Hello,

I have question about the guide groom node not updating when things like paint density and guide process settings are changed upstream from it in the network. It doesn't appear to update and the only way I've gotten around it is to delete the guide groom node and reapply it which is cumbersome and unexpected. Am I missing something obvious, I hope so!

Best,

Erin

That's expected. It is not procedural. The guide groom stores a locked copy of the geometry and does not support upstream changes. The old guide groom had a 'recache strokes' option that allowed for some proceduralism, but was only moderately successful.

Thanks, jsmack,

Good to know. It's a lot of experimentation to get the right density, length, etc. once the groom is in place to hit the sweet spot for interactivity and coverage, along with possible model changes down the pipeline. It would be great to have proceduralism propagate through the entire groom workflow without having to delete and lose a wip groom each time. Anyone have any strategies on how to save groom work each time a change is needed upstream?

ErinN
Anyone have any strategies on how to save groom work each time a change is needed upstream?

you can append Hairgen SOP and generate any density you want, it will keep your groom, then you can guidegroom after it again and delete its input as it's stored in the node anyway

Thanks very much, Tomas!

I appreciate the insight, it's exactly what I need as I continue to learn Houdini in production.

Best,

Erin

I also try to use the guide curve advect tools as much as possible. I find I can do a lot of intricate shaping that stays more procedural. Generally I'll only do manual grooming as the very, very, very last step for really fine details, after I've gotten approval on the overall groom.

And although it doesn't help directly, I always try to break my groom up into multiple, logical patches. I might have separate patches for the sides, back, top, and hero locks in the front. For a furred creature I did recently I had a dozen different grooms for different areas of the body. That way at least you're losing less anytime you have to update.

Thank you, Geoff!

I appreciate the tip. I was using guide advect at one point I was receiving an error which I will go back and find to paste here. It was breaking the groom but while I was using it to draw in guides, it did help to settle and adjust what was upstream with blend setting turned up.

One thing that has eluded me so far is how to shape clumps along their length similar to clumpy yak hair/fur. Image below to show what I mean. Does anyone have suggestions on how to influence clumping along its length to allow it to be thicker and caked together in the middle, then come to a fine sharp tip at the end? The clump profile doesn't seem to do enough, maybe the interpolation could help but the only one that seems to make a difference is Hermite.

I didn't hear from anyone on this one but I figured out a simple solution that worked for me on this task. I didn't realize that adding multiple hair clump nodes would still select underlying clumps with 'Only Clump within existing Clumps' option enabled below clump size slider, and this allowed me to tighten up the clumps and the clump profile worked much better and noticeably in this case. So if in doubt, clump and clump again to obtain the desired results and clump tapering shape. I hope that this helps anyone with a similar issue while learning grooming in Houdini.