Create Xgen feathers on a Bird in Maya 2018

More than ever, there are lots of options available to us, to place and distribute objects in Autodesk Maya. With the addition of MASH, Maya’s motion graphics toolkit, users have the world and Placer Nodes that allows you to place elements with a high degree of control. Maya’s Xgen also lets users create, distribute and control things like rocks, grass, trees, place feathers, and fur.

In this tutorial from 3D Splanchnic, we have a look at how you can use Maya’s Xgen to place feathers on a bird. It starts by making some basic geometry that Xgen will use to place feathers on the surface of another object.

Using Xgen splines and grooming tools makes it pretty simple to get the feathers going in the right direction. “The workflow for the groom-able splines seems pretty straight-forward.” Finally, 3D Splanchnic renders the final result using Solid Angle’s Arnold renderer.