bartoszstyperek
gumroad
Hair Tool for Blender
🕑 Added 2025-02-09 20:14:18 +0000 UTCHair Tool is add-on for Blender that will help you generate hair-card, shell hair or curve hair in non destructive way, using geometry nodes and python.
- For Blender 3.6 (or 4.x) - use Hair Tool 3.x (only new hair curves are supported) - and: 'HairLibrary_3.x_date.zip'
- For 'old' Blender 3.3 (up to 3.6) use 'old' Hair Tool. 2.46 (last version that supports 'old' curves) - and: HairLib_18_12_2022.zip with it.
Links:
- Quick Start section in documentation - fastest way to get familiar with Hair Tool (10-15 min)
- Documentation - for latest Hair Tool 3.x - it is is most up to date way of learning the addon
- Discord server place where you can get support and report bugs
- YouTube channel with videos related to HTool - use 'Hair Tool 3.0' playlist to see only new videos for latest HT 3.x
- Hair TutorialPart 1and Part 2by SinHouse - for 'old' HTool 2.46
- Old documentation - for old Hair Tool 2.46 - no longer maintained (last version that supported old curves and Particle Hair)
Studio vs Standard license: if you are company with above 180k $ income, please purchase Studio version. Both licenses (Studio and Standard) can be used commercially. Information about Hair Library license can be found here
Refunds - you can get refund for Hair Tool, if you request it - withing 2 weeks after purchase.
Some of customers who purchased Hair Tool:
UNIGINE, Fatshark, Tactical Adventures,Ubisoft , Squanch Games , rocksteady, NEOVIZ, NextLevel Games , Digital Extremes, Avalanche Studios,Keyword Studios , Rocksalt, PANACHE, Maximum Entertainment , NCSOFT Sharkmob, Black Forest Games, QLOC, VERMILA , DEXTER Studios, Event Horizon, NOBODY STUDIO , Emberstorm and others.
There are multiple ways to generate hair-cards with Hair Tool:
- Hair System - procedural hair generation based on geometry nodes - great for all kind of complicated hair styles (braids, curls, punk etc)
- using grid Guide Mesh - to guide hair. Best for modeling: long hair, buns, fringes, eyelashes etc. Very good for low-poly characters.
- using Track To Mesh - great for short to medium hairstyles
- grooming tools - that can be used together with Blender Curve Sculpt mode and procedural effects - Deformers
- drawing and extending hair strands similar to Grease Pencil drawing - now rewritten to use new hair curves,
- short hair modeling - for short to medium length hair - animal fur, short human hairstyles. Haircards will be spawn from each mesh edge.
- using shell hair modeling - great for very short hair: fur, carpets. Requires special material (there is UEngine material in HTool docs)
Some of the features:
- tools for curve based hair modeling (cutting, extending, deforming etc) - rewritten to support new curves
- automated UV workflow (you can define uv regions, which can then be automatically assigned to hair strand)
- easy hair rigging and animation with Jiggle physics
- hair library that contains various hairstyles and sub-components,
- various adjustable ribbons profiles - Mesh Profile, Curls Profile, Circle, Flat, Braids etc.
- convert: Curves to Particle Hair, Particle Hair to Curve ribbons, Curve ribbons to mesh ribbons and so on.
- curve resampling and decimation (increases/decreases curve points count)
- generating vertex color/weights gradients, transferring UVs and vertex weights from character to mesh haircards.
- texture baking from new hair curves; supports: normal, ao, diffuse, tangent, ID, root, flow and more maps
- build-in add-on auto-updater
- and more
Hair tutorials for Blender 3.0 series (these are quite old - I'm in the middle of moving all the tools from od curves to new hair Curves):
- Introduction video
- Working with materials and uv in Hair Tool 2.1
- Example of making hair in Hair Tool 2.1
New Videos (for Blender 3.3 and above) showing new Hair System based on Geometry nodes:
- hair setup in one minute
- short hair creation using Shell Hair and Short Hair modeling techniques
- create hair without grooming
Hair Tool can be used to export hair to Character Creator.
