# XGen hair with groomable splines _seriously needs to be finished and formatted._ --- [Maya XGen](https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2022/ENU/Maya-CharEffEnvBuild/files/GUID-C0470142-600B-4615-8110-EC779934DF5F-htm.html) is a tool developed by Walt Disney Studios for creating hair or instanced geometry (such as trees in a forest or flowers in a field). The groomable splines approach to creating hair is simpler than [[XGen splines and guides hair|hair generated with splines and guides]] but is much more intuitive to use. ### a few notes Be sure to set your Project Folder because XGen saves multiple files that are used to build your hair. Also, be aware that XGen is notoriously finicky and will probably crash on your from time to time. Save often as you work. --- ## set up new xgen hair Choose the area of your mesh that you would like to grow hair on. You can sub-select with Faces to choose precisely. Open up **XGen - Interactive Groom** window in upper-right. It becomes another panel similar to Attribute Editor. In the new menu, choose **Create > Interactive Groom Splines** Choose a new description for the sculpt element and press Apply. You should now have hair growing out of your mesh. Congrats! ![[Pasted image 20230227145605.png]] ## modify and sculpt your hair You should now have a tree-list of items in your Groom Editor. Choose Sculpt Layer 1 under the sculpt option. You can now use the different tools on the right side of the XGen Shelf to grow, cut, comb, style your hair as if you were a barber. Remember, like all brushes, you can adjust the size and strength settings to better control the effect. Usually the strength needs to be turned down. ![[Pasted image 20230227145526.png]] The slider on the Sculpt Layer lets you dial back the effect of your sculpt. You can create additional Sculpt Layers to separate the styling work into different parts (such as growing length in one and brushing in another). A few important brushes to make the hair look better are… - Noise brush adds a roughness effect that is more natural - Clumping brush makes individual strands clump together into groups Make sure to use these on separate sculpt layers so you can dial back when they get too intense. --- Learn more… - [Create Maya hair - the basics video from Maya Learning Channel](https://youtu.be/UN9hxyg9Y-c) - [Introduction to XGen in Maya 2020: Fundamentals video from Academic Phoenix Plus](https://youtu.be/R-LlQURZms4) --- tags: #3d #maya #lighting #resources home: [[! 3d modeling- maya]]