Quad draw is a massively helpful tool for the re-topology of a mesh, or to create an item of clothing, or accessory, for a character. It creates a new mesh that overlays an already created one, hopefully, reducing the poly count, if done right.
In this case I took my newly created head as my first test.
To start I selected the object that is my head and made it live. This is a toggle at the top of the screen, the last of the magnet shapes under the menu bar. This allows me to follow the mesh with quad draw.
Next I turned on quad draw in the ‘modeling’ tab.
To quad draw itself is easy to use. to start off click on the mesh. Doing so places a yellow dot on the screen. Add three more, to make a square of dots, then hold shift. Holding the cursor over the square the potential square will highlight in yellow, click on it to make it solid. This process can be replicated across the rest of the mesh.
There are a few shortcuts to help speed up the process. If you hold ‘Tab’ while over a squares edge the edge will highlight yellow. This allows you to click and drag the edge, pulling a square of equal width from the existing, releasing it sets the new quad in place, allowing you to quickly pull new, already made quads onto the new mesh. If you have a line of quads and shift drag them in the same manner you can set rows at a time, very helpful for areas of mesh containing little or no detail.
Having discovered this my job became easier.
A problem I encountered was following the topology. Firstly I assumed that the quad draw would automatically follow the existing topology underneath, regardless of the size of quads I made, this is not the case. To successfully navigate these areas the size, and position, of the quads must not exceed the face below, nor it’s orientation. Make sure you have lined up the quads correctly and they are as close to the mesh as you can get them. Rotation of the view can help drag in errant quads, or verts, to position.
Once completed, a section, or the whole, then is the tedious job of re-aligning all the edges and verts in the same manner you would in constructing a mesh, this is a new mesh after all.
This was a test for me to see how quad draw worked, learning all of it’s limitations. I have seen it’s use as a tool enough to know that if i require it to topologise I should have made a more efficient base mesh. Making it an exercise in futility, it would be better for me in the long run to do it right first time. After completing my head I found I had four thousand extra ploy’s, clearly this was pointless for me to replace my existing mesh.
It’s other use is incredibly helpful, on the other hand. To create some clothing or accessories for my character. This process takes out all of the work that would be required for me to do this with a new mesh, fitting it by eye, while giving me a snug fitting item with little fuss. Which I will do next.
My Blueprint Factory 