Fur Render Settings

Fur Render Options

These are the options in the Fur Render Options section.

Calc. Area Values

Select how you want hair distributed across surfaces.

If you select Globally or Per Fur Description, hairs are distributed evenly across furry surfaces by taking the largest piece of furry geometry in the scene, assigning it a value of 1, then calculating values proportional to that surface for all the other furry surfaces in the scene. Then each surface receives a proportion of the density value set in the fur description assigned to the surface, based on the calculated area value.

For example, if the Density is set to 10,000, the largest furry surface will receive 10,000 hairs, whereas a surface in the scene that is half that size will receive 5,000 hairs.

Off: Each surface receives the same number of hairs specified by the Density value for the fur description. This works if your character is made up of a single surface, or distinctly different surfaces. In these cases, you can use Baldness to roughly control relative densities within a single fur description.
Globally: This option is the equivalent of turning on Area Value in previous versions of Fur. For models made up of multiple patches, this gives an even distribution on hairs across different sized surfaces.

The density of each fur description is distributed evenly over all surfaces with fur descriptions attached, regardless of which fur description is attached.
Per Fur Description: Distributes hairs evenly across multiple different sized surfaces. The distribution of hair for one fur description does not affect the distribution for another fur description, unlike the Globally option. This is the default.

Equalizer Maps

Select which equalizer maps you want to use for this render. An equalizer map compensates for the uneven distribution of fur caused by uneven parameterization so that fur is evenly distributed across the surface.

No Equalizer Maps: Uses no equalizer maps. Fur is distributed according to the parameterization of the surface. If the parameterization is uneven (for example, at the poles of a sphere), the distribution will not be even.
Default Equalizer Maps: A default equalizer map is created at the frame specified in Use Frame. It is used throughout a sequence, even if the fur is rendered in sections or over a render farm. If Default Equalizer Maps is selected, at render time Maya searches for maps with the correct name and frame extension defined in Use Frame. If no default equalizer maps exist, then they are created; if they exist, the time stamp is checked against the scene time stamp. If the scene is newer, the maps are rewritten.
Custom Equalizer Maps: If you select Custom Equalizer Maps, you can see the Custom Equalizer attribute that appears in each fur description at the bottom of the list of attributes in the Attribute Editor. This attribute is grayed out when the Custom Equalizer Maps option is not selected. The Use Frame number is used to initially generate the maps.

The Custom Equalizer attribute can be mapped or painted like any other fur description attribute. If you don’t make any changes to a particular fur description, the default equalizer map is generated and used. When you paint the attribute for the first time, the map is initially set to the default equalization. That’s because when you select Custom Equalizer Maps, default equalizers are automatically generated and a copy is saved for each fur description. The path of the Custom Equalizer Map files is displayed in the Fur Description in Details > Maps.

Note
Custom Equalizer Maps are generated for each fur description, allowing you to have different equalization for different fur types.

Equalizer Map Width: Defines the width of the equalizer map. The default is 256.
Equalizer Map Height: Defines the height of the equalizer map. The default is 256.
Use Frame: Specifies the frame number at which the equalize map is generated.
Comp. Fur: (This is only used by the Maya Software renderer.) Creates a composite of the rendered fur and the rendered models. The fur and the models render separately, but if you turn this option off they are not composited.
Keep Temp Files: (This is only respected by the Maya Software renderer.) Keeps the intermediate fur files built by Fur in the process of creating the final fur images. These intermediate files (fur files and shadow maps) are in the furFiles directory and the furShadowMap directory.

If you turn this option off, the intermediate files are deleted when the render is complete.

Note
The equalizer maps are not deleted.
Keep Fur Images: (This is only used by the Maya Software renderer.) Keeps the fur image files created by Fur. These files are useful when you turn on Comp. Fur, but still want to see the rendered fur without the model.

Copy Attr Maps

Select how Maya saves fur maps when you save a scene.

Unless Referenced: Saves fur maps only if the fur character is not referenced. When this option is selected, Maya uses the fur maps from the referenced file, even if you save the scene with a new name. If the character is not referenced and you save a copy of the scene with this option selected, Maya creates a copy of the fur maps.
Always: Saves different versions of the fur maps when you save different versions of a scene. Use this setting if you are working on different iterations or versions of the fur.
Never: Does not save a new fur map. Use this setting if you are no longer changing the fur and want to continue to use the saved fur maps, even if you save the scene with a new name.

Advanced Options

These are the options in the Advanced Options section (subsection of Fur Render Options section).

