Rendering Hair as Mesh Geometry
The Mesh from Strands operator converts strands into actual mesh geometry. Instead of rendering hair as curves, it builds a surface around each strand, which is useful when you need real geometry - for renderers or pipelines that prefer meshes, for stylized and real-time hair, and for 3D printing. It works together with the Change Width Operator placed below it, which defines how thick the generated mesh is.
Types of mesh
Several kinds of mesh can be generated from strands:
- Cylindrical - an N-sided tube around each strand that can be viewed and rendered from any angle. This is the highest-quality option, well suited to thicker strands such as whiskers and quills. Very thin cylindrical strands can show rendering artifacts unless you raise sampling.
- Grouped cylindrical - when grouping is enabled, a single mesh encapsulates a whole volume of grouped strands, giving a procedural, volumetric approximation. This is ideal for real-time use, stylized characters, and 3D printing, and it stays procedural so you can keep editing the hair below and see the mesh update.
- Billboarded (ribbon) - flat strips facing the camera, cheap to render and good for dense, thin hair, especially with hair shaders.
Width and facing
The thickness of the generated mesh comes from the strand width set by the Change Width Operator. For flat, billboarded meshes, the facing direction of each strip is controlled by the strand twist - set this with the Rotating Strands operator.
Related
- Change Width Operator - defines mesh thickness.
- Rotating Strands - defines facing for flat meshes.
- Curves from Strands - convert to curves instead of meshes.
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