You can convert hair and fur created by default splines Descriptions to Maya polygon mesh objects. Converting hair or fur to geometry does not alter the original groom. This means you can easily create multiple variations of your hair and fur by modifying the Description and then generating additional polygon versions. Shaping hair and fur in XGen, and then converting the groom to low-res polygon strips is an ideal way to create hair for game characters and other game assets.
When converting hair and fur to Maya geometry, consider the following:
- By default, Maya generates a polygon mesh strip from each hair. For Descriptions with a large number of hairs, consider reducing the Description's Density value or converting a percentage of the hair density by using the XGen Editor Output Settings (see below). Otherwise, Maya's interactive performance maybe affected. See XGen Generator Attributes.
- Spans in the polygon meshes are created from the spline primitive CVs. To generate higher resolution meshes, add more CVs to the spline primitives by increasing the Modifier CV Count value. See Primitive Attributes.
- When Maya converts the spline primitives, it creates a node group named <Description name>_convert with polygonSurface child nodes for each output mesh object.
Convert hair and fur using the Convert XGen Primitives to Polygon Options
- Select the hair, fur, or instanced spline Description.
- Do one of the following:
- In the Modeling menu set, select .
- Select
.
- In the Convert Primitives to Polygon Options window, specify the desired mesh generation settings.
- Click Convert to generate the polygon objects.
Convert hair and fur using the XGen Editor Output Settings
- Select the hair, fur, or instanced spline Description.
- In the XGen Editor, click the Preview/Output tab.
- In the Output Settings section, set Operation to Create Geometry.
- Adjust Percent to convert a percentage of your groom's overall hair density.
- Specify the desired mesh generation settings. These settings are the same as the Convert Primitives to Polygon Options.
- Click Create Geo to generate the polygon objects.