This R&D focuses on experimenting with Houdini grooming workflows, RenderMan hair shading, and a custom hair deformation system.

The main goal was to test the newer Pixar/RenderMan hair shader while using my own HDA-based deformation workflow to transfer motion from guide curves to the final groom.

The work was not limited to traditional character grooming. I also explored using the shader and groom system for fur, stylized surface treatments, and more experimental animated artwork.

This broader range of use cases helped stress-test the custom HDA and deformation setup under different conditions, making it easier to evaluate how well the system handled motion transfer, deformation, density, and non-standard groom behavior.

Overall, the project was both a shader/lookdev experiment and a technical test of a procedural hair deformation workflow.