A card may look clean close up but develop a dark border or lose thin tips when the camera moves away. Do not start by making every card larger. First identify whether the problem is the texture, the card outline, or the space between bundles.
Identify the edge problem
Scroll horizontally to view all columns.
| What you see | First check |
|---|---|
| A tip is cut off even close up | Inspect Alpha, then check that the UV card contains the complete hair outline. |
| Part of another bundle appears | Check the card outline and the empty space between bundles on the source canvas. |
| A dark or bright border appears farther away | Check texture edge padding and the destination's texture settings. |
| Fine hairs disappear at a distance | Check source thickness, texture resolution, and the destination's transparency settings. |
When an application displays a smaller version of a texture at a distance, it blends nearby image areas together. Empty background or a neighboring bundle can then affect the hair's edge. This is often called mipmap bleeding.
Three different kinds of space
- Bundle spacing: Empty room between source bundles on the 2D canvas. Move the source layers and bake again to change it.
- Card Shape → Padding: Expands the UV card boundary around its bundle. It can prevent clipping, but too much can include neighboring hair.
- Texture padding: Extends edge colors into empty image areas for a cleaner export. It does not move bundles or add missing hairs.
Card Shape controls belong to the selected UV card. Padding changes its boundary; Segments L and Segments W control subdivisions along its length and width. This Padding is not texture dilation in pixels.
- 1Confirm the selected card
UV-1 is highlighted in the list and repeated in Selected Card below.
- 2Adjust the card boundary
Card Shape Padding is 0.00 here. It is separate from the Texture viewer's pixel-based Padding amount.
- 3Set length and width subdivisions
The captured card uses Segments L 11 and Segments W 6. These are geometry controls, not texture resolution.
Adjust and compare
- In Texture, inspect Albedo and Alpha at a close view. Confirm that the original hair is complete.
- In UV Layout, select the affected card. Fit its outline around the complete bundle without crossing into neighboring hair.
- If there is not enough room, return to the source canvas, separate the bundles, and bake again. Save before regenerating an edited card layout.
- In Texture, adjust the Padding amount while inspecting a non-Alpha map such as Albedo. The preview updates automatically and uses the same amount as export. Increase it gradually; setting it to 0 disables dilation.
- Export to a new folder and inspect the result in the destination application.
Inspect the Albedo edge at 100% zoom while adjusting Padding. The shown 32px amount controls both automatic preview and export dilation; 0 disables dilation. Alpha's hair outline is not enlarged.
- 1Inspect a non-Alpha map
Albedo is selected. Texture padding extends colors outside the hair outline, not the Alpha outline itself.
- 2Set the shared padding amount
The captured value is 32px. Preview updates automatically; there is no separate preview visibility toggle.
- 3Inspect the enlarged bundle edge
At 100% zoom, check the color extension and room before the next bundle. This figure shows one amount, not a before/after pair.
If a fine tip is still missing, try a thicker source strand or a more suitable texture resolution. More empty padding cannot preserve detail that has become too small to see.
Check at the final viewing distance
- Compare the hair close up and at its normal camera distance.
- Look against both light and dark backgrounds.
- Check card borders, fine tips, and the hairline while moving the camera.
- Confirm that changes did not introduce parts of a neighboring bundle.
Continue with the Unreal Engine orBlender handoff guide. Padding reduces some edge problems; it does not guarantee identical results under every texture size or material setting.