Merge Strands
Overview
Merge Strands takes two or more input hair or guide objects and combines them into one object. This can be useful when you have two grooms which are generated and styled separately on the same character, which you want to become a single groom without losing the creation history. This workflow is particularly helpful for complex grooms that benefit from being divided into multiple sub-grooms, where each can be edited more easily in isolation, have completely different operator stacks, or have different animation requirements.
Note: Merging assumes that all input strands have been planted onto the same distribution surface.
Video Tutorial
Merging Grooms
The Merge operator is simple to use and provides a fully procedural and non-destructive workflow. Add the Merge operator at the level of the stack where you want to merge the two objects.
In this example the merged object will not be affected by the operators applied before it:
In this example the merged object will be affected by the operators applied after it. For instance, the Change Width operator will affect the strand width of all the merged hair objects:
Basic Merging Steps
- Select one of the sub-grooms and add an Ox Merge operator at the top of the stack
- In the Merge operator, click the Add button to open a select dialog
- Select the hair object you want to merge and click OK
- The selected object will be added to the Merged Strands list
- Optionally hide the merged groom object in the viewport to avoid visual confusion
In the following image, two hair objects have been added to the Merged Strands list:
Overlap Resolution
When merging grooms, you may encounter overlapping hair between the sub-grooms. The Merge operator provides options to handle this:
Overlap Resolution Options
- None (default) - No overlap handling; grooms may overlap
- Remove - Removes overlapping hair strands
- Blend - Smoothly blends the sub-grooms together, eliminating sharp transitions
Distance Threshold
When using overlap resolution, you can adjust the Distance Threshold parameter to control which strands are considered overlapping. This helps fine-tune the merge result.
Procedural Workflow
The merging process in Ornatrix is fully procedural and non-destructive. This means:- You can modify the groom below or above the merge point at any time
- Changes to sub-grooms automatically update in the merged result
- The original sub-grooms remain intact and can be edited independently