Blender Stylized Hair Grooming Tutorial | 3.6 and +

Here's a tutorial on how to make a half-tied stylized hairstyle with Blender's new hair system ! It's not for absolute beginners, but it does not require any experience with geo-nodes or the new hair system.
Was the tutorial easy or difficult to follow ? Constructive feedback is welcome ! :)
Lightning Boy Studio's Arcane Hair tutorial :
• Arcane Style Tutorial ...
The demo file on Gumroad with a similar (though simpler) shader : rakenval.gumroad.com/l/xjkze
Tutorial on how to add simulation to the new hair system :
• Hair Simulation with t...
Text-to-speech voice : Male storyteller from Capcut
#3dhair #hairgrooming #3dartist #geonodes #3dcharacter #blender #hairstyle #stylized

[@imissthesky8191]

THE BEST STYLIZED HAIR TUTORIAL CURRENTLY ON YT! THANKS A LOT! MY CHAR GONE FROM BALD TO DANDY

[@rakenval]

Glad the video helped x)

[@nishantjain009]

hahaha

[@coltonen]

Great job! I really liked that you are using a new hair system!

[@rakenval]

Thanks ! Glad you liked it

[@elideeart7239]

Thank you so much for this! I've been hunting around for weeks for a tutorial that I could apply to a character with really curly hair, and this was the first one that's gotten me even close to the result I was looking for

[@rakenval]

You're welcome !

[@Kerubu]

I've watched 3 tutorials for this new system and yours is the first to suggest working with the modifiers on. It's such a good suggestion and makes it easier to see what's actually happening rather than guessing an applying at the end.

[@rakenval]

Thanks, I hate grooming whithout a clear idea of the result too. That said, for a style like this we can use the modifiers whithout issues but for a realistic or really dense groom it's impossible to work with the modifiers on, it lags too much, so I can understand why other tutos would suggest that ^^

[@nishantjain009]

Wow amazing !

[@applebottoms881]

That was fast! I thought it would take you weeks to make it :) Thanks for the great tutorial!

[@rakenval]

Thank you and you're welcome ! I've got no job at the moment so plenty of free time ^^

[@TheCatMurgatroyd]

I.. i think i just fell in love with you 😍 This is an amazing tutorial!! Thank you so much 🥰

[@rakenval]

Haha thanks ! And you're welcome !

[@krissosful]

Mega useful, thanks a lot!

[@Jomok0]

I have been struggling with hair for forever now and for whatever reason, this video seemed to make a lot of things click. I will try to follow along with it when I get back to my characters hair lmao

[@dommy1852]

awesome work my friend!

[@rakenval]

Thank you !

[@adiwibowo1342]

best tutorial blender hair!! please make another tutorial grooming video and hair addon/plugins

[@rakenval]

Thank you ! I'll definitely make more hair grooming tutorial in the future. The next one will be about a short hairstyle I think, in the same artstyle

[@bahaaabohala5895]

That's awesome Keep going 👍👍👍

[@rakenval]

thanks!

[@cppfa]

Best video on youtube about blander hair system.

[@rakenval]

Thanks !

[@cppfa]

@@rakenval Is there a way to create same material in cycles?

[@rakenval]

Hello ! The main reason the material isn't cycles-compatible is because it relies a lot on the "Shader to RBG" node which dosen't work in cycles. This makes using shaders as masks impossible, and you can't modify the color of the shadows either. What I'd suggest is trying to play with the Toon BSDF in Cycles. So I don't know any way of recreating the exact same material in cycles, I'm very sorry. This is the closest thing I could come up with : imgur.com/a/8vQ5ylQ You could maybe try to explore post-processing techniques, maybe something better could be done there, but I don't have much experience with this. I hope you'll find something that works for you ! (thanks for the sale on gumroad btw :) )

[@cppfa]

@@rakenval Thank you for detailed explanation. And you are welcome :) I watched many tutorials about hair but yours was the absolute best. I would like to see more content :)

[@rakenval]

@@cppfa I'm glad you liked it, and I'll try my best at uploading more ^^

[@God0fTime]

making realistic hair and this is helping why didn't i think of adding two of the same node for better effects duhhh lol

[@rakenval]

ye it was also a "duhh" moment for me :D Another user suggested using a float curve instead of a second modifier, but it's less tweakable

[@poppi3362]

I mean you can kind of do the clump curves by going into the geo nodes set up of the clump hair curves, looking for the nodegroup that uses the "shape" input and then adding a color ramp inbetween the spline parameter and the nodegroup. you can then use that to determine the shape. Allows you to essentially tweak a gradient on that curve. Start with white (smaller radius) then black (thicker) and end with white again. That way you can also ditch the first clump geo nodes modifier. To me the b-spline mode has worked best on the color ramp. If anyone knows how to use a vector curve node instead of a color ramp, like it is the in the particles tab, please write the solution here. Edit: Using interpolate hair curves instead of duplicate allows you to get 99% close to the hair shape of the arcane tutorial. Using duplicates makes it centered but interpolation gives that outward going shape. change "distance to guides" for bigger radius

[@rakenval]

Yep, there are multiple ways to go about this Another one is to use a Float curve instead of the color ramp Thanks for sharing yours ! A Map range node could maybe be used to try and get tweakable values direclty in the modifier's tab, which is important to me But I prefer the 2 clump modifiers as they allow different factors, shapes, tip spread and all that for root and tips Maybe it's possible to separate those too but in my case this is good enough As for using interpolate hair curves, it makes sense that you'd get this result It often boils down to preferences at the end, so it's cool you're sharing all this for others that might prefer your way ^^

[@MG_3D]

Great tutorial. Can you explain your layered approach a little bit?

