Grooming Workflows 

There is no single right way to build a groom, but most grooms follow a few well-worn patterns. This page outlines common workflows and points to the operators and tools each one relies on. Once you understand these, you can mix and adapt them to your own needs.

 

The standard surface groom 

The most common workflow grows hair on a mesh:

1. Import the surface. See Importing and Exporting Geometry.
2. Guides from Mesh Operator to grow sparse guides.
3. Edit Guides Operator with the Brush Tools to shape the guides by hand.
4. Hair from Guides Operator to generate dense hair.
5. Styling operators such as Frizz Operator, Clump Operator, and Curl Operator.
6. Change Width Operator to set thickness, then preview or export.

This is the workflow in Your First Groom: Grooming Basics, and the foundation for most others.

 

Fur with macro flow 

For animal fur over a large surface, lean on procedural flow rather than brushing every area:

• Use the Surface Comb Operator with the Surface Comb Tool to direct flow across the body with sinks.
• Define partings with the Hair Parting Tool.
• Add Clump Operator and Frizz Operator for clumping and break-up.
• Vary length and density with maps and channels via the Generate Strand Data Operator.

 

Feathers, grass, and vegetation 

To build branching or instanced structures:

• Use the Propagation Operator to grow strands out of strands, assigning a strand group at each level.
• Use the Scatter Operator to instance a reference shape (a feather, a blade) across a groom.
• Use the Multiplier Operator to add density.

 

Hair on a MetaHuman 

To groom one of your Unreal Engine characters:

• Bring the head in with the MetaHuman tool, which lists the .dna files on your machine. See MetaHuman Heads.
• Place a scalp, eyebrows or a beard with the Graft tool and record the fit, so it applies to every MetaHuman in one click from then on.
• Style the grafts as any groom, drive the head's expressions to check the hair stays attached, then export with Alembic Export and bind the groom to the character's face in Unreal.

 

Card and strip hair 

For stylized or real-time hair built from geometry:

• Model strips and use Hair from Mesh Strips Operator to grow hair across them.
• Set facing with Rotating Strands and convert to geometry with Mesh from Strands.

 

Animation and dynamics 

To make a groom move:

• Drive dense hair with a few simulated guides via Adopt External Guides.
• Simulate with the Moov Physics Operator, or fake motion with the Oscillator Operator.
• Cache the result with Animation Cache Operator for fast playback, and bake where needed.

 

Tips that apply everywhere 

• Keep guides sparse and even for the best interpolation.
• Work at a light hair count and detail, then raise them for output. See Detail Operator and Hair and Guide Viewport Display.
• Use strand groups and strand channels to target and vary effects.
• Save often, and use Hold and Fetch to experiment safely.

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