Hair Tool... or more robust Tube Tool

I’ve seen two apps, Blender and 3D Coat, have the functionality of adding a cross-section to a tube/line/curves. It is really useful for making hair as you can see in this blender tutorial.

The cross-section of the tube/curve can be edited so that you can create thin leaf-like shapes that look like stylized hair. Honestly, this would be such a game-changer because I’m considering learning other programs just so that I can create nice hair on my characters. The current tube tool makes hair too fat because it’s shaped more like a pipe than a leaf. I don’t know how complicated it would be, but if you can apply a cross-section to your current tube tool, it would work great IMO. Here’s an image of the other programs’ use of a cross-section. Thank you for listening.

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I also think this would be a nice feature. I would appreciate any addition that makes creating hair easier and allows for better results.

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It is on the list and very useful.
We’ll see when the developer will find time to do it.

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I know it’s a shot in the dark, but if you guys haven’t seen it already, VRoid Studio actually has the most amazing hair tool I’ve ever seen and I wish someone would make a blender plugin essentially duping that method.

The jist of it is that entering the hair tool mode sticks a mesh over the head (looks a bit like a veil) that can be adjusted and moved around with vertices. The tool itself functions like the standard tube and you draw straight onto the mesh. Moving that mesh around gives you an easy way to add “lift” to areas like bangs/fringes or ponytails. Vroid “how to make hair” guides can show you on youtube, it’s pretty nice.

You can create multiple meshes for different parts of the hair, too, for cases where you want parts tighter to the skull to really hug it and other parts to just… point straight up like anime hair. It’s actually an amazing tool for hair specifically (though I’ve seen crafty people in previous versions of Vroid Studio use it to make stuff like ribbons, accessories, etc… ngl, it’s a bit galaxy brain.)

I also think VRoid Studio’s hair tool is really impressive. This is a video example of how it works.

Nice idea.
You can already have a bunch of this options already right away in Nomad.

Haha, works very well.That’s fun!

@stephomi
For tube tool it would be great to define a specific mesh only for snapping as well.

This is my idea for tube profile creation:
Similar to shadow box but masking on one plane only.
One could call it “tube profile” available via tube tool icons on top.


One just use masking tools to draw the profile and Nomad does the rest.
So easy, every one will understand.
Could be assigned to all selected tubes as long they are not validated.
Uhh, like this a lot!

Maybe with simultaneously tube painting possible as well? With an opacity curve, or a gradient over length?? :star_struck:

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Really good idea