Modifiers are Maya nodes that globally apply effects and process grooming data for interactive groom hair and fur. You an add any number of modifiers to create a modifier stack.
Maya processes the effects of modifiers from the bottom of the stack to the top. You can think of a modifier as a processing layer that applies its effect to the hair, and then passes the hair data to the next modifier above it in the stack, and so on. The overall effect on the hair is a combination of all the active modifiers. You can disable and reposition modifiers in the stack to quickly to change the look and shape of the hairs.
| Modifier Name | Icon | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
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Sculpt (xgmModifierSculpt) |
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By default, interactive groom descriptions are created with a Sculpt modifier. Sculpt modifiers contain sculpt layers, which let you layer and blend the effects of the interactive grooming tools. Add multiple Sculpt modifiers or Sculpt layers to layer the effects of the interactive grooming brushes. See Work with sculpt layers and XGen interactive grooming modifier attributes. |
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Scale (xgmModifierScale) |
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Lets you globally scale the length of each hair. By default, interactive groom descriptions are created with a Scale modifier. This node is at the bottom of modifier stack to scale the start length globally. You can move the modifier to the top of the stack to scale length after the effect of other modifiers have been applied. |
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Curve to Spline (xgmCurveToSpline) |
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Lets you convert a series of existing curves to interactive groom hairs. You can then sculpt the hairs and add modifiers to them. You can select curves in the scene or select curves as a group from an imported Alembic cache. Animation on the curves is preserved. Placing this modifier at the top of the stack disables all other modifiers below it. To edit the curves, place other modifiers above it. The curve density cannot be modified. See Create interactive groom hairs and guides from existing curves and XGen interactive grooming Curve to Spline modifier attributes. |
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Clump (xgmModifierClump) |
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Lets you globally generate large numbers of hair clumps in hair and fur. Use the Clump modifier attributes to define the shape and size of the hair clumps, add secondary hair clumps, as well as create curls, coils, and spirals in the groom. You can use a mask to determine which areas of the groom get affected by the modifier and the weighting of the clump effect in these areas. This way you can apply clumping strength and size as needed. Painting a masking also lets you control the falloff of the clumping effect, so that it either falloffs off to the minimum or maximum clump weighting. See Work with Clump modifiers and XGen interactive grooming Clump modifier attributes. |
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Collision (xgmModifierCollide) |
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Lets you use polygon meshes as collision objects with your hair and fur grooms. Use the Collision modifier to prevent hairs from intersecting the surface of mesh objects and for creating hair deformations around collision objects such as a hat. See Create collision objects for hair using a Collision modifier. |
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Cut (xgmModifierCut) |
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Lets you globally trim hairs to a specified length without affecting their shape. |
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Displacement (xgmModifierDisplace) |
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Use this modifier to offset hair and fur from the surface of the bound mesh. If your character mesh has a displacement map, you can connect the map or other maps to the Displace modifier attributes. This ensures that characters hair and fur generation adheres to the contours of the mesh surface. See XGen interactive grooming Displacement modifier attributes. |
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Guide (xgmModifierGuide) |
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Generates hair guides on the surface of mesh to influence the shape and deformation of the hairs. When you add the modifier to a description, the guides take their initial shape from the surrounding hairs. Thereafter, the guides use an interpolation method to affect the surrounding hairs. The guides can be sculpted using the interactive grooming tools, generated from existing curves, or converted to dynamic curves. The Guide modifier provides control over the interpolation method using region maps. The Guide modifier can also be used to simulate and animate hairs. See Work with Guide and Linear Wire modifiers and XGen interactive grooming Guide and Linear Wire modifier attributes. |
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Linear Wire (xgmModifierLinearWire) |
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Generates wires on the surface of the mesh which can be animated or simulated to drive the deformation and motion of the hairs. Hair animation and resulting deformation is generated by computing an offset from the groom's initial Reference State. This way the base shape of hairs are maintain during the simulation. The Linear Wire modifier can also be used for the same purposes as the Guide modifier. However, it does not use an interpolation method and doe not have region controls. See Work with Guide and Linear Wire modifiers and XGen interactive grooming Guide and Linear Wire modifier attributes. |
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Noise (xgmModifierNoise) |
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Generates three-dimensional noise along the length of each hair strand. This effect breaks up the uniform shape of each hair and makes them appear more natural. Use this modifier to apply noise globally. See XGen interactive grooming Noise modifier attributes. To add noise effects to areas locally, use the Noise tool. See Interactive Grooming Tools |
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Spline Cache (xgmModifierSplineCache) |
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Adds a Spline cache node to the modifier stack, which plays back Alembic cache files of interactive grooms. Placing this node at the top of the modifier stack disables the effects of all modifiers below it. Turn off the node's visibility in the Interactive Groom Editor to temporally disable the cache. Saving your hair groom to an Alembic cache by selecting automatically adds a splineCache node to top of the modifier stack. See also XGen Caching submenu. |