Cards Tab

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

What It Does

The Cards tab provides:

  • Card generation - Convert strands to polygon cards
  • Automatic clustering - Group nearby strands
  • UV mapping - Automatic atlas packing
  • Texture baking - Diffuse, alpha, normal, flow maps
  • LOD generation - Multiple detail levels
  • Export - OBJ, FBX, glTF formats

Think of it as converting your high-quality strand hair into game-ready polygon cards with baked textures.

Card Generation

Target Card Count

Number of hair cards to generate:

  • Range: 10-500, default 100
  • More cards = more detail, higher poly count
  • Fewer cards = better performance
  • Typical range: 50-200 for characters

Card Shape

Flat

  • Simple flat polygons
  • Fastest to render
  • Good for straight hair
  • Most common for games

Curved

  • Cards follow strand curvature
  • More realistic for wavy/curly hair
  • Slightly higher poly count
  • Better silhouette

Shell

  • Multiple layers for volume
  • Best for dense, voluminous hair
  • Highest poly count
  • Film-quality look

Card Width

Width of each card in world units:

  • Range: 0.005-0.1, default 0.02
  • Wider cards = fewer needed
  • Narrower cards = more detail
  • Match to your character scale

Curvature

Amount of curvature for curved cards:

  • Range: 0.0-1.0, default 0.3
  • Only applies to Curved shape
  • 0.0 = flat, 1.0 = maximum curve
  • Adjust based on hair style

Segments

Length Segments

  • Subdivisions along card length
  • Range: 2-16, default 8
  • More = smoother curves, higher poly
  • Fewer = better performance

Width Segments

  • Subdivisions across card width
  • Range: 1-4, default 1
  • Usually keep at 1
  • Increase for special effects

Clustering

Auto Cluster

Automatically determine cluster count:

  • Enabled by default
  • Groups nearby strands into cards
  • Uses Cluster Radius to determine grouping
  • Disable for manual cluster count

Cluster Radius

Maximum radius for grouping strands:

  • Range: 0.01-0.2, default 0.05
  • Smaller = more cards, more detail
  • Larger = fewer cards, better performance
  • Adjust based on hair density

Flyaways

Include Flyaways

Generate separate cards for short flyaway strands:

  • Enabled by default
  • Adds realism with stray hairs
  • Minimal performance cost
  • Recommended for most styles

Flyaway Cards

Number of flyaway cards to generate:

  • Range: 0-50, default 20
  • More = more detail
  • Fewer = cleaner look
  • 15-25 is typical

LOD (Level of Detail)

Generate LODs

Create multiple detail levels:

  • Enabled by default
  • LOD0 = full detail
  • LOD1, LOD2, etc. = reduced detail
  • Essential for game performance

LOD Levels

Number of LOD levels to generate:

  • Range: 1-5, default 3
  • LOD0 = 100% cards
  • LOD1 = ~50% cards
  • LOD2 = ~25% cards
  • More levels = better distance optimization

Texture Baking

Atlas Size

Texture resolution:

  • 512 - Low quality, mobile
  • 1024 - Medium quality
  • 2048 - High quality (default)
  • 4096 - Ultra quality, film

UV Padding

Padding between UV islands in pixels:

  • Range: 1-16, default 4
  • Prevents texture bleeding
  • Increase if you see artifacts
  • 4-8 is typical

Maps to Bake

Diffuse/Color

  • Hair color texture
  • Baked using Cycles
  • Essential for realistic look

Alpha/Opacity

  • Strand opacity mask
  • White = opaque, black = transparent
  • Required for card transparency

Normal Map

  • Adds depth illusion
  • Makes flat cards look 3D
  • Recommended for quality

Flow/Direction Map

  • Hair flow direction for anisotropic highlights
  • Red/Green channels encode direction
  • Essential for realistic specular

Ambient Occlusion

  • Self-shadowing
  • Slower to bake
  • Optional, adds depth

ID Map

  • Random color per strand
  • For variation in shader
  • Optional

Render Settings

Samples

  • Cycles render samples for baking
  • Range: 16-512, default 64
  • More = cleaner, slower
  • 64-128 is typical

Strand Width (px)

  • Strand width in texture pixels
  • Range: 1-8, default 2
  • Thicker = more visible, less detail
  • Thinner = more detail, may alias

Output Path

Directory for baked textures:

