Shape and control spline primitives using XGen modifiers

You can use XGen modifiers to change the appearance and behavior of Spline primitives. For example, you can generate hair clumps and coils for hair and fur.

See XGen Modifiers for information about each modifier type.

Add XGen modifiers to a Description

1. In the XGen Editor, select the Description for your groom or instanced splines.
2. Click the Modifiers tab.
3. Click the Add new modifier icon .
4. Select one or more modifiers from the Add Modifier Window.

   XGen adds the modifiers to the stack in the same order you select them.

5. (For multiple modifiers) To move modifiers up and down in the stack, click the or icons. Moving a modifier changes its place in the processing order, which can change the look and behavior of the modified splines.
   Important: XGen puts Clumping modifiers before others in the stack. No other modifiers can appear below a Clumping modifier.
6. Preview the Description.
7. (Optional) To get more deformation from the modifiers, try adding more control vertices to the splines. To do this, click the Primitives tab and in the Primitive Attributes section, increase the Modifier CV Count value.
8. (Optional) To improve Maya's performance when it processes multiple modifiers, you can add Groom Bake modifier. See Groom Bake modifier.

Disable modifiers

You can disable a modifier to temporarily remove it from the processing stack. This is useful to decrease computation time. Disabled modifiers do not affect the primitives. The modifier settings are not deleted.

To disable a modifier

1. In the Modifiers stack, turn off the modifier you want to disable.

   Select it to re-enable it.

Delete modifiers

Deleting a modifier permanently removes it from the stack and deletes its settings.

To delete a modifier

1. Under the Modifiers tab, do one of the following:
   • In the Modifiers toolbar, click the icon, then select Delete from the menu that appears.
   • Right-click the modifier you want to delete, and then select Delete.

Save a modifier

You can save modifier settings to a file an XGFX, and then apply them to other instances of the same modifier type. You can then load the file to another Description to apply the settings. Modifier files only contain information about the modifier's attributes. Information used by the modifier, such as patch data, is not saved.

Important: Modifiers are topology dependent. When saved modifier settings are applied to different meshes, their effect is likely to be different.

1. In the XGen Editor, under the Modifiers tab, do one of the following:
   • In the Modifiers toolbar, click the icon then select Save Modifier from the menu that appears.
   • Right-click the modifier you want to save, then select Save from the menu that appears.
2. Browse to the location where you want to save the file.

Load modifier

1. In the XGen Editor, under the Modifiers tab, click the icon in the Modifiers toolbar.
2. Select one of the following:
   • Load Global to load a modifier file from the directory specified by the ${XGEN_LOCATION} environment variable.
   • Load Local to load a modifier file from the directory specified by the ${XGEN_ROOT} environment variable.
   • Load User to load a modifier file from the directory specified by the ${HOME} environment variable.

   The selected modifier file loads with its saved attribute values.

   For information about the setting directory locations using environment variables, see Specify locations for user, local, and global file repositories.