MH Groom Bun works with points as input geometry. Users can provide manually placed or scattered points on the groom mesh. It also accepts curves as it can detect which geometry type is coming in. In case of curves, the tool will remove all curve points except for roots. Usage of guides as bun positions will be explained in the next example. A Guide Groom is required to start with but with some additional preparation.
Place a Guide Groom node.
Set the Tool menu to Plant. Navigate to Brush Options menu below and set Mode to Single and Segment Count to 1. This will keep unnecessary point count to a minimum.
Create a MH Groom Bun node and connect the first two outputs of Guide Groom to the inputs of MH Groom Bun.
The tool offers two bun types as a starting point — Twist and Donut. Bun guides can be generated in three styles — Scatter, Edge, and Single Center. Each style can have a different purpose.
For example, Scatter with a higher guide count and thicker strands can be used to ensure fullness of the inner section of the bun, coupled with the Volume Fill parameter. As an additional level of detail, another bun with fewer guides can be added on top as looser clumps of hair or flyaways.
Edge style could be a great start of a braided bun, consisting of multiple braids twisted into a bun. With this option guides are distributed along an imaginary circular line and can serve as guides for the braids.
Single Center produces a single curve, twisted into a bun, at the exact location of the bun’s input point. In this case the guide can be a building block of a Bantu knot or a classic bun. You can build a tube around the guide, using MH Groom Guide To Tube and fill it in with MH Groom Tube Fill.
The generated curves can be utilized as renderable strands or as a set of guides to grow interpolated hair around them. The power of the tool caters to a multitude of grooming scenarios — ranging from simple to very intricate, realistic grooms.
Within the same node it is possible to have multiple bun styles variations by leveraging Variants.