Maya Monday - Maya 2015 XGen - Fur or short hair 

You, my good sir, are a living legend. Thank you so much for explaining this! You have quite easily saved me so much time!

You just saved my life, i was stuck on a project with fur in it. And this literally got all my problems solved.

Lol, you gotta love how everybody deals with Maya's unnecessarily convoluted methods by calling them "cool tricks" and making them sound neat. Great video though, thanks; XGen is definitely a powerful system. (I am a Maya user btw ;) )

I couldn't find anything to help solve the problem I had with adding texture maps to xgen hair....until I found this. YOU'RE A LIFESAVER! THANKS :D

My rig is all grey. How do I turn on or what do I click to where it looks like a tiger?

Your doing such a great job with your tutorials Daryl! Thanks

Great tutorial, lots of it seems to be a bit of a work around on how to make something that i think should just work straight out of the box do what it really should be doing. I think allot of artists these days dont want to be messing around with expressions particularly when it comes to something as artistic as grooming and shading fur, getting the look in the viewport then having to mess around with expressions to make it render the same. Hopefully in future xgen updates we won't need to 'Hijack' certain aspects of this work flow and instead they will be clearly useable and visible, I mean isn't fur and hair supposed to be the big I AM of Xgen? Surely XGen should have a 'simple' grab colour from texture map attribute and it show in the viewport and software renders? much like vray fur ? Again great tutorial buddy thank you.

XGEN needs to be able to load non-saved meshes directly in a live scene - No preReq archive hassle. Also, force modifiers should be visible, I cant stand guessing where the forceSphere is...

Maya still doesn't disappoint in making things unnecessarily complicated.... you cant just add a normal texture to for a tip color... no no... you must first create a ptex map... then plug in your texture... then convert to ptex... but wait!... it doesnt render!... of course not.. that would still be too easy!... you need to copy and paste a formula if you want to render...C'mon guys... stop hating artists... make things intuitive...please...

Wow! I'm still a novice at xgen so this is really helpful! I'm making a cartoony squirrel character that I'll rig and animate for a game project in school. I had originally planned to only use painted textures and leave it at that, but I've been toying with the idea of trying out maya fur or xgen to se what is possible. As the animations for this project have to consist of pre-rendered sprite sheets, adding more realistic fur won't affect the performance of the game at all so I might as well give it a try :)

Fabulous tutorial - cheers!

This is amazing. Thank you very much. I wonder if xGen is will be carried along when creating crowd! Say I have a crowd of animals, do I need to add xGen for each one of them? I have one more question please. How can I force xGen to use textures from the mesh without going manually and assign a texture? Back to the crowd animals, I have a randomized textures for my animals. I would like xGen to pick its colour from the mesh automatically. I'm using Maya2016 Many thanks

thanks , but how to have two description ? , I have to separated objects and one of them have Xgen but when i add a new description to the other one xgen go crazy and delete all the descriptions . ill appreciate it if you help me

I know this is a little old, but I'm trying to use this workflow to get hair curves into Hairworks. It asks for 1 spline/point. Do you know of a setting in 2015 that would achieve that without having to go draw splines on every single point in the mesh? Thanks

Awesome video. I have a question for you Daryl. What if I want to generate porcupine spikes with Xgen? I'd like to know your approach in achieving that effect! Thanks

Great tutorial, but I have some questions. How did you make the colored striped texture for the tiger? How did you keep the fur off of the tiger's mouth? The inside of its mouth appeared to be a seperate peice of geometry that the rest of the tiger, but how did you seperate it? Also, how would you lower the specularity of the fur?

Awesome tutorial thank you for it...... But am stuck.... Followed all your steps.... I can see the fur color match the texture file in view port 2.0 but when in render view ends up grey... Any suggestions?

Hello. Thanx for nice tut. Little question. I'm ok with assigning color to the primitives, it works. But when I create root_color in Custom Shader Parameters it does not work with deafult and with aiHair also. What reasons can be? .ptx map in root_color expression is absolutely ok.

Awesome stuff! Thanks for this.

Thanks so much for your video. Now to figure out how to stop Maya crashing randomly when I work with XGen :/

When I checked the delta file option and save the fille after reopening it, my xgen Attribute window does not open. It generates create new descripition page but in the file my old description is still there.So why it generates a new description page and Why it is not showing my old xgen property page with saved delta files . I am using maya 2015 extension service pack 6

Hey Daryl Great tutorial! My only issue seems to be with the paintmaps. it doesnt seem to be creating one at all... and so i cannot fing geometry with a color texture to apply anything too

at the end of the webinar like 2 weeks ago you mentioned that there would be a webinar for Maya-mudbox workflow on the 17th of june.. where can we sing up for this?

so if I was going to create realistic feathers should I use instance objects of a tapered cylinder and use fur or hair for the fibers of the feather or just use a flat image for cards? or a combination of both?

This seems to be exactly what I need to make my wolf realistic I only have some questions and I hope you can answer it soon as this is a project that is due. Your tiger when you made it did you at all do anything to make Xgen work so well? Like did you us UV wrapping or anything of that sort or did U just do rendering texture and slapped it on the tiger and started Xgen. If you didn't do the rendering texture then is there a video or anything to help me out with an animal UV or anything else to help me achieve the level of realism you got with your tiger. If you did only use texture then I'll be able to do this thanks to your video. Hope to hear a response soon.