Enable Fur Image Rendering: (This is only used by the Maya Software renderer.) Turn this option off to render only the geometry and fur shadows on geometry (no fur images).
Enable Fur Shading/Shadowing: (This is only used by the Maya Software renderer.) Turn this option off to render the fur and geometry as if the lights in the scene had no fur shadowing attributes.
Disable Maya Rendering (batch only): (This is only used by the Maya Software renderer.) Turn this option on if you are using a distributed or batch renderer and want to render only the fur images.
Auto Back Shade Spotlights: (This is only used by the Maya Software renderer.) This controls whether or not fur growing on the side of objects away from spotlights is automatically excluded from the lighting effect, regardless of any Fur Shading applied to the light. The default is off.
Nurbs Tesselation: (This is only used by the Maya Software renderer.) The tessellation factor Fur uses for NURBS surfaces is sometimes higher than the default tessellation factor used by Maya for the NURBS surface. This sometimes results in mismatched composites.

Use this option to set the tessellation factor of the NURBS surface used by the Fur renderer.

Fur Image Rendering

These are the options in the Fur Image Rendering section (subsection of Advanced Options section). These options are only used by the Maya Software renderer.

Hairs/Pixel: Specify the number of hairs per pixel that are tracked for fur images. Lower values use less memory while higher values produce better quality renders. The upper limit for this option is 10.
Use Fur Shading/Shadowing on Fur: Turn this option off to cast fur shadows on geometry but not on fur for shadow map lights.

Shadow Map Rendering

These are the options in the Shadow Map Rendering section (subsection of Advanced Options section). These options are only used by the Maya Software renderer.

Hairs/Pixel: Specify the number of hairs per pixel that are tracked for shadow maps. Lower values use less memory while higher values produce better quality renders. The upper limit for this option is 10.

Reference Paths

These are the options in the Reference Paths section of the Fur Render Settings window. Use these options to render using existing files created using Advanced Fur Rendering. If you want to use fur files created during an actual render, the Keep Temp Files in Fur Render option must be on when you perform the render.

Note

You can access menu items relating Advanced Fur Rendering through MEL commands and procedures. An advantage of using the MEL procedures over commands is that the Fur Global attributes will get updated automatically (Read Fur Files, Read Shadow Files, Read Image Files, Equalizer Map option). For more information, see MEL scripts for Advanced Fur Rendering.

Read Fur Files: For use with the Maya Software renderer only. Turn this option on to read the fur files created using Advanced Fur Rendering rather than creating new ones at the time of rendering.
Fur Files Path: For use with the Maya Software renderer only. When you create fur files using Advanced Fur Rendering, this field automatically displays the path where the fur files were stored. This is where the fur files are read from when you turn on Read Fur Files.

To read fur files created when you perform an actual render, you must type the location (the subdirectory of the current project) and filename and process ID of the files in this field. For example, if you rendered a scene called furryscene that created the fur files called furryscene278_1_1.0001.sbs, furryscene278_1_1.ass, furryscene278_1_1.hair, furryscene278_1_1.shadow, furryscene278_1_1_equal.0001.sbs, you would type the following in the Fur Files Path field:

furFiles/furryscene278_1_1
Read Shadow Maps: For use with the Maya Software renderer only. Turn this option on to read the shadow maps created using Advanced Fur Rendering rather than creating new ones at the time of rendering. If you are rendering different views of your scene, you can save rendering time by reusing the existing shadow maps.
Shadow Maps Path: For use with the Maya Software renderer only. When you create shadow maps using Advanced Fur Rendering, this field automatically displays the path where the shadow maps were stored. This is where the shadow maps are read from when you turn on Read Shadow Maps.

To read shadow maps created when you perform an actual render, you must type the location (the subdirectory of the current project) and prefix of the shadow map file in this field. For example, if you rendered a scene that created the shadow map file called furryscene_spotLightShape1.0001.smap, you would type the following in the Shadow Maps Path field:

furShadowMap/furryscene
Read Fur Images: For use with the Maya Software renderer only. Turn this option on to read the fur images created using Advanced Fur Rendering rather than creating new ones at the time of rendering.
Fur Images Path: For use with the Maya Software renderer only. When you create fur images using Advanced Fur Rendering, this field automatically displays the path where the fur images were stored. This is where the fur images are read from when you turn on Read Fur Images.

To read fur images created when you perform an actual render, you must type the location (the subdirectory of the current project) and prefix of the fur image file in this field. For example, if you rendered a scene that created the fur image files called furryscene.0001.iff and furryscene_z.0001.iff, you would type the following in the Fur Images Path field:

furImages/furryscene