Xgen Custom Density Mask

[gryphiz]

Hey guys,
How to use custom map in density mask?
I've created a mask in photoshop, I've replaced it in hypershade and I can see it in viewport. But when I want to save it Maya crashes everytime. I've tried jpg and targa format.

Thanks.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @gryphiz

Its unusual that saving the map would cause a crash.

Could you try exporting everything into a new scene then try applying the mask to see if the crash still occurs?

[gryphiz]

Yes, Still the same crash. I've created a new scene, imported the object , deleted all kind of the history and channels and shaders, and applied just a simple lambert to it.
It's a UV base map.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @gryphiz

I'm not getting a crash on my machine.

When you get a chance, can you please zip and attach the scene file here or via dropbox/google drive or another file sharing program so I can take a look at it?

[gryphiz]

Sure, here is the link with the map in diffrent formats:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KjNJk9I-QvviSzZ-BlbCELkhqdtaIXaj

Thanks,

Sina

[sean.heasley]

Hi @gryphiz

I want to make sure I'm understanding your issue correctly.

You have this texture that looks like you're trying to use as a map for hair to appear as eyebrows right?

If this isn't working for you, have you tried just painting a map in xGen?

This video for example shows how to do it for a beard but would easily be applicable for eyebrows on your model.

Please let me know if this helps or if you need any more assistance!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

[gryphiz]

I've painted other sections and I can paint this one too, but I have very detailed other map that can't be painted easily. Is there way to fix the issue?

Did you try it yourself?

Thanks,
Sina

[sean.heasley]

Hi @gryphiz

I'm a bit confused. The scene you sent me had a blank character with just the eyebrows texture.

If there's more to it I could work with please feel free to send it along to me like you did with the other scene file!

[gryphiz]

I'm working on something similar which I can't share. I have the same issue with that scene too. I can't get the UV based masks to work on Density mask in Xgen.
Could you get this scene that I've sent you to work with that mask? 

Thanks,
Sina

[sean.heasley]

Hi @gryphiz

Yes I got it to work. There's a handful of easy steps I found from this thread that may help you!

1. Create a sphere, and apply a new xGen description. For your test, just use the default options in the "create xGen description" window.
2. For the mask field right under density, click the down arrow and "create map" like you normally would. Leave the start color at white, and then just click the save button. Get out of painting mode.
3. Save your scene. (this step is important.)
4. Open the Hypershade and go to the textures tab. There should be a file1, and in the attribute editor for that node you will see that Maya has created an iff file. Note the name and location of that file.
5. Open the iff file with fCheck, and save it as a .psd file.
6. Open the psd file in Photoshop, and edit as desired.
7. Save the file in an image format. (I like png.)
8. Back in Maya, replace the file1 iff image with your new png file.
9. Go back into xGen, and next to the mask field, click on the paintbrush icon as if you are going to paint the mask again. Note that your edited mask has replaced the original. IMPORTANT: Click the save icon next to the mask field, even though you have not made any new edits. I believe this step turns your new image file into a ptex map for xGen.
10. Your new density map should now be in effect when you click the preview button.

Another way you could probably do this (instead of converting the iff file that xGen creates) would be to make a temporary material assignment and a psd network using "color" as the selected attribute, then make a mask image out of that in photoshop. That method would allow you to have the UVs as a layer in Photoshop so you could orient yourself...but don't include that layer when you save your mask image. This method would still require steps 1-3 and 6-10 above.

Please let me know if those steps help you or if you need any more assistance!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @gryphiz

I'm just checking in again to see if you need more help with this. Did the suggestion I provided yesterday work for you?

If so, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm having troubles with XGen, and your Beard video seems to hold the solution, but I kinda missed a step (or two:) )

To quickly put things in context, we need to render characters with hairs, using Houdini and Renderman.

Because of Renderman-related pipeline troubles, we must get back to Maya for hair generation and rendering.

So I have a human face and some guides, both exported from Houdini in alembic format.

I managed to get things working in Maya with XGen : importing the face, and the guides, then creatin a Description and a Collection for the face, and using the curves as guides.

Except a warning (my guides are stored in a single object, so they all share the same name, but get identified right in the description), everything is fine.

BUT... my 'density' attribute from Houdini is not recognized. I search a bit, and found no clues about how to use the mesh attributes as we would do in Houdini.

Anyway, I quickly baked my density to map in Houdini, and did your process :

- Create a map from the XGen windows

- pretend to paint

- save the map

- save the Maya file

- changing the 'file1' texture path

- and... there, at 3:51 in your video, you do something out of the screen, on the right side, and your beard density map appears on the preview.

I could never achieve that...

Did I miss something ?

Here is a link to the files used for this quick test, if it can help.

Thanks for your help about this.

Regards,

Yann.

[Anonymous]

Oops, I forgot the link...

Here it is : https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c45ttsfm6xvdkoa/AACux88KD5H3oE9p8Hdg0tDxa?dl=0

But anyway, using the right texture doesnt change anything, the density doesn't update when I change the file1's path...