- Check out CCreator Smart Hair system
- Hair Tool to Character Creator workflow video tutorial
- Smart Hair Shader Part 1 - Basic Parameters & Base Color in CC
- Smart Hair Shader Part 2 - Effects & Save Materials in CC
Past Updates:
Update 1.7.1
- hair resample and simplify operators preserve material order
- added options to remove, resize, reset - uv boxes when using "Draw uv area for Hair" operator in imaged editor window (found under spacebar).
Update 1.8:
- Particle Hair Combing with Interactive Ribbons see video - https://youtu.be/r4da3J5omd8
Update 1.8.4:
- early support for texture baking. Baking panel is located in -> 3d View -> Tools -> Hair Baking panel. I will make short guide video soon. https://twitter.com/JoseConseco3/status/975484075841605633
Update 1.8.5 (11.04.2018):
- finished and polished hair baking in blender (ao, id, root mask, tangent map, normal, depth etc).
- added channel packing nodes (beta but should work 90% of time)
- video showing example worfklow and how baking works: https://youtu.be/0UAxl549pNA
Update 1.9.2 (day 20.07.2018) - some bug fixes added in 11.08.2018:
- added select Next/Previous to curve editmode -> Select menu. I will select next point on curve.
- Interactive Child particles count can be set manually over 2000 (use with caution)
- generated curve ribbons will now have the rotation applied (this fixes bad curve ribbons aligning - 90deg offset)
- New: Ability to copy hair curve profile. Located in HT menu -> Next to 'Close Profile'
Update 1.9.3 (26.08.2018):
- Fixed UV bug when going back and forward between curve and mesh mode.
- Randomize curve tilt - tilt can take positive or negative values.
- 'Include Parents' - option added in interactive hair combing - this will take into account Parent strands when using 'generate children option'.
- align curve tilt - make it work only on selected points. Previously it would align whole curve.
- Curve from grease pencil - now it has option to generate curve ribbons on the fly (https://bartoszstyperek.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/pg_to_curveribbon.gif?w=575&zoom=2).
Update 1.9.4 (03.11.2018): - New clumping option added for - 'Curves from grid surface' operator.
- Speed boost to all tools that use curves resampling, including 'Interactive hair combing'. This affects lots of tools, but hopefully this didn't introduce any new bugs.
- fix jumping particle hairs when converting curves to particle hair
- Some of parameters can now be set above maximum value, by manually entering bigger values (eg. max curve ribbon width can now be set above 10)
Update 2.0.6 (27.03.2019):
- added auto-update feature, in addon preferences. When new release is out, you can use auto-update to automatically download and install new version.
Update 2.0.10 (22.05.2019):
- added compatibility with latest blender api changes - use only with blender builds after 21 may!
- Improved speed in interactive hair combing and generation of curves from grid suface
Update 2.1.4 (25.08.2019)
- Show warning popup when opening baking scene,
- Hide braid deformer visibility in cycles,
- added option in preferences to disable drawing grid mesh as 'WIRE',
- fix braids generation, when only one curve is selected
Update 2.1.6 + 2.1.7 + 2.1.8(For Blender 2.81 16.10.2019)
- support for blender 2.81
- adjust particle hair length added (in 'interactive combing' panel)
- more hair examples in hair baking blend scene
- randomize rotation in interactive combing
- flip UV in V (top-bottom) direction
- new drawing mode - connected
- fix hotkey - disabling drawing hair would erase ctrl+shift+H pie menu hotkey, and possibly other hotkeys too!
