Animate fur attributes

Make fur grow

The following example illustrates how you can animate fur attributes by keyframing them. In this example, length is animated to produce the effect of grass growing. (Notice that Maya Fur can also be used for non-fur effects, like grass or wheat.)

To play the animation, click the link below.

growAnim.mov

To animate grass growing

1. Create a plane and add lights to the scene.
   
2. Add a texture to the plane to make it look like earth.
3. Attach a fur description to the surface and name it. For details, see Create fur.
4. Set the fur attributes in the Attribute Editor (Fur > Edit Fur Description > FurDescriptionName).
   • Map a texture to the fur base and tip color to make it look more realistic. Try green marble for grass. For details, see Map fur attribute values.
   • Add Scraggle. Try a value of 0.3.
   • Map a texture or file to the Baldness attribute. In this example, the following file texture was used:
     
   • Bake the Baldness attribute.

   The surface remains bald (no grass will grow) where the map is black (value of 0). For details, see Map fur attribute values.

5. Turn on Auto Key by clicking at the bottom-right corner of the Maya main window and move to the first frame.
6. Set the fur Length to 0.
7. In the Attribute Editor, right-click the Length field and select Set Key.
8. Move to the last frame and make the fur longer. Try a Length of 4.
   
9. Click the Play Forwardbutton to check that the attributes are behaving the way you want them to.
10. Render the animation. For details, see Render an animation with fur.

Make fur spread using animated file textures

The following example illustrates how you can animate fur attributes by mapping animated file textures to them. In this example, baldness is animated to produce the effect of fur sprouting and spreading across a character, like a werewolf.

To play the animation, click the link below.

spreadFur.mov

To paint a series of textures

1. Switch to the Paint Effects panel and select Paint > Paint Canvas.
2. Change the size of the canvas to 256 x 256.
   • Select Canvas > Set Size.
   • Set both the X Size and Y Size to 256 and click Set Size, and then click Close.
3. Set the canvas color to black if you want the value of the mapped attribute to be 0, or to white so the value is 1.
4. Either leave the canvas black for the first file texture or paint a little bit. Then save the first texture in the sequence:
   • Select Canvas > Save As.
   • Go to the textures directory.
   • Type a filename with a frame number, such as, spreadFur.1.iff, and click Save.
5. Paint the canvas a little more and then save the next texture in the sequence.
6. Repeat step 5 until you’ve finished creating all the sequences for the animated file texture.

To animate fur spreading across a character like a werewolf

1. Create a plane and add lights to the scene.
2. Add a texture to the plane to make it look like skin.
3. Attach a fur description to the surface and name it. For details, see Create fur.
4. Apply the Llama fur preset to the Fur Description (Fur > Edit Fur Description > FurDescriptionName).
   • Click the Presets button in the Fur Description, select Sheep and then select replace.
5. Map an animated file texture to the Baldness attribute:
   • Right-click Baldness and select Create New Texture. For details, see Apply animated file textures to objects.
   • Select File from the Create Render Node window.
   • Make sure you are at frame 1.
   • In the file node, click the folder button to browse for the following animated file texture in the textures directory, spreadFur.1.iff, then click Open. (This is the first texture file in the sequence.)
   • Turn on Use Image Sequence. This automatically keys each frame with the numbered texture file on a 1 to 1 basis.
6. Bake the Baldness attribute.
   • In the Fur Description select Baldness from the Bake Attribute drop-down list and click Bake.

   The surface remains bald where the map is black (value of 0) and grows where the surface becomes white (value of 1). For details on painting a sequence of textures, see To paint a series of textures.

7. Click the Play Forwardbutton to check that the attributes are behaving the way you want them to.
   
8. Render the animation. For details, see Render an animation with fur.