Maya plugin confusion

mzloc

I'm in the process of testing out maya and most of it is intuitiv. Then there are all these plugins, some seem to have similar effects (nhair/xgen), but I have no idea where to start. What plugins should I default to for different disciplines like hair, physics, fluids etc? would be awesome if someone with more experience could list what is best to use for what.

Panupat

nhair is a dynamic system for simulation. Xgen is for placements. Search those 2 terms on Youtube to see what they do.

As for answering your question, there is no need to worry about plugins if you are just starting out. As you dive into more specific workflow, most tutorials almost always start by telling you what plugin to load for that specific task.