Evaluation of Hair Modeling, Simulation and Rendering Algorithms for a VFX Hair Modeling System

Creating realistic virtual hair consists of several major areas: creating the geometry, moving the hair strands realistically and rendering the hair. In this thesis, a background survey covering each one of these areas is given. A node-based, procedural hair system is presented, which utilizes the capabilities of modern GPUs. The hair system is implemented as a plugin for Autodesk Maya, and a user interface is developed to allow the user to control the various parameters. A number of nodes are developed to create effects such as clumping, noise and frizz. The proposed system can easily handle a variety of hairstyles, and pre-renders the result in real-time using a local shading model.