Hair Modeling

Example of Hair Modeling: Cutting the tails and then adjusting theirs position using Root mode

Hair Tool has few grooming tools that will allow you to manually adjust hair strands:

  • Cut using [K] key, then click LMB on start and end point to perform cut,
  • Adjust Length [E] key and move your mouse up or down,
  • Bend, rotate, scale, move with 'Linear Deformer' [Ctrl+D] - key
  • Transformation tools, with few modes: IK/Rope like physics, 'Root' mode - rotate strands round their roots,
  • duplicate/delete strands, with [Shift+D] and [X] or [Del] keys
  • adjust tilt and taper, with [Ctrl+T] for tilt and [Alt+S] for radius
  • group selection, box, circle, lasso selection tools,
  • and more

Note: If you cannot edit hair, then you may need to convert your procedurally generated hair to 'real' geometry - using Bake operator.

Example of Selection Groups, Knife and Linear Deformer

Getting Started

To enable Hair Modeling use:

  • [1] Left sidebar ([T]-key) > Hair Modeling Tool (available in Object and Curves Sculpt modes),

ht_hair_grooming [1] Hair Modeling Tool location

  • [2] Strand Overlay: in Viewport Overlays > Draw Strands Overlay

Strands Overaly - it will draw strands on top of haircards geometry (similar to mesh retopo overlay)

Draw Offset - offset rendering of Strands Overlay closer to the camera
Show Group Colors - show colors of Selection Groups

Transform Modes

There are three strands translation/movements modes (use with G, R, S keys):

  • Chain mode (IK), move hair endings with rope like behavior
  • Normal (FK) mode, works similar to Blender built-in proportional editing.
  • Root rotate/scale hair using root as pivot point

Showcasing Chain (IK) transform mode. Since HT 3.4 IK mode supports collisions of hair strands with scalp mesh

Hotkeys

Note: Switching to Hair Modeling Tool will override some default Blender 3D view shortcuts. To select other objects use Alt+RMB (since RMB button will select hair tip - rather than object)

In round brackets I marked optional modifier keys e.g. (Alt).

Hotkey Selections
Ctrl+MMWheel Offset selection
(Shift)+RMB Select Points
(Alt)+A (de)Select All
Ctrl+I Invert Selection
(Alt)+B+LMB Box (de)Select
(Alt)+C Circle (de)Select
Ctr+(Alt)+LMB Lasso (de)Select
Hotkey Translation
G, R, S Grab, Rotate, Scale
Hotkey Add/Delete
X, Del Delete Selected
Shift+D Duplicate strands
Hotkey Radius/Tilt
Alt+S Adjust Radius
Alt+R Reset Radius
Ctrl+T Adjust Tilt
Alt+T Reset Tilt
Hotkey Modeling
Ctrl+D Linear Deformer
K Cut strands
E Extend strands
I Straighten strands

Offset selection

Ctrl + MMB scroll - changes which point along the strand length can be selected

Linear Deformer

Ctrl+D - rotate, bend, scale, move selected curves using on screen gizmo (special thanks to Mira Tools developer for letting me include modified version of his tool in HTool)

Extend

E - adjust length of selected strands

Duplicate and Delete

Shift+D - duplicate; X or Del delete selected strands

Interpolate Strands

Similar to Interpolated Strands Hair System type, but can be used on selected strands only

Located under Ctrl+Shift+H > Utils > Interpolate Strands (pie menu got clipped in video above)

Knife

K - cut selected strands. Define cut line using LMB (first to mark start point, then next LMB click to mark end point)

Symmetry

Hair Tool has now support of symmetrical Hair Modeling (in past using Transform Modes, Knife, Extend etc. would work only on one side of the hair).

Demo of using symmetry with Transform, Extend, Draw and Knife tools

There is now option under Ctrl+Shift+H > Symmetrize, which will create symmetrical copy of selected hair strands on the other side of the head.

Note: Some of the symmetry tools like: Drawing or Symmetrize, won't work in blender 4.2 (Blender 4.3+)

Edit Mode

Some of the modeling tools were missing in Blender 3.6. They were implemented in Hair Tool - under W context menu.

W menu W - menu in edit mode