Tuesday, January 8th, 2019 Posted by Jim Thacker

Ephere ships Ornatrix V6 for 3ds Max


Ephere has released Ornatrix V6 for 3ds Max, the latest update to its popular plugin for generating hair, fur and feathers, adding new hair physics systems, and new clumping, braiding and weaving modifiers.

The release also speeds up viewport rendering by “up to 4x”, introduces native support for the Arnold renderer, and improves Alembic import and export.

New hair physics toolsets
Like a lot of the new features in Ornatrix V6 for 3ds Max, the software’s new hair physics toolsets originally debuted in the Maya edition of the software, V2 of which shipped last summer.

They include the Oscillator modifier, intended as a quick way to simulate secondary motion or the effects of wind and gravity on hair.

For more complex simulations, there is the new Moov physics system: a newer alternative to the existing MassFX Dynamics modifier, which is based on 3ds Max’s native physics system.

It offers a range of alternative simulation models, and a wide range of control parameters.

Clumping, braiding and weaving modifiers
Other features that originally rolled out in the Maya edition include the Clump modifier, which generates highly customisable hair clumping based on the original hair guides or new guide shapes.

There are also new Braid and Weaver objects, designed to generate braids and woven materials like rattan or chainlink fencing.

Faster, more controllable direct editing of hair
Other changes include the option to isolate individual hairs and edit them directly; and new Elastic brushes, designed to make it easier to modify hair as a volume.

The viewport preview has also been overhauled: according to Ephere, frame rates are now “up to 4x” higher than V5, making it easier to interact with hair in real time.

Native support for Arnold, better Alembic import and export
Pipeline improvements include a new Arnold modifier, which makes it possible to render Ornatrix hair directly in Arnold, which replaced Mental Ray as 3ds Max’s de facto VFX render engine in 2017.

Handling of the Alembic file format has been improved: changes include the ability to load up to five Alembic files into the same hair object, and to export procedural animation to Alembic files.

Ornatrix for 3ds Max also now supports the SeExpr language, also used in Maya’s XGen system, making it possible to use mathematical expressions to control hair strands.

The complete changelog is quite a bit longer: you can find a full list of new features via the link below.

Pricing and system requirements
Ornatrix V6 is available now for 3ds Max 2009 and above. A new licence costs $599, up $100 from the previous release.

Read a full list of new features in Ornatrix V6 for 3ds Max in Ephere’s change log

Read more about Ornatrix for 3ds Max on the product website