Tuesday, October 21st, 2025 Posted by Jim Thacker

Orange Turbine releases Retopoflow 4.0 for Blender


Orange Turbine has released Retopoflow 4.0, the long-awaited update to its popular Blender retopology add-on.

A suite of “fun, sketch-based retopology tools”, Retopoflow makes it possible to create clean low-poly meshes from high-poly sculpts by drawing out the new topology on their surface.

Version 4.0 integrates the tools into Blender’s Edit Mode and “massively boosts performance”.

A popular Blender add-on that aims to make retopology as enjoyable as sculpting
First released a decade ago, Retopoflow is a popular Blender add-on for retopologizing high-poly meshes, like digital sculpts and 3D scans, for animation or real-time work.

Its developer, Orange Turbine, is part of the Autotroph group of projects that also includes training provider CG Cookie and online marketplace SuperHive (previously Blender Market).

Retopoflow enables artists to create clean low-poly meshes by drawing out their topology on top of a high-res asset, with the new geometry automatically snapping to its surface.

It has tools for working on a range of scales, including Strokes, for drawing entire patches of quads, PolyStrips, for drawing strips of quads, and PolyPen, for working vertex-by-vertex.

The low-poly mesh can then be adjusted using a brush-based workflow, via the Tweak and Relax brushes.

One user comment reposted on Retopoflow’s SuperHive page describes the workflow as being more like digital sculpting than conventional retopology, and more enjoyable as a result.


Retopoflow 4.0: faster, and integrated into Blender’s Edit Mode
Released in public beta earlier this year, Retopoflow 4.0 is a major under-the-hood update.

A “complete rewrite” of the add-on, it integrates the integrates the tools directly into Blender’s Edit Mode, for a “fast, non-blocking” workflow.

It also “massively boosts performance” with “new algorithms and hotkeys for completing your work even faster”.

In addition, it is now possible to use the tools on non-mesh objects like curves, NURBS geometry, metaballs and text, as shown above.

The initial stable release includes most of the key tools from Retopoflow 3, including all of the tools mentioned in this story, although the Patches tool is still to be ported over.

Free on GitHub, but buy a commercial license if you use it professionally
Both the source code and compiled binaries of Retopoflow are available free on GitHub, particularly for students and teachers.

However, development of the software is funded through sales on Superhive, so if you use it professionally, you should really pay for a commercial license.

Price and system requirements
Retopoflow 4.0 is compatible with Blender 4.2+. Source code is available under a GPL license.

An individual license costs $85.99 on Superhive; team licenses start at $151.99. At the time of writing, the compiled binary available free on GitHub has not been updated to version 4.0.

Read more about Retopoflow in the plugin’s Superhive listing


Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.