🧵 Untitled Thread
Anonymous at Thu, 9 Feb 2023 18:06:29 UTC No. 936465
Is XGEN in Maya 2023 considered "unstable" and prone to corrupting files? Has this happened to anyone? Is hair and fur grooming in houdini the only way?
Anonymous at Thu, 9 Feb 2023 22:44:25 UTC No. 936513
>>936465
>Is hair and fur grooming in houdini the only way?
Not quite. Blender introduced a new advanced grooming system in 3.3 LTS.
https://code.blender.org/2022/07/th
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_U
https://studio.blender.org/films/ch
Anonymous at Thu, 9 Feb 2023 22:51:42 UTC No. 936514
>>936513
How buggy is it? Ive been trying xgen all day and its god awful with crashes. Everything they say about its instability is true. I can no longer use it, even after only one day.
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 01:03:52 UTC No. 936523
>>936513
how do I get all the geometry node presets he has in the official video?
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 01:10:02 UTC No. 936526
what in mutts name is that sculpt. jesus christ, don't skip your fundamentals guys.
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 01:32:51 UTC No. 936529
>>936523
they talk about stripping the geo nodes out from the einar example file from this site, but im not sure how to do that shit?
https://studio.blender.org/films/ch
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 08:44:40 UTC No. 936562
>>936536
nigger its a different style, it would be like comparing picasso with a photo of a woman.
the sculpt in OP is obviously going for the realistic approach and they failed in so many areas, this is supposed to be a professional shot.
look at the brow for a start, what is she a fucking neanderthal? her eyes are too far apart, even with her lids closed it looks too far apart, i dread to think what it looks when you can see here pupils.
i can't even describe the complexity of wrongness in all the hsapes here.
God sake, people think you can just skip over learning the face and be ok, but i'm telling you its literally the most important aspect of any humanoid character, so don't skip it.
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 09:28:33 UTC No. 936567
>>936514
They are adding it to the geometry nodes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY5
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 09:42:46 UTC No. 936569
>>936523
all the new nodes are shared here.
https://projects.blender.org/blende
this >>936567 is there too
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 10:15:21 UTC No. 936571
>>936562
the sculpt is fine. it's missing some stuff like the canthal tendon, but your 'complaints' sound like you've only ever seen faces in loomis and never any irl.
i hate xgen but it's okay. houdini's grooming is more crash prone, but it'll never corrupt your definitions though.
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 10:16:06 UTC No. 936572
>>936571
>the sculpt is fine
it really isn't
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 10:18:15 UTC No. 936573
>>936571
>but your 'complaints' sound like you've only ever seen faces in loomis and never any irl.
been studying the face for years.
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 10:19:45 UTC No. 936574
>>936572
it's fine. it's not good. but it's not broken.
>>936573
maybe go outside and look at some people.
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 10:23:24 UTC No. 936575
>>936574
>it's fine. it's not good. but it's not broken.
it is broken. you don't know enough.
>maybe go outside and look at some people.
you're an idiot.
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 10:24:53 UTC No. 936576
>>936575
you think you know more than you do, but you're standing on the peak of mt. stupid
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 10:27:13 UTC No. 936577
>>936576
>you think you know more than you do, but you're standing on the peak of mt. stupid
nah. you're fucking dumb.
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 10:28:08 UTC No. 936578
>>936577
no, it you who is dumb...
anyway, hope you have a nice day. gotta go now. ez.
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 10:28:47 UTC No. 936579
>>936578
get gud
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 15:34:51 UTC No. 936597
Has anyone tried VRoid for creating hair?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCd
The program itself is like an app and feels horrendous to use. However its the only software I could find that people used to create unique hairstyles. Every other hair solution seem to be creating the same hairstyle over and over again. Or they just copy some real-world hairstyle. I have never seen an artist use XGEN on something similar to create something unique. Not once.
Do you guys think that this lack of hairstyle creativity is because of a lack of artistic abilities or a limitation of the software itself?
I don't see why XGEN can't use a method of generating hair curves in the same manner VRoid generates hair strands. It's a very simplistic and elegant solution.
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 16:36:05 UTC No. 936599
>>936597
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-j
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 17:04:15 UTC No. 936602
>>936513
lmao
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 19:03:16 UTC No. 936616
>>936599
lol
NO
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 20:08:31 UTC No. 936620
>>936526
It's a scan you daft faggot
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 20:14:28 UTC No. 936621
>>936620
lol, I'll believe it when i see source.
