Daniel Bystedt’s free Blender add-on creates hair cards from curves

Leading character and concept artist Daniel Bystedt has released a free Blender Geometry Nodes set-up for automatically converting curve-based hair to card-based hair.

The process converts the hair to faster-rendering textured geometry strips, improving performance in games or real-time apps.

A handy free add-on for streamlining cloth simulation in Blender
The add-on – Blender geometry nodes: Hair cards from curves – does exactly what the name suggests, converting hair created with Blender’s curve-based hair system to cards.

The cards – polygonal geometry strips bearing hair textures – are automatically deformed along the curves, with the twist aligned to the underlying surface geometry.

Users can then adjust the results either by manipulating the hair directly in the viewport, or by using slider controls to fix artefacts or tune the look of the hairstyle.

The latest add-on from one of the Blender community’s best-known artists
The Geometry Nodes set-up is the latest custom tool that Bystedt has released publicly, following on from Bystedt’s Blender Baker and Bystedt’s Cloth Builder.

Now senior concept artist at Goodbye Kansas Studios, Bystedt was one of the highest-profile artists to embrace Blender before its milestone 2.80 release, creating some of the key demos of its Eevee renderer.

Pricing and system requirements
Daniel Bystedt’s Blender geometry nodes – Hair cards from curves set-up is available for Blender 3.6+. It’s a free download.

Download Daniel Bystedt’s free Blender hair cards set-up from his Gumroad store
(Add a voluntary donation, or enter a figure of $0 to get it for free)

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