Adding xgen hair/fur

Exporting xgen collection and meshes

Open the man.ma (you can find this scene inside the data folder of your Atoms installation) scene you created when building the variations.

From the variation1 renderlayer collection, remove the hair geo so that the character is without hair.

Then create a simple xgen groom, something like in the picture. Then you can start to export the data needed by atoms.

You can also have dynamic set ups, by creating dynamic curves and attaching them to the description.

When setting up your variation render layers, make sure to add the xgen collection to the layers where you want to have the fur.

Open the variation builder and export your variations. Your xgen descriptions will be exported and added to the variation json as well.

Exporting caches

Follow these steps:

• create an agent group
• add a grid layout module and set the size to 3, 1, 3
• add a state machine and set the state to 1
• import the variation json you just exported via the menu: Atoms > Variations > Import Variation Json
• Add a variation module and set the variation name to variation1
• Select the agent group from the list on the left and press on the arrow button. Provide a file path and click Export.

Exporting groom caches

Instead of using the alembic exporter, you can use the CFX simulation exporter for exporting your groom caches.

Open the CFX simulation exporter via the menu: Atoms > Exporters > CFX Simulation Exporter.

Disable "Cloth".

Provide a groom cache path (with no padding).

If you have originally set up a dynamic hair system in your variation scene, you can provide a curves cache path for the curves alembic (with no padding).

Provide a cache file.

If you have cleared your scene previously, please provide a variation json file or import the variation json in your scene again.

Click Run.

Creating an atoms proxy

Clear the scene.

Create an atoms proxy node from the Atoms menu: Atoms > Rendering > Create Atoms proxy node.

Set the atoms cache and the groom cache you exported before. Inside the groom cache folder you will find a file for each agent, just select one of those files.

Set the curves caches if you have exported in the previous step (just select one of the padded files).

Set the variations json path inside the proxy node.

Rendering

Renderman: Create some renderman lights and select from the Atoms menu: Atoms > Scene > Setup xgen settings. This will add a mel script to the renderman post world ri injection scripts. This script sets up the xgen camera attributes at each frame.

Arnold: Create an Arnold light.

Start your render.