Does that tiger model have a normal map? Is there even a point to working on the normal map if it's just going to be covered in fur? The model I'm working on doesn't need to be in a game engine: so are normal maps even necessary in this process?

nice explanation. thanks fr the video. please tell me where is the mesh node ?

Just stumbled across this video, very informative, do you have videos of how to model the tiger ?

Hi, I was able to render and drive the fur color with root and tip expression using a texture map and following the method you used here. However, I was only able to do that in Mental Ray. I tried to use Vray as my renderer but I can't get the same result.

I am trying to batch render fur for a bee but the fur won't attach to the bee or show up in a batch render. Do you have any suggestions?

I followed this link from a VRay discussion, but it is a Mental Ray tutorial.

This looks really awesome. I am new to this. How do you suggest I do a fur scarf that I wish to animate? Thanks!

Is it possible to have the cut modifier cut the hairs based on a percentage of the start length?

Thanks for the tutorial. I'm having a problem when loading my texture file and creating the PTEX. The resulting PTEX is quite a bit brighter than my original bitmap file. Have you ever noticed this. Do you have a solution?

where can i learn to animate a tiger?? and i want to animate a nissan armada for my movie.......can't find much help on any videos.......have any options??

Question- can I apply this XGen Fur onto a rig that's already animating in existing scenes?

i ve tryied this technic but it did not work for me :(. But is a good tut!

Another tutorial how to use the modifiers would be great : D

Is there some reason why xgen wont let me set the length of the grooming preview to more than 10?

I need help. It isn't working for me at all. An error message keeps showing up saying that part of the path file doesn't exist. I don't know how to fix that.

Hi! Great Video btw!! it's so useful especially now that im workng on making dog fur! :)) but i have one issue, 3d paint doesnt seem to open up at all when I try to paint on top of it. :( After i create the primitive color setup, it stays the same, 3d paint didnt open up, my character didnt turn white, and when i manually open 3d Paint, it didnt allow me to paint on the model at all. do you know why? :(

So question...I exported a PTEX file from Mudbox then pluged it into color_dt in maya, but a warning came up saying "Ptex (.ptx) texture files are only supported in viewport 2.0 and 3rd party renders that support Ptex. Since its just a warning, I rendered anyway, but the fur still remained the color of the original color_dt file. Do I need to plug my PTEX map in another way for maya to recognize it?

what about displacement mapping with mid point 50% grey?tried to offset the primitves back -0.5 but that doesn`t make the values below 0.5 to go negative?map is 32bit exr.

Hi, thanks for the tutorial. When converting texture maps to ptex by saving the maps, the textures seems washed up in render, as if in different colour space. also the thumbnail in Hypershade looks brighter. I work with Maya 2016 sp3 any suggestions? thanks

Every single time I do hair on a new mesh, I have to spend time troubleshooting why it won't render. I'm using Maya 2018 and Renderman 22.

Hi.... I' ve a doubt in xgen. How can I project that texture with vray material.???????????????????????????? Cant see that texture in Vray lighting :(

Very cool video. BTW, is XGen a part of Maya or is it a plugin that needs to be purchased separately?

Love this Daryl! I have a tiled texture I'm trying to get this to work with. I pipe my tiled file into the furColor node and nothing happens...any suggestions?

please someone help me, i modelled a lion for a project i am working on and the edgeflow and topology is good however when i put xgen fur on the lion it renders with a checkered pattern on parts of the furry surface. like a chess board. when i move the camera around the chess board pattern goes to another area of the lions fur.. iv replaced the camera but i still get the same problem its driving me insane because where ever i search for help no one else seems to have this problem so i have no solution please help thank you

How export those colored xgen fur for other softwares

So for some reason I cannot view my primitives when I update the xgen preview like at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="767">12:47</a> Any Ideas?

How can we mofify the color ?

How do u avoid the fur going on the pads of the underneath of the paw?

Hi i have a problem: when I open the Hypershade , my texture file node where there is the white texture with red stripe is not connected to anything and no tigerfur color dt how can I fix

Hi Daryl small problem here. I've followed your tutorial and its all worked perfectly apart from the last part. I believe it may be because I'm using a PxrMarschnerHair material in conjuction with Renderman 20. Would I still use the 'root_color' shading parameter or another one for use with Marschener Hair? Thanks.

GOD BLESS YOU. THANK YOU

Sir if i want to move my xgen hair with skeleton what i do

... Tigers have eyelashes?

Anyone know how to generate random variation to the length of the hair? Kind of an important feature and yet I don't see much help in way of explaining it. Don't see why it has to be such a complicated process. Why not simply have a slider for random length or a modifier? If anyone knows a simple solution, let me know! Thanks.

mental ray doesn't render the fur for me. What should I do?

