Pencil Pro is a Blender add-on by CGMatter, sold through Superhive (formerly Blender Market). Officially categorised as a “Modifier Setup”, it converts meshes into animated hand-drawn sketches. Unlike simple material overlays, it simulates actual drawing strokes: dual-pass lines and shading, screen-space rendering, and edge-flow aware strokes that follow mesh curvature.

The add-on requires no UVs, works on multiple or animated meshes, and lighting is optional. Setup is a single-button operation: assign a target collection in Blender, hit Pencil Pro, and the add-on spawns both a line-art controller and a procedural shading material.

Update 1.1: faster strokes

Version 1.1, released on 7 May 2025, introduced a 2.5× performance boost plus a “fast mode” for more aggressive optimisation. Pencil Pro is sold standalone for US$15, or discounted as part of the Genie bundle (a multi-add-on pack on Superhive).And yes, we only got to the Update now – sorry for being late, but… this is too good not to share.

Why it matters

Standard NPR converters often break down under close inspection, repeating UV-bound textures or ignoring mesh topology. Pencil Pro instead calculates in screen space, with strokes that flow along the underlying geometry. Zooming out retains line density. Lighting is optional, but when used, shading and line placement respond dynamically. The system works live: moving, rotating, or editing geometry triggers immediate redrawing.

Workflow and setup

After installation, the add-on appears in Blender’s N-panel. It only activates once a target collection is selected. Users can choose whether to generate material shading, line art, or both. Once enabled, Pencil Pro creates a controller object with collection and light assignments, applies a Pencil Pro material to each object in the collection, and generates a Grease Pencil object for strokes. Multiple meshes can share one controller as long as they are grouped into the same collection, and lights can be included to enhance shading.

Line art controls

Line work is Grease Pencil-based, with boundary outlines and interior strokes working together. A light threshold setting determines where lines appear on illuminated faces: lower values suppress strokes in highlights, while higher values draw them across bright areas. Stroke population is influenced by density, which sets the number of strokes; length, which controls whether they appear as short stipples or long contours; and opacity, which acts as a transparency multiplier. Resolution defines how finely each stroke is segmented, with at least two points required to form a line, while the duplicates option repeats strokes with slight offsets to simulate sketching over contours.

Because strokes follow mesh curvature, geometry resolution is critical. A quality level setting subdivides input geometry automatically to improve stroke flow, but low-poly meshes still benefit from manual subdivision to avoid faceted artefacts. Stroke appearance can be further adjusted through thickness controls, radius variation between boundary and interior strokes, and smoothness, which reduces jaggedness at the cost of precision. Natural imperfections are added by transform variation, which offsets strokes slightly in rotation, scale, or position, and by noise variation, which controls the amount and frequency of stroke wiggle. Overshoot settings allow strokes to extend beyond contours for a more human look. All strokes are drawn relative to the camera, meaning that hidden surfaces are ignored.

Shading controls

Shading is screen-space based: the image plane acts as the paper. Correct aspect ratio is important, since mismatches distort hatching patterns. A time parameter drives temporal randomness, with shading and strokes changing slightly per frame to mimic hand-drawn flicker. This effect can be disabled by removing the driver, leaving shading static.

Surface appearance is controlled by several parameters. A light multiplier adjusts the sensitivity of shading to scene lighting. Fresnel brings back edge highlights and contour definition, while roughness breaks up the transition between light and dark. Smudge adds irregularities to shading, preventing the tiled look of procedural patterns.

Two main shading techniques are available. Hatching is controlled through line thickness, patch scale, rotation angle, and distortion, which moves away from an unnatural grid into more organic variation. Dark regions fill automatically with more hatch strokes, and increasing thickness deepens shadows. Dots, or stippling, operate with their own threshold, radius, spacing, and randomness controls. They provide a dithering-like effect that differs from hatching but can be combined with it. Both methods respond to lighting conditions, including world background light, which influences the perceived shadow depth.

Dynamic behaviour

All aspects of the effect are procedural and update instantly. Moving objects, rotating meshes, editing topology, or changing lights triggers live redrawing. Temporal randomisation adds an authentic flicker that resembles flip-book animation, though it can be locked if a static look is required. Demonstrations show Blender’s Suzanne mesh being rotated, extruded, and shaded on the fly, with immediate recalculation.

When zoomed out, the viewport may display cross-hatch artefacts, but these do not persist in renders. Overlapping strokes can be reduced by shortening stroke length and decreasing overshoot values.

Pricing and availability

Pencil Pro is available as a standalone product for US $15 via Superhive and is also offered at a reduced price within the Genie add-on bundle.

Reminder

As with any procedural tool, users should run in-house tests before committing Pencil Pro to production work. Behaviour may differ at render scale compared to viewport previews.

The post Pencil Pro sharpens Blender with hand-drawn precision first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.