🐺 HAIR & FUR

Methods to create hair, fur & feathers for 3D characters.

September 07, 2026

THUNDEER'S 3D LEARNING RESOURCES

🐺 HAIR & FUR

Resources for learning methods to create hair, fur & feathers for 3D characters.

Pick resources that fit your learning style, instead of brute forcing learning in a way you don't enjoy - that's why I tried including multiple options in each topic for you to pick from!

1.

BY MANUAL SCULPTING / TEXTURING

Using brushes, alphas and separate meshes to create fur.

Zbrush

MANUAL HAIR & FUR SCULPTING (ZBRUSH)

📺 YOUTUBE

The Secrets to Stylized Hair

hart

How to use my Free "Fur Brushes" for ZBrush!

Rafa Souza

👨‍🎓 STANDALONE COURSES

PAID ($79)

Hair for Games: Cards, Grooms & Sculpting

Abe Leal 3D

Hair for Games: Mastering Cards, Grooms & Sculpting

Learn the complete professional pipeline for 3D hair. Master three distinct workflows: industry-standard Hair Cards, cinematic XGen Grooms, and stylized Sculpting. From ZBrush and Maya to a final integration in Unreal Engine, 10-hours that provides project files and Discord support to help you create hair that works

https://www.abeleal3d.com/courses/hairforgames

💻 BLOG POSTS

Zbrush Fur in 3 steps

Ksenia Shumikhina

ArtStation - Zbrush Fur in 3 steps

https://www.artstation.com/blogs/ksenia_shu/A1lj/zbrush-fur-in-3-steps

Blender

MANUAL HAIR & FUR SCULPTING (BLENDER)

Substance Painter

MANUAL HAIR & FUR PAINTING (SUBSTANCE PAINTER)

📺 YOUTUBE

Substance Hair Texture Tutorial

la cup

How to Texture Hair in Substance Painter

Nina Shaw - GameArt

Hair Recolor Tutorial - Substance Painter and Krita/Photoshop

JuliaWinterpaw

💻 BLOG POSTS

Painting Hair Cards in Painter

Pablander Academy

Painting Hair Cards in Painter | Pablander Academy

This one came from a student. She asked us a very specific question she couldn't find a clear answer to anywhere online: "What are flow maps for hair, and how do you actually make them?"

https://www.pablander.academy/newsletter/painting-hair-cards-in-painter

🔧 TOOLS

Fur Material(Substance Painter)

GMpeanut

ArtStation - Fur Material(Substance Painter) | Resources

Resources - Fur Material(Substance Painter), USD $0.00. I made a base material for Substance Painter using Substance Designer. It can control fur color, rotation, scale, mask, and unique pattern color. Just brush your...

https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/y9y98/fur-material-substance-painter

Fur(Substance painter Material made in Substance designer.), GMpeanut .

Fur material link(free) : https://www.artstation.com/a/32861430 Substance Designer Class : https://www.inflearn.com/en/course/%EA%B2%8C%EC%9E%84%ED%85%8D%EC%8A%A4%EC%B2%98-%EC%84%AD%EC%8A%A4%ED%84%B4%EC%8A%A4-%EB%94%94%EC%9E%90%EC%9D%B4%EB%84%88

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/NyJayN

HairTG - Surface

Olivier Lau

ArtStation - HairTG - Surface | Resources

Resources - HairTG - Surface, USD $29.00. HairTG- Surface procedurally generates PBR hair textures directly on a head or scalp mesh, without hair cards or other geometry. You may use it as is or as a base layer and...

https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/LAVn/hairtg-surface

2.BY SIMULATING HAIR STRANDS

Using simulation to create hair strands.

Blender (using Geometry Nodes)

HAIR & FUR SIMULATION (BLENDER)

Courses, videos, blog posts, manuals & books

HAIR & FUR SIMULATION (BLENDER)

Courses, videos, blog posts, manuals & books

In Blender 5.2 LTS, a new Hair Dynamics solver was added. Resources haven't fully caught up just yet, so I'll have a mix old and new tutorials that you can kind of mix and match.