Hair Grooms in UE4! (Blender) - Tutorial

[@AmberScottProd]

Update, with the new Blender 3.3 hair system and Unreal 5 coming out since I made this video, this method is likely outdated. I haven't had a chance to test it so there's a small possibility it's still fine, but use at your own risk 😉

[@claroisbhaskoro3941]

yeah,im about to try it!

[@Azguilianify]

Just tried, everything works just fine :)

[@slick3d392]

I'm trying to export the new hair system or render it with another renderer like Renderman and Redshift. Doesn't work. I can't be able to export the new hair system. Without being able to export it turns something useless for me.

[@SadPanda449]

@@alex-qn5xp So what's the trick for exporting the new system for UE?

[@Qwert_Zuiop]

I always love tutorials under 5/10 minutes, because it gives you the confidence to start. It is the perfect overview to start and to go on exploring it more if it is something you like. Thank you!

[@squaredmania]

A tough rap competition for Ian Hubert ;D...Great as always bro!!

[@AmberScottProd]

Gonna pull a CGMatter and drop a diss track lmao

[@savingthewow5792]

I really appreciate that this video is so short. You told the whole process in less than 5 minutes with out a bunch of fluffy babble at the beginning and end. I'll probably have to rewind and pause a bunch, but I much prefer that over having to scroll through a 30 minute long tutorial!

[@firstlegoleague8]

Underrated... both to the point and humorous. 10/10

[@wildpawsdev4019]

That was one of the best tutorials I've seen recently!! Can't wait to try this out 👌

[@AmberScottProd]

Thanks! Have fun with the hair! :D

[@AmberScottProd]

Note: This export method only works with Blender 2.9+ because they updated their alembic exporter. Forgot to mention that in the script :( ANOTHER Note: Lots of people have been commenting looking for help, and It's possible some things have changed since I made this video. If you have issues, check out Craig Perko's video on it! kzbin.info/www/bejne/oaDOaqWofJh0rsk

[@HeLIEl]

Will need a 3.0 updated tutorial

[@borisysenbaert4551]

I got it to work in Blender 3.0. I don't really know why I got it to work though haha! I just checked "selected objects" and "visible objects" and I deselected "export particles". The rest I did the same as you. I also had collision physics, that I used for a cloth sim, that I deleted, although I don't think that was the problem. Thanks by the way! Very helpful tutorial!

[@HeLIEl]

@@borisysenbaert4551 That's good to know

[@loregodd]

@@borisysenbaert4551 OMG YOU SAVED ME!!! I am on 2.9, followed all tutorials, I wouldn't get groom prompt. After seeing your comment, I deselected 'particles' and that did the trick!! Thanks so much!!

[@mikeholmes3203]

probably should have read comments 1st, rather than pulling my real hair out, trying to figure out why it didn't import and I followed along and made my hair easier using just a buzz cut, maybe I will try again, I did get the box and options when importing int0 ue4.26 from blender 3.0 gave me a face error has 5 vertices was expecting 3 or 4 something like this

[@limitedlistener6460]

Was just thinking about experimenting with hair in UE4 and saw this was just uploaded minutes ago. Thanks for using your psychic future-reading powers to make my life slightly easier.

[@AmberScottProd]

Haha glad I could help!

[@jaroslavpokorny5325]

Hi, If you have a issue with Groom Import window is not showing up (instead you are getting static mesh import window) make sure you are checking off "Show Emitter" under "Render" tab, not "Viewport Display" tab. Just a small pointer from someone who has been stuck with this issue for 3 hours. Cheers.

[@AmberScottProd]

Oh, did I say it wrong in the video? A few other people have had this issue, and maybe that's why

[@iamisandisnt]

Was looking for anyone to say anything about whether or not Blender's hair functions worked with Unreal's "new" hair tool since like 2019 or whenever they added it. Thanks for making such an awesomely informative and hilariously entertaining video. Great pacing and great knowledge. Much needed!

[@Deydren]

Thank you for getting to the point so fast! That already makes this tutorial stand out sooo much from the crowd of rambling UE-tuts on KZbin. Have a Sub!

