Adding color variation to a groom usually means bouncing between the hair and a texture editor, then hoping it reads right after export. The Paint Brush tool in Ornatrix v4.0 C4D lets you skip a lot of that by painting color and bitmap textures directly onto the strands in the viewport.

In this tutorial I walk through the full practical workflow.

Setting up the data

I start by adding Edit Guides and creating a Per Vertex RGBA channel through Strand Channels. This is the channel that actually stores the painted data on the groom itself, so everything stays editable and travels with the hair.

Painting color

With the Paint Brush selected, I paint solid colors directly onto the hair and use the Flood option to fill the whole groom fast when I need a base. From there it is about building variation by hand where it matters.

Working with bitmap textures

Next I load custom PNG maps with Browse and position them right in the viewport - moving, rotating and scaling the texture, then controlling tiling so the pattern sits the way I want across the strands.

Why it matters for the pipeline

The real value is that this bakes texture-based variation into a "groom_color" channel on the groom itself. That channel is ready for export workflows like Unreal Engine, which means fewer round trips and more predictable results before anything hits the renderer.

Watch the full tutorial and more grooming workflows on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/@charlytutors/videos

I published a new short Ornatrix tutorial focused on transferring painted hair colors from Cinema 4D to Unreal Engine.

In this workflow, I show how export hair correctly from Cinema4D so Unreal Engine can read it through Vertex Color.

The key part of this setup is using the correct "groom_Color" channel before exporting the groom. This allows the painted color information to survive the Alembic export and become usable inside the Unreal Engine material setup.

In this tutorial, I cover:

• Using the "groom_Color" channel
• Exporting the groom with Ornatrix Alembic
• Enabling the Unreal Engine export option
• Importing the groom into Unreal Engine
• Checking the color attribute
• Setting up a material that reads Vertex Color data
• Applying the final painted color result in Unreal Engine

This is a small but useful workflow for groom artists, character artists, and technical artists who need to preserve custom hair or fur color information across a real-time pipeline.

Watch the full tutorial here:

In this quick tutorial, I show how to paint hair and fur colors in Ornatrix and prepare the groom for export to Unreal Engine 5 using the correct groom color channel.

The main focus of this workflow is the "groom_Color" channel.

This channel name is important because Unreal Engine needs it to read the painted color data properly inside the UE hair shader. If the channel is named incorrectly, the groom color information may not transfer as expected.

In this tutorial, I cover:

• Adding an Edit Guides modifier on top of HairFromGuides
• Using the Paint Tool to create a custom grooming channel
• Setting up the required "groom_Color" channel for Unreal Engine
• Painting custom hair and fur color data
• Adjusting texture projection
• Exporting the groom with Ornatrix Alembic
• Enabling the Unreal Engine Export option for UE5

This is a compact production-friendly workflow for artists who need to transfer painted hair, fur, or groom color data from Ornatrix into Unreal Engine 5.

___

Enjoy watching!

Best regards,

Andrew Krivulya (Charly).

Part 4 of my "Introduction to Ornatrix 9 for 3ds Max" tutorial series is now available.

In this episode, I continue working with the Create Brush grooming pipeline inside Ornatrix 9 for 3ds Max. This series is focused on a practical brush-driven approach, where the groom is built step by step, section by section, instead of relying only on a traditional mask-based workflow.

This part focuses on refining the hair structure and improving the preview workflow while building the groom.

In this lesson, I cover:

- organizing guide sections with "Select By Group"

- adding controlled randomness to guides

- using Edit Guides after HairFromGuides

- smoothing the groom with Ornatrix Strand Detail

- working with Point Count for smoother long hair

- shaping hair clumps with Create Brush in Random mode

- using baked guides to control custom hair shapes

- adjusting "ChangeWidth" for a clearer viewport preview

- previewing Ornatrix hair with V-Ray

- using Chaos Vantage Live Link for faster visual feedback

The goal of this series is not just to show separate tools, but to explain how to think about the grooming structure while working: guide flow, clump behavior, strand detail, viewport readability and final preview.

