Splitting Mesh by Material

Maya and Hitfilm does not support alembic with multiple materials, therefore, when you intend to export a character in Alembic format, the Split Mesh by Material option should be enabled.

Mesh without being Split (Default)

After the alembic character is imported into 3D tool (e.g. Maya) without being split, the mesh number is fewer but it is hard to apply multiple materials onto either one of them (such as the body), as the following illustration shows.

It is basically an object-based composition of the entire character.

• Eyes, Eye Occlusions, Tear Lines, Teeth and Tongue as entities:
  
• Hair and Body (including the eyelashes) meshes:
  
• Bra, Bottom and entire Cloth are individual objects:
  

Mesh Split

If you activate the Split Mesh by Material checkbox, then the original mesh will be split into different meshes based on the materials. Therefore, more meshes can be seen in the list after the alembic character is loaded. Each one of them can be applied with one material with this procedure.

It is, however, a material-based method for splitting the mesh.

• Left Eyeball, Cornea, Occlusion, Tear Line, Eyelash; Right Eyeball, Cornea, Occlusion, Tear Line, Eyelash; Upper Teeth, Lower Teeth and Tongue are all isolated meshes based on the materials that were applied:
  
• Hair, Head, Hands, Body and Legs are separate meshes since they were given different materials.
  
• Hand and Toe Nails are combined into one mesh.
  
• Clothes are isolated into different pieces of meshes.