Charly 3D Tutors

This piece came about at a moment when I'd gotten a little tired of realism 😄 I was taking a break after yet another big client project and decided to just practice different hairstyles. I wanted something cartoony, cute, something I could freely experiment with. I've always loved cartoons, so pretty soon I came up with the idea of making myself a dedicated mannequin for experiments like that. But a plain faceless mannequin felt boring. I wanted a character. And that's how Camilla was born =) I deliberately made her a cute little doll, so later I could swap her hairstyles, try out different shapes and silhouettes, and generally torture her hair however I pleased 😄 I modeled and sculpted her in my beloved 3D-Coat . Back then I still did retopology in NVIL , because at the time I wasn't a big fan of the retopo tools in 3D-Coat. I used Substance Painter for texturing and creating maps for the Corona Renderer material. And the hair, of course, was done in Or...

How to Groom Curly Hair in Ornatrix App (Standalone Beta): Full Workflow What this tutorial covers Building a convincing curly hair groom is one of the trickier tasks in digital hair work. Getting the curl pattern, volume, and clump behavior to read naturally takes more than just applying a preset. With Dune: Part Three buzz building ahead of its December release, we figured this was a good moment to share a Chalamet-style curly groom breakdown , walking through a complete male hair groom from start to finish inside Ornatrix App , the standalone beta version of Ornatrix . The problem with curly grooms Curly hair is harder to art direct than straight or wavy grooms. Clumps need to hold shape without looking artificial, and the overall silhouette has to stay readable at different camera distances. Without the right tools, artists often end up fighting the simulation instead of shaping the look they actually want. The solution: a full workflow in Ornatrix App The tutorial break...

How to Generate Hair Cards in Ornatrix for Cinema 4D If you work with digital hair in games, stylized characters , or real-time pipelines, hair cards are still one of the most practical solutions. In this tutorial, I show how to generate hair cards automatically in Ornatrix for Cinema 4D using the Mesh from Strands workflow . This approach helps convert dense strand-based hair into cleaner, more optimized geometry that can be used for game-ready assets , stylized characters, and real-time character production. Why this workflow matters Building hair cards by hand can take a lot of time, especially when you already have a detailed groom. With Ornatrix for Cinema 4D, you can speed up the process by turning strands into mesh-based hair cards directly inside your grooming workflow. This makes the technique especially useful for: game character hair stylized hairstyles real-time character production Unreal Engine pipelines optimization of complex hair grooms ...

  The " Uncanny Valley " often hides in the forehead. Specifically, in how the hair transitions from the scalp (the parting) and how the bangs sit relative to the face. In  Episode 3  of our specialized Grooming Course, we tackle the most defining area of any hairstyle: The Parting and The Bangs . The Problem: Grooming on Proxies Many 3D artists make a fundamental mistake: they judge hair volume based solely on the low-poly proxy mesh ( retopo ). The problem? A proxy mesh is an approximation. It often lacks the subtle surface nuances of the real head. If you groom the bangs "by eye" on a proxy, you often end up with two issues: The "Wig" Effect:  The hair sits too high/far from the skin. The "Clip" Effect:  The hair intersects with the real volume of the forehead when rendered. The Solution: Raw Scan as a Reference In this tutorial, I demonstrate a production-proven technique:  Loading the Raw High-Res Scan . I don't just use this for colli...

  Welcome back to the Charly Tutors blog! Today, we are diving into Episode 2 of our new collaboration series with Ephere . We are tackling one of the most common frustrations in 3D grooming: Managing Chaos . When creating graphic hairstyles like a sharp Bob cut , working with a single hair object can quickly become a nightmare. You try to comb the back, but you accidentally mess up the internal layers. You try to select the roots, but you grab the tips. The solution? The Mask Pipeline . What is the Mask Pipeline? The core concept is moving away from "eyeballing" and towards a procedural, grouped structure + painted masks for distribution and etc . In this tutorial, we demonstrate how to assign specific Strand Groups to logical zones of the head: Occiput (Back) Temples (Sides) Bangs (Front) By using the Edit Guides modifier, we can instantly isolate, hide, or lock these groups. This gives you surgical precision over your groom. 🔥 The "Strand Len...

  RU voice  here Welcome to Episode 2 of our Ornatrix 9 Mini-Course ! 🎓 Today we cover Guide Selection and Parting setup . Author -  @charlytutors  Music -  @imagineartofficial  💡 Cheat Sheet: CTRL - Add to selection ALT - Deselect SHIFT - Change selection radius Tip: Enable " Affect Selected Only " to comb precise areas. Fix: If Rotate doesn't work, turn OFF " Modify Roots ". Plant Tool : Use it to add missing strands. Subscribe so you don't miss Episode 3! 🔔 #ornatrix #3dsmax #3dhair #grooming #andrewkrivulya

  Starting a new groom can be chaotic without a proper structure. In this episode of " Introduction to Ornatrix 9 ", I break down the Masks Pipeline - a clean and efficient method to control your hairstyle from the very beginning. I will guide you through the process of using painted density masks to generate guides, and show you how to master the Surface Comb modifier . You'll learn how to use Sinks for precise direction control, why checking the documentation is vital, and how to use advanced features like " Affect Whole Strand " to adjust length dynamically. SOFTWARE: Ornatrix 9 for 3ds Max Instructor -  @charlytutors  Key Moments: 00:00 - The Masks Pipeline: Separating the scalp 00:20 - Importance of references & hairlines (ZEN article) 00:42 - Setting up Guides From Mesh & Distribution Maps 01:05 - Initial length adjustment 01:33 - Adding the Surface Comb modifier 02:00 - Pro Tip: Always check Ephere documentation 02:27 - How to cre...

