Pro Hair Suite — Documentation

Hair card to Blender Hair Curves conversion toolkit for Blender 4.5–5.1

Pro Hair Suite converts hair card geometry into clean, editable Hair Curves while preserving strand flow and enabling full grooming inside Blender’s native system. It is designed for game-ready assets, VFX workflows, and marketplace hair conversion.

This page covers installation, workflow, conversion tools, grooming behavior, limitations, and troubleshooting.

Requirements

• Blender 4.5 – 5.1 (tested versions)

• Hair Curves system enabled

• Works best with hair card based assets

• Recommended: clean or semi-clean UV hair cards (rectangular layouts preferred)

Installation

1. Open Blender

2. Go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons

3. Click Install

4. Select the Pro Hair Suite ZIP

5. Enable the addon checkbox

6. Open the N-panel → Pro Hair Suite tab

Quick Start Workflow

1. Select one or more hair card objects

2. Ensure object scale is applied (Ctrl + A → Scale)

3. Open Pro Hair Suite panel

4. Click Convert to Curves

5. Curves are generated and attached to the original hairstyle shape

6. Run Auto Root Alignment (recommended step)

7. Begin grooming using Blender Hair Curves tools

Standard workflow order:

Convert → Align → Groom → Simulate → Finalize

Core System Overview

Hair Card to Curves Conversion

The core system converts mesh strips (hair cards) into curve strands by analyzing:

• Card direction (UV or mesh flow)

• Surface orientation

• Strand grouping based on geometry clustering

The result is a Hair Curves object that follows the original hairstyle layout.

Best results come from:

• consistent card direction

• rectangular UV islands

• non-overlapping or lightly overlapping geometry

Auto Root Alignment

Fixes inconsistent strand direction after conversion.

This tool:

• forces root-to-tip consistency

• corrects flipped strands

• normalizes curve direction across the entire hairstyle

When to use:

Always immediately after conversion.

Mesh → Curves Mode

Converts generic mesh geometry into curve strands.

Useful for:

• guide generation

• stylized grooming setups

• rebuilding broken hair assets

This mode does NOT reconstruct hair detail — it converts existing geometry structure.

Grooming Integration

Once converted, curves behave like native Blender Hair Curves:

Supported tools:

• Comb

• Smooth

• Puff

• Length edits

• Sculpt tools

No re-rigging or re-binding required.

Strand Simulation

Adds motion behavior using Blender Hair Curves physics.

Supports:

• secondary motion

• strand follow-through

• wind interaction

• animated grooming tests

Simulation remains non-destructive.

Wind System

Procedural wind influence applied to curves.

Typical use cases:

• cinematic shots

• character animation

• environmental motion tests

Can be layered with simulation settings.

Important Behavior (UPDATED / FIXED)

1. Scale Must Be Applied Before Conversion

If object scale is not applied:

• strand direction may break

• curve density may be inconsistent

• simulation may behave incorrectly

2. Conversion Uses Mesh Flow + UV Direction

Pro Hair Suite prioritizes:

1. UV direction (if available)

2. Mesh edge flow

3. fallback geometric orientation

This means:

• bad UVs = less predictable strand direction

• clean UV cards = best results

3. Hair Cards Are Interpreted, Not Rebuilt

The addon does NOT generate new hair geometry.

It:

• interprets existing cards

• converts them into curves

• preserves structure as much as possible

4. Root Alignment is NOT optional in real workflows

Even if conversion looks correct:

• small directional errors accumulate

• grooming becomes inconsistent later

Limitations (MORE ACCURATE)

1. Poor Card Direction

If hair cards are not consistently oriented:

• curves may flip locally

• strand flow may split in clumps

Fix: re-orient cards or re-run alignment

2. Broken or merged cards

Overlapping or welded cards may:

• generate shared curves

• reduce strand separation accuracy

3. Extreme low-density cards

Very low geometry density results in:

• fewer generated curves

• simplified hairstyle output

4. Simulation depends on Blender system

Hair physics quality depends on:

• Blender version

• scene scale

• curve resolution

Troubleshooting

Curves look messy after conversion

→ Run Auto Root Alignment
→ Check card direction consistency

Hair flows backwards or mixed direction

→ UV direction is inconsistent
→ Re-orient cards or re-run alignment

Missing strands or sparse output

→ Increase source mesh density
→ Check card segmentation

Simulation behaves strangely

→ Apply scale
→ Rebuild curves after conversion

Hair doesn’t follow head properly

→ Check surface attachment and deformation mode in Blender

Support

If something behaves unexpectedly, contact support before leaving a review.

Most issues come from:

• source mesh quality

• UV direction

• unapplied transforms

Support Email:
[email protected]

License

Pro Hair Suite is released under the GNU General Public License v3 (GPL v3).

This means:

• usage is allowed

• modification is allowed

• redistribution is allowed under GPL terms

Roadmap

v1.2

• Improved UV direction detection

• Better handling of complex hair card stacks

• Stability improvements for dense assets

Future

• Faster conversion pipeline

• Better strand clustering for messy assets

• Improved simulation presets

Pro Hair Suite v1.1 — by Baddor