Importing and Exporting Geometry
Ornatrix App does not model base meshes itself; instead you import geometry from your pipeline, grow hair on it, and export the finished hair back out for rendering. This page covers bringing geometry in and sending hair out. For saving the groom itself, see Saving and Loading Grooms.
Importing base geometry
Import a mesh to use as the surface your hair grows on. The App reads:
- Alembic (
.abc) - USD (
.usd,.usda,.usdc,.usdz) - OBJ (
.obj) - FBX (
.fbx)
You can bring a file in from the File menu's import command or by dragging it onto the App window. When a file holds more than one object, a dialog lets you choose which objects to import. Once imported, the mesh appears in the scene and can be used as the input to creation operators such as Guides from Mesh Operator.
Alembic and USD can contain animated geometry, so hair can follow an imported performance over the The Timeline and Playback, and they can also bring in hair as well as meshes. OBJ and FBX import meshes only, baked into the groom. See OBJ Import and FBX Import for details on those two formats.
Exporting hair
When your groom is ready, export the hair for use in another application or renderer. The App writes hair to:
- Alembic (
.abc) - USD (
.usd,.usda,.usdc)
The export dialog lets you control how the hair is written so it matches what your downstream renderer expects. Exported hair can be rendered by any application that reads Ornatrix-compatible Alembic or USD curve data.
Choosing a format
- Alembic is the long-standing interchange format for hair and is widely supported across renderers and DCC applications.
- USD fits naturally into USD-based pipelines and scene assembly.
- OBJ and FBX are convenient for bringing in a static base mesh from almost any modeling tool.
If you simply want to move a groom between Ornatrix products, you do not need to export geometry at all - save the groom itself instead, as described in Saving and Loading Grooms.
Related
- OBJ Import and FBX Import cover importing those mesh formats.
- Curves from Strands and Rendering Hair as Mesh Geometry cover converting hair into other geometry types.
- Rendering with ProRender covers previewing your groom inside the App.