The Realtime Hair FlipBox by Hazel Brown

Get a complete real-time hair workflow with 3 tutorials and 8 production-ready hairstyles. This FlipBox by Hazel Brown covers everything from baking textures to final in-engine setups, giving you the working files and knowledge to create professional game hair.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Create high-quality hair textures for real-time use
• Bake hair textures using Arnold and xNormal
• Build and place hair cards from scratch
• Structure hair into layers (base, volume, depth, breakup)
• Optimize hair for real-time performance
• Use vertex colors to control shading and breakup

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic understanding of Maya and hair card concepts
• Tools: GS CurveTools (paid Maya plug-in, highly recommended), Arnold and/or xNormal for baking, Marmoset Toolbag for viewing scenes
• Hardware: Standard 3D workstation with dedicated GPU

📝 Description

This isn’t just a set of tutorials—it’s a full production toolkit. You get 3 step-by-step video guides and 8 complete hairstyle assets, each with their original Maya scenes, FBX files, Marmoset scenes, and textures. Hazel Brown walks you through her professional pipeline, starting with the fundamentals of hair card creation and moving into advanced techniques like using GS CurveTools for efficient strand placement.

The real value here is seeing how a lead hair artist structures her work. You’ll learn how to layer hair into base, volume, depth, and breakup passes, then use vertex colors to control shading and add natural variation. The included assets—braids, locs, waves, updos, afro, and more—serve as both reference and starting points for your own projects. Whether you’re baking with Arnold or xNormal, the workflows are production-tested and ready to drop into your pipeline.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Game artists who want to specialize in real-time hair
• Character artists looking to improve their hair card workflow
• Beginners comfortable with Maya who want to learn professional hair techniques

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Hazel Brown is a Lead Hair Artist at Roarty Digital, where she works on AAA games. She started her 3D journey studying Game Art at De Montfort University in the UK, then worked as a Character Artist for five years before switching to hair specialization. Her experience spans multiple high-profile game titles, giving her a practical, production-focused approach to teaching.

🏁 Final Result

• 8 complete real-time hairstyle assets with working files
• A solid understanding of professional hair card workflows
• The ability to create, texture, and optimize hair for game engines