Draw Strand Tool
You can choose to create strands by using the Draw Strand Tool. It's a tool that builds on top of the Maya dynWire context, and using the Strand Presetsthat you already have, you can now draw strands directly in the scene.
Creation
Like all Maya Paint FX tools, a mesh will require UV and frozen transforms to work properly. Select a mesh and click on "Create UV" button will do this automatically for you.
Select a layer from the "Into Layer" option menu. If you do not have a layer yet, you will need to create one first.
Then choose a Strand Presets in the field below, and click on Paint.
While in the paint brush, holding down Maya's default hot key "B" will allow you to adjust the brush size. The brush size will determine the scale of the strand.
When you have multiple layers available, you can swap between them by selecting them in the Into Layer option menu.
Draw at Depth
When "Draw at Depth" is On - Strokes can go outside of the PFX Mesh.
When "Draw at Depth" is Off- Strokes will hug on the PFX Mesh.
Auto Orient (Card Only)
Automatically orient the drawn cards to the defined PFX mesh. The orient function will take the sample distance % from the Scene Preset .
Menu > Set Scene Presets > Orient Sample Distance %. Orient Sample Distance % (Card Only)
Spans
The curve spans of the drawn hair tube. Set this higher if you know your hair strand will be more complex, you can always set this number lower in the Strand Editor afterward.
Smooth
When on, performs an auto smoothing on drawn hair strands
Undo
While I try to make things as user friendly as possible, Maya and its dynWire context has an issue where undoing the entire stroke isn't possible.
To undo a stroke, please exit the tool, by pressing down "W", "E", or "R", hit CTRL + Z to undo.
You will see a black tube (that's the residue from Maya's dynWire context). Just hit CTRL+Z again.
To re-enter the tool, you can use the "G" key to quickly do so.
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