Cards Tab

The Cards tab generates polygon hair cards from strand-based hair for use in game engines. It includes automatic clustering, UV mapping, LOD generation, and texture baking via Cycles.

What It Does

  • Card generation — Convert strands to polygon cards
  • Automatic clustering — Group nearby strands into cards
  • UV atlas packing — Automatic layout
  • Texture baking — Diffuse, alpha, normal, flow maps via Cycles
  • LOD generation — Multiple detail levels for distance optimization
  • Export — OBJ, FBX, glTF formats

Card Generation

Target Card Count

Number of cards to generate (10–500, default 100). More cards = more detail, higher poly count.

Card Shape

| Shape | Description | Best For | |-------|-------------|----------| | Flat | Simple flat polygons | Straight hair, mobile | | Curved | Follow strand curvature | Wavy/curly hair | | Shell | Multiple layers for volume | Dense, voluminous hair |

Card Width

Width per card in world units (0.005–0.1, default 0.02).

Segments

  • Length Segments — Subdivisions along card (2–16, default 8)
  • Width Segments — Subdivisions across card (1–4, default 1)

Clustering

Auto Cluster

Automatically group nearby strands into cards using Cluster Radius.

Cluster Radius

Maximum grouping radius (0.01–0.2, default 0.05). Smaller = more cards, more detail.

Flyaways

Include Flyaways

Generate separate cards for short stray strands. Adds realism with minimal cost.

Flyaway Cards

Number of flyaway cards (0–50, default 20).

LOD (Level of Detail)

Generate LODs

Create multiple detail levels for distance-based optimization.

LOD Levels

Number of levels (1–5, default 3). Each level reduces card count by ~50%.

Texture Baking

Atlas Size

Texture resolution: 512 (mobile), 1024 (medium), 2048 (high, default), 4096 (ultra).

Maps to Bake

| Map | Description | Required? | |-----|-------------|-----------| | Diffuse/Color | Hair color | Yes | | Alpha/Opacity | Strand transparency mask | Yes | | Normal | Depth illusion | Recommended | | Flow/Direction | Anisotropic highlight direction | Recommended | | Ambient Occlusion | Self-shadowing | Optional | | ID Map | Per-strand variation for shaders | Optional |

Render Settings

  • Samples — Cycles samples for baking (16–512, default 64)
  • Strand Width (px) — Strand width in texture pixels (1–8, default 2)

Output Path

Directory for baked textures. Default: //textures/hair_cards/ (relative to .blend file).

Export

Formats

  • OBJ — Universal, simple
  • FBX — Unity/Unreal standard
  • glTF — Modern, web-friendly

Options

  • Include Textures — Copy baked textures to export folder
  • Create Material — Generate material with baked textures
  • Export LODs Separately — Each LOD as separate file

Workflow

  1. Style hair completely in FollicleFX
  2. Set card count (50–200 typical for characters)
  3. Generate cards → review coverage
  4. Choose maps to bake (Diffuse + Alpha + Normal + Flow)
  5. Bake textures (takes 1–5 minutes depending on settings)
  6. Export in your engine's format

Platform Guidelines

| Platform | Cards | Atlas | Shape | LODs | |----------|-------|-------|-------|------| | Mobile | 30–50 | 512–1024 | Flat | 1 | | Console | 80–120 | 1024–2048 | Flat/Curved | 2–3 | | PC | 150–250 | 2048–4096 | Curved/Shell | 3–4 |