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 channelwith videos related to HTool - use 'Hair Tool 3.0' playlist to see only new videos for latest HT 3.x
Hair TutorialPart 1andPart 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Old documentation- for old Hair Tool 2.46 - no longer maintained (last version that supported old curves and Particle Hair)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

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):

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)

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