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HairWorks Viewer Tutorial

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SDK Getting Started

About HairWorks and Unreal 4

  • HairWorks assets are imported directly into the content browser.

  • All the attributes of a HairWorks asset are directly editable on the details panel.
    • The details panel is set up to be consistent with the HairWorks Viewer?s UI for a fluid workflow.
  • HairWorks assets are added as BluePrint Components to an actor.
    • BluePrint Components can inherit HairWorks asset settings or override them.
    • If the user overrides the HairWorks Asset settings, then the original asset settings become the default value for the BluePrint component of HairWorks.

HairWorks UE4 Tutorial

Tutorial - UE4 - Manjaladon

This process can be repeated using the Furball asset instead of the manjaladon asset. This can be found in the HairWorks media directory.

_images/hwUE4_ImportAsset.jpg
_images/hwUE4_ContentGDC.jpg
  1. Start UE4

  2. Load HairWorks Project

  3. In content browser - Go to GDC 2016/Manjaladon

    • Right Click and select Import Asset
    • Browse to HairWorks Viewer samples files
      • Media\Manjaladon\3dsMax\manjaladon_wFur.apx or an edited version of the manjaladon .apx saved from the HairWorks Viewer, 3dsMax, or Maya

  4. Double clicking on the Asset allows you to to make further edits, make texture connections, etc.

    • Take some time to make some edits.

    • Save Asset

      _images/hwUE4_Content_HairWorksAsset.jpg

  5. Open the Bull_NoFur BluePrint

    • The skeletal mesh has already been added and named body.

  6. On the Add Component menu, add a HairWorks component.

    _images/hwUE4_BluePrintComp_Add.jpg

  7. Make sure that the HairWorks component is a child of the skeletal mesh, body. If it is not, drag it onto Body to rearrange the hierarchy.

    _images/hwUE4_BluePrintComp_SkelChild.jpg

  8. Select the HairWorks component. In the details panel, all of the HairWorks attributes available on the HairWorks asset are now available on the HairWorks component.

  9. In the content browser, select the HairWorks asset. Connect it to the BluePrint Component in the Asset frame labeled Hair.

    _images/hwUE4_BluePrintComp_SetAsset.jpg
    • Note that all HairWorks attributes are greyed out and disabled. In this configuration, the HairWorks component uses all the settings from the HairWorks asset, so changes should be made on the asset.
    • Asset changes will be reflected without saving the asset, therefore you can see the BluePrint Component update as soon as attributes are committed!
    • Using an Asset centric approach is only one way to add HairWorks to characters.

Now we will explore a Component based approach.

_images/hwUE4_BluePrintComp_Override.jpg
  1. Select the BluePrint component
  2. In the Asset frame, enable Override.
  3. Now all attributes are edited on the HairWorks Component. The values are defaulted to the values that are on the HairWorks Asset. Resetting any attribute, resets back to the asset.
  4. After using either method to edit the BluePrint Actor, compile and save the BluePrint
  5. Open the map Content\Maps\Samples\Blank_ReadyForHairWorks
  6. Drag the Bull BluePrint Actor into the map.
  7. Play Map