Ornatrix 3dsmax: How To Use Channels and Groups, Please Explain?

Hi I am hoping someone on this forum can help me out with understanding how to get Guide Channels and Groups to work in Ornatrix Modifiers. I understand that both the channels and groups fulfill different purposes on Ox modifiers. But I was wondering if someone can shed some light on how they each work, the differences between Channels and Groups and how to use them to best affect with Ox modifiers? From what I can see new Channels can be created in Ox Edit Guides, and then weights can be assigned to the Guides on the Channel to state the influence each Guide will have on neighbouring Hair Strands when the Channel is assigned to a Map > Channel slot of a Modifier Parameter. I have tried this and only been successful once to get a modifier to be affected by the Channel I created. However since then I have had problems trying to get the Channel to affect a Modifier Parameter when assigned. I have also noticed like many others there is an 'Apply to Group' parameter on certain Modifiers like Ox Strand Frizz? What Group does this relate to? How do I create and setup a Group? Really hope someone can help with this enquiry
2 June 2014 #5244
bhobbs	Hi I have looked in to Channels and Groups alittle bit more indepth since the last post. I appears from I can grasp from my own trials and reading the documentation indepth the differences between Groups and Channels are: Channels: Best thought of as a Weight Map alternative. Assign weights directly to the Guides of your groom then assign the Channel containing these weights to the modifier parameter you wish to influence with the channel weights. Where you would normally create a Weight Map, create a New Channel in Ox Edit Guides and then go to the Brush or Root Option and assign weights by painting or selecting Guides with Weight Values. (Black = 0 or no influence and White = 1 or complete influence). THere are also two types of Channel Root and Vertex. Root is least memory intensive and only uniformly holds weight data for the Strand as a whole (at the root vertice). Vertex based Channels are far more detailed and precise with containing Weight Data and can hold individual weight values at each and every Vertex along the length of each strand. This also means Vertex Based Channels are far more memory intensive. To assign a Channel to a Modifier Parameter you select the Channel from the drop down menu under the Red Paint Brush icon to the right of the Map Slot of the relevant parameter supporting Channel assignment. Groups: Where Channels are equivalents to Weight Maps, Groups are best thought of as sub layers/groups of entire Hair systems emitted/spawned from the strands of exisiting hairs. To find out more about Groups refer to the Ox Propagation modifier documentation on this website. Basically you cannot assign Weights as with Channels, but you can assign separate Materials, modifiers and Render Settings like thickness of strands to each group of hair. You can also chain multiple Ox Propagation modifers on top of each other to spawn a hair system on a hair system on another hair system and so on. So to sum up Groups are ID numbers for child hair systems in a hierachy (maintained by Ox Propagation modifiers) and Channels are for refining the weights and influnece locally of specific modifier parameters instead of using Weight Maps.