STEP BY STEP CREATE WITH BRAIDIFY

01 GET SET UP

Download Braidify from Nino Defoq’s website, which you can find at ninodefoq.gumroad.com. At the time of writing, there are two versions available; for the sake of simplicity, you’ll want the performance-updated one. With your scene open and your attachment object selected, which is probably going to be your character’s scalp, go to File and Append, then select your Blender file and navigate into the Nodetree folder before selecting Braidify. With that done, you’ve now successfully appended the tools that you’ll need to get going.

02 CREATE YOUR CURVES

Select your attachment object and create a new curve of the type Empty Hair. In Sculpt mode, create a new curve and sculpt it into the shape that you want the braid to take. Now switch back to Object mode, go to Properties, and create a new Geometry Nodes modifier. Change the type to Braidify and a braid should appear in the location of the curve that you created. Move back into Sculpt mode once again to adjust the shape of your curve.

03 CUSTOMISE YOUR BRAID

Before proceeding, in Output Attributes type “OURUV” to make sure that the correct UVS are being pulled through. Then, the cool thing is that this tool lets you generate either realistic or anime-style braids. In the Geometry Nodes modifier Properties, you’ll find a checkbox that allows you to switch between the two different states. With the realistic version selected, you can amend the realistic hair properties. You can increase the Realistic Hair Amount to create a thicker style of hair, and change the thickness of each hair too.

04 FURTHER CUSTOMISATION

One thing you’ll want to tweak is where the hair comes out of your attachment object. In a real braid this area is particularly complex because hair is originating from a broad area and the distribution is incredibly random. This tool gives you a Hair Starting Noise strength parameter that lets you make this either more or less chaotic. Don’t forget that more strands can be added at any time by going into Sculpt mode and adding additional curves.