How to make particle hair face same direction on a branch? (Like pine branch)

Question

I created a branch with needles on it. I used Particles to create needles. Currently my branch looks like this:

All the needles facing in the direction of a normals.

I want to make needles like this:

So they face the direction the branch is facing.

I have tryed changing the Velocity/Rotation setting in the particle settings, but i have not been able to get the result i want.

This is the "best" result i could get by playing with "Tangent" setting in the "Velocity" menu.

As you can see the result is total mess. Needles on tope of a mesh are facing the right direction, but needles on the bottom facing the complete opposite direction.

Please share you thoughts. Is it possible to do what i want at all using the hair system?

Answer 1

The Hair Velocity Tangent is based on UV direction.

I've taken a plane and applied a simple Particle System.

If I go to the UV Editor and rotate the plane's face like so (roughly -150 degrees):

The hair grows in a different direction.

For a more complex object it's a matter of making sure all of the UV faces are oriented in the proper direction, either manually or by finding the correct unwrap method.