should be eliminated.

Curiously, we can get away with this -- the three tufts together form enough of a "brace" to keep the SubPatch surfaces locked in place at the top. To witness the danger of less than two tufts merged together at the top, select the entire geometry of one of the hair tufts and type x to Cut it out. The SubPatches will pull away from the points at the top, with the hair tufts flowing into each other instead of "staying put" at the top. Silently take in the horror of a "two-tuft" situation, then type u to Undo the damage and put that third, anchoring tuft back into place.

STEP 23: Deselect everything. Cut the tuft geometry out of this layer and Paste it back into the layer containing the rest of the ponytail.

STEP 24: Select the ponytail holder geometry. Cut and Paste it to separate this geometry from the hair geometry, sharpening the edges where the two surfaces meet. For good measure, select the innermost band of polygons in each ponytail holder; Cut and Paste them to sharpen the edges where they meet.

STEP 25: Cut and Paste the entire ponytail into the head layer.

STEP 26: To quickly overcome an unintentional "Merge Points" situation in the future, select the four rounded ends of each ponytail holder and assign the part name of "Separate Mesh" to the selected geometry.

STEP 27: Save this object as head11.lwo.

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