2.20 (for Blender 2.82 only 06.03.2020)
- texture baking added padding support and new channel compositing nodes
- mesh ribbons - added vertex AO bake with bounces approximation
- taper curve profile (hack)
- added flatten scalp to UV option in baking scene
- mesh ribbons - added UV Pick from target
- replaced default hair material - it no longer needs special light hack. But anisotropic highlights are still faked. It uses new texture too
2.22 (for Blender 2.83 only 26.07.2020)
- Added Hair Modeling Workspace Tool
- non square UV baking support,
- added Straighten strand tool,
- added ability to define custom texture suffixes in addon preferences,
- interactive combing now support length vertex group,
- you can pick uv which will be assigned to drawn strand,
- added finalize option (merge all selected hair into one, new output mesh)
2.23 (for Blender 2.83 only);
- fixed baking on solid background
- fixed Z-up aligning error on curly hair generation,
- possibly fixed auto-updater on MAC,
- fixed uv drawing on curves with no materials,
- fix error when using 'Curves from grid surface' with bezier curve output type
- fix drawing particle hair regression.
2.24(for Blender 2.83 and 2.9x) 22.12.2020:
- added Adjust Length for curve strands
- Hair Draw - added Extend option
- New 'Set UV region'
- added Direction bake pass
- faster and better looking texture padding
2.30 - 16.06.2021
- Compatible only with Blender 2.93
- Added UV Curls
- 'Profile Generate' now support generating round profiles (required for UV curls)
- Added Auto UV with optional length threshold masking
- Added 'Slice Curve Using Mesh' operator
- Lost of new presets added to Hair Library. Get them from HT Gumroad site.
- added cleaner uv for Vertex Groups masking in Interactive Grooming
2.35-2.36 - 20.12.2021 (For Blender 2.93 and 3.0 )
- fixed braid generation in blender 3.0,
- fix error when selecting hair strands that are too close to camera,
- added hair rigging with jiggle,
- Interactive combing now has option to use Blender particle hair settings,
- Curves from grid now will work on single row of polygon meshes,
- Load baking scene wont override the default baking scene. Added option to reset baking scene to default one,
- Interactive Combing - added clumping option, updated UI,
- fix curve from grid surface on blender 3.0
added Hair Generation with Geometry Nodes (VIP - mostly for baking textures, I take no bug reports yet, no docs were made yet),
2.37-2.38 - 12.06.2022 (For Blender 2.93 and 3.x )
- Added Short Hair - new modeling technique
- Jiggle simulation now works on multiple armatures simultaneously, it also works in animation mode too now (thus can be baked into animation),
- Short Hair - now support picking UVs, Weights and other mesh hair operations,
- added proper undo/redo to 'Hair UV' operator and improved box interaction precision,
- Finished implementing 'Radius from UV width',
- big speedup in UV Sampling and Weights Sampling operators (they are few times faster),
- MMB will now adjust strand stiffness for workspace hair modeling tool,
- added control over root radius in hair baking scene,
- Short Hair - added option to keep sharp border edges when remeshing,
- short hair - added option to rotate strands randomly (located in modifier props),
- possible fix to Interactive Combing not generating profile on hair ribbons,
- restored function of bringing back previous vertex groups in Curves from Grid surface,
- Display warning when trying to bake texture with texture clamp size enabled in preferences,
- fix ParticleHair from Curves when using Cloth grooming tool type,
- added option to align Short Hair strand to comb direction"
2.40 - 11.12.2022 (For Blender 3.3 and above )
- Huge update to Hair System - can be used for hair-cards generation now
2.41 - 13.12.2022 (For Blender 3.3 and above )
- Fix being unable to add mask on Windows OS
- Added UVs and Color transferring option (under Profile -> Utils)
2.42 - 09.03.2023 (For Blender 3.3 and above )
- Remade UV and Color sampilng for short hair,
- Short Hair Uvs can now be masked (and layered) by using vertex groups,
- added Vert Color sampling operator for Mesh Hair objects
- fix drawing UV boxes if not material is present
2.45 (for Blender 3.3, and above - Last update 12.05.2023)
- Added New Shell Hair modeling technique,
- Added Curls Profile,
- Added Deformers: Braids, Align to Target, to Parent, Push Out, Embed Roots,
