How to Model Cartoon-Style Hair in Blender - Bezier Curves Tutorial

Learn more about creating realistic hair in Blender:
"Styling and Shading Realistic Hair" course: b3d.cgcookie.c...
"How to Model Hair in Blender: Easy Workflow (Even for Beginners)" article: b3d.cgcookie.c...
A great Blender workflow for quick hair visualization: learn how to model hair like in anime and manga comic books using Bezier curves. Set up taper and bevel curve objects, easily duplicate a variation of tapers and bevels and populate scalp using bezier handles.
"WHERE SHOULD I START LEARNING BLENDER?"
For Blender beginners, we have a free basics course "BLENDER BASICS: An introduction to Blender" b3d.cgcookie.c...

[@wonderkabuse]

I can't tell you how hard it was to find a hair video that wasn't a silent time lapse or so convoluted in methodology that it spanned 30 damn minutes. Thank you so much for making this

[@wonderkabuse]

*spent way over*

[@sakurakogacha407]

Exactly

[@NecoLumi]

THANK YOU! You are the first person to make this kind of hair tutorial that isn't stupidly complex or rely too much on the particle system.

[@fanshinchan1995]

Probably the best non particle hair tutorial. Congradulations

[@treevsy]

4:00 when he says "hit 'S' & 'Y'" he also hits 0 on the numpad after the green axis appears. this sets everything to zero.

[@KuuK36]

thanks, got stuck at that point, rly helped me out

[@Panquakez]

thank you!

[@naaboom8276]

it doesn't work for meee, it makes it into a ball shape

[@lower47]

Thank you very much! i got stuck in this part and i didn't expect to find the answer in the first comment!

[@Ar7ific1al]

These kinds of instructions are what prevented me from learning to use Blender for a long time. Nobody ever explains what they're doing, why they're doing it, or what any of it does. I've seen tutorials (text and video) that literally say something like "press A B C D then X and blah blah then press B D G Y S and then..." and I'm just like *okay but what the hell does any of that mean or even do.* Blender 2.8 added **proper** industry standard controls. That's the only reason I've been able to even learn to use Blender to the extent I have.

[@Ranakade]

I am an inpatient person who can't sit through 20 min+ tut vids. But I forced my self to sit through this one. And it was so worth it.

[@CarlosBehrens3D]

You have no idea how long i have been trying to find a nice and easy way to create hair in Blender. This tutorial goes right at the top of y favorites! Thank you sooooo much!!

[@williamrood8933]

This is exactly the workflow I've been trying to develop. You just made my day!

[@GlassesnMouthplates]

Thanks a lot for this tutorial. It's not just I get to learn how to model non-particle emitter hair strands in the simplest and flexible way, I now finally know what the Taper and Bevel Object boxes do on the Curve tab.

[@elucid8d]

Amen. You're the best blender tutor I've ever watched?

[@GeekyFanatic]

You're so good! I was just scrolling through KZbin to see what I can do with the program and then I found yours. Instantly, I was convinced that this is my favorite program. Now I can't wait to work on a project and use these tips!

[@MrAwesomeAsian22]

awesome! now I can print my own 3d waifu.

[@Homiloko2]

humanity has come so far!!

[@Aishiki1029]

And i can make my Senpai!!!!

[@agnusgloria1122]

HUMANITY HAS COME TOO FAR!!!!

[@eggyrepublic]

I was wondering how long I had to scroll before someone mentioned making their own waifu xD

[@TheOverpowered_]

Ew

[@jeffg4686]

This classic lives on. great stuff

[@imgayareyou]

To turn hair to mesh, press alt+c and select "mesh from curve/meta/surf/text".

[@DrFross09]

is there anyway to delete the internal vertices, caused by the clipping hair?

[@imgayareyou]

@@DrFross09 iirc--it's been a while--you can probably hit z to show the object as wire frame to locate vertices to delete them while in edit mode. Wire frame can get a little confusing, so at the menu bar near the bottom of the screen, there is a button (hover over it to see the name) "Limit selection to the visible". It is in between the face select button and proportional editing button. It will make your object see through in editing mode. You should be able to see your inside vertices there. I hope this helps!

