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 - use Hair Tool 3.x (only new hair curves are supported) - and Hair Library 3.0_date
• For 'old' Blender 3.3 up to 3.6 use 'old' Hair Tool. 2.46 (last version that supports 'old' curves) - use HairLib_18_12_2022 with it.

Links:

• Online documentation - for latest Hair Tool 3.0 - it is is most up to date way of learning the addon
• Online documentation - for older version Hair Tool 2.46
• Discord server where you can get support and  report bugs
• Hair Tutorial Part 1 and Part 2 by SinHouse - for 'old' HTool 2.46
• YouTube channel with videos related to HTool

Business vs Individual license: if you are company with above 170k $ income you are Business. Otherwise you can buy individual license

Some of customers who purchased Hair Tool:

UNIGINE, Fatshark, Tactical Adventures, Ubisoft , Digital Extremes, Avalanche Studios, Keyword Studios , Rocksalt, Sharkmob, Black Forest Games, QLOC, VERMILA , 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 Guide Mesh (grid surface) - best for modeling long hair strands - now rewritten to use new hair curves, in HT 3.0
• using Track To Mesh - great for short to medium hairstyles
• interactive grooming - old method that uses particle hair to generate hair-cards, replaced by Hair System
• drawing and extending hair strands similar to Grease Pencil drawing - now rewritten to use new hair curves, in HT 3.0
• using short hair modeling method - for short to medium length hair - animal fur, short human hairstyles
• using shell hair modeling - great for very short hair (fur, carpet). Bit complicated to setup in game engine.
  

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 addon 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,
• Dupilcate 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,
• Other bugfixes