Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 Posted by Jim Thacker

Hair Cinematic Tool 2.0 simplifies hair shading in Unreal Engine 5


Animation firm Argentum Studio has released Hair Cinematic Tool 2.0, the latest version of its in-house tool for Unreal Engine.

The add-on, which is available free for a month, makes it easier to access hidden parameters for rendering hair grooms, helping to create better renders for cinematics, animations and VFX.

A dedicated UI through which to adjust internal UE5 settings for rendering hair and fur
Argentum Studio describes the Hair Cinematic Tool as designed to “give creators full control over Groom rendering settings, addressing the platform’s lack of detailed native options”.

It provides a graphical interface through which to adjust Unreal Engine’s internal CVars (Console Variables) for hair, and for Voxelization shadows and Deep Shadows.

By adjusting their values, users can fine tune lighting and shadows for hair and fur rendered using Unreal Engine 5.

You can find Argentum Studio’s run-down of what the CVars control, and its suggested values for key settings, in this blog post on ArtStation.

Free for Unreal Engine 5.1-5.4, but becoming a commercial tool for 5.5
Argentum Studio released the first version of the Hair Cinematic Tool for free earlier this year.

Version 2.0 makes the software compatible with Unreal Engine 5.5, and makes it a commercial tool with a standard price of $35.

However, you can download it free for the first month of release by liking and commenting on the release post on ArtStation marketplace: you can find more details here.

System requirements
Argentum Studio’s Hair Cinematic Tool 2.0 is compatible with Unreal Engine 5.5. It has a standard price of $35, but is available free for the first month of its release.

Read more about Argentum Studio’s Hair Cinematic Tool 2.0 for Unreal Engine 5.5


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