Overview of sculpting with maps

You can apply a Ptex file or an image file as a displacement map to sculpt the surface of your model in Mudbox.

If you’re applying an image map, the model must have well-defined UV texture coordinates. (See UVs overview and Prepare a model for sculpting.) If the target mesh has no texture coordinates, you can use Ptex to sculpt the surface, however the topology of the target model must match the topology in the Ptex file.

Mudbox supports displacement maps of 8, 16, and 32-bit images. For best results, use displacement maps that are 16-bit or 32-bit floating point as they better represent the fine details on a sculpted model. See also Image bit depth and texture extraction.

Sculpting with displacement maps lets you:

Apply a displacement map to a model to pre-deform the model and save time when sculpting. Some sculpted features are more easily created using a displacement map as the starting point. You can then add detail using other sculpting tools.
Transfer details between models with differing topologies and UV layouts. For example, extract the details from a high resolution sculpt model for use on a lower resolution model that will be animated.
The low resolution model can be optimized for animation and have a different topology from the high resolution version. You extract the displacement map from the high resolution source model to the low resolution target model (even if it has different topology) so the displacement map can be correlated to the UVs on the low resolution model. Mudbox supports the extraction of displacement maps on models with UVs that exist outside the 0-1 range.
Recreate a subdivision level from a Mudbox version 1.0.7 (or earlier) model, particularly if the model was created using the local subdivision feature (obsolete in Mudbox 2009). If the UVs correlate between the models, you can use Import As Layer with the UV correspondence option.

TipPre-subdivide the target model (that will receive the displacement map) to a sufficient level. The map detail can appear soft or blurred if there is not enough resolution in the target model. If you are applying a displacement map from an earlier version of Mudbox (1.0.7 or earlier), pre-subdivide the base model to the same subdivision level (or as close as possible) as the model you extracted from before applying the map. This process can take a few iterations.