Getting Started with FollicleFX

What is FollicleFX?

FollicleFX is a production hair grooming system for Blender 5.0. It provides a complete pipeline for creating realistic or stylized hair, fur, and braids with GPU-accelerated performance on 100,000+ strands in real time.

A standalone Qt window provides a responsive, professional interface that doesn't block Blender's viewport.

System Requirements

| Component | Minimum | Recommended | |-----------|---------|-------------| | Blender | 5.0 | 5.0+ | | OS | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 11 | | GPU | Any NVIDIA GPU | RTX 3060+ | | RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB+ | | CPU | Multi-core | 8+ cores |

An NVIDIA GPU is highly recommended. Without one, strand generation and simulation are significantly slower.

Installation

FollicleFX ships as a single-file installer (FollicleFXInstaller-Setup.exe) that auto-detects your Blender 5.x installation and deploys the addon.

After installation:

  1. Open Blender 5.0
  2. Go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons
  3. Search for "FollicleFX" and ensure it's enabled
  4. Press N in the 3D viewport to open the sidebar
  5. Click the FollicleFX button to launch the window

The FollicleFX Interface

Header

  • FollicleFX logo and version
  • Hair system selector (manage multiple systems per scene)

Tabs

  • Guides — Create guide curves that define hair flow
  • Primitive — Generate dense strands from guides
  • Modifiers — Style hair (clumping, frizz, coils, braids, etc.)
  • Surface — Mesh binding, groom transfer, animation following
  • Display — Viewport visualization and colors
  • Cards — Generate hair cards for game engines

Status Bar

  • Current operation status and helpful messages

Core Concepts

Hair System

A hair system is a complete hair setup on a mesh. You can have multiple systems on different meshes (head, eyebrows, beard, body fur).

A hair system consists of:

  • Guides — Sparse curves (50–500) defining flow direction
  • Strands — Dense curves (10k–100k+) interpolated from guides
  • Modifier Stack — Effects applied to style the hair

Guides

Guides are the foundation. They're sparse curves that define where hair grows, which direction it flows, and how long it is. Think of them as the skeleton of your hairstyle.

Strands

Strands are the actual hair — dense curves generated from guides via interpolation. They follow nearby guides, creating realistic coverage.

The Two Stacks

FollicleFX processes hair in two stages:

Guide Stack — Operates on guide curves:

  • Guide Generate, Guide Sculpt, Guide Add
  • Guide Flow (pin-based direction/shape)
  • Guide Mirror, Resample, Interpolate

Modifier Stack — Operates on interpolated strands:

  • Clumping, Frizz, Coil, Cut, Loc
  • Surface Offset, Simulate

Both stacks cache results in memory. When you change a parameter, only the affected parts re-compute — so adjustments feel instant.

FollicleScript Expressions

Many parameters support FollicleScript — a simple expression language for procedural control. Look for the ƒx button next to parameters.

rand3(0.7, 0.9, index)    # Random value per strand
lerp(0.5, 1.0, v)         # UV-based gradient

The FollicleFX Workflow

1. GUIDES → 2. PRIMITIVE → 3. MODIFIERS → 4. DISPLAY/RENDER

1. Guides

Create guide curves on your mesh. Generate them automatically or sculpt by hand.

2. Primitive

Generate dense strands from guides. Control density, length, width, taper.

3. Modifiers

Style your hair with the modifier stack. Typical order: Clumping → Coil → Frizz → Cut.

4. Display / Render

Preview in the viewport, then render with Cycles or Eevee.

Quick Start Example

  1. Select a mesh (e.g., a character head)
  2. Guides tab → Set Count: 200, Length: 0.2, Distribution: Poisson Disk → Generate Guides
  3. Primitive tab → Set Density: 20000 → Generate Strands
  4. Modifiers tab → Add Clumping (Tightness: 0.7) → Add Frizz (Magnitude: 1.0)
  5. Display tab → Pick a color preset → Done!

Tips for Beginners

  • Start simple. Get guides right before adding modifiers.
  • Modifier order matters. Structure first (clumping), details last (frizz).
  • Use expressions for natural variation instead of uniform values.
  • Lower Display % while styling for faster viewport. Increase for final preview.
  • Save presets once you find settings you like.
  • Undo works. Ctrl+Z in Blender undoes FollicleFX operations.

Next Steps