XGen can hair primitives be converted to curves??

[gvok]

Hi I am looking for a way to have my xgen hair primitives display as usable curves in maya so that I can control them by my guide curves and then use them to deform specifically modelled geometry. Tall grass is the application where it needs to collide and move but there are too many strands of grass to make only from guide curves. I noticed in the output options that you can create guides from primitives but I was hoping to be able to create curves that responded in scene to the guides..

Any bright sparks out there with ideas?

Thanks

Gerard.

Sydney Australia.

[matthew_bailey]

I saw a video on Digital Tutors that covered something like this.

I'll try to find it and see if it indeed covers what you are asking.

Are you in 2014 or 2015?

MB

[gvok]

Hi. Thanks for looking into it. I'm 2015. I have used anim wires but this is not what I was hoping for. And even they are dodgy in 2015 in terms of bugginess and failing to drive the primitives. Ideally I would like to convert the primitives but xgen is very black box.

Gerard.

[matthew_bailey]

I checked Digital Tutors, and it turned out that what I remembered was a tutorial that had a part where they turned guide curves into paint effects, and then turned the paint effects into actual geometry. And I seem to recall that you said this wouldn't help you.

BUT.... I have asked a friend I sometimes work with (I do toy making, producing actual 3D stuff, and often we have digital artists from Hollywood or Silicon Valley who do video games or movies do work for us) if he can find anything out about it.

I am VERY interested in the answer as well, because ANYTHING that allows be to convert one primitive to another helps in preparing a 3D model for 3D Printing or milling.

It is an issue that Autodesk, and the other large modeling and VFX product studios are far behind on.

Matthew Bailey