When you add an Anim Wire or Clumping modifier, XGen uses a collection of points on the mesh to determine where to generate the animation wires and clumping guides. Maya saves these point locations as a map and stores the information as a point (.xuv) file.
By default, the file is saved to Description's Points folder. The point file name is based on the polygon object bound to the Description. See Manage XGen files and directories and Ptex map file locations in XGen.
Point maps are also used to generate primitives at specific locations of the mesh surface (see Specify locations for primitives).
Note: To use the same point map with other Descriptions, the Descriptions must be bound to geometry with the same topology.
- In the
Generate Maps (for
AnimWire) or
Generate Clumping Map (for
Clumping) window, do one of the following:
- To use a point map you already created for the Description, click Load.
- To create a new point map, set the Density and click Generate.
- To create new point locations, click these areas on the polygon surface.
- (For guides-based Descriptions only) To use the place points at the Description guide locations, click Guide.
- (Optional) Make the point markers larger or smaller using Points Display Length.
- To apply a
Mask
to the point map, click
and select an option from the list.
- Click Save.