Make realistic animals with the new addition
A strand of hair is made up of three parts: the cuticle, cortex and medulla. The medulla is the innermost layer and responsible for a hair’s thickness. Surrounding it is the cortex, responsible for the colour and volume of hair, though not so much the volume of fur. The cuticle is the outer layer.
In Houdini, the main difference between the Karma Hair Shader and the new Fur Shader comes down to the fluffiness of animal fur. That characteristic is down to the medulla’s light-scattering control. If the Medulla Opacity and Radius were 0, you’d turn the Fur Shader into the Hair Shader.
01 IN THE MIDDLE
The Medulla options aren’t just needed for animal fur, they’re also useful for thick hair. This new feature has many benefits both in rendering and in shading physically accurate grooms. You can control how the light scatters with Radius and Phase, and can further localise scattering with Diffuse. It works in the same way that volumetrics scatter light. It also allows you to achieve the fluffiness you’d be looking for in fur while also having rim effects.
This Fur Shader is actually faster in rendering and produces less noise in comparison to the Hair Shader. Another impressive feature with it is that whether you render using XPU or CPU, the groom will look the same. Finally, the Fur Shader comes with a few presets – cat, dog and fox, for example – that are based on scientific properties.
02 MAKE AN UNDERCOAT
While you are able to have an undercoat and a coat within the same g