  • Default: //textures/hair_cards/
  • // = relative to .blend file
  • Click Browse to change
  • Creates directory if needed

Export

Export Format

OBJ

  • Universal format
  • Simple, widely supported
  • No animation support

FBX

  • Industry standard
  • Supports materials
  • Good for Unity, Unreal

glTF

  • Modern format
  • Web-friendly
  • Good for web games

Export Options

Include Textures

  • Copy baked textures to export folder
  • Enabled by default
  • Keeps everything together

Create Material

  • Generate material with baked textures
  • Enabled by default
  • Ready to use in engine

Export LODs Separately

  • Each LOD as separate file
  • Enabled by default
  • Easier to manage in engine

Workflow

Basic Card Generation

  1. Style Your Hair
  • Complete all styling in FollicleFX
  • Apply all modifiers
  • Preview looks good
  1. Set Card Count
  • Start with 100 cards
  • Adjust based on complexity
  • More cards for complex styles
  1. Generate Cards
  • Click "Generate Hair Cards"
  • Wait for generation
  • Cards appear in Blender
  1. Review
  • Check card coverage
  • Verify no gaps
  • Adjust settings if needed

Texture Baking Workflow

  1. Generate Cards First
  • Must have cards before baking
  • Ensure cards look good
  1. Choose Maps
  • Enable Diffuse, Alpha, Normal, Flow
  • Disable AO and ID for speed
  • Select atlas size (2048 recommended)
  1. Set Output Path
  • Choose texture directory
  • Use relative path (//)
  1. Bake
  • Click "Bake Textures (Cycles)"
  • Wait for baking (can take minutes)
  • Textures saved to output path
  1. Review Textures
  • Check textures in Image Editor
  • Verify no artifacts
  • Rebake if needed

Game Engine Export

  1. Generate and Bake
  • Complete card generation
  • Bake all needed textures
  1. Choose Format
  • FBX for Unity/Unreal
  • glTF for web
  • OBJ for other engines
  1. Export
  • Click "Export All"
  • Includes mesh and textures
  • LODs exported separately
  1. Import to Engine
  • Import mesh files
  • Import textures
  • Set up material
  • Assign LODs

Tips for Best Results

Card Count

Low Poly (Mobile):

  • 30-50 cards
  • Simple shapes
  • LOD0 only

Medium (Console):

  • 80-120 cards
  • Include flyaways
  • 2-3 LOD levels

High Quality (PC):

  • 150-250 cards
  • Curved cards
  • 3-4 LOD levels

Texture Resolution

Mobile:

  • 512-1024
  • Diffuse + Alpha only
  • Skip normal/flow

Console:

  • 1024-2048
  • Diffuse + Alpha + Normal
  • Optional flow

PC:

  • 2048-4096
  • All maps
  • High sample count

Clustering

Dense Hair:

  • Smaller cluster radius (0.03-0.04)
  • More cards
  • Better coverage

Sparse Hair:

  • Larger cluster radius (0.06-0.08)
  • Fewer cards
  • Cleaner look

Common Issues

Cards Have Gaps

  • Increase card count
  • Decrease cluster radius
  • Check source strand density

Cards Too Thick

  • Reduce card width
  • Increase card count
  • Use narrower clustering

Textures Look Blurry

  • Increase atlas size
  • Increase bake samples
  • Check UV padding

Baking Takes Forever

  • Reduce atlas size
  • Reduce sample count
  • Disable AO and ID maps
  • Use fewer cards

Cards Don't Match Hair

  • Regenerate cards
  • Check all modifiers applied
  • Verify strand visibility

Export Fails

  • Check output path exists
  • Verify cards generated
  • Try different format

Performance Optimization

For Mobile:

  • 30-50 cards
  • 512-1024 textures
  • Flat card shape
  • No LODs (or 1 LOD)
  • Diffuse + Alpha only

For Console:

  • 80-120 cards
  • 1024-2048 textures
  • Flat or Curved
  • 2-3 LODs
  • Diffuse + Alpha + Normal

For PC:

  • 150-250 cards
  • 2048-4096 textures
  • Curved or Shell
  • 3-4 LODs
  • All maps

Technical Notes

  • Cards are generated using strand clustering
  • UV atlas uses automatic packing
  • Baking uses Cycles render engine
  • Flow maps encode direction in RG channels
  • LODs reduce card count by ~50% per level
  • All operations are GPU-accelerated when possible

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