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Creative Bloq
Creative Bloq
Technology
Joe Foley

Blender animation should be easier with this hair-raising new plugin

Example of HairFlow Blender hair animation plugin.

Hair can be tricky to animate, but a new Blender plugin aims to help solve that. VICUBE Animation's HairFlow simulates' the new hair system and hair curves in what is one of our top picks of the best 3D modelling software and the best animation software.

The plugin works with any Curves object and can be used for fur as well as human hair. It allows every strand to be animated while maintaining the hairs' original shape, whether they were only generated through modifiers or are finished hair without any Geometry Nodes.

The new HairFlow Blender plugin can be used to create hair that realistically reacts to movement, objects and the environment and can simulate wind and water effects, gravity changes, radial force, frizz and more.

For ultimate control, you can apply two different physics settings for different hair parts at the same time, like shorter and longer sections if needed. VICUBE suggests that this can be helpful to create more flexible ponytails or address problematic hair parts.

It recommends tweaking the physics settings until you get the ideal hair simulation – using proxy hair, which reduces the number of hairs, if your system struggles. You can also add objects like hair accessories directly in the software itself, enabling them to dynamically move with the hair.

Going up: hair can be animated to respond to changes in gravity, objects and the environment (Image credit: VICUBE Animation)

Hairflow is available from the Superhive market for $20. For more tips on using the software, see our pick of Blender tutorials.

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