[@nuevostitanes2]

@@imgayareyou @Fross09 I was wondering exactly the same. It is mandatory to convert to mesh the hair, if you are working on a videogame model? Thanks a lot.

[@ranransun8795]

thanks, i knew i will find my answer in the comments :D

[@picassojunior9707]

2 years later and still helpful, Thank you so much!

[@Loughdough]

Beautiful! Love it. Definitely a must-see Blender tutorial for learning 3D Modellers.

[@tylercourt2192]

as a blender nerd, this is an incredible method at doing this, great video, it's far more satisfying to do, it's worth the extra work at the start because it's easy to be happy with what you make using this method, bravo,, my favourite hair modelling video yet.

[@YonnjiNyyoka]

It's one of the best tutorial for hair modelling. It's also looks like the easiest way do to it.

[@TheNiceOne3D]

Great tutorial! The tip on bezier curves for hair strand shape instead of meshes is really a pro insight :)

[@MiniMatthias]

Very informative! Understood the basic concepts within 5 minutes! Excellent tutorial.

[@Homiloko2]

Awesome! I'm working on my first model and I'm doing it by polygon editing, needless to say it takes a looooooong time (almost 2hrs for the front hair/bangs but I'm really happy with the result). I'm definitely going to implement your handles!

[@JayAnAm]

Well if you use proportional editing this can also be comfortable, perhaps will add a tutorial about this.

[@Marc_Fuchs_1985]

This was the perfect video for me to make hair for anime style. Very well made. My only problem is, that the majority of such videos go for a non moving object, but I want to have this hair move in animations. Will need to work myself into achieving that.

[@martok2112]

THIS!!! This a great tutorial! Between this and VRoid....excellence!!!! Thank you, CG Cookie, for your knowledge on this, and for sharing!

[@alexandershuaibu]

Blender Hair Pack available here: blendermarket.com/products/ultimate-hair-pack

[@scottlee38]

Hoooooolyyyy shiznit this looks awesome! just on time too xD

[@moeal3026]

lol

[@scottlee38]

vmo Brah I saw shit like this in zbrush but not blender. This is big! xD

[@moeal3026]

+scott lee y do u think hes haveing a mental brake doun

[@blender3drenders306]

I got a notification on my phone and could not wait to see this, great stuff thanks a lot.

[@hilman567]

Thankyou! I was doing an anime hair and it was tedious to make just a strand and adjust each vertex to the head. You just saved my day!

[@Prestanovich]

Thanks to this video, i've acctually rendered out an image that i like and looks fairly decent. After months if trying - mostly with Particles- and not getting the result i wanted and it taking ages to render. This took me about 90 mins from opening Blender to full render. The render its self took just over 5. Particles woukd have been nearly 20

[@pz7510]

What a neat tutorial, very well presented and great techniques!

[@josephbrandenburg4373]

I've been using Blender since 2.6 and I did not know about ctrl to snap. Awesome!

[@GPEART1]

I missed this when it came out, such a shame, as it is sooo good! Thanks Kent. Really incredibly useful.

[@totidoki05]

awesome tip for the taper/bevel object, was able to quickly make cartoon hair that doesn't looks like banana peals xD

[@mariacrespi8247]

This tutorial saved my life, thank you so much!!!

[@WreckingCHeckProd]

aint watched the whole thing yet, but it looks helpful, and the comments make it sound promising, so thanks for making this tutorial

[@skillzorskillsson8228]

You have some really mad skills man... Thanks for the tutorial ! I have been looking for something like this for a very long time. I cannot make as great hair styles as you but finally i can begin to train and i can finally put some hair on my characters ! :D

[@meherchowdhury9156]

Starting from 11:22 I had my mouth hung open till the end of the video, damn those skills man.

[@Asapplin]

This is amazing, can't wait to get home and try it.

[@svetlio3d]

Dude, this is uber awesome !!! Thank you so much for sharing this. What a clever way to manipulate hairstyle :O Keep rockin !!!!

[@vxxiii4160]

You are a life saver, bless your kind soul.

[@MuteMyst]

Omg this helps me so much, this'll help me nail my character hair down! Thank you!

[@СоломияВладимирова]

Thank you for tutorial! I think this is the best way to model hair in anime / cartoon style.

