Ephere releases Ornatrix 4 for Cinema 4D
Ephere has released Ornatrix 4 for Cinema 4D, the latest version of the Cinema 4D edition of its plugin for generating dynamic hair, fur and feathers.
The release adds all the new features from last year’s Ornatrix 3ds Max 9 and Ornatrix Maya 5, plus Cinema 4D-specific workflow improvements.
Highlights include a new Warp Roots modifier for creating feathers and sparse fur, updates to the Mesh from Strands modifier, and the option to paint through decals to texture hair.
A powerful solution for hair grooming and dynamics
First released in 2020, the Cinema 4D edition of Ornatrix makes the plugin available within the motion graphics and animation software, as well as for 3ds Max, Maya and Unreal Engine.
It includes the key toolsets for generating and grooming hair from the other editions, including both brush-based workflows and parametric editing.
For hair dynamics, it features Ephere’s Moov physics engine, and works within Cinema 4D’s deformer and tag framework, accepting inputs from native C4D forces.
Pipeline features include the option to convert mesh strips into Ornatrix hair, to import or export hair in Alembic format, and to convert hair and hair guides to NURBS curves.
Ornatrix hair renders natively in Arnold, Corona and Redshift, and can be converted to a mesh or spline curves for rendering in other renderers like OctaneRender and V-Ray.
New Warp Roots modifier helps create feather grooms
New features in Ornatrix 4 for Cinema 4D include the Warp Roots modifier.
It makes it possible to bunch together or spread apart root positions, either by assigning a texture map, or by painting directly onto the character.
Ephere describes it as particularly useful when modeling feathers or sparse fur patterns.
Use curves to guide hair flow and extend hair
There are also updates to several key existing modifiers, including Surface Comb.
It is now possible to draw smooth curves, or ‘curved sinks’, directly onto the surface of a character to control the flow of hairs, with options to direct, repel or attract the hair.
When using the Length modifier to extend hair strands, it is now possible to extend them along curves for a more natural result.
Updated Clump modifier makes it easier to create braids or other complex hairstyles
For creating more complex hairstyles, the Clump modifier gets new clumping manipulators, making it possible to move, scale or rotate clumps at any point along their length.
It is also possible to generate braids procedurally at any point along the length of a clump, saving a lot of fiddly manual work.
New options for converting hair strands to hair meshes
There are also a couple of significant changes to the Mesh from Strands modifier, which converts strands of hair into a faster-rendering mesh shape for games and real-time work.
One is the option to mesh groups of hairs into flat or tubular clumps; the other is to generate textures for the mesh procedurally from the original source hair, as shown in the video above.
Paint directly through textures onto hair to apply decals
Other new texturing workflows include the option to use the texture paint brush to paint through textures onto the hair in the viewport.
It provides a quick way to apply decals and more stylized patterns, as shown in the video above.
It is also now possible to export the groom_color attribute to Unreal Engine via Alembic files.
New Create Groom dialog streamlines workflow
Changes unique to the Cinema 4D edition – if we’ve interpreted the release notes correctly, at least – include a new Create Groom dialog.
It makes it possible to filter only grooms applicable to the base object selected, and to browse grooms with thumbnail previews.
Price and system requirements
Ornatrix 4 for Cinema 4D is available for Cinema 4D R25+ on Windows 10+ and macOS 13.0+. A perpetual license costs $649, up $50 since version 3; rental costs $50/month or $420/year.
Read a full list of new features in Ornatrix 4 for Cinema 4D in the online release notes
Read more about Ornatrix for Cinema 4D on Ephere’s website
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