XGen Interactive Groom Editor

The XGen Interactive Groom Editor is your main tool for creating, editing, and managing modifiers and sculpting layers for interactive grooming.

To open the XGen Interactive Groom Editor:

1 - Menu commands

See below for a list of all commands.

2 - Add Modifier

Select an interactive groom description and click this button to access the list of interactive groom modifiers that you can add to the description.

See Interactive grooming modifiers and Work with interactive grooming modifiers.

3 - Add Sculpt Layer

Select a Sculpt modifier and click this button to add a new sculpt layer.

See Work with sculpt layers.

4 - Interactive groom description

Represents each interactive groom description (xgmDescriptionShape) node in the scene. Select this node to add interactive groom modifiers.

See XGen interactive grooming description node attributes.

5 - Interactive groom modifiers

Represents each interactive groom modifier on the descriptions. Select a modifier to edit its attributes and add sculpt layers (Sculpt modifiers only) . Drag and drop the modifiers or use the / icons to change their order in the modifier stack, which changes their overall affect on the groom.

6 - Sculpt layers

Represents each sculpt layer belonging to a Sculpt modifier. By default, Sculpt modifiers include one sculpt layer. Click Add Sculpt Layer to create more layers within a Sculpt modifier. Drag the layer slider control to set its weighting.

Drag and drop sculpt layers to add them to or remove them from groups. You cannot change their order or to remove them from the group.

7 - Visibility

Click the circle to toggle the effect of the modifier or sculpt layer on and off. You can also select multiple items and click the circle for one of them to toggle the visibility for all of them.

You can click the circle for a group to see the effect of all its sculpt layers on the hair.

Weighting and editing are disabled when the visibility is off.

8 - Groups

You can organize sculpt layers into groups and subgroups. See the Group icon below for more information.

9 - Weight

Drag the slider to set the weight (influence) of that sculpt layer to a value between 0.000 and 1.000, or enter a value in the weight text box.

Right-clicking in the weight text box provides access to some standard Maya attribute options.

10 - Edit

Click the Edit button to enter edit mode for this sculpt layer. Modify the hair or fur using a grooming tool.

11 - Key

Click the Key icon to set a key on the selected sculpt layer's current weight value at this frame.

Right-click the key icon to open a menu with these commands: Key at current, Key at 0, Key at 1, or Remove key.

12 - description_base node

Represents the description's base (xgmSplineBase) node in the scene.

See XGen interactive groom description_base node attributes.

13 - Icons

  • / : Moves the selected modifier or sculpt layer up or down in the order.

    Moving a modifier changes its place in the processing order, which can change the look and behavior of the modified hairs.

  • Group : Select description nodes or sculpt layers, then click this icon to create a group containing them. You can create any number of subgroups. To ungroup descriptions, select Edit > Ungroup from the main Maya menu bar. To ungroup sculpt layers, drag-and-drop it to location outside the group.
  • Delete deletes whatever is selected: descriptions, modifiers, sculpt layers, groups.

    If you delete a group, its members are also removed.

    You cannot delete a description_base node on its own. If you delete a description, the description_base node is also removed.

Interactive Groom Editor Menu Commands

Edit menu

  • Group creates a group with the selected descriptions or sculpt layers. You can also click the Group icon . See Create groups of descriptions and sculpt layers.
  • Delete deletes whatever is selected: descriptions, modifiers, sculpt layers, groups. You can also click the Delete icon .
  • Duplicate duplicates the selected modifiers.

Create menu

  • Interactive Groom Splines opens the Create Interactive Groom Splines Options window, which lets you create interactive groom splines on the selected mesh object or selected faces of the mesh object.

    See also, Create hair and fur using interactive grooming tools.

  • Add Modifer provides access to the interactive groom modifiers that you can add to the description, the same as clicking the Add Modifier button.
  • Add Sculpt Layer adds a new sculpt layer to the selected Sculpt modifier, the same as clicking the Add Sculpt Layer button.

Select menu

  • Select Splines on Selected Face lets you select hairs generated on the selected faces of the bound mesh.
  • Freeze Selected freezes hairs selected by the Select tool; same as freezing hairs with the Freeze tool. See Interactive Grooming Tools.

Description menu

  • Transfer lets you transfer hair from a source interactive groom spline description to target mesh object. The source and target meshes do not need to have the same topology, so you can transfer hair to low or high resolution versions of your character mesh or to different mesh shapes. See Transfer interactive grooms from one mesh to another.

  • Preset lets you save your interactive grooms to preset files. Click Export to save the selected description as a preset and Import to apply a preset to the selected polygon mesh. See Save and load interactive grooming hair and fur presets.

  • Cache lets you save hair and fur created by interactive groom spline descriptions to Alembic cache files. You can then load the cache from a network location or local hard-drive into your scene at a later time.

    See XGen Caching submenu.

Related topics

Parent topic: XGen Interactive Grooming Windows and Editors