[@rakenval]

I just find it easier to groom from bottom to top, especially in with this artstyle that works better when hair strands aren't intersecting. They also make it easier to use different modifiers settings for different parts of the groom I guess it ressambles what hairdressers do when they use hair clip to move outer layers of long hair out of their way Top layers and flyaways are for the style, and anything below them are to make sure no bald spots appear when adding simulation to the hair For stylized hair like that, it's best to aim for the minimum amount of "filler" layer possible Now, how to divide the hairs into those different layers is more of a preference / need thing than a rule

[@MG_3D]

I think it is a great method. I just added more empty hair curves and thought of those as layers. I didn't know you can add multiple empty curves to the geo. I found your tip to separate by color while working really great. Thank you!

[@nehilvasuwal]

This is a fire tutorial. I have a question though, when using the arcane style hair mat, you deleted the noise node. I couldn't get it to work right from other tut, the noise paint horizontal lines on hair. any work arounds for that? so it paints straight lines of noise?

[@rakenval]

You should be avle to get around that by using the Random output of the Curve Info node But if its for fur or any hair attached to a surface that is going to deform, I'd recommend keeping the noise, and using the surface_uv (or something called like that) attribute of the hair object as the vector Because the Random value keeps changing each time the mesh deforms for some reason, so you'd end up with dynamic hair color

[@user-xe2lj1dr9u]

thanks for the great guide !how did you set up the connection texture coordinate noise texture color ramp ? in the video tutorial you linked to at the beginning of the video.

[@rakenval]

Hey I'm not sure I understand the question, are you talking about the Lightning Boy studio hair shader tutorial ? If so, you can use a noise texture as a vector, if you add it to the tangent of the curves with a Vector Math node in the shader editor, you can use it as the normals for a glossy or specular shader to get a cool effect Using a color ramp after the noise gives a stronger effect because of the sharper contrast you can get when bringing the color handles close to each other In my case I diverted a bit from the inital method and I'm using the random output of the Curve Info node instead of a noise texture

[@user-xe2lj1dr9u]

@@rakenval Thank you very much for your answer, now I’ll try as you said, because what was in the video lesson did not work with the new hair system, I hope I can do it, I’m new to the node system

[@rakenval]

Ah, I think I know why it didn't work I'll explain briefly but if you're new to nodes, using the Random option will be easier for you The noise texture needs coordinates, in the old system the curves inherited the texture coordinates direclty from the mesh they were attached too, but in the new hair cuvres, those coodinates are stored in an attribute called surface_uv_coordinates So technically you just have to add an Attribute node, copy and paste the attribute name (you can find it in the hair curves property panel, with the three green curves icon), and plug it into the vector of the noise texture that should work

[@kf9781]

Do you use weight paint at all during this process? I am currently using it but wondering if it's unnecessary to. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@rakenval]

Hey, No weight paint is required for this specific groom The "Duplicate" modifier doesn't need groups to control density and distribution because it uses a fixed count and radius. So even if you're not using a separate scalp mesh, it's not necessary to weight paint in this case If you were to use the "Interpolate" modifier and no separate mesh on the other hand, then you'd need groups or a texture mask to control it You could also use groups to control the hair radius, clumping, deformation modifiers, etc.... but that's optional and not used here either

[@MrPaulowillians]

You did a real class, I would just like to know if it is also suitable for Cycles? Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@rakenval]

Glad you found it useful ! As far as I know, only the hair material isn't Cycle compatible. The groom itself was made to work with Eevee but should work fine in Cycles too.

[@MrPaulowillians]

Thanks for the feedback @@rakenval

[@rakenval]

You're welcome !

[@hakka3385]

so the material you use is the one in the lightening boy tutorial?

[@rakenval]

It used to be, I modified it to fit my style but it is still very similar

[@quinoah_]

Yo, I can't find the surface deform modifier you're applying to the bun at 7:44. Is it renamed in Blender 4.0.2, or did you get this particular modifier from a the net?

[@rakenval]

Hey, I noticed the modifier is not available in the list anymore for some reason, but it's probably a bug. Select your mesh, add an Empty Hair curve object to it, it'll come with the Surface Deform by default. You can then copy it to all of your grooms (copy to selected)

[@quinoah_]

Thanks a lot. That did the trick!