Anonymous at Fri, 10 Feb 2023 23:36:54 UTC No. 936629
>>936597
Vroid really needs to update their hair to current modeling instead of sculpting the hair. However there is no rule saying you can't copy one of their hair styles from their anime studio software and putting it on your character with your own clothing. Many people already copy and paste Miku Hatsune hair.
Anonymous at Sat, 11 Feb 2023 15:57:21 UTC No. 936690
>>936465
The rule of thumb is to always be one year behind the newest release, so that other can beta test and catch the bugs. The 2022 version of Xgen is pretty stable, just use that one
Anonymous at Sat, 11 Feb 2023 17:24:55 UTC No. 936695
>>936629
>instead of sculpting the hair
There's no hair sculpting in VRoid. It's basically rigged strands on top of an adjustable net. The genius of the VRoid system is that adjustable hair net thing. I've been hoping Blender or whomever might copy this idea for years now but no luck.
Anonymous at Sun, 12 Feb 2023 02:00:30 UTC No. 936736
>>936690
anon, xgen got no improvements for a very long time going by the official 2023 release notes from 2020 to 2023. Its buggy as fuck, unusable.
You could say its downright horrible
Anonymous at Sun, 12 Feb 2023 14:56:03 UTC No. 936772
>>936736
I've been using it for the last 3 years. it has some issues and some particularities that you need to know, but it's very usable and it's very easy to get believable hair with it. I tried ornatrix and yeti, but imo it's much harder to get good results with them. Ornatrix is very good tho for the real time hair pipeline
Anonymous at Mon, 13 Feb 2023 16:58:22 UTC No. 936863
>>936465
the real rule of thumb for anything related to maya is to consider every single version "unstable" and prone to corrupting files.
also entire workfolders.
also your user profile.
tldr: backup your shit in places maya does not know about or suffer the consequences.
Anonymous at Tue, 14 Feb 2023 01:48:15 UTC No. 936891
>>936863
Once I went legit I never had this happen to me
Anonymous at Tue, 14 Feb 2023 01:49:56 UTC No. 936892
>>936891
t. autodesk
Anonymous at Tue, 14 Feb 2023 15:19:20 UTC No. 936941
>>936602
>this is how you justify a $500 purchase
sunk cost, my brother. Retvrn to Blendvr
Anonymous at Tue, 14 Feb 2023 15:47:30 UTC No. 936950
>>936941
a what now
Anonymous at Wed, 15 Feb 2023 16:44:52 UTC No. 937087
>>936772
Yeti is mostly used for fur and feathers, no? I think that's where it shines
Xgen works and is probably the best solution (haven't tried Houdini's tools), but god damn it it's like the entire workflow is wrong at a core level. It's like they built a fortress on top of a swamp. Sure the software is solid, but it just feels wrong.
Of course I'm just being a bitch because I'm not even proposing an alternative, but it's ridiculous how long it takes to get a good basic haircut. I don't think it should take so long to make some hair.
Anonymous at Wed, 15 Feb 2023 16:51:53 UTC No. 937091
>>936941
runs like dogshit
Anonymous at Wed, 15 Feb 2023 20:54:25 UTC No. 937121
Xgen is actually legitimately the best system for long hair, like period.
Houdini actually can't do convincing long hair at all which is why all you see is fur grooms
Anonymous at Thu, 16 Feb 2023 21:44:41 UTC No. 937221
>>936465
use either Ornatrix or Yeti
Xgen has not been updated in maya in 5 years.
Anonymous at Sat, 18 Feb 2023 15:13:55 UTC No. 937401
any realtime enjoyers here? I'm looking for a decent xgen workflow for fur/hair that does not involve a lot of by hand card placement
Anonymous at Sun, 26 Feb 2023 14:08:59 UTC No. 938350
>>936526
It's very obviously a nigger. Because American corporations advertize literally everything with niggers, even blonde hair.
Anonymous at Sun, 26 Feb 2023 18:32:54 UTC No. 938375
>>938350
Calm your tits, adolf; It's from a YouTuber.
Anonymous at Sun, 26 Feb 2023 21:57:13 UTC No. 938390
>>938375
which youtuber?
