XGen Learning Paths

XGen is an instancing tool most commonly used for creating hair or populating a scene with instanced geometry. There are two primary methods of using it, depending on what you want to do.

Use an Interactive XGen Groom if you want to...	Use an XGen Description if you want to...
...generate hair using the easiest / most straightforward method. ...groom hair interactively using brushes and sculpt layers. ...avoid referenced file paths. ...manually animate hair. ...use GPU acceleration.	...instance something other than hair (meshes / cards). ...modify primitive generation using SeExpr expressions. ...utilize Ptex maps.

Interactive Grooms and XGen Descriptions are mostly independent - that is, they don't interact except when converting from one system to the other. Because of this, it's best to determine what you want to do with your groom first and then choose the right method based on that. Once you've done so, you can follow the learning paths below to create your instanced geometry.

Hair Learning Paths

	Interactive XGen Groom		XGen Description
1. Basic overview	General overview and video		General overview and video
2. Create the base primitives	Create interactive groom splines		Create a description using splines Note: You can also create a description with groomable splines, but these are not the same as interactive groom splines. Preview hair primitives
3. Groom and shape the hair	Control the density of hairs XGen interactive grooming tools Work with sculpt layers Work with masks		Add primitives to an existing Description Shape primitives using guides Work with guides
4. Add modifiers	Interactive grooming modifiers (clump, noise, collision, etc) Work with interactive grooming modifiers		Shape and control spline primitives using modifiers Create hair and fur clumps Create point maps for modifiers
5. *Optional* Conversion	Transfer interactive grooming hairs to a default XGen description Prepare an interactive groom for conversion to geometry		Convert default splines to interactive grooming hairs Convert XGen hair and fur to Maya geometry
6. Animate	Animate hairs by keyframing a guide modifier (video) Simulate hair using a Linear Wire modifier		Animate hair, fur, or splines using dynamic curves Animate spline primitives using an Anim Wire modifier Animate guides by attaching an nHair system
7. Render	Render interactive grooming hairs		Shading and Rendering XGen primitives
8. Save and transfer	Transfer interactive grooms from one mesh to another Save and load interactive groom hair and fur presets		Save and load XGen files Manage XGen files and directories Export and import XGen Collections and Descriptions Save groom edits to delta files Use Python commands to export and import XGen files Specify locations for user, local, and global file repositories Edit XGen file paths

Related topics

• XGen Interactive Grooming on the Maya Learning Channel
• Creating XGen hair (descriptions) on the Maya Learning Channel