Breakdown: Creating a Real-Time Hair Inspired in Marilyn Monroe

A real-time hair artist breaks down the full workflow for creating Marilyn Monroe-inspired hair for games. The process covers five stages: reference gathering and analysis, sculpt pass in ZBrush to establish form and flow, texture creation using XGen in Maya with Arnold-rendered maps (AO, Root-to-Tip, Flow, ID, Depth), hair card placement in ZBrush using layered approaches (base, primary, breakage, flyaways, hairline), and final optimization. Rendering and lighting are done in both Marmoset Toolbag 4 and Unreal Engine 5, with shaders matched across both environments. Tips on iterating between texture and placement passes and the importance of lighting for final hair quality are also shared.