What is Mudbox?
Mudbox is the first advanced, high resolution, brush-based 3d
sculpting software built from the ground up to address the needs of
the professional digital sculptor. Designed by production
artists for production artists working on demanding
projects, Mudbox introduces new ideas and combines familiar
concepts in new and exciting ways to offer a unique solution for
high-end commercial modeling.
With its friendly interface, consistent structure, respect for
industry convention, and a "get it done" focus, Mudbox is quick to
learn and easy to use, integrating seamlessly with existing
pipelines.
Who is Mudbox for?
Users of Mudbox include:
- Digital modelers working on demanding assets
requiring flexibility, speed, and the highest level of detail and
sculptural quality.
- Texture painters needing to create high
quality displacement or normal maps.
- Traditional sculptors wishing to take
advantage of the many benefits of working digitally, without having
to spend weeks just learning the tools.
- Concept designers wanting to visualize ideas
in 3d.
How is Mudbox used?
Mudbox is designed for manipulating digital surfaces
organically. Geometry can be either imported from file or generated
using one of the basic mesh templates provided with Mudbox.
Completed models can be exported to be lit and rendered in an
external package or to be used for displacement and normal map
generation.
Mudbox is great for:
Designing:
- Start with a basic model template and explore dozens of
different design directions.
- Use Mudbox's powerful 3D Layers to version your design ideas or
to non-destructively combine different designs.
- Use Subdivision Levels to preserve superficial detailing while
making broad changes to the gross forms underneath.
- Evaluate the design properly by working in true perspective.
View the design through different lenses by adjusting the camera's
Field of View.
- Create multiple cameras or camera bookmarks to quickly jump to
common viewpoints or areas of the model.
- Output a model that can be milled out for client evaluation or
can be passed directly downstream to other digital departments for
rigging, shading, and testing.
Detailing:
- Use as much resolution as you need with Local Subdivision to
create mesh densities upward of 30 million faces.
- Use Layers to separate surface details (pores, veins, scars,
etc) for easy and nondestructive editing or to supply different map
sets for different channels in the shader.
- Use Mudbox's Scratch brush to slice through dense meshes
creating crisp, clean lines.
- Sculpt all detail directly in 3d, avoiding 2d
projection, using Mudbox's brush tip Stamps for 3d brushes.
- Use Mudbox's unique tangent based symmetry sculpting to detail
both sides of a model posed in a natural (asymmetric) or
client-approved "character" pose.
General Sculpting
- Build up form with control using Mudbox's falloff curve to
accurately shape the tip of 3d brushes. Cut sharp, juicy wrinkles
into the mesh with a single stroke.
- Import and create multiple objects within Mudbox. Manage them
through a conventional Object List, selecting, hiding and locking
whichever you please.
- Increase interaction with dense models by using Mudbox's point
based Draft Render.
- Maximize your work space and keep your cursor over the model
while working, by using Mudbox's convential 3D camera controls and
its handy "picking" feature.
- For Linux users, work more efficiently by sculpting with
software that works on the same platform as your primary 3d
package.