Guides Tab

The Guides tab is where you create the foundation of your hair - guide curves that define where hair grows, which direction it flows, and how long it is. Think of guides as the "skeleton" of your hairstyle.

What Are Guides?

Guides are sparse curves (typically 50-500) placed on your mesh that control:

  • Position: Where hair grows on the surface
  • Direction: Which way hair flows
  • Length: How long the hair is
  • Shape: Straight, curved, or custom sculpted

Guides are NOT the final hair - they're templates. In the Primitive tab, you'll generate thousands of dense strands that follow these guides.

Why Guides Matter

Good guides = good hair. Spend time getting your guides right before moving to the Primitive stage. You can always come back and adjust guides, but starting with a solid foundation makes styling much easier.

Distribution Methods

The Distribution panel controls how guides are placed on your mesh.

Random

Guides are scattered randomly across the surface.

When to use: Quick tests, organic natural placement

Pros: Fast, natural-looking distribution

Cons: Can create uneven density, some areas might have gaps

Example Settings:

  • Count: 100-200
  • Good for: Initial tests, natural hair

Poisson Disk

Guides are evenly spaced with a minimum distance between them. No guides will be closer than the Min Distance value.

When to use: Professional work, even coverage needed

Pros: Guaranteed even spacing, no clumping or gaps

Cons: Slightly slower than Random

Parameters:

  • Min Distance: Minimum space between guides (0.01-10.0, default 0.1)
  • Larger values = fewer guides, more spacing
  • Smaller values = more guides, tighter spacing

Example Settings:

  • Count: 200
  • Min Distance: 0.08
  • Good for: Most production hair, even coverage

Grid

Guides arranged in a regular grid pattern.

When to use: Stylized hair, technical tests, debugging

Pros: Perfectly regular, predictable

Cons: Looks artificial, not natural

Example Settings:

  • Count: 100 (creates 10x10 grid)
  • Good for: Stylized looks, testing

Vertices

One guide per mesh vertex.

When to use: Maximum control, low-poly meshes

Pros: Precise placement, follows mesh topology

Cons: Guide count depends on mesh density, can be too many or too few

Example Settings:

  • Works best with: 100-500 vertex meshes
  • Good for: Precise control, eyebrows, facial hair

Face Centers

One guide at the center of each mesh face.

When to use: Similar to Vertices but different distribution

Pros: Follows mesh structure, predictable

Cons: Depends on mesh topology

Example Settings:

  • Works best with: Quad-based meshes
  • Good for: Controlled placement

Even

Attempts to distribute guides evenly across the surface using advanced sampling.

When to use: High-quality even distribution

Pros: Very even coverage

Cons: Slower than other methods

Example Settings:

  • Count: 200-500
  • Good for: Production hair, final renders

External

Used when guides are imported from another source (Alembic, hand-drawn curves, etc.). When this mode is active, the procedural generation parameters (Count, Length, Control Points, Noise, Seed) are hidden since they don't apply to imported guides.

Guide Density Map

The Density Map section lets you control where guides are placed using a painted texture.

Use Density Map

Enable texture-based guide density control.

What it does: Restricts guide placement to areas where the density map is white:

  • White = guides can be placed here
  • Black = no guides in this area
  • Gray = reduced chance of guides

Buttons: 🖌️ Paint / 💾 Save / 📁 Load

Workflow:

  1. Check "Use Density Map"
  2. Click 🖌️ to paint the map on your mesh
  3. Paint white where you want guides, black where you don't
  4. Click 💾 to save
  5. Generate or regenerate guides — they'll respect the painted map

Use cases: Hairlines, bald spots, thinning areas, precise guide placement control.

Guide Properties

The Guide Properties panel controls the characteristics of each guide curve.

Length

How long guides are (in Blender units).

Range: 0.1 to 10.0 (Default: 1.0)

What it does: Sets the length of guide curves from root to tip. This determines the maximum hair length.

When to adjust:

  • Short hair: 0.1-0.3
  • Medium hair: 0.3-0.6
  • Long hair: 0.6-2.0
  • Very long hair: 2.0+

Important: You can trim hair later with the Cut modifier, but you can't make it longer than the guides. Set guides slightly longer than your target length.

Example Settings:

  • Bob cut: 0.15
  • Shoulder length: 0.4
  • Waist length: 1.0
  • Floor length: 2.5

Control Points

Number of points per guide curve.