- Hair System Uvs support multiple UV regions now,
- added option to Bake curves generated by Hair System to curve object data,
- Added option to bake Hair System uvs regions to mesh,
- use new Interpolation in Blender 3.5
2.46 for Blender 3.3, and above - Last update 25.05.2023,
- Added Track Curve and Mesh Deformers,
- added Mirror Deformer,
- Automatic parting of Hair System strands based on loose mesh islands,
- Added Resample and Set Resolution operators for new Curves,
- Synced Baking Texture setup with Default Hair Texture Setup,
- fix - curve profile correctly supports UVs of profile made from multiple curves
Hair Tool 3.0 only for Blender 3.6, Last update 20.07.2023
- New Hair Tool version, all curve profiles are now GeoNodes based,
- New Hair Curves are now fully supported (dropped support of old curves),
- added edit mode adjustment for radius and tilt (using Alt+S and ctrl+T) for new hair curves, subdivide, extrude, (un)hide, select root/tips, etc.,
- 'Curves From Grid Surface' are using geonodes now,
- Remade - Smooth Operator - can smooth any 'FLOAT' Attribute and position,
- Added ability to edit any 'FLOAT' attribute in Curves Sculpt mode,
- Added Helper to Colorize Hair System Strands (manual), and UVs (random),
- Cleaned up UI, hair modeling tools from right side panel moved into sub-panels,
- 'Filter Strands' do not force resampling of affected strands any more
- Added ability to use Guide curve attribute as input mask 'FLOAT,
- Replaced bgl with gpu module. Addon,
- Added Smooth deformer,
- Added Color Set (for system debug),
- added Simplify Strands Deformer,
- resample Deformer will keep original points spacing,
- Added option to 'Import Baking Scene',
- Added 'Duplicate Strands' and 'Generate Braids' into deformer > Generators section,
- Whole Hair Library is moved to new Hair System and new Curves,
- Added 'Hair with Track Mesh' one click preset,
- Added 'Roll' deformer
- Added 'Curve Attribute' inputs mask type,
Hair Tool 3.1 - for Blender 3.6, Last update 3.08.2023,
- Restored options for 'Particle Hair from Curves' and 'Particle Hair to Curves, these are for old curves,
- nicer error messages when trying to resample/decimate curve with no splines,
- fix Deformer Updater - not reconnecting new sockets if available,
- 'Curls' deformer - added Project to/from Normal,
- added option to copy and paste Deformers (with theirs input masks),
- Added 'Separate Target per Island' switch option in Track to Mesh/Curve deformer,
- restored option to flip UVs in Y axis (and fix error when reading Flip_y and no attribute is found),
- fix Invert behaviour in vertex group input mask,
- Vertex Group Input mask - added option to sample per strand root or by each spline point,
- Fixed bone generation of mesh with no armature,
- Added option to show HSystem popup panel from ctrl+Shift+H pie menu,
- UV regions are now always unique (previously they could be shader between SetUVRegion deformers),
- bugfixes
Hair Tool 3.2 for Blender 3.6, Last update 04.09.2023,
- Added 'Physics' deformer for Hair System it will simulate hair with rope/springs - still VIP - notstable in some cases,
- Added 'Attach To Surface' deformer,
- Duplicate Strands Deformer will give more even strands distribution now,
- Added option to disable random UV Flipping on profile,
- Fixes for Curves From Grid Surface,
- Switched AO generation from python to GeoNodes,
- Fix Hair Baking material update - giving error,
- 'Embed roots' deformer - added option to use custom mesh surface,
- AO - added option to write to alpha,
- Changed behavior of 'influence range' input in Track To Mesh\Curve deformers,
- Fix UV sampling,
- simpler strand interpolation (simpler calculation of rotation difference),
- fixed 'Draw Hair' on for users with non English UI,
Hair Tool 3.3 for Blender 3.6 and 4.0 , Last update 15.11.2023,
- Blender 4.0 compatibility fixes,
- updated curve edit mode - Adjust Radius and Tilt - to support soft selection ranges,
- Fix excessive damping with time in jiggle physics,
- Added 'Remove Strands' deformer,
- Added 'Attach To Border' deformer,
- 'Selection Mask(Curve)' new modes: Multiply, Add,
- Added option to switch hair curve direction under W key menu (curve edit mode),
- Braids Deformer will be formed with more even distribution of strands (in older version - some of substrands be very thin or even missing - leaving braid made from only 2 visible clumps!)