[@skeetlejuice88]

Very clear and detailed explanations, thank you.

[@rxsselin]

Man, you're so good at this. I hope I can get this good someday! Nice video btw, it helped me a lot.

[@MishMashStudios]

this was probably one of the most helpful tutorials for me :3 thanks!

[@FiFiKrieger]

What an awesome tutorial, exactly what I needed, thank you so much sir!

[@ismaeldelagraciacobos2060]

Very usefull video! I love it! Keep on the nice work!

[@JadeHP05]

Atleast this is easier compared to some of the Blender hair tutorials out there...

[@Timmy2985]

I didn't expect hair to be so easy to make

[@candieoriley1291]

Exactly what I was looking for Great Video

[@CrimsonSimmer]

This video is very helpful! I cannot wait to try it for myself. I like the model, wish I could download her!

[@aleksandrnovakov2578]

Right what I needed! Many thanks!

[@AlanDarkworld]

Very nice technique, I like it!

[@fabianoalexandre1720]

My first blender tutorial, I guess it was a good start!

[@clobre_]

first!?

[@VworksArt]

You are a saving angel friend. Thank you so much for your wisdom.

[@wasilinovratidis1960]

How nice. Got the same result just using polymeshes (but used to create the outlines first by extruding vertexpoints)

[@yeet-hu1xs]

thanks for this tutorial, it was super helpful!! I'm working on my first ever character model and the hair was just not looking so good, but this helps a lot!! I think I might be able to finish the model now :D

[@minavigne35]

Much needed,very well explained thank you,thank you,thank you!

[@RazKun]

14:06 i recommend to people to color the scalp the same color as the underlying hair for this

[@Psychentist]

Awesome technique! Thanks for sharing.

[@MrBobbyd45]

Thanks for posting this.I've really been struggling to make mesh hair,now I can make some progress...lol

[@Bornstella]

Love your work man

[@ThunderDraws]

dude just now diving into curves and holy shit they are so useful!! great tutorial

[@maddiedoes3571]

this was super useful!! thanks for making it!!

[@Synapticsnap]

Great tutorial, Thank you!

[@E.A.M.]

Absolutely LOVE this!!

[@Rocky.G]

Mannn you are amazing.. !!! Thanks for this amazing tutorial.. I was finally able to finish my characters fully.. Only problem was hair that i wanted to make.. and I had no Idea how would i do that.. and finally this tutorial of yours.. came out to be my savior.. I finally finished hairs of my characters.. Thanks a lot mann.. and if you have any patreon page ... mann.. would love to donate :D !!

[@LunaNx]

awesome :) I really wanna try this :)

[@vazak11]

Great stuff, love this!

[@fieryalbino]

This is super helpful! Thanks!

[@hichamalpha5837]

Thank you very much and welcome to morocco

[@nursakurachan]

Thank you! Your video helped us a lot!

[@ronthehybrid]

Its it possible to animate poly hair in blender? I barely find any information on it.

[@akshanshkanojia9634]

Yes shape keys

[@ZachSimplyZach]

Not only shapekeys, it works pretty good with armature. You can check out hair of vrchat characters, they are also made using this modeling method.

[@AWSVids]

Is there any way to apply simulation to it? If you want to animate something like wind in her hair, it’d be pretty difficult and time consuming. Be nice to have a simple style like this, but also combine it with the convenience of simulation.

[@Lomaxient]

Blender 2.8 Handle Type is now under "control points" in the menu at the top (hotkey is V. Also right click mesh to subdivide.

[@emilezoulette882]

Great tutorial! Thanks!

[@RaddSpencer]

I got as far as "snapping" then ran into a roadblock. I have a mesh head, got my hair pieces all set up and ready to go, but snapping does not work. Using 2.79. Followed the directions to the letter. What am I missing? I have gone back several times now, meticulously checking to see if I screwed something up or missed a step, but I've done everything exactly. With the hair selected I click on the magnet, choose "face" then "active" and have the two icons on the end enabled. I press G to move the hair strand, holding ctrl....and no snapping is occurring.

[@ghosty1443]

I'm having the same problem, did you manage to fix it?

