Hello all,

Im in the process of modeling a cat character, and im having trouble getting the fur to behave predictably. I run Maya 2012 on Windows 7 64-bit, i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07 GHz, NVidia GeForce GTX 560, 12 GB ram. Im rendering in Mental Ray.

The main issue i have is the fur maps. There are certain areas that refuse to be affected by any means i can think of. The tail tip is the most prominent (see pics), but it happens around the lips too. Ive uploaded maps from photoshop, ive created fresh maps within maya, ive uploaded maps then edited them in maya...ive tried flodding it with a value, which works everywhere except these affected areas. Ive deleted the maps and recreated them. ive deleted the fur descriptions and ive deleted the entire fur system. Ive even exported the mesh as an .obj and imported it into a new scene and created fresh fur and also have selected from one of the presets. neither seemed to fix the problem.

Secondary problems include the sparseness of the tail. Why does it look like an opossum? Ive used an equalizer map to boost the density both at the tail and on the face. And the hands/feet. And why is the color so random? Ive set both the base and tip colors to put white in the last full posed image. the noise frequency and amplitude are both set at 0.00 for both renders.

Lastly, any general tips for improving the fur, or indeed, anything?

I appreciate any help and/or feedback offered.

Thank you!