Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I have not really used this product it came as part of the Autodesk Suite. I am studying for a bachelors degree in Media Art and Animation and we are using Autodesk Maya and 3D Studion Max. The school is geared toward using zBrush as the texture editing/sculpting software as this is what is currently being used in the industry. This may change in the future as it is much easier to work within the different applications when they are controlled by on product group.
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Autodesk Mudbox 2010Autodesk Mudbox 2010 digital sculpting and painting software gives artists the freedom to create 3D digital artwork as if they were working with clay and paint. Designed by professional artists in the film, game, and design industries, Mudbox combines a highly intuitive interface with a powerful toolset of stencils and brushes for creating ultra realistic models and environments.
Whether you're a seasoned 3D professional, an artist who works with traditional media, an amateur enthusiast, or a 2D graphic designer or illustrator looking to add 3D to your workflow, Mudbox is what you need to add a whole new dimension to your creativity.
"Mudbox has always been a part of my workflow since I started to use it on King Kong. I really liked the real-time shading and rendering features that were added in the recent versions, and as a Maya user, I love Mudbox's working environment."-- Pascal Raimbault, 3D Modeler
Hit the road to freedom Mudbox gives artists the ability to create without worrying about the technical details. Sculpt and paint as fast as you think. With its friendly user interface, Mudbox can be easily used by both traditional and digital artists.
Welcome to the age of digital sculpting and 3D painting There was a day when design ideas were visualized through a physical model fabricated or sculpted from materials such as metal, paper, wood, or clay. There was a day when digital artists worked in 2D. That time is over. Meet Mudbox.
Brush based digital sculpting With Mudbox you can digitally sculpt ultra realistic 3D models with incredible detail--down to the pores on a character's skin--with easy-to-use, high-quality sculpting tools, stamps, and stencils. Choose from an extensive list of brushes, or quickly tailor them to fit your project's particular needs.
If you are new to 3D, you can use one of the simple built-in primitive shapes, such as a sphere, as a starting point for creating organic forms. Artists already familiar with 3D software may want to begin their designs in a 3D application like Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, or Autodesk Softimage, and then bring them into Mudbox to refine the shape and add depth and texture. The Mudbox interface will be familiar to artists who already know these tools.
Texture painting Rotate your model to apply paint precisely where you want, no matter how complex the surface. Quickly and easily paint multiple diffuse, specular, reflection, and bump textures across multiple high-resolution maps on your 3D models. 3D painting is integrated with the familiar stamps and stencils workflow.
What you visualize is what they'll see The real-time rendering effects in Mudbox enable you to see your work in progress from any angle. When you're done, use Mudbox to show it off to clients, co-workers, or friends.
"Mudbox is a joy to use and is always surprising me with new possibilities for creativity. This software gets an A in my book and is a must-have for the serious CG artist." -- Tom Cushwa
From 2D to 3D It's never been easier to add a whole new dimension to your creativity. Adding Mudbox to your current 2D workflow frees you from the creative limitations associated with traditional photography, 2D software, hand illustration, and other traditional graphic design methods.
While the tools themselves will feel familiar to those who sculpt with clay, the Mudbox workflow offers the advantages of digital creative tools, such as Adobe Photoshop software, including the ability to organize your work using layers, mirror or flip them, and nondestructively edit your 3D models.
Let your inner child come out and play When was the last time you played with Play-Doh? It's time to try it again (minus the funny smell)! Mudbox guarantees hours of guilt-free fun--you're on a computer, so you must be working, right? After all, Mudbox is a work tool used by major film, TV, and games studios to create 3D characters and environments.
Ideal for:
3D artists
2D artists
Fine artists
Web and multimedia professionals
Traditional sculptors
Students
Applications:
Web and multimedia content
Film
Games
Television products
Design--automotive, consumer goods, industrial, architectural
Advertising
Product packaging
Illustration (classic, medical, or scientific)
Features
What's Included
Documentation and Learning:
Learning movies --Watch these movies to learn the essential skills to work in Mudbox.
QuickStart tutorial--Learn the basics of sculpting and painting in this step-by-step lesson.
Online documentation--The fully searchable online HTML-based help system includes user guides, tool references, and best practices.
Community: The AREA, a community for Autodesk Media & Entertainment products. Access free tutorials, downloads or interact with fellow users in discussion forums and see the multitude of talent from around the globe. Directly connect with industry professionals through blogs--more at area.autodesk.com.
Detailed Features IMPORTANT: Please read the System Requirements. As new hardware is added on an on-going basis, please also visit Autodesk's updated requirements.
User Interface Become productive in hours, rather than weeks, with the intuitive Mudbox user interface.
For traditional artists with no previous 3D experience, tools that closely mimic the behavior of their real-world counterparts are quickly understood and easily adopted.
Work with tools such as brushes, stamps, and stencils to quickly sculpt and create lifelike textures.
Use the Layer Editor to organize your work.
Maximize your workspace by hiding UI elements and using standard hotkeys to manipulate the camera.
Cameras Mudbox features innovative, accelerated camera manipulation, for excellent interactive performance with even the densest meshes.
Use multiple real-time cameras within a scene, including true perspective and orthographic cameras.
Bookmark your camera positions.
