Creating Dynamic Fur with XGen in Maya
In this Maya tutorial, we'll use the XGen system inside of Maya to create fur on an animated mesh. Software required: Maya 2016, Zbrush 4r7, mental ray.
What you'll learn
In this Maya tutorial, we'll use the XGen system inside of Maya to create fur on an animated mesh. We'll go over many of the tools found within XGen, but will mainly focus on the Groom and Spline features. In addition to creating fur, we'll also learn how to create and convert texture maps into Ptex maps compatible with XGen as well as learn about adding secondary dynamic motion to our fur using modifiers. Finally, we'll learn how to render our results using mental ray. By the end of this Maya training, you'll have the skills to create both moving and static fur on your own characters using XGen in Maya. Software required: Maya 2016, Zbrush 4r7, mental ray.
Table of contents
- Analyzing Our Assets and Discussing Workflow 9m
- Getting Started with Xgen 9m
- Understanding the Tool Layout and Grooming Menu 10m
- Creating and Converting Density Texture Maps 9m
- Finalizing Our Density Map 11m
- Beginning the Groom Process 9m
- Continuing the Groom Process 10m
- Completing the Basic Groom 10m
- Adjusting Basic Primitive Setup 11m
- Discussing Basics of Clumping 11m
- Setting up Multiple Clump Layers 7m
- Using Cut and Noise Modifiers 10m
- Introducing Asymmetry 11m
- Applying Custom Color Attributes 11m
- Creating Nhair Dynamics 9m
- Continuing the Nhair Dynamics Setup 11m
- Finalizing the Nhair Dynamics 11m
- Setting up Lights 9m
- Exploring the Hair Shader 10m
- Setting up a Batch Render 11m
About the author
Peter is a CGI artist with many years of experience in the Film, Animation, and Video Game Industries. Some highlights include Fox's The Simpsons, The Fantastic Four, Discovery Channel's Shark Week, Sex and the City, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and more! Peter has been working in higher education for the last 8 years teaching a variety of topics that include Digital Sculpture, Dynamic Simulation, Traditional Modeling, Character Rigging, MEL Scripting, Lighting, Texturing, and more. He also s... more