[@ScoutOW2]

Ive been using Blender and UE4 for 6 years....and only this week im finding out the hair can be coming out of specific part of the mesh rather than having to copy the mesh and make it bit smaller removing where you dont want the hair to be.....I reeeeeaally wish i knew this years ago!

[@AmberScottProd]

Haha that's relatable. I went years not knowing that Interfaces were a thing in Unreal. They make stuff sooo much easier lol

[@Teamstack]

Holy moly this tutorial is so amazing thank you so much Im actually in shock you only have 1k subscribers this was actually one of the best tutorials I've ever seen. Quick, helpful, entertaining

[@MotorGoblin]

Exactly what I was looking for. Great tutorial, concise with a nice pace. Enjoyed the humor as well. Thanks!

[@rottjavel3073]

I love tutorials that actually make it fun to watch, good job

[@ChaojianZhang]

It's me, I am here again😆 This video is absolutely awesome and wayyyyyyy under-rated!

[@TACKO3D]

I already said something like this on another video of yours. But once again, the only good tutorial on these things. I've seen so many take unnecessary steps for this and this one takes you right to the point.

[@foxy2348]

OMG someones actually currating and editing their Tuts?! AMAZING!!!

[@elcid2651]

Binding the groom asset did not work for me; it causes the hair to vanish from the viewport. I needed to manually enable Skin Cache from the Project Settings first, and then it worked correctly.

[@dylanking000archive]

quick tutorials like this are amazing thank you so much. unreasonable that you don't have a more popular channel

[@bigbywolf6668]

Dude your way of making these tutorials is so much fun I like it alot=D keep up the good work=)

[@ScoutOW2]

I subscribed and liked just for the enthusiasm and good editing alone within the first 10 seconds! Imma stick around!

[@DMTsage]

Hey man just wanted to say keep it up, love the fast tutorials!! They are alot of fun to watch plus super helpful 😉🙂

[@AmberScottProd]

Thanks! I'm glad you found it helpful

[@legacythegame]

The best start to 2021

[@AmberScottProd]

The best comment to start 2021 :)

[@ARMORHOUS3weplay]

FREAKING YEAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Saved me soooo much time and money!!!

[@zephyrusrmt-0177]

This was extremely educational AND entertaining. Wow.

[@yboss7773]

For those who are dumb like me if you drag and drop the .abc file it wont import it like hair. You have to click add/import and then select the .abc file :D

[@hesthenuts7272]

This. Works. WONDERS. THANK YOU!

[@eriong.7446]

Can't do it, it always wants to import as static mesh, no matter what settings I change. (Yes, I have show emmiter unticked).Tried with 2.91 as well, no luck.

[@Hanangspoil]

Thank you very much 😃😃

[@brunoe5663]

this tutorial is fast and crazy... i like it! edit: managed to solve import problem by updating Blender

[@TheFlatEarthChannelcom]

Amazing bro! Keep it up. Cant wait to see more!

[@psyco4452]

when tutorial ends up entertaining for once ! can't dislike theres mohawks in the vid o: Great job bud !..!, xD

[@psyco4452]

Hey ryan ! Wanna ask you something. A bit to advance for my skills to find out a way. ITEM REFERENCE : camaro 70-71 circles bulb. There 2 bulbs on thoses car each side with lots of fonctions in them : 1th is = parkinglight, brake light and flasher. The 2th is park light and brake light (reverse light is excluded in the middle of this one) The big trouble is how do i set a multigate set-up for : 1 = only parkings. 2 = headlights and parking. 3 = nothing. Materials are individual with a simple emission multiplier they goes like : Front headlight FL orange parking and flasher (emit of 7 and 9 when flashing) FR orange Parking and flasher (emit of 7 and flash 9) RL Red rearlight/ brakes light (emission (emit) of 2) RR Red rearlight/ brakes light (emit of 2 for park. Emit 3 for brakes. RL red flasher ((mesh in front of 1 rearlight bulb, set on visible and not visible) emit of 4) RR red flasher is set-up the same way. I think i may be a flipping great tutorial to do. Cause you know rn all i have is a cluster 'love' of flipping boolean xD I can't figure out how to set-up the brake/reverse fonction, the handbrake emissions value and get the multigate last selected range (1to3) so the light stop just not working. So in term : headlight/parkinglight = main command. Main command into the brakes and reverse input Main command into the handbrake input. Main command into the flasher input. But ! I think i meed to make a visible/non visible mesh for the Fronts orange flasher too. It's seems to cause the trouble in my shematic (but i know there not just that). Hope you had fun reading that cancerous process xD on that have a great day ! (I hope this may intrigue others too) i know it's off topic. But atleast ive asked since im a beginner !..!,

[@ChaojianZhang]

Liked your style!

