[TOOL] Hairflow - 2D Hair-Card Grooming & Atlas Baking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE3_pqw-KNU&t=2s
Hi everyone,
I’ve been working on Hairflow, a specialized 2D tool designed to bridge the gap between sculpting high-fidelity hair and the tedious process of creating hair card textures for real-time engines.
The philosophy is simple: Groom in 2D on a flat canvas, and bake instantly to a square atlas.
Key Features:
- Procedural Modifiers: Stack effects like Frizz, Curl, Kink, and Split Ends non-destructively.
- Specialized Block Types: Dedicated solvers for Braids, Dreadlocks, and Procedural Regions (for scalp/beards).
- Grooming Brushes: Comb, Push, Smooth, and Spread brushes that work on top of the procedural stack.
- PBR Map Export: One-click baking for Alpha, Albedo, Normal (tangent-space), AO, Depth, Flow (RG-encoded), Root/Tip masks, and ID maps.
The Workflow: Create -> Edit/Groom -> Bake -> Export. No more setting up complex XGen grooms just to get a few simple stray hair cards.
I’d love to get some feedback from the Polycount community. I'm looking for technical artists and character artists to put it through its paces.