Hair We Go! Ethnic Hair Grooms for Metahumans

Hair Grooms Case Study

As we began developing our own IP at Coded Arts, we leveraged the power of Unreal Engine and its highly customizable Metahuman system to craft our NPCs. However, given the diverse setting of our game, we quickly encountered a challenge: the lack of available hair grooms to accurately represent the wide variety of styles needed. This prompted us to embark on a case study to see how many unique grooms we could create, drawing inspiration from real-world hairstyles rarely seen in today's video games.

Building on our experience from *The London Project*, we refined our workflows and used real-life models as reference points. With just three artists, we tackled this task in our spare time, after completing client work. The timeline was tight—we gave ourselves only three weeks. But as they say, pressure creates diamonds.

In the end, our efforts were incredibly rewarding. We successfully created real-time hair grooms within UE5, all while maintaining high visual fidelity and staying true to the artistic direction of the game. We’re excited to continue this journey, expanding our library with dozens of authentic, natural hairstyles that reflect the diversity of the diaspora.

There’s so much more to reveal—stay tuned for our upcoming look development!