[@onesilverleaf6781]

Epico tutorial, approved.

[@reginaldarmah2381]

Good video, straight to the point. But who the heck dislikes this video

[@andre_kirey]

I need help! Importing is all fine and dandy until i test it by moving my character, for some reason the hair just wont stop moving and it did not follow the skeletal mesh as well as i hoped it would .. often times when my character moved too fast it 'lagged' behind and show my character's scalp for a brief second. It's short hair

[@dreamz2134]

I'm having the same issue, from what I'm reading, this can possibly be solved by attaching it to a socket rather than a binding asset

[@starscream2092]

YAY PUBIC HAIR !!

[@AmberScottProd]

oh god what have I done

[@AlmondChocolateMilk]

Uh oh

[@psy237]

yesss, fast, complete, precise, fantastic :D

[@TheUkuleleXD]

Hello, I would like to habe a rug, but my hairs are black in scene (in the viewport are normal brown) Could you please help me?

[@AmberScottProd]

Hmm. Without more info, this sounds like a lighting issue to me. Make sure your scene has a proper sky light set up

[@TheRealCantFind]

Dude your tutorial style is awsome hahahaha

[@Perkins.Garage]

I made sure show emitter was unchecked and i exported exactly as you did but when i import to ue4 i don’t get the same options and if i try to import i get an error about unable to import due to a agave consisting of 5 vertices

[@zarakilian]

Awesome Tutorial! :D

[@3dsmax_metronomus480]

Hey guys. I´m having problems with my groom hair in UE 5 preview - it seems to be very buggy. Binding doesn´t work as it should, I´m getting a strange Z-offset and I can´t change the position of the groom asset in the character bulueprint anymore. Same assets work in UE 4.26 as they should. Anybody else having problems ?

[@test606]

I am having the same challenge actually :)

[@test606]

I fixed it. Ahhh, the groom must be a child from your character!

[@dwidgit332]

Great tutorial, thanks!

[@mendezcreative]

great video. also love the humor :)

[@uhkihku6498]

Thanks !

[@omoridemudia5407]

So,in the viewport, the groom component should be placed under the skeletal mesh?

[@SoyoCraft]

Thank you . But is unreal groom plugin only support on pc platform? because when i turn the preview render level to android or ios, the hair disappeared.

[@AmberScottProd]

I don't have any experience with these renderers. I'd recommend checking the documentation!

[@Tenchinu]

love the tut!!! finally, learn how to do it properly. Thnk u :) one question tho... how would u go about keeping the UV map that the system particle had so u dont lose the coordinates for the material? made a texture in Substance, but alembic doesn't seem to have a way to import the UVS... so everything in UE5 just looks wrong. Any suggestions? :)

[@TheFrozenFlame05]

I don't understand (Not the tutorial, it's very easy to follow, great job). I followed the tutorial exactly but when I imported the groom into unreal, none of the hair showed up. It said that there were the correct number of strands there, but I couldnt see them. I tried increasing the strand width within the unreal Groom editor, I tried changing the width within Blender, I tried changing around the export settings in blender, I tried looking around in the groom editor to see if it was just in a different place, I tried different combinations of all of all of the above, nothing was working. I could never see the hair. I'm using Blender 2.92.0, if anyone has any advice I would greatly appreciate it.

[@sollap2]

When i open up my groom material (3:42) all i get is a "details" tab which is useless for anything. I cant find the option to customise the hair. Any suggestion?

[@AmberScottProd]

That's the part where I'm opening the groom *asset*, not the material. If you want to customize the *material*, make sure you select the main material attributes node. If you want to customize the groom *asset*, make sure you opened the groom and not the binding asset. additionally, check to make sure you have the different tabs at the top, like in the video. Good luck!

