Author: Peter Eastman

Version: 1.7

Date: 04/03/2004

Fur

This script creates short fur over the surface of an object. It does this by creating a series of concentric "shells" around the object, each one mapped with a semi-transparent texture to simulate the appearance of fur. The fur texture (available in a separate file which accompanies this script) must have already been imported into the scene. Before creating an object with this script, you must first apply the fur texture to the "base" object you want to create fur on. This is for three purposes:

1. So that you can set up how the fur is mapped to the object. After adjusting the scale of the texture (a value of 0.02 for the x, y, and z scales is a good starting point), enable the "Bind Texture Coordinates to Surface" option. Otherwise, this script will not work correctly.
2. So that you can set the value of the "length" texture parameter, which determines the length of the fur. It may be set per-object or per-vertex, allowing the length to vary over the surface of the object.
3. So that you can set the value of the "thickness" texture parameter, which determines the thickness of each hair. This, too, may be set per-object or per-vertex.

If you modify the fur texture and add other parameters to it, their values will also be preserved on the shells of fur. For example, you could use a parameter to vary the color of the fur over the surface of the object. It is not necessary that the fur texture actually be visible on the "base" object, only that it be present so the mapping and texture parameters can be defined. For example, you can use a layered texture for the base object, with fur as the bottom layer and another opaque texture on top of it. The base object can even be hidden. For example, if you want fur over only part of an object, you could duplicate it, trim away the portions of the duplicate where you do not want fur, hide the trimmed object, and use it as the fur generator.