XGen - How to make fur take colour of mesh texture?

KeelyNoodle

I'm using Arnold with Maya 2017.
I've made a groom with XGen and want to set the colour to be the same as the texture I made. I have markings in white, greys and browns so would like for them to show in XGen, not one colour.
I have looked at many tutorials and haven't found a solution, I need help as I have no idea what to do, I have tried setting the primitive colour as a ptex, using the node editor and the hypershade to link things together but nothing, I am not experienced in using the node editor or hypershade. I am using an aiStandard for the mesh texture. I have been troubleshooting for hours, hopefully I make sense.

Mark Dygert

https://youtu.be/I5Yh53zeqHM?t=190
~3:10

KeelyNoodle

I got to the part where he applied the aistandardsurface to the description (6:30) but now I keep on getting this error and it closes. Also my textures are gone and the mesh has gone green, I really appreciate you linking the tutorial but please help, it was all going well until now.

Alex_J

I did a pluralsight tutorial that covered this and it was quite complicated and there was at least one bug you have to know about and workaround that the instructor covers. I cannot link the tutorial because it is paid, but if you want to check it out look for the dynamic hair and fur tutorial with maya tutorial on pluralsight.

Unfortunately, I don't remember all the details, but it was quite challenging even to follow along and get it all working, so just hang in there, be patient, and take plenty of breaks when you are about ready to pull your hair out. Also there is quite a few videos covering this on youtube, so if one is giving you trouble check out the others as well.

KeelyNoodle

Thank you, I might have to buy a Pluralsight subscription then. I'm trying to get this done for my portfolio to get into a good uni and I'm getting into a bit of a breakdown because of all the errors. Thank you for being supportive.

Alex_J

well, check out all the free stuff first. with persistence you can probably get it to work after reviewing a number of different videos. But don't work frustrated! it just makes it harder. just remember, you are in competition for that spot at the best universities so don't let somebody else get it just because they had more patience to figure this stuff out than you. if your competition has the patience of a saint you have to have the patience of a fucking tree. 

KeelyNoodle

Hi, I'm back again, in a calmer state ':) and using an older file. I followed the video above and didn't get the error message but by fur has gone black and I have a warning saying "Warning: wolf_full_furgroomShape: could not read ARRAY parameter "time_samples"", whatever that means. I will say that my XGen does have an error message saying that it cannot evaluate sub divide and I THINK it's because the end of the wolf's tail comes to a point but I am really hoping that's not the reason why this isn't working.

oglu

XGen does work best with a really clean quad mesh. And all faces should have the same size. It does subdivide the mesh before creating the hairs.