- lots of small improvements. still WIP.
Hair Tool 3.3 for Blender 3.6 and 4.0 , Last update 02.12.2023,
- Added option to manually Flip UVs (for each strand) in U direction in 'Set UV Regions' operator,
- Short hair - fix exploding hair when masking 'length multipiler' input with vertex group with zero weights (division by zero),
- Fix UVs generation for Curve Profile type,
Hair Tool 3.5 for Blender 3.6 and 4.0 , Last update 23.12.2023,
- Added option to manually Flip UVs (for each strand) in U direction in 'Set UV Regions' operator,
- Short hair - fix exploding hair when masking 'length multipiler' input with vertex group with zero weights (division by zero),
- Fix UVs generation for Curve Profile type,
- Added option to link Flat Profile UV width, to strand radius.
- Fix Hair Drawing not working if target object has not UVs,
- Added ability to colorize UV Regions - and use this color attribute in hair material,
- Fix drawing deformers in UI, there are than 9 subSystems assigned to object,
- Better algorithm for picking UV box under cursor, when multiple UV Regions are overlapping,
- Simplified Track To, Curls Deformers,
- Added Simple Curve Mapping input mask type,
- Fix Curve Profile - bad uvs, when using curves with Vector type handles,
- Refactor of Hair Tool hotkeys handling,\n - new curve Root modeling transformation mode,
- Added collisions support for 'Hair Modeling' tool in IK mode (chain),
- 'Hair Modeling' workspace tool can be now used in curves sculpt mode,
- Hair Profile, from now will have first row of edges marked as creased - thus can be used as 'Grid Guide' for another Hair System,
- Added more presets for baking in 'Hair Baking Scene',
- Updated and added new presets to Hair presets Library,
Update 3.6.0 for Blender 3.6, 4.0, (date 14.1.2024),
- Multiple directories locations can be added HTool addon Preferences > Library),
- improved creation and matching of hair library presets to yo,
Update 3.6.3 for Blender 3.6, 4.0, 4.1, Last update 27.03.2024,
- Compatibility fixes for Blender 4.1,
- remade 'Flatten UV', to work on new hair curves (Particle Hair are no longer supported),
- optimizations in strands generation,
- Added 'Random Parent' bake pass in baking scene,
- keymap refactored,
- Fix - adjusting radius, on new hair curves not working,
- Duplicate will now work on partially selected curve points,
- New 'Haircard to Mesh Loop' operator,for converting haircards to mesh strip, and then > Curves,
- Added 'Viewport Display' input mask - useful e.g. for reducing strands density in 3D view,
- Fixed wrong Profile results, when using Profile: UV Taper + Width From UV,
- Strand Generator - added 'Mask' input,
- FIX: restored missing hotkey (ctrl+D) for 'Linear Deformer' tool,
- 'Linear Deformer' will no longer move hair roots,
- 'System Color' deformer has 'Use HSV Sliders' option now,
- Added icons for different Hair System types: Strand Generator, Filter, Curves From Grid Surface,
Update 3.6.6 for Blender 3.6, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 Last update 17.07.2024,
- Compatibility fixes for Blender 4.2 ,
- Remade 'Bone Generation' and 'Mesh to Strips' - to work even on non quad topology (should be more useful when working with cards made in outside programs),
- 'Short Hair' - change operator poll function, to make it easier to add Short Hair on old Hair object,
- Fix 'Mesh Profile' not reading 'SystemColor' attribute correctly, when using 'Use HSV Sliders',
- Fix 'Instance' deformer - when using it to instance another hair object (UVs were missing),
- Added 'Search Deformer' operator under Deformers popup menu,
- hair baking fixes,
- Fix error when trying to set UV color, when UV palette does not exist,
- Added option to transfer shape from Hair Curves to Mesh - from hair Data tab > Shapekey panel 'Transfer Shape Keys',
