Question about XGen and CC4/IC8


https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic557664.aspx 		Print Topic | Close Window

By mmapoodle - Last Year
Greetings everyone,

Had a general question about Xgen in Maya as it relates to CC4/IC8.
My goal is to add hair/fur to my model in Maya (using Xgen) and then export the model to IClone8 for animation, however I haven't found a tutorial or documentation yet that goes over how to accomplish this.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thank you,
Kellen
By AutoDidact - Last Year
Hi the only way to get Maya’s Xgen hair out of Maya is to export as an  just be sure to convert the hair to curves first.
By mmapoodle - Last Year
"Hi the only way to get Maya’s Xgen hair out of Maya is to export as an ________  just be sure to convert the hair to curves first."

Am I correct in guessing that next word was going to say Alembic?
By AutoDidact - Last Year
mmapoodle (11/15/2024)
"Hi the only way to get Maya’s Xgen hair out of Maya is to export as an ________  just be sure to convert the hair to curves first."

Am I correct in guessing that next word was going to say Alembic?



Yes Alembic  Sorry about that.
By mmapoodle - Last Year
Requesting elaboration on this topic as there doesn't appear to be any documented solution in relation to Maya Xgen transferring to IClone and I'm running into several issues I'm unable to resolve.


Here is my test ball of floof made using Xgen-Interactive
https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/8b531f3c-9ff7-4980-b9a3-6ebc.png

The guides have been created and converted to curves.
https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/92ed0893-1b60-4b96-9b70-3b2e.png

I must be making a mistake because none of my .abc exports are working. What do I do from here? 



UPDATE: Tried a different approach and instead created the hair via Xgen (Traditional) and then converted the description to Xgen Interactive Groom.
After that I exported that cache as an alembic.

However it doesn't work in IClone8 (8.51)
https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/1c7632b7-2f9c-4667-b7e1-af2c.png
But it imports correctly in Blender. (4.0)
https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/1e593244-42ac-4e67-b465-ae34.png
By AutoDidact - Last Year
there doesn't appear to be any documented solution in relation to Maya Xgen transferring to IClone
TBH it is not likely that you will find any Iclone specific documentation in the Autodesk online community
Most of us Maya users are rending our Xgen hair simulations inside Maya with Arnold for full  native material support
you may find a few articles on exporting Alembic from Maya to unreal engine but  I am given to understand that Unreal engine has some sort of Hair system of its own.

I will say that the general consensus, in the iclone community, is that  importing Dynamic hair systems from other software
( Daz Dforce etc.) is generally  not worth the effort as Iclone typically chokes to an unusably low level of performance with such dense geometry.
By mmapoodle - Last Year
Darn. Understood and that explains a lot;  I'll need to figure out a new workflow.

Initially I had it in mind to go from Maya -> IClone for character animation, but it sounds like I'd be better off using using IClone simply for making the motions and retargeting them to the model in Maya or just using Maya from start to finish. 
(There is a way to Live Link between IClone, Unreal, and Maya that has my curiosity but that'd be another thread)

Thank you , this saves me what would have been a headache figuring out this Dead End the hard way.
By amckenzie - Last Year
You can do a straight FBX with motion export out of Maya, and use that Mesh or retarget an Iclone animation onto your Maya rig.
or an alembic export from Iclone to Maya if you require secondary motion that won't export with the fbx.
Then Xgen would work within Maya.