Hair Tool for Blender

Hair 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• Old documentation - for old Hair Tool 2.46 - no longer maintained (last version that supported old curves and Particle Hair)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)