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Yeti Documentation

A powerful node based toolset for producing fur, feathers and procedural geometry within Autodesk's Maya™

Peregrine Labs Yeti

Release Highlights​

5.2​

Feather de-intersection with Plume​

A new Plume node has been added which can be used to resolve feather/feather and feather/geo intersections.

Additionally, support for custom geometry on feather objects is available which is also supported in the Plume workflow.

Evaluation SDK​

A C++ API for evaluating Yeti graphs, including CMake integration and command line example.

Cross Platform Path Mapping​

Resolve and Geometry Sampler nodes​

Added a new Resolve node, used to resolve fibre and geometry intersections/collisions along with a new Geometry Sampler.

5.0​

Viewport Updates​

5.0 introduces a new Viewport 2.0 shader for Maya which aims to match commonly used production hair shading techniques and adds new shader controls for Melanin, IOR and other properties.

In addition, the groom node has had a UI overhaul, providing clearer feedback and ability to customize size and transparency of the strands.

XGen Integration​

It is now possible to import Maya's XGen Interactive Grooms into the Yeti graph expanding the potential workflows and use cases, whether using XGen to initiate a new groom or using Yeti to render XGen grooms with additional details the possibilities are endless.

Soft Selection​

All of Yeti's Maya nodes now support soft selection and weighted transforms with context-based marking menus for more efficient editing.

Groom Sampler​

A new Groom Sampler has been added which allows any nodes parameter to be controlled by a Groom's paintable attribute (and length) more directly.

4.0​

Sampler nodes​

We've introduced a new type of node, called a Sampler node, which provides a more visual and flexible means of controlling parameters. These can be used to build an input flow to any number of parameters that visually constructs a context aware expression that is compiled and evaluated at runtime.

There are three new nodes, Curve, Noise and Expression and the Texture node has been refactored to be used as a Sampler to be able to directly wired into parameters.

Graph editor, grouping and presets​

Nodes can now be grouped to make graph organization easier with the ability to save either these new groups or node selections as presets to be re-used and shared within the studio environment. A quick menu, using the TAB key, has been introduced along with a new UI theme.

Strand Simulation​

Yeti's simulation engine has been refactored to provide more accurate and stable results along with improved collision detection for better collision response.

A Density Gradient field continuum has been added that introduces pseudo strand to strand collisions for better volume preservation.

Region of Interest​

A Region of Interest can be added to a Yeti node to limit graph evaluation and results to a bounding volume which provides a way of focusing in on little details while also speeding up iteration due to the limit evaluation.

Clumping​

The Clump node has undergone a major refactor inheriting the volumetric clumping of the guide curves and removing the need for a second input relying on a fractal based clumping method and a subset of the inputs fibres to clump too.

Component Editing​

More options when editing Grooms in Component Editing mode including the ability to edit along the length of the curve and stretch/pull strands for finer control.

3.0​

Braids​

A new Braids geometry type has been added which provides a simple but robust means of create braid like hair styles. As with feathers, a Braid is made up of a Maya node attached to an input curve, used for visually creating the look of the Braid which can then be imported into a Yeti graph for further tweaks.

Groom Deformation Layers​

Deformation Layers have been added to the Groom nodes which allows layering up of Guides and Grooms on top of a hero Groom, it's a concept similar to Photoshop layers but for strands.

Each layer can be re-ordered and their weights adjusted on a per layer basis allowing a new level of control over complex Grooms.

Scattering on Fibres​

It is now possible to Scatter points onto Fibres which allows much more control over placing debris, snow, and other instances and the ability to recursively generate fibres.

Additionally, Braids and Feathers can now be converted to Fibres within the graph using the Convert node, which means that points can be scattered on those geometry types too.

Graph Editor​

Some of the highly requested updates to the Graph Editor have finally been implemented, including:

  • an Auto-Layout option which can be found in the Utilities menu.
  • the ability to search all of the nodes in the Graph Editor, use CTRL-F to bring up the UI.
  • full support for Undo and Redo within the both the graph editor and node inspector.