Small feathers - Instancing or fur/strands ?

[Dashinuke]

Hey guys,

I've got a project coming up were I need a CG bird with small feathers, like:
http://www.artduck.com/images/3d-modeli ... aven01.jpg

I'm not too hardcore experienced, so I'm thinking about the best way to start with this. Can the above look be achieved with hair/fur, or do I need instancing with some feathermodels ?

Also, is there a distinct difference between hair/fur, and hair/fur with strand ? Strands is a new thing for me, but I found out you can also create fur with strands.

Thanks in advance, keeping you posted

[dwigfor]

Welcome to SI-community! There's a commercial plugin that you might be interested in (I've never used it):
http://feathertools.michael-buettner.com/
If you don't want to pay and want to figure it out yourself, this compound should help:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2564

Also, since you are new, please use the img tags or url tags in your messages, so we can just see the image or click on it, rather than copy/paste url text. Thanks

-Dave

[Dashinuke]

I've come across the MB_feathertools (used the search function already ;) ), and its definitely worth purchasing. I got the 2nd link bookmarked, thanks for that one.

So it would be a no-go to use fur on this one ?