Plugins + Scripts VAM HAIR GLOW

Every feature in detail​

Main page​

• Brightness and Halo strength are independent: one sets the strands, the other the halo. For hair that keeps a clear colour with a large halo, keep Brightness low and raise Halo strength.
• The halo comes only from hair the camera can see. Hair hidden behind the head or the body does not shine through.
• The halo is the plugin's own and does not need PostMagic. If the scene has PostMagic bloom switched on, a high Brightness makes PostMagic add its own halo on top; the status box says so in one line.
• The plugin looks for hair once a second. Changing, removing or adding hair needs no action.

Advanced page​

Press Advanced settings > to open it and < Back to the simple page to return. Every effect here acts on both the hair and the halo, and they can be combined.

React to sound

• In silence the hair keeps 15% of Brightness; louder sound makes it brighter, up to 2.5 times.
• Everything you hear is all sound VaM is playing, mixed together.
• Press Listen to to choose one atom: an AudioSource atom, a person's head audio, a speaker inside an asset. The hair then follows only that source.
• One source alone gives a smaller signal than everything together. If the hair barely reacts, raise Sensitivity.

Each hair part by itself (right column)
Every strand hair part on the person gets three controls. The list follows the hair when it changes.
Example: untick every part except the bangs to make only the bangs glow, or move Colour shift on the ponytail to give it another colour.

Triggers, Timeline and other plugins​

The sliders and tick boxes are ordinary VaM parameters, so triggers, Timeline and other plugins can use them as targets. In a trigger window: Receiver Atom is the person, Receiver is the line containing HairGlow, Receiver Target is one of the names below.

• Colour by transition: use Glow colour (full colour) or Hue (hue only, a simpler trigger window). With Glow colour, VaM's own trigger window draws its Test Transition slider over the small buttons under the two colour pickers; the transition itself works normally.
• Timeline: add the plugin's number parameters as float params and keyframe them like any other.
• Audio plugins that send standard VaM triggers, such as BeatIt, can target Brightness or Halo strength. This pairing has not been tested. When another plugin drives Brightness, switch React to sound off, or the two multiply.
• The per-part controls are not in the Target list; they are set by hand in the panel. Leave the parameter Hair parts alone: the plugin stores the per-part choices there.

Saving, screenshots, performance​

• Saving: every setting is saved with the scene, including the per-part choices and the sound source. A loaded scene glows as it did when saved.
• Screenshots: VaM's screenshot button captures the glowing hair and the halo.
• Several people: add the plugin to each person; each has its own colour and settings.
• Off and removal: unticking Glow on, disabling the plugin or removing it puts the hair back exactly as the scene had it.

Measured on a full scene with three people :
The glow itself costs next to nothing. The halo costs about 1 to 2 ms a frame per person, because the hair is drawn one more time. For the lightest setup, untick Halo around the hair.

Known limits​

• Only strand hair glows. Scalps and mesh hair do not react to this kind of light.
• The glow colour is multiplied by the hair's own colour. Cyan on pink hair, for example, reads as blue until Brightness is high. For a true colour use white or light hair.
• VR: the hair glows, but the plugin's halo is not drawn. The status box shows an orange line.
• The halo is drawn on the main desktop camera and VaM's screenshot cameras. Other cameras (a WindowCamera atom, cameras of other plugins) show the glowing hair without the halo.
• While it glows, the hair no longer takes the scene's sky light; lamps in the scene still light it as usual.
• The plugin works on Person atoms only.

Troubleshooting​