Grooming is a stage in digital art production that develops the type and appearance of hair, fur, and feathers for characters. To bring more realism to characters, professionals specializing in grooming in digital art find job opportunities in companies such as Pixar, AMC Studio, Nintendo, and Lightfarm Studios, as the game, advertising, animation, and film markets require this specialization.
The field of digital art grooming has seen increased demand for professionals in recent years, creating opportunities for artists in Brazil and worldwide. This trend is expected to continue growing in the areas of animation, games, and advertising, opening a window of opportunity for new artists!
Artists who work in large teams with diverse specializations and who wish to become or already are 3D Generalists also benefit from knowledge of grooming, even if they don’t work in the field, since knowing how the grooming stage works facilitates the process of creating a team project.
To make character hair, fur, and feathers look realistic, so that they appear natural and fluid in motion, there are several techniques and tools, such as modeling, painting, texturing, and hair dynamics simulation. The Grooming: Fur with XGen Interactive in Maya course was created to simplify artists’ entry into the concepts and processes involved in grooming in digital art, focusing primarily on fur.
Check the minimum recommended system requirements for software installation:
- Autodesk Maya: https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-Autodesk-Maya.html
- Arnold Render – https://help.autodesk.com/view/ARNOL/ENU/
UNHIDE School students with an active package, plan, or individual course purchase are entitled to an official statement confirming their active enrollment on our platform, 7 business days after purchase. This document can be used to purchase student subscriptions for certain software that offer this category. Learn more by sending an email to [email protected].
What you will learn in the course “Hair with XGen Interactive in Maya”
In the course Grooming: Fur with XGen Interactive in Maya , you will learn the basic concepts for creating fur on a character, analyze and understand how fur works in various types of animals, and learn how to transfer this knowledge to XGen.
This course is aimed at beginner artists and students who want to learn how to create fur on characters. To begin the course, it is recommended to have a basic understanding of navigating and using the Maya software.
In the first lessons you will see case studies of grooming use in various market areas, followed by a basic introduction to Maya and Xgen. The instructor will show film and image references so you can learn to identify the parts that make up a hair and their names.
Each step of the process will be reinforced through exercises, and you will have a character model to create together with the instructor, thus participating in the entire fur creation process, from beginning to end.
Discover the main techniques covered throughout the course:
- First steps in grooming.
- Analysis and preparation of the model
- UVs
- Becoming familiar with creating curves to generate the Hair
- Basic hair shaders
- Rendering hair using Arnold render
- Tips to make your workflow easier.