[@zenbauhaus1345]

thank you so much!!!!!!!

[@yoyopanda8362]

This guy is awesome!

[@phoenixstudios7520]

Hello there, thanks for this tutorial! Regarding hair physics, what works best? A high poly hair or a low poly one? I am interested in using UE only for cinematics, not game development. Thanks!

[@Eris_empire]

I get an error when importing. Invalid Alembic format

[@SadPanda449]

Anyone have an issue upon binding where the groom basically gives itself a haircut/alters its shape? How can I prevent this? Seems to only happen with short and straight hairstyles for me.

[@lubruz7164]

Amazing tutorial! Have you tried importing the new hair system in Blender 3.3?

[@AmberScottProd]

No, I've been really busy! Maybe ill get to it eventually

[@medhue]

I make 3D rigged and animated animals. I can get the hair to work, but animals don't generally have 1 color for all their hair. Imagine a raccoon. In Blender, the hair just matches the texture of the mesh it is generated from. Do you know of an easy way to do this in Unreal?

[@cheesewhisk]

amazing

[@mightyenigma1]

UPDATE: Fixed my problem. I just needed to select the both mesh AND the skeleton, rather than only one thing or the other, when exporting from Blender. Awesome tutorial. I'm almost there. I'm using Blender 3.1 and trying to get the Groom import dialog to show up when I import the ABC file into Unreal 4.27. I have Alembic Groom Importer plugin and Groom plugin enabled, and I tried turning off Particles when exporting from Blender (as some have said they need to do), but it still gives me the regular Alembic importer in Unreal, not the Groom one. What am I missing?

[@gabrielprol5768]

I have the same issue, if someone know and want to point our the problem, that would be awesome!

[@mightyenigma1]

@@gabrielprol5768 I solved it after watching another tutorial, as I realized the presenter was selecting both the mesh and the skeleton at the same time before starting the alembic exporter in Blender (which we set to only export selected and visible things). Before that, I couldn't get the groom importer to show up in Unreal because when exporting from Blender I was only selecting one thing or the other.

[@bricio_3d]

@@gabrielprol5768 Conseguiu?

[@jackdrichter]

Subscribed

[@DexterHe24]

Do you know how to make Hair with weight to bone on face? I dont kow how to do so :(

[@NN-mi8hv]

i tried groom 1 year ago and now im trying again. im wondering, the frame drop is normal? i literally exported 10 particles of hair and mi frames go from 120 fps to 60-40. i put the render amount and display amount in a low value, but its lagg af

[@mkuban7227]

Can u create tutorial if its possible but with dreadlock?

[@mikeholmes3203]

guess it doesn't like MB Labs still get error importing, I did separate the hair and exported in separately and it imported without error, so it is either my character or the clothes. shame this stuff has to be so extremely frustrating

[@kangsan9687]

I did every step. but when i import it the hair to UE i cannot see the hair i am using bledner 2.9 please help

[@AmberScottProd]

There's not a lot of information to work with here, but I'll do my best. Is it just invisible in the groom editor? if so, it actually may just be super thin. try increasing the hair width.

[@kangsan9687]

@@AmberScottProd when I move hair to viewport from brower, I only see gizmos,but not hair and when I double click the hair from browser, there is nothing there. is there any number u can give me for hair width?

[@kangsan9687]

i increased diameter still not working...

[@AmberScottProd]

Did you deselect "Show Emitter" at 2:27?

[@nategreyson6014]

loved this tutorial... :)

[@BenJi2DxD]

Sooooo, I have a character model with tons of textures and materials and a looot of hair systems like - hair left, hair right, hair top, beard, strand left, strand right, moustache left, moustache right...NAD those two strands have beads at the end that are put there with particle instance AND those beads have their own hair system with only 1 hair / emission so the WHOLE strand looks like it has a bead in the middle...and...they're moving around because of hair physics or dynamic hair or whatever it was I don't remember.......so my question is...how am I supposed to export this into Unreal Engine :D .... I'll pay whoever helps me out, please...I need this for work. I promised them something epic and it took me like month and a half and I'm at the finish line, but I don't know how to export my monstrosity with all it's textures, materials and hair into UE5...pretty please, help, I'll pay you!

