Quick Retopo is a Blender addon designed to speed up the retopology process for 3D models. It allows you to interactively draw, extend, and modify a quad-based grid directly on the surface of a high-poly object. This provides a fast and intuitive workflow for creating clean, low-poly game or animation-ready assets.
- Interactive Grid Drawing: Instantly generate a strip of quads by drawing a line on your high-poly model.
- Smart Extension: Click green arrows on boundary edges to add new segments that inherit size and orientation.
- Surface-Aware Manipulation:
- Soft Move: Drag quad centers with a falloff for organic adjustments.
- Vertex Tweak: Fine-tune individual vertices while snapping to the surface.
- Flexible Sizing: Resize individual quads dynamically with the mouse wheel.
- Pinning System: Lock specific vertices (purple) to exclude them from global straightening operations.
- Container & Docking: Stitch new topology to existing meshes using the Highlight Container and Align tools.
- Grid Regularization:
- Straighten: Even out the grid while respecting surface curvature.
- Flatten: Force the grid into a planar strip (great for hard-surface).
- Auto-Welding: Merge vertices instantly using the interactive blue diamond handle.
- Selection Mode: Use the grid brush to select polygons on the underlying mesh instead of creating new geometry.
| Action | Shortcut / Interaction | Visual Cue |
|---|---|---|
| Draw Initial Strip | LMB Drag on surface |
Blue Line |
| Add Segment | Click Green Arrow on edge | Green Arrow |
| Move Segment | Drag Cyan Circle | Cyan Circle |
| Resize Segment | Shift + Mouse Wheel (over center) |
Scale Change |
| Delete Segment | Shift + Click Red Cross |
Red Cross |
| Move Vertex | Ctrl + Drag Vertex |
Yellow Handle |
| Pin / Unpin Vertex | Alt + Click Vertex |
Purple Dot |
| Weld Vertices | Click Blue Diamond (when close) | Blue Diamond |
| Exit Preview | ESC |
- |
- Download the latest
.ziprelease. - Open Blender and go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons.
- Click Install..., select the ZIP file, and click Install Add-on.
- Enable "Quick Retopo" in the list.
Requirements:
- Blender 3.3 LTS or newer (Compatible with Blender 4.0+).
- Ensure you are in Object Mode.
- Select your high-poly reference model.
- Open the Sidebar (
N) and go to the Retopo tab. - Adjust Grid Settings (Size, Align Distance, etc.) if needed.
- Start Drawing: Click the button and drag a line on your model to create the first strip.
- Start from Container: If you have existing geometry in the Highlight Container, click this to spawn arrows on its edges and extend from there.
- Grow the Grid: Hover over edges and click the Green Arrows to extrude new quads.
- Tweak: Use the handles to move segments or
Ctrl-drag vertices to fit the topology to the form. - Resize: Use
Shift + Wheelto adjust the density of specific areas. - Pinning: Hold
Altand click vertices to "Pin" them. Pinned vertices act as anchors and won't move when you use the Straighten tools. - Alignment:
- Add existing meshes to the Highlight Container.
- Use Align or Align and Pin to snap your current grid's border to the container mesh.
- Use Stitch Selected to merge separate mesh islands later.
Once you are happy with the layout, check the Final Action section:
- Mode: Create Mesh (Default)
- Optional: Check Add Modifiers (Subsurf + Shrinkwrap).
- Optional: Check Enable Snapping (Sets up Blender's face snapping automatically).
- Click Create Retopo Mesh.
- Mode: Select Polygons
- Click Select Polygons to select the faces of the high-poly model that lie beneath your grid (useful for extracting parts of a mesh).
If you encounter bugs or have feature requests, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.