Mudbox supports several image formats for stencils and stamps. While you can use 8-bit images, you can achieve better results with images that are 16 or 32-bit depth.
If you plan to use vector displacement maps for stamps or stencils, you can use texture extraction in Mudbox to produce 32-bit TIFF images. See Extract a vector displacement map for more information.
Using Photoshop for stencils and stamps
To create stamps and stencils with an alpha channel (RGBA) and have 16 bits per channel as their bit depth, you can use an editing application such as Adobe Photoshop.
(Ensures the file is not tagged with an existing color profile.)
A new blank image appears in the work area. A checkered background on the canvas indicates the presence of the alpha channel.