Watch the full tutorial here:

I’m happy to share that Autodesk Community featured me in a new Member Spotlight interview.

In this conversation, I talk about my journey in 3D art, how I found my path in grooming and look development, and how teaching and sharing knowledge gradually became an important part of my professional life.

We also touched on several topics that have shaped my career over the years:

• how one small question from a viewer helped define my specialization
• my experience working on character-focused projects for cinematics and games
• the difference between offline and real-time workflows
• why I prefer deep focus on one project instead of splitting attention across many tasks
• how R&D, personal projects, and knowledge-sharing can open unexpected creative opportunities

For me, this interview is not only about milestones. It is also about growth, consistency, curiosity, and staying connected to the craft.

I’m grateful to Autodesk Community for the feature and the opportunity to reflect on this path.

You can read the full interview HERE

If you’re also working in character art, grooming, LookDev, or digital humans, I’d be glad to hear what helped shape your own direction as an artist.

In this tutorial, we explore how to control hair distribution in Ornatrix for Cinema 4D using the "Warp Roots" modifier.

Managing the distribution of hair, fur, and feathers can be difficult when a groom needs more precise art direction. This workflow helps manipulate root placement directly on the surface using a painted Per-Strand channel, which makes it especially useful for feathers, sparse fur setups, and stylized grooms.

What is covered in this tutorial:

- why hair distribution can become difficult in production

- how to add the "Warp Roots" modifier to the Ornatrix stack

- why proper UVs are required for the effect to work correctly

- how to create a Per-Strand paint channel using Edit Guides

- how to visualize the channel for easier control

- how lighter and darker values affect bunching and spreading

- how Strength and Resolution help refine the final result

Workflow overview:

- add "Warp Roots" to the Ornatrix stack

- make sure the mesh has valid UVs

- add Edit Guides before Warp Roots

- create a Per-Strand channel for painting

- paint values to control root distribution

- adjust Strength and Resolution as needed

This is a simple but powerful technique for artists who need more control over root placement without rebuilding the groom from scratch.

If you work with Ornatrix in Cinema 4D, this workflow can be a very practical addition to your grooming pipeline.

In Episode 5 of the "Introduction to Ornatrix" series, we focus on one of the most sensitive areas in hair grooming - the transition from the parting line to the bangs.

This is a stage where even well-built grooms can start to look artificial if the guide flow and root direction are not handled correctly.

The goal here is not just to place guides, but to control how the hair naturally flows from the parting into the fringe.

Workflow overview:

• Using the Plant Tool to place guides with precision
• Interpolating between guides to establish a smooth hair flow
• Switching to Strand mode for root point adjustments
• Disabling Preserve Strand Length and Optimise Geometry for better control
• Aligning the groom with 3dsk reference scans

One of the key aspects in this process is root direction. Even small deviations can break the natural look, especially in close-up shots.

This step plays a major role in production grooming, where realism and clean silhouette are critical.

If you're building a full Ornatrix pipeline, this stage connects directly with the base guide setup and defines how believable the final hairstyle will feel.

More episodes coming soon as the workflow continues to evolve.

The Challenge of Real-Time Hair

Creating high-quality hair cards for real-time characters is a meticulous art. While there is no substitute for an artist's manual control and creative vision, the right tools can help optimize the most tedious parts of the pipeline.

Placing cards manually and generating textures for every iteration can easily become a bottleneck in character production.

Our Procedural Approach

In our latest tutorial, we explore how Ornatrix can assist and speed up specific steps in your real-time hair workflow. Rather than replacing the manual work of a grooming artist, our procedural texture generation and meshing algorithms are designed to give you more flexibility and save hours during the iteration phase.

Here is a breakdown of how this workflow can be a valuable addition to your character art toolkit:

1. Procedural Texture Generation

You no longer need to manually bake out textures every time you make a change. Ornatrix allows you to generate Alpha Opacity hair textures directly from dense grooms on the fly. Each strand group is automatically isolated into its own texture island.

