https://blogsimplesimmer.tumblr.com/post/149294050235/hello-i-was-asked-by-wackywildsimmerx-about-hat

Hello! I was asked by @wackywildsimmerx about hat chop tutorials and the two I found were not in Blender and they were kind of difficult to find to begin with, so I thought that I could make a hat chop tutorial that will hopefully be helpful for others!

This tutorial is for people who have created a hair mesh and are ready to add the hat chops to it.

Also, it became a lot more text-heavy than expected, sorry about that!

Once you have your hair mesh all done–it’s combined into one mesh, the UVs have been laid out and you’ve dealt with any weight issues that you need to, it’s time to make 2 copies of your mesh if you haven’t already. You do this by selecting your mesh and then by pressing SHIFT + D. When this happens you’ll have a white outline around your copied mesh. To release it in the center, click the Right Mouse Button (RMB).

After you’ve made your two copies of your mesh, you’re going to bring in two hat meshes. I use the beanie and the brown paperboy hat. You can use what you please, I just found that they’re the easiest to use and see what you’re doing. You append meshes by going to File–>Append or by pressing SHIFT + F1, and then finding your hat meshes.

Now you’re going to select one of your mesh copies and one of the hats that you’re going to make the hat chop for and you hide everything else by clicking on the eye icons in the right top box. You’ll need to change the GEOM cut for both mesh copies–for the brown paperboy hat that seems to sit on a horizontal line the GEOM cut will be 0000. For the beanie or other hats that sit on slant, the GEOM cut will be 0001 [ignore my mistake in the picture]. You can always change this at the end, if you forget.

Next you’re going to view the hair mesh and hat from the side, you can do this by selecting Right or Left from the View Menu or press 3 on the Number Pad for the Right view.

Now you’ll go into Edit Mode by clicking on the drop-down menu where you often see Object Mode as the default or you can press the TAB key. I also like to be able to see the vertices on the other side of the mesh hidden from me, so I click the little button that looks like two squares on top of each other.

There are two tools I use a lot for hat chops: the Bisect tool and Proportional Editing. In order to use the Bisect tool you must select all of your mesh, which you do by pressing the A key (once or twice, depending on whether or not you have something selected). I also like to work with vertices–you get more finesse, in my opinion.

To use the Bisect tool, you need to look in the gray tray in the middle/left side and click on the Tools Tab. Select the Bisect tool and click the Left Mouse Button (LMB) somewhere outside of the mesh (I usually do it near the front of the hat), hold down the LMB while you make the angle of the cut and then release the LMB when the line is where you want it. You want to make the line follow the bottom edge of the hat, but leave a little space.

Now, before doing anything with the vertices press the F6 key to bring up a small menu. You will choose either “Clear Inner” or “Clear Outer” – whichever one removes the top of the hair mesh for you.

This is where Proportional Editing will come into play. I typically deselect the vertices on the front of the mesh before leaving this view of the mesh, because they often just need a little tinkering compared to the back of the mesh. With this ponytail, I knew that I would have to scale in the ponytail quite a bit in order to make it seem like it was hidden under the hat.