[@RaddSpencer]

@@ghosty1443 Unfortunately not. I was able to make some anime style hair but I had to manually shape the curves around the head.

[@NegInfinity]

Thanks. That's exactly what I was looking for.

[@mabialaemile8541]

oulala that's so nice and well done

[@sasho3d]

6:15 my lock of hair does "magnet" itself to the face, but does not rotate as in the video accordingly, and idea why? tnx forh the help!

[@waiyon1951]

thanks so much for your tutorial i was doing an anime character model and the hair tutorial is just not working out for me at all (i might try and do it again in the future) this seems perfect for what i'm trying to do. Thank you so much.

[@MultiZapor]

How a texture this? Only way that i see, it us convert in mesh...or there possibly add a texturing or coloring lije in hair paricles?

[@Chevifier]

Jeez I was having brain fog on how to approach this, good thing I looked it up.

[@codiecrieg2480]

really good work. thank you :3

[@NettlewoodPark]

Thanks for the tutorial :) Good job!

[@Sanimatez7865]

HI! I know this was made years ago but I was wondering, i took your advice and made hair out of bezier curves, but now I need to know how to parent it to the armature so that it will move with the head....could you help me??

[@Ryan.Lohman]

Wow, this is also going to help me with Cinema 4D.....and this tutorial was ment for blender!

[@gabrielgt16]

very interesting and useful,thank you so much.

[@hipolitopadilla1655]

Thanks , nice Model Cartoon-Style Hair

[@Stevanisyaaa]

wow, thanks for sharing! it really helps

[@shamanik1320]

At 4:08, pressing s and y after selecting the bezier handles does nothing. I have median point selected just like in the video. Great video and that shouldn't stop me from following but I like to be able to follow exactly so wondered what it may be. I think the three dots button (manipulate center points) is what the problem was but I'm not going to recreate the situation to really find out.

[@pericleslutherking9802]

Man Thx really much for ur time.

[@Naboru19]

i love you! thank you for this tutorial!!

[@AnnCatsanndra]

I was using the skin modifier to do hair until now, but this is way waaaaaay easier to get smooth shapes from.

[@xanestudios]

www.blendermarket.com/products/ultimate-hair-pack

[@hannahmoore3556]

At 3:16 what keys do I use to pinch the edges of the circle and manipulate them to and make them come together. Sorry I'm new to blender.

[@matthewmorrison5855]

I have the snapping feature on, with all of the settings as shown at 5:50 to , and am moving it by hitting "G" and holding down control, as by 6:00. However, the Z-axis of the object isn't rotating to align with the faces of the mesh. What's happening?

[@TheNightSkyPrince]

Is there anyway to make the Polygon count lower on this? It's way too much for an unreal Engine 4 game in example.

[@cg_cookie]

Absolutely! Our Introduction to Game Asset Creation teaches how to optimize models for game engines. goo.gl/250EAW

[@flexthought7655]

Sir when you duplicated the one side how did you flip it? ( 15:51 ) Thank you!

[@Cyber_Kriss]

No

[@obissyanna]

Select all, then hit scale and scale it to y then negative one. Buttons (encase I wasnt clear lol): A, S, Y(twice), -1 (dash one)

[@DavidBoura]

What would i need to use on the splines to animate them with physics? wind, gravity, movement etc.

[@blender3drenders306]

Soft body physics might work for such geometry

[@doko3000]

Softbody physics will definitely work with beveled curves, search for "blender noodle physics" for a video tutorial.

[@VertexDon]

@@doko3000 Spaghetti hair, sounds Delicious ^^

[@Nerd2Ninja]

How would you do a braid though? Then putting dynamic bones into that braid. Oh the questions.

[@harikiran687]

Hi CG Cookie can you please tell where is that handles section of beizer curve which has align vector as its components in blender 2.83

[@tytotech9498]

this was the first blender tutorial I ecer watched, back then my face was a bunch of spheres smashed together.

[@NettlewoodPark]

Awesome!

[@theMindRobber1]

Hi! I know this is an older video, but what head model is that? It's in a style I've been trying to replicate for a little while now but I can't seem to get it right

[@brucegois1996]

wow I liked it a lot, do you have a tutorial on this face? I really wanted to learn how to do it