A bake captures your visible source hair as images. Together those images form a hair atlas: a texture containing bundles that cards can reuse. UV cards define which part of that atlas each card displays.
Run a bake
Start with hair bundles arranged on the 2D canvas. Finish the main shapes before baking; filters can adjust appearance later, but they do not replace missing hairs or fix an unsuitable guide path.
Review visibility and spacing
Show the layers you want to include. Leave clear space around each bundle, including curled tips. Hidden layers will not be captured.
Open Advanced Bake Settings
Use the bake settings control in the top toolbar. Choose a resolution and map selection. Start with Recommended if you are unsure which maps you need.
Choose whether to generate cards
For textures only, leave Generate UV Layout off. On Personal or higher, choose Simple for rectangular cards or Complex for cards that follow the source hair's shape. You need a UV layout before using those cards in Groom.
Bake Maps
Click Bake Maps and wait for completion. The toolbar's Quick Bake / Rebake button repeats a bake using the current settings.
Open Advanced Bake Settings from the top-right toolbar. Choose the texture size and maps, choose how to generate the UV layout, then run Bake Maps. The selected maps and Complex layout shown here are example choices, not a required preset.
- 1Set the texture resolution
Bake Resolution sets the size of the baked texture maps. Choose a size for your atlas rather than assuming the largest size is always needed.
- 2Choose the maps to bake
Tick the texture maps you need. The Recommended and Flow buttons help select related outputs; the example shows all thirteen maps selected.
- 3Choose Simple or Complex
Generate UV Layout controls the starting layout for your flat hair cards. Choose Simple or Complex here, then inspect and adjust the result in UV Layout. Access depends on your plan.
- 4Run Bake Maps
Bake the selected outputs. Afterwards, inspect the maps in Texture and check the generated cards in UV Layout before moving on to Groom.
Choose bake settings
Scroll horizontally to view all columns.
| Control | Start with | Change it when |
|---|---|---|
| Bake Resolution | 1024 x 1024 for practice. | Use 2048 for more detail, or 4096 on a paid plan when the final asset needs it. |
| Anti-Aliasing Quality | The draft option while testing layout. | Try 4x or 8x for a final bake if fine edges look stepped. Higher quality takes longer. |
| Texture Maps Selection | Recommended. | Add maps your destination material needs. You do not have to use all thirteen. |
| Generate UV Layout | Off for textures only; Simple for a first card layout. | Choose Complex when rectangular cards leave too much empty space around a curved bundle. |
The Free plan supports textures up to 2048 x 2048. Personal, Professional, and Studio support up to 4096 x 4096. UV layout generation and editing require Personal or higher.
What each map is for
A map stores one part of the hair's appearance. Begin by checking Albedo andAlpha; then inspect the other maps your material uses.
Scroll horizontally to view all columns.
| Map | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Albedo | The hair's color, without the viewport lighting. |
| Alpha | The visible hair outline. White shows hair; black hides the empty parts of a card. |
| Roughness | Controls how sharp or soft the shine appears. |
| Normal | Adds the appearance of small surface detail to the flat card. |
| Direction | Describes hair flow for materials that support directional hair highlights. |
| Height | Describes relative depth within the source bundle. |
| ID | Separates assigned groups by color for materials that use group-based variations. |
| Root/Tip | Distinguishes the root from the tip, useful for color changes along a hair. |
| AO | Adds darker areas where hairs in the source bundle are close together. |
| Strand ID | Distinguishes individual hairs for appearance variation. |
| Thickness | Describes hair thickness for materials that use it. |
| Tangent / Bitangent | Additional direction maps for a material that specifically asks for them. Leave them out of a basic first setup. |
Create and edit UV cards
After a bake with card generation enabled, switch to UV Layout. You should see card outlines over the baked hair. Each outline should contain the bundle it is meant to display.
Select a card
Use Select in the UV toolbar and click an outline. Give the selected card a name you can recognize later, such as Wavy lock.
Fit the outline
Use Edit to move individual points, or Soft Edit to move nearby points together. Keep the complete hair outline inside the card, with a little empty room at the sides and tip. Do not include hair from a neighboring bundle.
Set the card shape
In Card Shape, adjust Segments L along the card andSegments W across it. Add divisions only where the shape needs to bend.Padding expands the outline; it does not move neighboring bundles apart.
Check the root direction
Use UV Guide Mapping to match the root and tip to the source hair. Change the orientation if the card would otherwise display its hair backward or sideways.
Select works on the card as a whole; Edit and Soft expose point-editing tools. Keep the card boundary around the complete baked bundle rather than crossing into neighboring hair.
- 1Choose Select, Edit, or Soft
Select is active in this capture. Edit changes points directly; Soft uses a radius of influence.
- 2Check the selected card boundary
The orange card outline encloses the left baked bundle. The hair beneath it and the grid are both visible.
Soft Edit is active and an interior vertex is selected. Set Soft Radius before moving a point, then check the complete hair outline against the card boundary. This capture does not claim a completed deformation.
- 1Activate Soft Edit
The orange Soft button identifies the current UV editing mode.
- 2Set the influence radius
Soft Radius is 0.18 UV in this example. It controls the region affected around the selected point.
- 3Start from a selected point
The cyan-ringed interior point is selected. Keep the surrounding card boundary and full bundle in view as you adjust it.
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.
Use the rectangle-drawing tool if you need to add a card manually. Draw around a bundle, then inspect its mapping and shape just as you would for a generated card.
Check the result
- Albedo contains the expected bundles, and Alpha has complete roots and tips.
- No card clips the hair or includes a neighboring bundle.
- The root direction is consistent with the way you will draw cards on the character.
- You have saved the project after editing the layout.
Continue to Adjust texture maps. If borders look dirty, see Keep texture edges clean before changing the source hair.