MH Groom Braid generates braided curves which are shaped by manipulating many of its parameters. The tool builds an orthonormal frame (local coordinate system) for each point of the curve. This is handled internally by MH Groom Framing tool, which also exists as a standalone node. Some of its parameters are accessible in the Twist tab. Setting up local X, Y, and Z axes is crucial for proper braiding and applying twists and rolls to the braid.
Drop Houdini’s native Guide Groom node to draw a curve or curves, representing the direction of the braid(s).
Add MH Groom Braid and wire in the outputs of Guide Groom.
Connect the outputs to MH Groom Guide To Tube.
Follow up with MH Groom Tube Fill.
To finish the setup, feed the outputs into MH Groom Rooter.
To further enhance the groom, apply MH Groom Spread, MH Groom Scraggle or Houdini’s Guide Process nodes.
The braid can be visualized as tubes by enabling Display Braid As Tubes in the Display & Output tab of the tool. This is recommended to keep on while designing the braid, for a better sense of shape, thickness, and overall interaction of braid clumps. The visualized geometry can be output directly from this tool, but for more control, a better option is to add MH Groom Guide To Tube afterwards.
MH Groom Guide To Tube takes the data from MH Groom Braid and builds tubes for each clump accordingly. It supports detangling of intersecting geometry, width adjustment, twisting along the length and outputs to NURBS and Polygon surface. The tool can be used with any other polygon curve as well, to create tubular structures.
MH Groom Tube Fill fills the tubes previously generated by MH Groom Guide To Tube, with curves. Provides control over density, curve distribution, width, and more.
MH Groom Rooter plants the roots on the underlying groom mesh. Depending on the selected options in the Cut and Expand Roots tabs, roots can be planted in three ways:
Projected to skin (groom mesh).
By removing intersecting root points first, then projecting new roots — faster option.
Boolean-ed with skin and projected — slower option.
Once projected, roots can be expanded or contracted for a more natural integration with the groom mesh. Skin to groom transition is controlled by parameters in the Smoothing tab. MH Groom Rooter is integrated within other styling tools and its options are in the Rooter tab.