Model using reference images: each camera has its own image plane.
Use Smart Focus to position the camera based on the cursor position and brush size.
Manipulate your camera with trackball-style controls.
Use the same keyboard shortcuts for Mudbox cameras as those that are used for cameras in Autodesk Maya software.
Display Work interactively in an environment in which high-res 3D models retain their subtlety, realism, and detail.
Apply one or more image maps to any object, independent of the other objects in the scene.
Use smooth shading mode to get a display more representative of the limit surface.
Interactively view multiple texture channels (including bump and reflection) at the same time.
Interactively view multiple maps and multiple materials in the scene.
Work in real time with models that properly display advanced lighting (including HDRI-based lighting) and shadows.
Incorporate advanced display options into your presentation, including ambient occlusion, depth of field, and tone mapping.
Sculpt Layers Store different detail passes, design directions, libraries of morph targets, and more on multiple layers.
Mirror or flip the detail stored in one or more layers.
Edit nondestructively: Mudbox delivers paintable masks.
Quickly duplicate, merge, flatten, and reorder layers.
Precisely blend layers using interactive multiplier sliders and layer masks.
Use layers to store libraries of morph targets.
Advanced Digital Sculpting High-quality brushes, stencils, and curves let you quickly "sculpt" your geometry into the 3D model you envision.
3D Brushes
Use intelligently designed default brushes or quickly tailor them for custom behavior and performance.
Choose from a number of base brush types, including
Dry brush--enables you to create an effect similar to what can be achieved by painting only on the raised details of a model
Clone brush--enables you to quickly and easily copy existing paint on a model from one area to another, for your retouching needs
Sculpt brush--enables you to create complex forms with great control
Flatten brush--enables you to quickly create planes and wipe away detail
Wax brush--enables you to easily fill in area
Accurately shape your brush tips with falloff curves and stamps. A sharp falloff curve will cut an accurate, sharp stroke into the geometry with no soft stroke profiles.
Workflow
Sculpt both sides of topologically symmetrical models simultaneously--even when they are in an asymmetrical pose--with the powerful tangent space mirroring functionality.
Use curves as guides for brush strokes.
Use image stamps to quickly brush (in 3D) a detailed texture directly into your mesh.
Quickly add high-quality detail through mesh displacement. Use 8-, 16-, or 32-bit images to displace your mesh; Mudbox even supports displacement using multiple maps at one time.
Texture Painting and Assignment Quickly and easily paint multiple diffuse, specular, reflection, and bump textures across multiple high-resolution maps on your 3D models.
Apply detail precisely where required, regardless of UV distortion or surface complexity. In the Mudbox 3D Paint mode, the brush position relative to the model is calculated in true world space; paint is projected tangent to the model. 3D painting is integrated with the familiar stamps and stencils workflow.
Selectively paint reference images onto the model from a particular viewpoint. Using the new Projection brush, you can project paint onto the model from screen space.
Paint hero characters with ease: Mudbox supports the painting of multiple maps on multiple meshes.
Paint both sides of your model simultaneously with the familiar symmetry workflow.
Paint and display a different texture for each UV square unit tile.
Use the intuitive layer editor to easily manage multiple paint layers. You can select, blend, and organize several images for each texture channel.
Texture Baking With its robust texture baking capabilities, Mudbox solves one of the most common bottlenecks in production pipelines: baking of normal and displacement maps.
Bake high-quality normal and displacement maps between multiple arbitrary meshes. Detail can be baked into 8-, 16-, and 32-bit maps.
Generate smooth, high-quality maps using extraction options designed to address issues related to poly faceting by extracting between the limit surfaces of the given meshes.
Displace your meshes using multiple floating point maps.
Bake normal maps that are compatible with Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max software.
General Workflow Mudbox performance is renowned, with tools organized in a familiar, intuitive manner.
Work in real time even on 3D models that are fully subdivided into tens of millions of high-quality polygons.
Manipulate the camera using conventional camera controls--to maximize your workspace and reduce "back and forth" workflows.
Streamline your workflow through tools such as the Hover Pick functionality and hotkeys.
Use asymmetrical mirroring to streamline the process of working on posed or asymmetrical models.
Work on one mesh in the context of others: Mudbox supports multiple meshes within the scene.
Use the built-in image browser--with full support for 8-, 16-, and 32-bit images--to view reference images and quickly assign them to stamps, stencils, or camera image planes.
Connectivity and Integration Mudbox works well with Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Softimage, as well as with other 3D software applications, making it a natural choice for experienced artists.
Simpler interoperability with Maya, 3ds Max and Softimage Mudbox has support for Autodesk FBX file transfer technology, allowing artists to import and export scene data containing more information than the usual OBJ file format. Important data can be retained, including painted texture maps, cameras and image planes. This results in higher fidelity transfers; saving artists time.
PSD File Support Round-tripping of Mudbox paint layers (converting to and from Adobe Photoshop) is now possible through added support for PSD import and export.
Software Developer Kit (SDK) The addition to Mudbox of a software developer kit (SDK) opens up the software as never before, giving developers the ability to customize Mudbox and integrate it with their production pipeline. This is the launch of the Mudbox SDK and it is anticipated to be expanded with future releases.
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