- Added Non-uniform Spacing option for Curls Profile type,
- Safer cleanup after failed 'UV Define' operator,
for Blender 3.6, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 Last update 23.08.2024,
- Added update button to get latest HTool 4.0 beta (only for Blender 4.2+, but still compatible with 'old' HTool 3.6.x),
- hair roots stay pinned when moving source mesh and using 'Track to Mesh/Curve' deformers,
- Fix flat braids - expose 'flatten' property,
- added toggle option 'Ignore Wire Objects' in 'Finalize Hair' - thus object drawn as wireframe can be skipped,
- Ease out conditions for 'Flatten UV' and 'Shape Keys Transfer'
- Allow to 'Transfer Hair' from Curve Hair to Mesh,
- 'Influence Range' inputs are collapsible now (thx. MeeWa),
- You can grab UV boxes with G key (thx. MeeWa) and Scale with S (set color was remapped from [S] to '[W]rite Color' key),
- Flat Profile has now 'Influence Roundness' input mask (thx. MeeWa),
- Added 'Influence Range' input mask to 'Align Tilt' deformer,
- Fix relative file path baking error,
- Fix UVs becoming broken (no visible texture on cards), after importing baking scene,
Update 4.0 for Blender 4.2+ (still as add-on) Last update 26.09.2024,
- Added multiple profile types/objects support within one hair object - using 'Mesh Profile' and 'Multi Curve Profile' types,
- Added 'Profile Distribute' deformer - for assigning profile objects to strands,
- Show Child-Parent Hair Systems relations in UI (as tree like structure),
- More stable Physics Sim (still not perfect yet..),
- Improved 'Curves from Grid Surface', with new 'Hook First Segment' option,
- Added symmetry option for Hair Tool modeling tools,
- Bisect option in 'Mirror' deformer will work now when using custom symmetry object,
- New 'Interpolated Strands' hair system type and operator,
- 'Influence Range' inputs are collapsible now (thx. MeeWa),
- You can grab UV boxes with G key (thx. MeeWa) and Scale with S (set color was remapped from [S] to '[W]rite Color' key),
- Flat Profile has now 'Influence Roundness' input mask (thx. MeeWa),
- Added 'Influence Range' input mask to 'Align Tilt' deformer,
- Fix relative file path baking error,
- Fix UVs becoming broken (no visible texture on cards), after importing baking scene,
- Added new hair bake preset (thx Ellimoren),
- Fix Random ID and Random Color bakes passes (previously changing contrast would randomize strands color),
- improve 'Align Tilt To border' (tilt was not accumulated correctly),
- Improve Strand Selection tools (add select by points count option),
- Strand Group IDs will be inherited from parents strands,
- Added 'Assign Group ID' deformer,
- Skip generating 'Surface Deform' on Hair System Bake,
- Improved 'Align Tilt' in some corner cases,
- New 'Radius' input mask,
Update 4.0.2 for Blender 4.2+ Last update 16.10.2024,
- Fix: new duplicate of 'Hair Tool' library entry created on each Blender launch,
- Fix: adding or moving hair systems, could cause 'Missing Deformers' errors,
- Added 'Fix missing deformers' operator for fixing already broken setups (from bug above),
- Shift + RMB will deselect already selected point when using HTool modeling tools
- Added option to mask 'Physics' deformer,
- Added 'Inertia' input to Physics deformer (low Inertia - hair will follow mesh deformations easier - they will feel very light)
Below is the Hair Tool 4.4+ version of add-on for Blender 4.5+
For now you can still use 'old' Hair Library from below ( HairLibrary4.2_03.05.2025). Update is WIP.
Below is the Hair Tool 4.3 version of add-on and Hair Library - for Blender 4.2 - 4.5
Below is the Hair Tool 3.x version of add-on and Hair Library - for Blender 3.6 up to (including) 4.2
Old Version for Blender 3.3 - 3.6
