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Why do you need to have quads? Is it for animation for when you put bones in and move something around like an arm, or is it something else?

If say a plate with no moving parts or a ball would it still need to all be quads? A ball would move around but it wouldn't move around like say an arm or a face. Let me know if you need more clarification. The asset is to be put in a game.

Also does the quad need to be square shaped or does it just need to have 4 verts?

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It doesn't need to be quads.

HOWEVER: many deformation-algorythms and generative modifiers (Subdivision Surfaces) will produce cleaner results if you feed them only quads.

Most gameengines wont work with ngons, as they can be troublesome to deform correctly, so you should use either quads, or triangles.

Also, calculations for quads and triangles are very fast compared to higher polygons or ngons.

About the shape of a quad: a quad is a planar convex 4point-poligon. That means it's flat and no corner is dented in.

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  • $\begingroup$ so I assume that if I made a triangle shape with 3 verts then added 1 more vert giving it 4 verts but keeping the same tri shape it wouldn't really be a quad as you put it it would be dented in.ps thank you for not refering me to google $\endgroup$
    – someone
    Commented May 10, 2017 at 16:26
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    $\begingroup$ @someone, concerning the pseudo quad you're talking about, no... in fact no general rules, but main principles that correspond to rules (as described in both answers). Vertices are some kind of genotype, and the result is the phenotype. But the point is "how to do the good genotype?". There is not one absolute good answer (I think) about that. On another aspect, google can provide a lot in this matter: you may google about '3D topology', look at the result, and forge your opinion. $\endgroup$
    – lemon
    Commented May 10, 2017 at 17:32
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    $\begingroup$ Also of note are the modelling tools - for example adding an edge loop goes through quads and stops at tris or ngons. $\endgroup$
    – sambler
    Commented May 11, 2017 at 7:03
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  1. Quads are industry standard for most animation studios
  2. Ngons are brutally hard to predict & quite often make sloppier looking renders
  3. Triangles are incredibly flexible. However everyone in the workflow needs to know how to deal with them properly in order for things to go well.
  4. Highfidelity.io is a fine example of what can happen when everyone loves tri
  5. Avoiding tris & ngons reduces the amount of variables when trouble shooting
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