Branching Hair Objects
Overview
Ornatrix uses Maya's Dependency Graph to produce hair data inside the Maya scene.
This deep integration allows for extra flexibility when working with Ornatrix hair data inside Maya. One use case is the use of the dependency graph to create multiple hair objects from different points in the groom stack. We call this "Branching".
This can be a very powerful tool in many cases. You can, for example, generate a groom made up of different hair objects, creating a more complete and complex hairstyle based on multiple "layers". It can be used to generate hairs on top of other hairs, generate a hair object based on existing Ornatrix data or even to add polygon elements on top of hair or fur.
Creating Branches
To create a new branch enable Branch Mode in the Ornatrix menu. This menu can be found on the main menu bar at the top. This menu contains all the Ornatrix nodes that you can use to style the hair:
When Branch Mode is enabled, adding a new node will create a new hair object by branching from the currently selected node. From now on, when adding a new node a dialog will appear asking to confirm the creation of a new hair shape object. Click "Yes" to create a new branch:
In this example we created a new branch starting from Hair from Guides node by adding a new node with Branch Mode enabled. Shape nodes in the dependency graph represent the final object that is displayed in the viewport.
In this scene there are now two hair objects: BranchShape1 and BranchShape2. Each shape represents a different branch and the root of both branches is the Hair from Guides node:
Any changes made to Hairs from Guides will affect both hair objects, but any changes made above Hairs from Guides will only affect one of the hair objects.