  #Ornatrix #Redshift #Cinema4D In this tutorial I’ll show you the full process of transferring Fibermesh hair from ZBrush into Cinema 4D, converting it into Ornatrix guides, grounding and refining them, preventing intersections with the body, filling gaps with new guides, previewing hair in the viewport, and rendering with Redshift. Everything is explained step by step - so you can easily follow along and repeat this workflow in your own projects. ___ Links: ➡️Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ephereinc/ ➡️Ask your question on Discord: https://discord.gg/5stUZtZyuM ➡️Join the series on our channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aiegC4xvSs&list=PLpRi3ovyFM-1-G5xjSHrENps61rsruCS6 ➡️Explore Ornatrix: https://ornatrix.com/ ___ Chapters / Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:04 Import Fibermesh from ZBrush to Cinema 4D 00:18 Prepare Cinema 4D preferences and GoZ settings 00:37 Export hair from ZBrush and transfer via GoZ 00:53 Import and adjust hair mesh in...

  In the previous lessons, we exported hairstyles from ZBrush into Maya and 3ds Max with Ornatrix. This time, we’ll take it further and bring the hairstyle all the way into Unreal Engine. You’ll learn how to: • Export curves from ZBrush and prepare them in Maya • Convert curves into Ornatrix guides and export with Ornatrix Alembic • Import into Unreal Engine and set up the Groom component • Edit and refine the hairstyle with Ornatrix UE tools • Adjust density, brush new strands, and tweak hair materials By the end, you’ll have a complete workflow from ZBrush to Unreal with a fully editable hairstyle inside Ornatrix UE. Have you tried bringing ZBrush grooms into Unreal yet? Share your experience in the comments! ___ Links: ➡️Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ephereinc/ ➡️Ask your question on Discord: https://discord.gg/5stUZtZyuM ➡️Join the series on our channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aiegC4xvSs&list=PLpRi3ovyFM-1-G5xjSHrENps61rsruCS6 ➡️Explore...

  Welcome to Episode 2 of the ZBrush to Maya with Ornatrix series! In this tutorial, we move beyond the full-resolution export and dive into a much faster, more optimized workflow. Learn how to create beautiful, complex hair from a lightweight set of guides, giving you more speed and flexibility in your grooming process. This method is perfect for creating production-ready assets efficiently. ___ Links: ➡️Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ephereinc/ ➡️Ask your question on Discord: https://discord.gg/5stUZtZyuM ➡️Join the series on our channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aiegC4xvSs&list=PLpRi3ovyFM-1-G5xjSHrENps61rsruCS6 ➡️Explore Ornatrix: https://ornatrix.com/ ___ Timestamps (Chapters): 00:00 - Intro & Recap of Episode 1 00:22 - The Optimized Workflow: What We'll Cover 00:45 - Exporting Lightweight Curves from ZBrush (Low PreViz) 01:04 - Importing & Grounding Guides in Maya 01:39 - Filtering & Reducing Guide Count with the Ornatrix ...

 Hey everyone! Today I want to share a discovery that I'm sure will save a ton of time and nerves for many 3D artists working in Unreal Engine. Anyone who has tried to render hair in UE knows the pain: blurry details, strange shadows, and an endless, not-always-successful battle with console commands (CVars). I almost abandoned one of my own projects for this very reason until I stumbled upon the Hair Cinematic Tool 2.0 . To put it directly: this is the best and most intuitive tool for rendering hair in Unreal that I have ever used. It transforms the most complex settings into a user-friendly Blueprint with sliders and allows you to achieve stunning cinematic quality. To back this up, I recorded a detailed video where I clearly showed the entire process on my problematic project. In it, you'll see: The impressive "Before and After" difference. How simple adjustments to PPLL and Deep Shadow change everything. A quick performance test on an RTX 5090. How to use the pres...

  Hi everyone! In the first episode of my new series, we'll break down the complete pipeline for transferring a hairstyle from ZBrush to Maya using Ornatrix, and prepare it for rendering in Arnold. This tutorial covers the entire process from export to a final test render, so you can confidently transfer your most complex hairstyles. ___ Links: ➡️Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ephereinc/ ➡️Ask your question on Discord: https://discord.gg/5stUZtZyuM Join the series on our channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aiegC4xvSs&list=PLpRi3ovyFM-1-G5xjSHrENps61rsruCS6 ➡️Explore Ornatrix: https://ornatrix.com/ ___ Timestamps (Chapters): 00:00 - Intro: ZBrush to Maya with Ornatrix 00:31 - Exporting Curves from ZBrush (100% PreViz) 00:52 - Importing to Maya & Creating Ornatrix Guides 01:12 - Grounding Guides to the Scalp (Ground Strands) 01:28 - Optimizing the Scene (Collapse Stack) 01:35 - Creating Hair from Guides (HairFromGuides) 01:49 - How to Fi...