[@Pokolo413]

hey there! were you able to figure out how to recreate the curve you mention at 3:06 ? if not, its deceptively simple with a floag curve and can work on most modifiers too. i can share a screenshot tomorrow

[@rakenval]

Hey ! I thought about using the float curve node but couldn't figure out where to place it since I didn't understand what was happening in the Clump node tree at all ^^' So yea, sharing a screenshot would be nice, it could help others too, thank you :)

[@Pokolo413]

@@rakenval i apologize but i've been trying to link it, i believe that youtube may be deleting my comment because it has a link? i'm new to youtube comments. idk how else to link the screenshots but the idea is "(Spline Parameter) factor, to (Float Curve) value, to (shape_range) Shape"

[@rakenval]

Dunno why it didn't work but It's alright ^^ So it'd be like this : imgur.com/a/9Fbllpi It's a shame it dosen't work well with the other values, at least not as is. And you can't modify the curve direclty in the modifier's pannel either. But otherwise, it gives the same results as the old curve clump value, so that's cool :D

[@Pokolo413]

@@rakenval oh, i put it underneath on the shape factor but both work fine, that node mainly multiplys/divides it (you can straight up ignore that node group and hook it on the branching one on the right inside of the frame as well) yeah, it does work with other ones if you can tweak things, so that way you can control if you want the middle of the hair to be frizzy only. like you mentioned, there's no way to get the float curve on the side sadly, so you have to reopen it every single time you want to change the shape of the clumping. glad to hear you got it working though, i hope it helps you out!!!

[@rakenval]

I'll test it on the future grooms, thanks !

[@davidffortesmeireles5328]

do you know how use this method for games?

[@rakenval]

If your game engine supports alembic grooms, you could try to export it as an alembic. I'm not very familiar with the process, I had try it in Unreal some time ago, but it was not possible to replicate the same shader and curve shape there. Otherwise I'm working on a hair curve to hair card tutorial at the moment, that will be more game-friendly, but again you won't be able to replicate the exact same look and shader in the game engine.

[@syaoranli7869]

is it possible to convert the hair into geometry?

[@rakenval]

Yes you can make a geometry node tree with a Curve to Mesh node and use a Curve Circle node or a custom curve as a profile, but I'm not sure how good the results will be because this specific groom was made to stay as hair curves

[@Torkota]

so i want to ask if i have an option to also use this in cycles ?

[@rakenval]

You can use it in cycles, except for the shader that is Eevee only because of the Shader to RGB node that dosen't exist in Cycles. The result might look different, but in theory it works

[@Torkota]

@@rakenval Well i Had to reconstruct the Connections but in the end i Had a good result .Problem ist that i cant use the shader to RGB to get the light information and there seems No way to get that in cycles.there are 3 of These nodes in this Video which are also Major .i could basically Just Connect the Main color Ramp to the Output and the transparent node wich ist the Same wrong resultas the whole construct.i did a horrible construct by connecting a color node to Shadow/glossy/tranlucent and connectes These into a hair bsdf Just to get the light information to cast a few shadows on tiself.i Mixed the transparent shader into IT and the result is suprisingly perfect for my project but Not expected and also by luck and Not by knowing what i did.the Hair lost ITS shiny Look because there IS No way for me to get a factor information from the light .so glossy and other Mixed nodes are Just as 50/50 Factor Over the whole Hair system and Not in specific areas :(.

[@rakenval]

yes that's the problem with cycles, alas it just dosen't work the same as eevee You could try experimenting with the Toon Bsdf shader in cycles though (for the shiny look)

[@HenriqueLucas-x5u]

Is it possible to create it with hair cards?

[@rakenval]

Yes absolutely It might be hard to reproduce the exact same look but with good looking card it should be ok

[@imustconsultwiththeeldergo5906]

does hair even need topology? coz everyone in topology tutorial videos doing it on bald character

[@rakenval]

It's not technically needed, I just prefer to keep things seprated for organization purposes, but you can totally add the hair curves directly on the character's head

[@user-xz1md3sq9n]

I watched a video of converting a curve into a card and achieved some success with it. But in this video it looks like you just added the hair card without doing any of that. How you able to do that...?🥲

[@rakenval]

Hmm I do not use any hair card for this groom, it's hair curves only ^^' I do have one tutorial about hair cards though, maybe it could help you

[@user-xz1md3sq9n]

@@rakenval really? in my blender's single hair shape is not like this (1:28), mine is more like a needle.... this is i misunderstand that you are using some kind of hair card.. anyway, thank you for your kindest answer! thanks!!

[@rakenval]

hmm perhaps you either forgot to change tu curve shape to "Strip" in the render settings, or your mesh is big. In the video the model is a little girl ,so quite a small object, and since the radius of hair curves is in meter, the size of the object matters You can make it wider using the "Set Hair Curve Profile" node ^^

[@user-xz1md3sq9n]

@@rakenval ahhh!! you are right! i forgot to change curve shape to "strip"...!!! thank you master!!!🥰

[@rakenval]

you're welcome 😁