Autodesk’s Daryl Obert has a look at some of the things you will need to consider when creating, styling and grooming short hair or fur for your characters in Maya. Daryl walks through creating short hi art and fur using Maya’s Xgen, with a model of a tiger.
Daryl covers the simple things getting started with Xgen and using the interface, creating Xgen primitives for the hair, and working up to textures, color, grooming, and working with maps. There are some great tips here, so if you are interested in getting started with Xgen, this is for you.