[@VincentGnawl]

Hey, so I have a left handed character and I have to -1 him on the x-axis so all my animations are left handed, but the groom animation physics seem to have been not reversed along with my character. I've tried a bunch of different options but I feel like its trying to find a needle in a hay stack, any guesses? Like when the animations head turns left the hair whips in direction the head is turning towards, but the physics from movement are still normal - Like I run left the hair drags to the right, its just any animation movement is not reversed with the animation.. pretty weird. I've tried all sorts of stuff.

[@AmberScottProd]

I know this isn't the answer you want to hear, but you should probably just get an animation mirroring tool and generate proper left handed animations for the character. You'll run into a ton of issues beyond just grooms with negative scale in Unreal.

[@VincentGnawl]

@@AmberScottProd damn thanks for getting back so soon! Appreciate that, I didn’t even think of looking for tools to do that. I just did minor research and found this solution, thanks again!

[@RikiRisnandar]

before import in UE, dont forget to enable plugin 'Groom' and 'Alembic Groom importer' or UE wont recognize the alembic

[@abygaleohtool3283]

I followed this to the dot and when I try to bind it fails, what do I do?

[@AmberScottProd]

It's hard to answer that without more information, but if you're 100% certain you've followed the tutorial exactly then the first thing I'd do is check Epic's documentation. If you're using 4.27, maybe something has changed with it since 4.26

[@MCT0117]

Bruh why the hell is this easy to understand while full length tutorials is hard to understand

[@FX_AnimationStudios]

Hi Ryan.. Im trying to follow the tutorial but when i export from blender 2.92 I get a crash and the alembic file gets corrupted... any ideas? i tried 2.92, 2.91, 2.83 LTS no go :(

[@AmberScottProd]

Hmm... Do you have any other modifiers on your character? For example, In previous versions, Multires would cause this sort of crash. If so, I would apply all modifiers (except for the particles, of course) and try again.

[@FX_AnimationStudios]

@@AmberScottProd thanks for replying.. I do not have other modifiers applied..also I made sure to Ctrl+A to apply before hair.. and still happens. :(, it seems random.. if i open a scene adn test with a cube or a spehre it works.. im sure it has something to do with my scalp mesh.. but see whats wrong.. i even tested joining the scalp mesh to a cube so that the scalp be part of the cube, I then deleted the cubes face... this worked twice... but on the 3rd, 4th and 5th test ( i insist on trying the same steps multiple times to make sure the workflow is correct) it wouldnt export and blender crashes imediately... :( this type of crash ALSO happens if i want to export an alembic of a clothsim with or without shapekeys... im really at a loss here

[@AmberScottProd]

Oh man, yeah that's really strange. I'd recommend opening an issue in a blender forum; I'm more of an unreal person; I know just enough Blender to get by.

[@FX_AnimationStudios]

@@AmberScottProd thanks Ryan for replying..I will go do that

[@Wyrux]

@@FX_AnimationStudios did you found the solution please ? i have exactly the same issue :/

[@ROSALIEIK]

binding disappears the mesh

[@chrisgames4072]

More Tutorial please! Sir

[@binyaminbass]

So the annoying and cumbersome days of hair cards are over?! Can it really be true? (No really, is it true, cuz particle system hair looks better and is way easier to style). Also, this was a very nicely produced video.

[@aidan_726]

🤟rock on!

[@gabrielybarra5686]

Awesome video Ryan! Do you think it's possible to combine this personalized hair groom on an unreal metahuman instead? Do you know if there's any easiness in replacing the hair or simply putting the hair on the model's head similarly like the one you did in this video?

[@AmberScottProd]

The workflow is exactly the same! You just use the MetaHuman head mesh instead. Epic has actually said that part of their intent with MetaHumans is that people start releasing expansions/clothes/hair for them on the Marketplace.

[@Zarrar2802]

I'm not gonna stop you, I'm not your mom.

[@abonetopick]

Anyone solved the UV issue from Blender -> Unreal?

[@t3hpwninat0r]

Watch at 2x speed for extra productivity!

