xGen texture color much brighter on fur

[stanpNC6GF]

Hi,
Trying to figure out 2 things about xGen:

1) I have applied a texture to groom by creating custom color map, converting it to .ptx and connecting to aiShader with aiUserDataColor

But result looks much brighter then actual texture

When i render mesh, color looks fine

i have tried:

Playing with shader attributes

Changing shader type ( aiSurface and aiHair )

changing farmat of image ( tif, iff )

Different lighting

But had no luck yet

2) Is there a way to increase density of guide curves without changing current shape ? I want to add more guide curves to add some details but i want them to be created relative to existing curves

Thank you !

[alec.andersenLP8AU]

Hi @stanpNC6GF,

Viewport 2.0 definitely has some color differences from a render, this is to be expected, but if you're seeing very severe color inaccuracies that's a different story!

Would you be able to provide a step-by-step process (or a file displaying the problem) for us to take a look at?

[stanpNC6GF]

-----

[stanpNC6GF]

Hi, here are project files

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z42Ymi_HLb2jgSC03M9L57fog4MmEB6K/view?usp=sharing

And what about 2nd question, do you know if this possible ?

Thank you

Stan

[jordan.giboney]

Hi @stanpNC6GF 

I hope you are doing well! I downloaded your folder but got some errors regarding ptx files. Would you mind uploading those as well to ensure I am replicating your scenario verbatum? Here are the errors I was getting:

// Error: line 1: XGen: Failed to find short/paintmaps/density_mask/cheetah_mesh_scalp.ptx //
// Error: line 1: XGen: Searched path includes:
C:/.../projects/xgen/collections/cheetaFur/short/paintmaps/density_mask/cheetah_mesh_scalp.ptx (Part of path doesn't exist)
C:/.../xgen/short/paintmaps/density_mask/cheetah_mesh_scalp.ptx (Part of path doesn't exist)
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2019/plug-ins/xgen/presets/short/paintmaps/density_mask/cheetah_mesh_scalp.ptx (Part of path doesn't exist) //

[stanpNC6GF]

Hi Jordan,

Thanks for looking at file

I pressed File -> Archive Scene to made this archive I sent you

I think it should include this mask

I can see it in paintmaps folder

I'm wondering if you need to set project folder for that file once you open it

Also i'm using maya 2018.5

Hope this helps

Best Regards,

Stan

[jordan.giboney]

Hi @stanpNC6GF 

Yeah its weird! I am missing the entire paintmaps folder ... I checked the zip folder I downloaded and dont see anything there either. Would you mind uploading that folder separately? Not sure why that would get left out of the archive process, but I will dig into that as well 🙂

Thanks! Looking forward to hearing from you!

[stanpNC6GF]

Hey Jordan,

I have sent you link for the archive in private message

[sean.heasley]

Hi @stanpNC6GF 

How does it look in the viewport before rendering? Do the colors match?

If so you may want to check the gamma and exposure settings you have for Arnold as well as the lights as they may be making the scene brighter and therefore making the fur look brighter.

[stanpNC6GF]

Hi @sean.heasley,

I do have a grey color in the viewport for preview so may be i applied material in a wrong way then, here is what i did to create color from texture:

1) On Preview/Output tab i found Custom Shader Parameters and created "color" parameter

2) Created a map for "color" parameter

3) Saved created map in the tool options

4) Found File node of that texture and changed path to my custom texture

5) Created aiUserDataColor node and put the name of "color" parameter i made

6) Plugged the output of that node to the shader

7) Applied shader to description node

This is the only way that worked for me to apply the texture

I'm doing a bit better since then, here is my story:

Once i created scene from scratch color became a bit better but i was facing other issues like:

• Width attribute on the grooming tab was not affecting render result
• Reopening scene would cause texture to display as flat green even the path was correct and in the project
• After changing length by brush posing and orienting became much slower
• Sometimes making changes by brushing stopped affecting the final result

I have tried like 15 times and every time one of this issues came up but my scene with wrong rendering color surprisingly didn't have them = )

So i decided to try maya 2019 instead of 2018.5 and surprisingly it worked better, so now my work is finally moving on, also i found some workarounds for the updating issues

About gamma and exposure:

I'm using hdri map for lighting and texture for the skin, this 2 maps render as i expect them but fur even it became better then before is still needs some tweaking but i'm not sure how to adjust it on maya side

I'm pretty sure that there is a mistake somewhere either in the way i apply it or some shader settings i use ( i have tried aiStandardSurface and aiStandardHair ) with my texture

I can render it on the separate layer and apply color correction later but would not like to go this way

Best Regards,

Stan

[sean.heasley]

Hi @stanpNC6GF 

Pressing the 6 key previews textures and should let you see the fur in the viewport.

It sounds like you have everything set up correctly so it seems to most likely be a matter of tweaking the Arnold material values as well as tweaking the rendering options to get the desired result.

Even though you are using hdri maps its still worth looking into the gamma and exposure settings as they can inadvertently cause problems like this.

[stanpNC6GF]

Hi @sean.heasley,

Thanks for advise

Even with texture preview in the viewport, it doesn't display the color for the fur preview

Best Regards,
Stan

[sean.heasley · Accepted solution]

Hi @stanpNC6GF 

In the case I would recommend focusing on the rendering settings first and try tweaking them to see if there are any solid changes.

Also, if you made a sphere with a basic xgen setup and texture does the same brightness issue occur?

[stanpNC6GF]

Hi @sean.heasley,

Yes, you can see the difference in color here, that must be settings, just wondering what should i change