Ephere

04/13/2026

Warp Roots in Ornatrix for Cinema 4D gives you much more precise control over hair distribution.

In this Reel, I show a quick workflow for adjusting hair, fur, and feather root placement with painted strand channels. This is especially useful for sparse fur, feather setups, and more art-directed grooming where default distribution is not enough.

Quick workflow:

- Add "Warp Roots" to the Ornatrix stack
- Make sure your base mesh has proper UVs
- Add "Edit Guides" before Warp Roots
- Create a Per-Strand channel named "warp"
- Enable "Display Strand Channel"
- Paint lighter values to bunch roots together
- Paint darker values to spread them apart
- Increase Strength and Resolution when needed

A simple but very practical Ornatrix C4D trick for cleaner grooming control.

Have you used Warp Roots in your workflow yet?

03/30/2026

Introduction to Ornatrix 3ds Max - Episode 5.

In this episode, we focus on one of the most critical parts of hair grooming - creating a smooth transition from the parting to the bangs.

This is where hair often starts to look unnatural if the guide flow is not handled correctly.

Workflow breakdown:

Placing guides with the Plant Tool
Interpolating between guides for natural hair flow
Switching to Strand mode for root editing
Disabling Preserve Strand Length and Optimise Geometry
Matching the shape with 3dsk reference scans

If done right, the hair starts to feel organic instead of looking like rigid strands.

This step is essential for production-level grooming and close-up character work.

Watch previous episodes to keep the full workflow context - more advanced steps coming next.

How do you usually approach bangs - guide-first or refining later?

03/23/2026

Turning dense groom into clean hair cards inside Cinema 4D using Ornatrix.

This workflow lets you:

- generate hair textures automatically
- convert strands into optimized meshes
- keep volume, shape and flow of the hair
- prepare assets for real-time and game pipelines

No manual baking. No painful setup.

Just procedural hair cards that stay linked to your groom.

If you're working in C4D or building characters for Unreal Engine - this approach can seriously speed up your pipeline.

Would you use this in production or still prefer manual hair cards?

03/09/2026

Are you still doing manual hair retopology for your stylized characters or 3D prints? It is time to automate your workflow.

In our latest tutorial, show you how to generate a clean, procedural volumetric hair mesh in seconds using Ornatrix for Cinema 4D.

By utilizing the "Set Clump Strand Groups" and "Mesh from Strands" operators, you can instantly convert dynamic guides into closed cylindrical geometry. Need watertight models for your slicer software? Just check the "Cap Ends" box and you are 100% ready for 3D printing. The best part? You can dynamically adjust the strand thickness on the fly without breaking your grooming stack.

How do you currently prep your grooms for real-time engines? Let us know in the comments! 👇

02/23/2026

Stop fighting with straight, wire-like hair ends in your 3D grooms. 🛑✂️

We know the struggle: you style the perfect shape in Cinema 4D, but as soon as you increase the length, the tips shoot out straight and ruin the flow.

That’s why we introduced the Curved Extension feature inside the Ornatrix Length Operator. Instead of a simple linear extension, our algorithm now analyzes the current curvature of the strand and mathematically extrapolates its natural bend.

This works seamlessly on both your base guides and the final dense hair count. No more manual fixing of geometry - just procedural, organic hair growth.

01/19/2026

We're releasing Ornatrix App alpha preview to a very small group of grooming artists to do some rudimentary testing as well as help us guide the direction of future development.

If you'd like to be a part of this group, please apply here: https://ephere.com/ornatrix/app/

Note that it's still very early and wouldn't be very useful in production yet, but it's getting there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS9_ABlgw8k

Please note that for now we're only considering existing Ornatrix license owners for beta testing.

A quick overview of creating a new groom in the new Ornatrix standalone App, currently in beta testing.

01/12/2026

Grooming Bangs: Interpolation Secrets (Ornatrix 9 - Ep. 4)

Continuing our "Introduction to Ornatrix 9" series! In Episode 4, we tackle the bangs (fringe) and fix common guide issues in 3ds Max 2026.

If your guides look blocky or extend weirdly, check this workflow:

1️⃣ Turn OFF "Curved Extensions": Essential for straight projection when extending guides.
2️⃣ Plant Guide Tool: Use "Interpolation" mode to fill gaps between existing guides perfectly.
3️⃣ Fix Low-Poly Curves: Add a "Strand Detail" modifier → Smooth settings → Collapse to "Ox Baked Guides".

💡 Pro Tip: Always align your guides with the reference mesh before adding density!

Have you tried the new Plant Guide interpolation yet? Drop a 🔥 if this series is helpful!

01/05/2026

Don't eyeball the bangs. Use the data. 🦁📉

In Episode 3 of our grooming course, we tackle the most critical area of the hairstyle: The Parting and The Bangs.

Many artists fail here because they groom on a low-poly proxy. Here is the correct workflow using Ornatrix in 3ds Max:

1️⃣ Load the Scan: I use the raw head scan to ensure the guides collide correctly with the forehead. No floating hair.
2️⃣ Reference Logic: Comparing the flow against the reference (purple wig) to match the root direction precisely.
3️⃣ Isolate Selected: You can't style what you can't see. Isolate the front strands to focus on the curve without visual noise.

Precision grooming is about pipeline, not just brushing.

12/01/2025

Controlling Guides in Ornatrix? 👇

Continuing our deep dive into Ornatrix 9. In Episode 2, we cover the essentials for full control over your grooming:
🔹 How to quickly select specific guides?
🔹 "Affect Selected Only" mode - why you need it.
🔹 Starting the Parting: Laying the correct foundation.

Save this to remember the workflow! 💾

10/29/2025

500% boost in the Clumper Editor. Left is 5.1.4.37093, right is 5.1.4.37206. Live FPS on a heavy hair setup shows how much smoother editing feels. Comment what to benchmark next.
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10/20/2025

🚀 At Ephere, we're thrilled to launch our official Introduction to Ornatrix in 3ds Max series - starting with the basics every CG artist needs! Dive in as we clone that scalp with a simple CTRL+V, apply the Edit Guides modifier, fine-tune Brush Mode settings for optimal Random Position and guide density, and enable Mirror Brush Changes for seamless symmetry. Then, master combing with the PushAwayFromSurface modifier (disable Collide for open scalps, add your head to Target Collision Objects at 0.03-0.05 Distance), plus Auto Push-Away for stroke-perfect results. Wrap up with our three combing algorithms: Legacy (FK rig like bones in guides) vs. Local (ZBrush-style local moves with curve tweaks for roots). Your first step to pro hair grooming - grab Ornatrix and follow along! What's your top Ornatrix question? Comment below - we're here to help. 👇