Range: 2 to 32 (Default: 8)

What it does: More points = smoother curves, better for sculpting complex shapes. Fewer points = simpler curves, faster.

When to adjust:

  • Straight hair: 4-6 points
  • Wavy hair: 8-12 points
  • Complex sculpted shapes: 16-32 points

Performance: More points = slightly slower, but usually not noticeable.

Example Settings:

  • Simple straight: 4
  • Natural hair: 8
  • Sculpted styles: 16

Variation

The Variation panel adds randomness to guide placement and direction.

Noise

Random displacement applied to guide positions.

Range: 0.0 to 1.0 (Default: 0.0)

What it does: Adds random variation to guide placement. Higher values create more irregular, natural-looking distribution.

When to use:

  • 0.0: Perfect placement (stylized, technical)
  • 0.1-0.3: Subtle natural variation (realistic hair)
  • 0.5+: Strong variation (messy, wild hair)

Visual effect: Guides shift slightly from their perfect positions, creating a more organic look.

Example Settings:

  • Clean styled hair: 0.0
  • Natural hair: 0.15
  • Messy hair: 0.4

Seed

Random seed for all randomization.

Range: 0 to 999999 (Default: 42)

What it does: Controls the random number generator. Same seed = same result. Different seed = different random pattern.

When to use: Change the seed to try different random variations without changing other parameters.

Tip: If you like the overall look but want to try a different random pattern, just change the seed!

Create & Edit Utilities

The Create & Edit panel provides tools for manual guide creation and editing.

Create Empty Hair

Creates an empty hair system on your selected mesh with no guides.

When to use: You want to manually sculpt every guide from scratch.

Workflow:

  1. Select your mesh
  2. Click "Create Empty Hair"
  3. Enter Blender's sculpt mode
  4. Use curve sculpting tools to draw guides
  5. Exit sculpt mode

Best for: Complete artistic control, unique hairstyles, facial hair

Import External Guides

Converts any Blender curves into FollicleFX guides with automatic repair and resampling.

When to use: You've created curves in Blender or imported them from another application and want to use them as guides.

What it does:

  • Automatically detects and fixes non-uniform point counts (varying CVs per curve)
  • Repairs invalid positions (NaN/Inf values) via interpolation
  • Wraps UDIM UVs to 0-1 range
  • Resamples curves to uniform point count using arc-length parameterization

Parameters:

  • Auto Resample (default: enabled): Automatically resample curves with non-uniform point counts
  • Resample Points (default: 8): Target point count for resampled curves (3-32)

Workflow:

  1. Create or import curves in Blender (any method)
  2. Select the curves
  3. Click "Convert Curves to Guides"
  4. System automatically detects and fixes issues:
  • Non-uniform curves are resampled to uniform point count
  • Invalid positions are repaired by interpolating from neighbors
  • UDIM UVs are wrapped to 0-1 range
  1. Curves become clean, uniform FollicleFX guides

Best for:

  • Importing guides from other software
  • Converting hand-drawn curves
  • Fixing problematic curve data
  • Precise technical control

Tip: If you're importing curves from other DCCs and experiencing "flying" strands or errors, this operator will automatically detect and fix the issues!

Edit in Sculpt Mode

Opens Blender's sculpt mode to edit existing guides.

When to use: You've generated guides but want to refine their shape.

Workflow:

  1. Generate guides first
  2. Click "Edit in Sculpt Mode"
  3. Use Blender's curve sculpting tools
  4. Exit sculpt mode

Important: FollicleFX preserves your sculpted shapes! When you adjust parameters (count, length, etc.), your sculpted shapes are maintained.

Best for: Refining generated guides, creating custom flow patterns

Generation Buttons

Generate Guides

Creates new guides on your mesh using the current parameters.

When to use: First-time guide creation, or when you want to completely regenerate guides.

What it does:

  • Analyzes your mesh
  • Places guides according to Distribution settings
  • Creates curves with specified Length and Control Points
  • Applies Variation if set

Tip: After generating, you can adjust parameters and guides will auto-update (preserving any sculpted shapes).

Reset

Completely resets guides, losing any sculpted shapes.

When to use: You want to start over from scratch.

Warning: This destroys any manual sculpting you've done. Use carefully!

Interpolate Guides

The Interpolate Guides panel lets you change the number of guides while preserving their overall shape and distribution.

