Thunder Cloud ships GMH 2.6 for Maya
Thunder Cloud has released GMH 2.6 (Geo to Maya Hair 2.6), the latest update to its handy MEL script that enables users to model a character’s hair as polygonal geometry, then convert it automatically to Maya Hair.
The hair can still be manipulated using standard poly editing tools even after conversion, and multiple GMH hair systems can be applied to a single poly object, enabling base form, waves and frizz to be edited separately.
New options to generate hair as polygon strips, for use in games
As well as Maya Hair, the latest update gives users the option to covert the base geometry to sets of polygon strips, with options to control the orientation and number of segments of the strips.
The script can also now bake out hair textures corresponding to the strips, with UV space managed automatically; and a new material manager enables multiple shaders to be applied to hair geometry.
Once created, hair can now be exported as curves or poly meshes, in OBJ or FBX format.
Pricing and availability
GMH 2.6 is available now for Maya 2015 and above. It works with both 32 and 64-bit editions of the software, running on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. A single-user licence costs $49.