Stylized Hair PRO v3 - Hair Editing for Blender

This is a Geometry Nodes based add-on for Blender, that will allow you to create stylized hairstyles in a streamlined, procedural way!

This add-on works, with versions of Blender of 4.00 and above. Using it with older versions might cause malfunction!

It is focused on working with the hair curves system in Blender, but I've also adapted it to be able to work with other curves (bezier, paths) in the more traditional way of stylized hair creation.

It features a lot of tools to create and control hair curves - from their shape, geometry, materials, ornaments, and even animating them with a Hair Dynamics system.
For the full set of features, watch the explainer video.

Latest Updates:

(14-03-2024) Stylized Hair PRO v3.13 UPDATE:

- Added an X, Y and Z axis mirroring.

- There's now a quick access to the twists for root, mid and tip in the Quick Menu:

The updated layout of the pie menu.

(05-03-2024) Stylized Hair PRO v 3.12:

Ornaments

• Fixed a few bugs with the ornaments disappearing, when converting the hair curve to mesh.
• Added a 'Range' setting to the 'Band' ornament, to adjust how much it "grabs" the pinched region of the hair.
• There is now a way to adjust the mesh density of the ornaments, from the 'Resolutions' section of the 'Settings' panel.

Utilities panel

• There's a new 'Utilities' panel, that houses any operations, that are not part of the editing workflow.
• If you have a project, that you've made with an older version of 'Stylized Hair PRO', there is a new utility, that will automatically update any hair curves that you have created to the newest version you have installed. It will preserve any settings you have made on them, so that you can continue to edit the hairstyle with the newest version of the add-on.
• 'Mesh Conversion' has moved to the 'Utilities' panel.

(22-02-2024) Stylized Hair PRO v 3.11:

- Fixed a bug with the braids.

- Tweaked the Shading Attributes node group layout, a few shade additions, as well as minor performance upgrades.

(21-02-2024) Stylized Hair PRO v 3.10:

Profiles:

• Added two new profile types:
  • Line: Designed for creating 2D hair cards with the ability to bend and incorporate sub-strands.
  • Crescent: Similar to the Line profile but with thickness for 3D hair cards, also featuring bend and sub-strand capabilities.
• The Islands profile now includes the option to close off the tips of individual strands, along with individual settings for bulge and roundness of sub-strands. Additionally, profile resolution has been optimized to prevent excessive geometry density.
• Tweaked the layout of the 'Profile' panel to accommodate these new changes effectively.

Hair Dynamics:

• Completely overhauled the Hair Dynamics system for improved robustness and efficiency. The internal logic has been revised to ensure the dynamics effect is contained within the hair curve without requiring the removal of parenting or reliance on external Follow Objects for deformation.
• Introduced two new strand settings: Elasticity and Liveliness. These settings enhance control over the dynamics effect on hair strands.
• Added settings for Factor and Contrast to further refine the dynamics effect application on the hair strand.
• Gravity direction can now be customized.
• Enhanced collisions system for better results and efficiency, particularly with denser collider meshes. Strength adjustment is available for the force with which the Collider repels the hair strand.

Wind Effects:

• You can now create Wind Effects from the Dynamics panel:
  • Force: Controls the strength of the wind force (0 = disabled wind effects).
  • Speed: Determines the speed of the wind.
  • Turbulence: Adjusts the amount of movement in the hair caused by the wind.
  • Complex/Simple: Offers options for 3D or 2D turbulence waves with orientation settings.
  • Wind Direction: Defines the vector for the direction of the wind.
• You can select an 'Effector Object' to serve as the wind guide, with options to Attract or Repel the wind towards or away from it.

Simulation Settings:

• Introduced settings for the dynamics simulation:
  • Simulation Points: Determines the resolution of the simulation curve for smoother deformations.
  • Post-sim Smoothing: Offers a method to smooth the simulated curve and reduce sharp bending.
  • Complex Curls Simulation: Accounts for the curled shape of hair strands during simulation for more accurate deformations.

Shade Attributes:

• General improvements to generated shades and new shade attributes introduced:
  • Strand Color: Assigns a color attribute to each hair curve.
  • Strand Noise: Adds noise along the length of the hair curve.
  • Enhanced Ends Shade: Produces better noise with contrast control.
  • Anisotropic Highlight  (a.k.a. "Anime Hair"): Creates a highlight spot on the hair strand, shifting with different viewing angles.

Hair Settings:

• Taper Curve Resolution: Concentrates curve resolution towards the root or tip, allowing for a gradient of mesh density without increasing overall poly count.

Mesh Conversion:

• Added a new 'Mesh Conversion' sub-panel within the 'Settings' panel, featuring a button to convert generated geometry into a mesh.
• Includes the option to generate an automatic armature with preview capability before conversion and automatic parenting of the generated mesh to the armature.

Quick Menu:

• New sub-panels for 'Wind Effects', 'Shade', and 'Mesh Conversion' now feature buttons in the pie menu for convenient access. Custom icons have been adjusted for improved visibility.