Anonymous at Sun, 26 Feb 2023 23:05:32 UTC No. 938401
>>938395
god he has such a terrible understanding of face shape for someone who's making youtube tutorials
Anonymous at Mon, 27 Feb 2023 02:34:27 UTC No. 938420
>>938401
there is nothing wrong with her and in fact her face looks hot
Anonymous at Fri, 17 Mar 2023 05:04:40 UTC No. 940233
>>936465
you only upgrade to latest version on even-years.
do not upgrade to odd-year versions.
Anonymous at Mon, 27 Mar 2023 14:00:50 UTC No. 941244
>>936513
How do you go from this to hair cards though?
Anonymous at Mon, 27 Mar 2023 14:26:52 UTC No. 941247
>>941244
you don't, it is a different workflow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-j
Anonymous at Mon, 27 Mar 2023 16:05:57 UTC No. 941258
>>941247
Feels kind of pointless (or underdeveloped I guess) then
Anonymous at Mon, 27 Mar 2023 18:00:19 UTC No. 941276
>>941258
Hair strands is something used in animation productions mostly, bledner's development is tied to what they need for the studio, you don't need that for videogames, for stylized characters or 3d prints people use this to make hair instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqW
Anonymous at Thu, 30 Mar 2023 02:38:20 UTC No. 941515
>>936513
Would it be crazy to convert these strands to a mesh and animate manually? Since there's no physics sim on hair curves yet.
I kinda want to bring them into unreal or maya.
Anonymous at Thu, 30 Mar 2023 16:09:58 UTC No. 941576
>>941515
that would be a very retarded way..
avoid animating large hair objects/clusters in blender.
use animated guidecurves, when it becomes an option.
Anonymous at Thu, 30 Mar 2023 19:16:20 UTC No. 941609
>>936513
>should I get a rolex, breitling or patek?
>DUDE JUST CHOOSE FISHER PRICE ITS THE BEST MINE MAKES A MOO MOO SOUND WHEN I PRESS THE COW ICON
Anonymous at Thu, 30 Mar 2023 19:21:06 UTC No. 941610
>>941609
xgen is too unstable to use
Anonymous at Thu, 13 Apr 2023 11:28:05 UTC No. 942848
>>942196
clearly, You do not use Maya, go back to blender.
Anonymous at Sat, 15 Apr 2023 00:31:54 UTC No. 943014
>>942840
Damn they straight up made a homage of that Rolex autism awareness Day-date!
Anonymous at Sat, 15 Apr 2023 06:39:42 UTC No. 943042
I work in Houdini and it's great, but Im switching to Blender the moment I can finally get used to it.
Im never touching Maya again.
Anonymous at Sat, 15 Apr 2023 06:42:00 UTC No. 943043
>>937121
>imblying
just because you cant fucking do it doesnt mean anyone else cant
Anonymous at Sat, 15 Apr 2023 06:44:47 UTC No. 943044
>>936695
seems simple enough to do in Houdini, but yeah a Blender plugin would be perfect
Anonymous at Sat, 15 Apr 2023 16:15:00 UTC No. 943089
>>936465
Everytime you want to start a grooming project, you need to create a new project and set the project window.
Once you do that, whenever you save, a .xgen file is created with the same name of the Maya save file. If you do this correctly, most of your future problems will be much smaller.
Secondly, while using xgen, almost never ctrl+z. I am a grooming artist, if you want to change something which is already done, like adjusting the guides, it better you don't undo. Period. It crashes a lot if you do that.
Thirdly, xgen might be unstable but it still is the industry standard for making realtime hair(generating haircards) or making photorealistic hair. Let me know if blender hair renders ever beat arnold renders of xgen.
Anonymous at Sat, 15 Apr 2023 17:47:03 UTC No. 943095
>>943089
Why bother dealing with all this crap, when there's better options, like Yeti? Sure it has its own issues with lacking documentation and what not, but xgen being called industry standard is also a bit questionable. Plenty of studios use alternative solutions (yeti, ornatrix, houdini) precisely due to how unreliable xgen is.
Anonymous at Sat, 15 Apr 2023 18:19:16 UTC No. 943098
>>943095
slowdini cannot into long hair or stylized do's
Anonymous at Sun, 16 Apr 2023 05:19:56 UTC No. 943136
>>943095
Cause xgen comes with the Maya license. You don't have to spend extra for a grooming software.
Moreover, it is unstable, but it still is the most user friendly software for grooming.
