 Product Review: Mudbox 2011
Mudbox 2011 was released in April, and is
available separately, or as part of the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suites. It
boasts a variety of new features and enhancements over its
predecessor. For those who are not familiar with it, Mudbox is a
digital sculpting application, and also meant to be used as a
finishing tool to add small details to your models.
The most noticeable change in Mudbox 2011 is the new color
scheme. This new scheme is meant to be easier on the eyes, as well
as integrating Mudbox better visually with the rest of the Autodesk
software. However, the interface itself has not been rewritten (as
it was rewritten for Maya 2011).
The most significant new feature is the posing toolset. You can
now use joints to deform and pose your models, and you can also
import an already rigged model and use its skeleton to deform and
pose it inside Mudbox. As I said, Mudbox is a sculpting software,
but the posing toolset combined with the different viewport filters
should allow artists to create snapshots of their models for
supervisors or clients to see, so having these posing tools is a
welcome addition. Keep in mind, though, that the Create Joint tool
in Mudbox is actually meant to create one single joint to
quick-test a specific deformation, so if you need to rig a complete
character, you will need to import the rigged character
instead.
You can change paint weights on the bones if you're not
satisfied with the current deformations. However, if you've done
your weighting correctly in Maya (or your 3D app of choice), they
should work just fine in Mudbox since the rigged models are
transferred to Mudbox using the industry-standard FBX format.
Another amazing feature is the "flatten to UV space" command.
This command allows you to "unwrap" your model and lay it out
according to its already-created UVs. This is very useful as it
simulates how you'd paint directly in UV view, without leaving
Mudbox. If you revert your model to the previous view mode, any
changes you've made to the texture will be reflected on the
model.
Mudbox 2011 includes new painting tools: Blur, Dodge, Burn,
Contrast, Sponge, Hue, Hue Shift and Invert, and should be very
useful in your 3D painting. However, it is obvious that the Mudbox
painting toolset can't be compared to a dedicated application, such
as Photoshop. That's why it's also useful that
there is now an improved connection between Mudbox and
Photoshop.
You can export your painted texture as a layered PSD file. Once
in Photoshop, you can modify your layers, and add new layers. When
you save your file, Mudbox will detect it's been modified and ask
if you want to reload the file, updating all of your texture
layers.
Mudbox 2011 can also generate vector displacement maps. Vector
displacement maps are like a combination of normal and displacement
maps, allowing you to displace your geometry in all directions,
instead of just along the normals.
As I said before, sometimes you'll need to take a snapshot of
your model inside Mudbox to show it to a client, supervisor or
co-worker. You can create lights, use viewport filters and apply
shaders to your objects. In Mudbox 2011 you have a variety of
material presets ready to be used.
The different features allow for a faster workflow, and the
improved connection with Photoshop will surely become one of your
best assets. If you're a Mudbox user, you will surely like Mudbox
2011.
For more information, please visit:
Autodesk
 Sergio
Aris Rosa [nemirc], is Sr. Staff Writer for the Renderosity Front Page
News. Sergio discusses on computer graphics software,
animation techniques, and technology. He also hosts interviews with
professionals in the animation and cinematography fields. You can
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