Target Count

How many guides you want after resampling.

Range: 10–50,000 (Default: 100)

Respect Density Map

When enabled, resampled guides respect the painted density map. Guides in low-density areas will be rejected.

Resample Guides Button

Redistributes guides to the target count, preserving sculpted shapes. This is useful when you need more or fewer guides without starting over.

Mirror Guides

The Mirror Guides panel lets you mirror guides across an axis for symmetrical hairstyles.

Axis

Which axis to mirror across: X, Y, or Z.

Default: X (left/right symmetry — most common for heads)

Direction

Which guides to mirror:

  • All Guides — Mirror everything
  • + → − — Copy from positive side to negative side
  • − → + — Copy from negative side to positive side

Merge Threshold

Guides closer than this distance to the mirror plane are not duplicated.

Range: 0.0–0.1 (Default: 0.001)

Replace Opposite Side

When checked, deletes existing guides on the target side before mirroring.

Mirror Button

Click to perform the mirror operation.

Auto-Update Feature

Once you've generated guides, FollicleFX automatically updates them when you change parameters. This is incredibly powerful!

How it works:

  1. Generate guides
  2. Optionally sculpt them in Blender
  3. Adjust parameters (count, length, etc.)
  4. Guides update automatically, preserving your sculpted shapes!

Example Workflow:

  1. Generate 100 guides
  2. Sculpt them to create a specific hairstyle
  3. Realize you need 200 guides for better coverage
  4. Change Count to 200
  5. New guides are added, but your sculpted shapes remain!

This lets you iterate quickly without losing your artistic work.

Practical Examples

Example 1: Simple Straight Hair

Distribution: Poisson Disk
Count: 150
Min Distance: 0.1
Length: 0.25
Control Points: 6
Noise: 0.0

Result: Clean, evenly distributed straight hair

Example 2: Natural Medium Hair

Distribution: Poisson Disk
Count: 250
Min Distance: 0.08
Length: 0.4
Control Points: 8
Noise: 0.15

Result: Natural-looking medium-length hair with subtle variation

Example 3: Long Flowing Hair

Distribution: Even
Count: 400
Length: 1.2
Control Points: 16
Noise: 0.1

Result: Long hair with smooth curves, ready for sculpting

Example 4: Short Textured Hair

Distribution: Random
Count: 300
Length: 0.08
Control Points: 4
Noise: 0.3

Result: Short, textured hair with lots of variation

Example 5: Eyebrows (Precise Control)

Distribution: Vertices
Length: 0.03
Control Points: 4
Noise: 0.05

Result: Precise eyebrow guides following mesh topology

Tips and Best Practices

Start with Poisson Disk: It's the best all-around distribution method for most hair.

Don't Skimp on Guides: More guides = better control. 200-400 guides is typical for head hair.

Use Enough Control Points: 8 points is a good default. Use more (16+) if you plan to sculpt complex shapes.

Sculpt After Generating: Generate guides first, then sculpt them. This is faster than manual creation.

Save Presets: Once you find good guide settings, save them as a preset for reuse.

Length Matters: Set guides slightly longer than your target hair length. You can always trim with the Cut modifier.

Noise is Subtle: A little noise (0.1-0.2) goes a long way. Too much looks messy.

Use Auto-Update: Take advantage of auto-update! Adjust parameters freely - your sculpted shapes are preserved.

Common Mistakes

Too Few Guides: Using 20-50 guides for head hair. This creates patchy, unrealistic results. Use 150-400 guides.

Wrong Distribution: Using Random when you need even coverage. Use Poisson Disk or Even for production work.

Too Short: Making guides too short, then realizing you need longer hair. Always make guides slightly longer than needed.

Ignoring Sculpting: Not sculpting guides to match the hairstyle. Generated guides are just a starting point - sculpt them!

Resetting Instead of Adjusting: Using Reset button when you just want to change parameters. Use auto-update instead!

Too Many Control Points: Using 32 points for simple straight hair. This is overkill and slower. Use 4-8 points for simple hair.

Next Steps

Once you have guides set up, move to the Primitive Tab to generate dense hair strands from your guides.

Related Topics:

---

Guides are the foundation of great hair. Take your time, experiment with different distributions, and don't be afraid to sculpt! Once you have solid guides, the rest of the workflow becomes much easier.