[@gebrailfodred6911]

Nice

[@KingKong19100]

Thank you SO MUCH for such a simple, quick and to-the-point tutorial I use to this day! Hopefully you can update it for Blender 3.0 and UE4.27/UE5? Can you cover things like Chaos destruction in Unreal?

[@AmberScottProd]

I haven't tried it in 4.27 yet, but it's probably a very similar workflow. I recommend not touching Chaos for a little while yet; every time I've experimented with it I've run into performance issues and bugs. Maybe UE5 will see an improvement there.

[@dreamz2134]

@@AmberScottProd do you by chance have any advice on what to do when a groom doesn't bind correctly? I have a player made in blender, and rigged with a mixamo skeleton. I made his hair in blender and it looks great on him when he's T posing, but not when he's running around. I have physics turned off just so I could get hair itself down before I worry about physics. It appears that the groom is not moving in perfect synch with my players animations. For example, in my idle stance, the player will rotate his Head but the hair will barely move, sometimes this leads to the entire haircut sitting on the side of his head

[@dreamz2134]

Update: I found a fix: Rather than using a binding asset I just connected it to a socket on the skeleton

[@KingKong19100]

@@dreamz2134 Hmm... that is actually a good idea. It may not work for full body grooms, but if you break down each section of hair on your model allocated to like the head or forearm, it can totally work!

[@unknownrh155]

Can I ask if this groom hair plugin only works with particle systems? I have my hair built by beizer, and hair cards... Will it work too?

[@AmberScottProd]

If the hair is built with mesh hair cards, just weight it to the head and use it as a regular skeletal mesh hair setup. I'm not aware of any way to transfer curves from blender to unreal that does not convert the curves to mesh. Edit: might be possible with some formats

[@unknownrh155]

@@AmberScottProd Do you mean I should apply the cloth physic simulation instead? But this cloth simulation is expensive compared with the hair groom.

[@AndreySedov]

Speed challenge

[@artikk100]

When do you think alembic hair will be introduced into games?

[@AmberScottProd]

As soon as I finish the one I'm working on ;)

[@AmberScottProd]

but for real, it's here and it all really depends on performance and such. I can see many triple-A studios staying away from it for a while due to performance targets, but I would say don't be surprised to see it rolling out in the next few years. It's kinda like Unreal's RTX in that regard.

[@fustigamatti]

Hi, is this method cpu/gpu expensive?

[@AmberScottProd]

Yes, very. I don't recommend having more than a few in a scene at a time.

[@fustigamatti]

@@AmberScottProd Thanks Ryan. So we have to stick to billboard hair for a while, waiting for the 5th Unrealed, hoping they will think to some ways to circumvent this problem too?

[@cettura]

Does it work on 4.22.3?

[@AmberScottProd]

No, only 4.26+ :(

[@cettura]

@@AmberScottProd but normal blender hair can be used on 4.22.3?

[@Skyflairl2p]

ha jokes on you my mom would never stop me because im her special boy :^) jokes aside, Brilliant video though! Cleared things up for me, and fast too! Thanks!

[@AmberScottProd]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@taewonlee2022]

아 영상 재밌네.... nice!!

[@cettura]

How much performance does it cost?

[@AmberScottProd]

It's pretty expensive... I wouldn't recommend having more than a few in the scene. I've heard some things about generating cheaper hair cards from these, but my understanding is that it's either not working currently, or is still very experimental.

[@ScifiSiShredaholic]

Spanky :)

[@jimcochrane8597]

I lol'd

[@Cloroqx]

A bit too hyper but still fun. Cheers!

[@AmberScottProd]

Yeah I think at some parts I may have moved too fast. It's all a balancing act of keeping the pace up while still being informational.

[@antoniogansales]

don't work

[@test606]

You don't see the hair after binding? This fix the problem: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h6bRiaqjqt10nJI Oh, and thank you for this video. I love you! :)

[@ronioclarenzo6137]

Great tutorial....if you're not a beginner user of UE4. 80% of the instruction teaches you 'what' to do and not 'how' to do it. Anyways, thanks for the tutorial. Better than nothing, I guess.

[@carlossuarez9272]

Dam....too rush & unnecessary faster. Calm down dude the world is not going to end tomorrow.

[@AmberScottProd]

gotta go fast