Mudbox 2011

#1

here we go…
http://area.autodesk.com/mudbox2011/features

#2

I have to say I’m surprised. I wasn’t expecting as many new features as this. It’ll be interesting to see if the new .FBX plugs actually work flawlessly between Mud/Max. And if all the annoying Mud/Max UV bugs have been sorted.
Looks like AD might actually finally be putting some serious effort into closing the gap between Mud and the other sculpting apps.

#3

yea this is a huge update… and those vector dispmaps are really a great feature…
you can do more with it as you may expect…

#4

Yes, the vector maps do look like an excellent feature. I wonder if the release of the SDK last year was what enabled such a leap in new features this time around? And may be a huge factor in many new features being added by 3rd parties also.

#5

let me show the new vector displacement in action…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPezIU0c4zc

#6

wow… that vector displacement rocks

#7

I’d still like to see some features like cavity masking and replace that ridiculous 'imprint brush with something more akin to DragRect.

#8

help --> suggest a feature

#9

C’mon Christoph, it’s not as if Mud devs need somebody to suggest such obvious features as these. Mud’s been around long enough to already have them. Last time around we got the ‘drybrush’ tool. How hard would it have been to have a cavity mask ‘on/off’ button?

#10

this is the only way to vote an feature up on the list…
all those feature requests are tracked an on their list…
same with bugs… if noone reports the bug its at the end of the todo list…

#11

A bit more on Vector Displacement maps, here’s an image I did while on the beta…

I started by making this geometric shape in mudbox into a brush…

And here’s the resulting vdm brush

I then started with a fresh sphere, and stamped this vdm all over it. I then used the “Fill” brush to place the more noisy detail on the surface of the sphere without affecting the bubbles. That was using a custom stamp using the reaction diffusion KPT filter in photoshop.

Then exported the result to 3dsmax (The full highres mesh, since neither brazil nor mentalray in max have a good way to use VDM displacing yet). Added the microscope shader, which includes a small bump map, and rendered in Brazil, slight tweaking and compositing in photoshop.

VDMs are really cool.

  • Neil
#12

that’s pretty cool.

…but am i the only one who doesn’t like this dark semi-slick interfaces. the older mudbox interface was pretty ugly, but very easy to read.

#13

Just be happy they didn’t get rid of the icon color like Adesk did with max :slight_smile:

  • Neil
#14

Wow! Looks great. Love the idea of a posing tool! Vector displacement looks great! Finally a reason to come back to Mudbox.

#15

Very nice demo of the VDM feature Neil. What kind of polycount did you export straight to MAX? And do you use Max pro-optimise or Meshlab or…? I remember a while back Wayne Robson was working on some sort of Decimation Master plugin for Mud.
How would a renderer, in theory, read the map?

Regarding the pervading darkness: it seems to be some sort of grand scheme of Autodesk UI colour unification considering all the latest AD tech has it.

#16

It was about 4 million faces I believe. And no, I don’t use a polygon reduction tool, I use my 16gigs of RAM :slight_smile: God bless 64bit.

The map is just rgb data, with each channel representing a different part of the displacement data. So all you need are shaders that can sue the data and a renderer that will support displacing that way.

I’m fine with the interface going dark (although for those who aren’t fine with it, I’m always pro giving the user the option), all I want to avoid is the colorless interface, since colors are vital to using an interface efficiently.

  • Neil
#17

Any idea on the official release date for mudbox 2011?

#18

here an other great mudbox feature… uv tiles…
you can paint hundrets of textures seamless onto one object…
this is also working with layer and blendingmodes…
not new in 2011 but there are only a few people out there they know about…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro_Ruhu-SGs

#19

Can Mudbox 2011 paint properly on the UV mirror seam of flipped, overlapping UVs? It’s pretty common in games to UV half your model, then mirror the second half to conserve UV space. Mudbox 2010 had problems painting along the mirror seam.

#20

move the overlapping uvs to the second uv tile and paint with symmetry on…
and use for ingame the texture in the first uv tile…