2. Flexible Meshing Options

Using the "Mesh from Strands" modifier, you can easily structure your hair geometry. The tool gives you the option to generate either flat ribbons or cylindrical groups depending on your topology requirements.

3. Instant, Non-Destructive Iteration

This is where the workflow truly shines. Because the meshes and textures remain procedurally linked, you can tweak hair thickness, rotation, or overall shape at any point. A single click regenerates the updated texture, perfectly matching your new geometry geometry.

By keeping these elements linked, you take the repetitive manual labor out of the equation and focus entirely on the character's artistic direction.

Watch the Full Breakdown

You can watch the complete step-by-step workflow in our latest video tutorial here:

We would love to hear your thoughts on this pipeline. How much of your current hair card process is manual versus procedural? Let us know in the comments below.

For more technical discussions, updates, and community support, feel free to join our Discord server.

If you are still doing manual hair retopology for stylized characters, real-time engines, or 3D printing - you are wasting hours of your production time. 

In my latest tutorial, I am sharing a 100% procedural workflow using Ornatrix for Cinema 4D. You will learn how to take dynamic, pre-clumped hair and instantly convert it into a clean, volumetric cylindrical mesh.

Here is what we cover:

- Using the "Set Clump Strand Groups" operator.

- Adding the "Mesh from Strands" node for instant volume.

- Adjusting thickness on the fly without breaking the groom stack.

- Generating closed geometry with the "Cap Ends" feature for flawless 3D prints.

- Manually assigning strand groups with the Edit Guides operator.

Tech note for the 3D geeks: I run these heavy procedural grooming stacks on my MSI Titan 18 HX. Equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, 96 GB of DDR5 RAM, and the massive NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 (24 GB GDDR7, 175W TDP), calculating high-density volumetric meshes happens instantly. There is absolutely zero viewport lag when tweaking parameters, making the creation process on my 18" UHD+ Mini-LED display incredibly smooth.

Watch the full tutorial video on Ephere channel and upgrade your grooming pipeline today!

Creating realistic creatures or characters often involves managing millions of hair strands. If you try to control the beard, eyebrows, peach fuzz, and main hair all within a single operator stack, you are going to run into performance bottlenecks and organizational chaos.

The professional approach is to "Divide and Conquer."

In this workflow breakdown, I explore how to split a complex groom into manageable sub-grooms and then seamlessly combine them using the Merge Operator in Ornatrix for Cinema 4D.

The Problem with Single Stacks

When you keep everything in one object, making a simple change to the "mustache" might require recalculating the entire head of hair. It slows down the viewport and makes the artistic process frustrating.

The Solution: Sub-Grooms & Merging

By creating separate hair objects for different zones (e.g., Mane_01, Undercoat_01, Whiskers_01), you can edit each part in isolation. This is faster and much cleaner.

Once you are happy with the individual parts, the Merge Operator brings them together non-destructively.

Key Settings to Watch:

- Overlap Resolution -> "Remove": This is crucial. It detects where hairs from different sub-grooms intersect and automatically culls them based on a distance threshold. No more geometry clipping!

- Overlap Resolution -> "Blend": If you have a sharp line where two grooms meet (like a hairline), this mode smooths the transition procedurally.

Hardware & Performance

While this workflow optimizes the human side of things, the computational side still demands power.

I tested this setup on my MSI Titan 18 HX AI. The procedural calculations of the Merge Operator are handled by the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (24 Cores), which crushes the math in milliseconds.

For viewport feedback, having the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 (24 GB GDDR7) means I can visualize the final merged result with path tracing enabled without any lag, even at 4K resolution.

Watch the Breakdown

Check out the video below to see the exact settings I use to blend sub-grooms seamlessly.

Final Thoughts

This workflow is 100% non-destructive. You can always go back up the stack, change a frizz parameter on the "Beard" sub-groom, and the final merged result updates automatically.

Have you tried splitting your grooms yet? Let me know in the comments!