Retopology and Baking
Build a low-poly surface over a model and bake normal and AO maps.
Updated
The Retopo workspace uses a high-poly source and a separate low-poly target. Use it when you need control over the delivered mesh topology.
Start a retopology session
Select the high-poly object. Open the Retopo toolbar menu and choose:
- Start Retopology (Empty)... to build the low-poly mesh yourself.
- Export Quad Mesh to Retopo Workspace... to start from an automatically generated quad mesh.
The Properties Meshes group identifies High Poly and Low Poly. Check these before editing or baking.
Build the low-poly surface
| Tool | Use |
|---|---|
| Create | Add or connect vertices; drag a boundary edge to extrude a quad. |
| Bridge Grid | Define two lines to build a connecting grid. |
| Edge Insert | Preview and insert an edge line. |
| Knife | Click a start and end to cut the retopo mesh. |
| Face Fill | Fill an opening as Quad, Triangle, or Cap. |
| Project | Project selected vertices to the high-poly surface; an empty selection projects all. |
| Move Brush | Move vertices under the brush. |
| Loops | Draw across the source to create or connect a loop. |
The viewport shows each tool's current gestures. With Bridge Grid, the wheel changes rows and Shift + wheel changes columns.
Use Face Opacity to inspect the source through the retopo faces. Auto Merge and its Threshold control merging of nearby retopo vertices.
Unwrap before baking
- Open Properties > Bake.
- Click Unwrap to generate and pack the low-poly UV islands.
- Confirm that the UV status is ready.
- Enable the maps to bake and review the bake settings.
Baking is blocked when the low-poly mesh has no UVs.
Bake supported maps
The current implemented map types are tangent normal and ambient occlusion. Other listed map types may be unavailable.
Use Bake All to bake enabled maps, or Bake on an individual supported map. Auto Cage estimates projection distance. Min Ray acts as its minimum distance, or as the fixed projection distance when Auto Cage is off. Normal Clamp limits grazing projection artifacts.
Inspect map status messages and the images themselves. A completed bake still needs a visual check around thin parts, hard edges, and nearby surfaces.
Use the result
Use Open Folder to inspect the output files. Send Blender transfers the UV low-poly mesh and baked maps through the bridge when its requirements are satisfied, including a written tangent normal map.
See Blender Bridge for setup.