FiberBake · Section 01

Getting Started

Installation, addon preferences, opening the bake scene, the recommended workflow and the custom keymap.

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Requirements

  • Blender 5.0, 5.1 or 5.2 LTSA single build runs across all three, including the 5.2 LTS series. Blender 5.2 reworked the Geometry Nodes modifier API; the addon bridges both API shapes internally, so nothing changes for you.
  • CyclesShips with Blender by default. Every bake pass renders with Cycles; the Color, Normal and Opacity passes use the sample count you set in the Bake section, while the remaining passes use a fixed count optimized for each map type.

Installation

Download the addon as a .zip file. Do not extract it.

  1. In Blender, go to Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions.
  2. Open the options menu in the top-right corner and choose Install from Disk.
  3. Select the downloaded .zip file.
  4. Blender installs and enables the addon automatically.

The addon is available immediately. No restart is required.

Addon Preferences

After installation, open the addon's preferences to configure the working folders.

  • Default Output FolderWhere textures are exported when the current scene does not define a custom output path.
  • Presets Root FolderRoot folder for user presets. The addon creates FiberBake Presets with separate GN (strand) and Material subfolders.

If no presets folder is defined, presets are stored in Blender's user scripts presets path (scripts/presets/FiberBake Presets/).

Recommended: Keep both folders outside the Blender installation so they survive Blender or addon updates.
FiberBake addon preferences screenshot

Open Bake Hair Cards

In the 3D Viewport, press N, open the FiberBake tab, and click Open Bake Hair Cards. The first time, a notice reminds you to save your work, use the addon's tools to create and edit strands, and not to rename or hand-edit FiberBake objects, materials or node groups.

  • FiberBake workspaceA dedicated workspace with its own scene.
  • Orthographic cameraFrames the strands automatically while you work.
  • Render setupConfigured per the selected viewport display mode (see Viewport).
  • Addon sidebarAvailable directly inside the bake workspace.

All bake work is done inside this workspace. Use Exit in the Scene & Advanced section to return to your regular layout.

First-run timing: on a brand-new install the workspace opens in Preview mode, so the strand can take a few extra seconds to appear the first time while Blender compiles the preview shaders; likewise, the first Ambient Occlusion bake starts a little slower while Cycles compiles its kernels. Both are one-time costs per install, not per session, and neither affects bake speed afterward.
Open Bake Hair Cards screenshot

The Bake Hair Cards

The FiberBake bake workspace after opening the bake scene

The bake workspace you land in after Open Bake Hair Cards.

  • StrandsCreate or adjust strands in Strands and shape them in Strand Settings.
  • MaterialAssign and tune the material in Material.
  • PassesChoose which maps to produce in Passes & Preview.
  • BakeSet render quality and texture size in Bake and press Bake. Textures are generated in memory (not written to disk yet).
  • PreviewCheck any pass with Open in Image Editor.
  • ExportWrite the chosen set to disk from Export, optionally with OBJ planes.
  • Groom Hair CardsOpen Groom Hair Cards to groom the cards onto a head as sculptable layers, then bake them into one mesh and export to FBX. Jump there straight from the bake with Groom on Character, or import a previously exported OBJ in a standalone session.
The bake and groom loop. The two stages stay in sync. From the groom you can go Back to Bake, adjust a texture or add and remove cards, re-bake, then press Update from Bake to refresh the cards in place while your sculpted layers keep their grooming. Iterate as often as you need, all in one project.
Note: Bakes live in memory until you export them. They are not stored in the .blend and are lost on reload. Use Export to keep them on disk.

Keyboard Shortcuts

The FiberBake workspace uses a custom keymap adapted to a 2D orthographic workflow. The most important change: the middle mouse button pans the view instead of orbiting, so you do not need to hold Shift. Every other shortcut is Blender's native one. This change only applies inside the FiberBake workspace.

Suggestion: Always create, duplicate and delete strands with the panel buttons, not Blender shortcuts (Shift+D, X, Delete). The native shortcuts can leave orphaned data, such as the emitter linked to a strand.
  • ScrollZoom.
  • MMBPan the view (orbits by default in Blender; remapped to pan only inside this workspace).
  • Click + Drag / GMove. G > X / G > Y constrain horizontally / vertically.
  • RRotate.
  • Click / A / BSelect / select-deselect all / box select.
  • H / Alt+HHide selected strand / show hidden strands.
  • Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+ZUndo / redo.
Index

FiberBake Docs

Back to the FiberBake documentation hub and all sections.

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Bake Hair Cards

The full bake workspace on one page: strands, material, passes, baking, export and more.

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