Smooth Shading Changes Hairstyle In Blender 3.5

Support Particles and Physics Simulations
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1

Hi.
So I made a Suzanne monkey head.
Added quick fur (with Blender 3.5.0).
Removed and applied some hair modifiers.
Styled it. Just as a test.

Then I realized I forgot to turn smooth shading on for the monkeyhead mesh (in object mode).
Turning it on changed the hairstyle!
Turning on flat shading changes it back.

How can I have both smooth shading and the intended hairstyle?
I don’t wanna lose a bunch of hard work just because I forgot to turn on smooth shading before adding hair.
And why does the head mesh’s shading affect the hairstyle?

I tried these things, but it didn’t fix it:

  • changing the order of hair modifiers (after turning on smooth shading)
  • opening it in Blender 3.5.1
  • playing around with hair modifier settings
  • using a subdivision surface modifier on the head mesh instead of a multires.

P.s. blend file is too big to attach here.
Edit: here are screenshots:

  1. Intended hairstyle, but monkey mesh shading is flat (which I don’t want):
    hair 3.5 and mesh shading.1)Flat Shading.Intended Hairstyle but Shading Is flat_2023-04-27_15-27-10
    hair 3.5 and mesh shading.1)Flat Shading.Intended Hairstyle but Shading Is flat_2023-04-27_15-27-101920×1080 1.05 MB
  1. Shading is smooth, but hairstyle is not as intended"
    hair 3.5 and mesh shading.2)Smooth Shading, but Hairstyle is different_2023-04-27_15-27-50
    hair 3.5 and mesh shading.2)Smooth Shading, but Hairstyle is different_2023-04-27_15-27-501920×1080 1.09 MB
  1. Modifier for head mesh:
    hair 3.5 and mesh shading.3) head mesh modifiers. p.s. I scaled the monkey head by 0.1 before adding hair_2023-04-27_15-28-04
    hair 3.5 and mesh shading.3) head mesh modifiers. p.s. I scaled the monkey head by 0.1 before adding hair_2023-04-27_15-28-041920×1080 1.04 MB
2

Delete all the mesh with no hair. Add a second, smoothed, Suzanne.
Use a copy of this file - so you can return to this state if you need to.

Can you mute the hair, add smooth, and unmute the hair?
Or do you just need to tick the Follow Surface Normal option…

1 Like
3

Thanks!
Deleting the monkey head mesh and replacing it with another one with smooth shading somehow worked! I don’t understand why.

The other suggestions didn’t work (either that, or I don’t understand curves. First time really using them).

Now I have to figure out how to rig the hair. Converting it to a mesh slows down pc and is invisible, does weird stuff. Converting to “Curves” (not to be confused with the other “Curve” option), I don’t know how to rig it.