I just tried that halo for the first time this week!!! It kicks ARSE BABY! I love it to death.
I wanted to "fade" the pointy hair shapes and started using masking or multiplied layers. It was a serious pain. I decided to do as much as possible using simple shapes with as little masking as possible.
I tried using a gradient but gradients... uh... have drawbacks as we all know... not conforming to the shape and the angle has to be constantly animated. Using halo can create almost the same effect as a radial gradient with a very large blur radius... almost the same.. close enough for what I want anyway.
I just use the exact same color for the top shape's halo as the fill on the shape behind it... then drop the opacity slightly on that color so it doesn't completely disappear. Works a treat.
One drawback to the halo is that sharp pointy corners get a big fat round "stroke" on the inside, similar to what you get with thick strokes on a pointed corner.
I used two shapes on the same mesh for the stroked mane in the back of the head. One shape on top for the fill and a second one for the stroke behind it to get those nice sharp corners. I like doing this since I don't have to keep track of all those extra points.
Unfortunately you can't do this with AS for some reason... glad I still have Moho around for it.
The body is in a similar style but with a lot less hair. Just subtle pointy things to suggest hair at the joints. I am trying to break away from the habit of extreme realism. That is a weakness I have from being used to 3D stuff. I don't need to draw individual hairs already!
After "Larry" gets done I have two other characters who are just as furry. Should be easier to do them now that I have a "style" figured out.
-vern
