Houdini Hair Simulation Workflow - HIP File

Simulating 1 Million Hairs in Houdini—Efficiently

This is the annotated working file from my viral Houdini hair simulation tutorial. Instead of brute-forcing millions of strands, this setup shows how to simulate just the guide hairs and use them to drive dense, render-ready results.

Perfect for VFX, motion design, and stylized animation work.

✅ What’s Inside:

• Houdini project file (HIP) with a complete guide-driven hair sim setup
• Annotated network with clear comments for learning and reuse
• Redshift materials and attributes for high-quality hair rendering
• Vellum soft-body droplets interacting naturally with the hair

💡 You’ll Learn:

• How to use guide curves for scalable hair simulations
• How to blend guide and render hairs for realism and speed
• Tricks with curve-based bend stiffness using curveu
• Dynamic constraints and working with Vellum Packed Prims
• Tips for shading and rendering hair with Redshift’s Principled Hair

Whether you're building complex groom setups or stylized effects, this file is a practical foundation you can build on.