Also, Arnold shaders go really well with xgen to generate photorealistic hair.
I am a grooming artist myself dude. I know what I am talking about here.
It's unstable, but only if you don't take the initial steps of setting up projects properly.
If you don't set project xgen won't have the location to store it's maps, collections, descriptions, etc. Here is where majority of the people start complaining.
I faced this issue a lot in the beginning as well.
But now once I do the steps correctly, it no longer crashes or freezes.
Anonymous at Sun, 16 Apr 2023 06:12:30 UTC No. 943138
>>943136
Licensing costs are negligible if not irrelevant, and shouldn't matter to anyone making their living with them, much less a studio. Only the end result and the time you achieve it in matters. A single license for these plugins costs less than a single employee costs daily.
I'd assume Arnold handles the hair strands of other plugins the same as they would xgen. Not to mention, If you're at a studio, you'll be using whatever they happen to be using, which might or might not be Arnold. Arnold's also incredibly slow, so not really an option for solo/small businesses, at least for rendering animations.
Maybe I haven't given xgen enough of a chance, but I've found yeti's grooming tools and node system to be much more intuitive than what I experienced during the couple months with xgen. But I obviously can't invalidate your personal opinion on the user experience. If you prefer it, then that's that.
As for stability, let's assume all the professional people who complain about the stability issues and unreliability are just idiots who didn't know how to set up a project properly. You'd still be left with something where you can't use undo, one of the bigger time saving features available in any software, without risking a potential crash.
Anonymous at Sun, 16 Apr 2023 10:21:50 UTC No. 943155
>>943138
Your country might be more friendly with the needs of their employees which is a good thing. but it's not the same for every corporate out there. Some limit licensed and refuse to buy plugins unless absolute necessity.
As for arnold renders, being a grooming artist, my job is to create hair cards for realtime hair, which is where I mainly use xgen, for the alphas.
Now if you have done grooming you'd know that there is a lot of back and forth after creating the alpha sheet. Sometimes you realise certain alpha chunk has a lot more density than it needs to and you gotta go back into Maya and change it and bake again.
Here I found xgen really handy, especially the modifiers and the maps which we can paint. You can just tweak some modifiers and get a totally new hair chunk. and since we do baking in maya only, it saves a lot of time there.
The stability factor is a lot irritating for everyone when they start xgen. Mainly cause they don't set up the project properly. If you don't setup the project properly, xgen files and maps don't have a place to be stored and hence when you open Maya the next day, all your progress is lot.
I remember this happening to me and believe me it's frustrating. Moreover, xgen doesn't allow you to touch the geometry plane once you have assigned them to a specific collection.
So fixing up the outlined after assigning... Not possible. Another thing which I wanted to clarify is the undo thing. Not that you can't do undo, but as 3d artist we have a tendency to spam undo a lot right? That right there is a sure crashing technique for xgen. You can undo, but you have to be really sure of what you are doing. Like if I make a guide and after correctly placing it's points I accidently move one point a bit too far, I can undo that.
It certainly has its flaws, but since my studio uses that only, and the results are pretty neat, prefer it. Also the resources for xgen are available a lot. So another pro there.
Anonymous at Sun, 16 Apr 2023 17:26:11 UTC No. 943181
>>943155
I doubt they care about the licensing costs, it's probably more that they don't want to try something new, as it might involve retraining people or affecting other things in the pipeline, that currently works just fine for them. If you're stuck at a studio, you're obviously going to use whatever they use. You don't really have a choice, unless you're important enough to affect changes like that. What is being discussed here is about what you should use, if you do have a choice. A tool not being industry standard is also not a good argument, since transferring to a new tool is really not a difficult process, if you already have one grooming tool under your belt.
Also, If they truly are picky about the licensing costs themselves, whoever is running things, is an absolute idiots. Even if an employee saved only around 10 minutes of time per day with a more appropriate tool, the tool would still have paid its costs back in just a couple weeks, considering how much a single employee costs for a studio. Depending where you're situated, those costs involved can be as high as 1.5 times the wage you pay them.
Anonymous at Mon, 17 Apr 2023 04:21:01 UTC No. 943219
>>943098
it can and much better, only difference is you have to know how shit works through the attributes as it does on Maya side but Im not surprised you take pushing buttons for granted
Anonymous at Tue, 18 Apr 2023 23:12:47 UTC No. 943467
grooming in houdini again and god i love houdini so much