This is a huge help - thanks! I can follow all the steps until the colour file texture piping into the primitive colour. When I create the new map (colour_dt) and then press the save/bake to ptex button, I don't see the same input connection in the node editor (the colour_dt node connected to the shapeNode of the tiger). I am using a simple model with a file texture painted in mud box (in diffuse colour). Any idea why this would be?

how can you get the groomable xgen splines to move with the geometry?

Please can you tell me where can I download the files for your tutorial? I can't practice it without having the files!

from <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="930">15:30</a> create primitive color doesn't work at all. I unwrap UV map and import my obj model and grooming all fur. but I can't put color on fur at all

Thank you for the tutorial. When I follow along using a primitive sphere created in Maya, everything works out just fine. However I run into problems when using my own OBJ with UV's. My first problem occurs when I click the create button. The splines come in facing every which way with fewer of them showing on the model. I am also unable to paint color as it seems no texture node is connected? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

Why is is no matter how many times I start over I can not get it to render in the renderer. It says in the output settings to change it to mental ray but the only option that I have is None. I've followed the video step by step many times now and I just can't get it to render...... My cow is very cold...

its been 8 months that im struggling with xgen ,,, everything is good but vray doesnt render the primitive colors , i can see the primitive colors in the viewport but not in the render ,, ohhh gosh im tired of xgen

well.. when i used to create my Fur using old Fur, after i finish i could select my geometry and move it around and in the same time i can see the fur on it. but here if i move the object the xGen would stick where it is until i click on update.. is there any way to keep the xGen attached ?

How was the tiger shaded originally?

Daryl, I am having trouble getting the hair to follow the model. I try parent constraints and nothing works.The scalp geometry flows but the hair follicles do not. What am I missing?

hi, Would using this method be okay for using in a game engine? would it affect performance? or do you recommend a different method for creating fur? i know of using alpha maps to create hair, but i want something more along the lines of your tutorial.

thank you for the video :)

ho do you do opacities for your hair

Hi sir, I got an error, More than one object matches name: xxx when I clicked create fur. May you help please...

Hi) Thanks for the lesson. I have a problem((As long as I'm working on the model everything seems to go just fine, the hair can be renderered and all, but when I close the file and later on re-open it the primitives are gone, nowhere to be found. The yellow grooming splines are still there when their visibility is turned on, but the actual hear is missing and subsequently wont show up in the renders too. Error: unexpected aend of expression: $a=0.0000:#-1.0;1.0

I think the problem with XGEN is the fuzziness that comes with rendering the hair as geometry in Mental ray. I just played around with nHair and played with the option of switching the hair to render as geometry and had the same fuzzy effect, no matter how high the Sampling is cranked up. Will this get looked into? Or are there alternative shader soilutions for XGEN? Also, would nHair also work with Open Subdiv in the future so you don't seperation between the root and mesh?

Hello, I use the Length function of Xgen can not shorten the hair length, what is the problem? I've changed increment to negative!

I have a problem, when I click on "create" maya starts to loading and don't runs...What I should do?

thank you for this tutorial , GOD bless , runtime error appears with "xgExpressionUI.py:957" while trying to generate a map from the primitive color section , please help , how to solve that ?

I followed the steps and got stuck at connecting the animal texture node to the mesh node :( I'm using Maya 2016 by the way. I found the Color_DT under the mesh node, connected the texture node to it and hit saved. when i tried to preview it, It gave me an error of Failed to create paintmaps/colorDT PtexWriter::edit error: header doesn't match existing file, conversions not currently supported

how I do a attach the hair to my geometry???? i need help

Hello. I could use some help.I can't make the fur appear in render view. How can I fix that?

does this run ok in a game engine like unity?

thanks , is your tiger texture a ptex map ? can I use jpeg map for Xgen in the primitive color as you taught us?

When I hit create, Maya totally freezes and I go to the task manager and it says it is not responding.... Then I have to close it and restart it, and it does it again.

hi, thanks for the great tutorial!, I have a question, I follow the steps and coming to a problem, when I create a new map in primitive color it didnt make the whole mesh turn into white, and i cant find this texture when i open out the node connection of the mesh, also when i press the back to disk open there is nothing happened keep saying "Error while trying to do ptexBake" in the script editor do you know why? thanks again !

THANK YOU!

If i added the XGen fur, than my Macbook is lagging hard as hell :( Can i fix this?

Ok but how link the fur on ur model to animate it ?

Hi when I preview the current description with the density of 30 maya crashed. Is ther anything that i have to prepare before

i keep on getting "fatal error attempting to save" and then Maya crashes every time i try to use XGen. is there a fix for this?

anyone know how his grid fading out to background ?

Hi bro how are you?nice final render! i tryed to do this tutorial with my character, but in the min: <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1060">17:40</a> doesn't apear the (mesh) icon and (shadingengine), only i have the texture, how i can solve this? I want to make hair for this project, its important, lot of thanks! ;)

Maya freezes everytime I try and add fur to my model in XGEN

I just got maya 2011 i think. Is XGen only for maya 2015?

what is the Chinese meaning

It was better screen from the beginning and after he created a fur and render out a tiger its became less better ^^ for real

Can I use delta files for groomable splines? I cant seem to get it to work

i want that tiger model ._.

God !