This page covers some more advanced features of Mudbox which are really handy to know.
2. Mirroring Objects without going back to Maya
3. Assigning Basic Materials
4. Using Stencils for painting and sculpting
5. Isolating Areas to hide unwanted parts of the model or for speeding up scenes
6. Setting up lights in Mudbox.
1.1 – Sculpt Layers
2.1 – Mirroring Objects
3.1 – Assigning Materials
4.1 – Stamps Stencils
5.1 – Isolating
6.1 – Light Setup
Andrew Silke
Sculpt Layers are very handy in Mudbox. We may think of Sculpt Layers as Blend or Morph shapes as essentially they’re the same thing.
A few things to know about sculpt layers.
2. Are a great way of trying out changes on our mesh without destroying the original sculpt
3. Can be very handy while sculpting displacement map details. We can use the layers to combine different areas/bumps and blend them together.
Sculpt Layers are very handy in Mudbox. We may think of Sculpt Layers as Blend or Morph shapes as essentially they’re the same thing.
Sculpt layers are found in the Layers tab at the top right of screen.
A few things to know about sculpt layers.
2. Sculpt layers are a great way of trying out changes on our mesh without destroying the original sculpt, we can use the layers to compare and even tweak the strength of the sculpt layers for different effects.
3. Sculpt Layers can be very handy while sculpting displacement map details. We can use the layers to combine different areas/bumps and creases of our model and then blend them all together later with individual control over each layer.
4. Sculpt layers are very handy for creating facial blend shapes, just sculpt on the base layer (level 0) and we can create morph/blendshapes for our animations in other programs such as Maya.
Mirroring objects is very easy…
2. Duplicate the Object (right click on the object > duplicate object)
3. Flip the Object (right click on the object > flip mesh > x)
Mirroring Objects
Mirroring objects is very easy…
1. Select the object we want to mirror (right click on the object > select model)
2. Duplicate the Object (right click on the object > duplicate object)
3. Flip the Object (right click on the object > flip mesh > x)
To Assign Shaders…
2. It’s safe to use Mudbox materials as they have most settings.
2. Materials all belong in the Object List so that’s where we can change their properties.
3. Material presets can be found in the lower right tab under “Material Presets”, select the material to change in the object list and then click on a preset to change it.
To Assign Shaders…
1. Right Click on the object > assign new material (or assign existing materials)
2. It’s safe to use Mudbox materials as they have most settings.
2. Materials all belong in the Object List so that’s where we can change their properties.
3. Material presets can be found in the lower right tab under “Material Presets”, select the material to change in the object list and then click on a preset to change it.
Stamps and stencils allow us to use image maps to detail our models.
Stamps – Move with the brush
Stencils – stay with the camera
Stamp settings are found under the brush settings. Stencil settings are found by clicking on the individual stencils.
Vector Displacement Maps are a special type of image map which move the polygons in diagonal as well as straight up and down directions.
Please note Vector Displacement Maps often need a very strong strength settings close to 100.
Stamps and stencils allow us to use image maps to detail our models.
Stamps – Move with the brush
Stencils – stay with the camera
Stamp settings are found under the brush settings. Stencil settings are found by clicking on the individual stencils.
Vector Displacement Maps are a special type of image map which move the polygons in diagonal as well as straight up and down directions.
Please note Vector Displacement Maps often need a very strong strength settings close to 100.
Hiding Areas for better Performance with High Poly Counts
Display > Isolate is the way we can view just a portion of our model easily, hiding unwanted details.
To do this more easily
2. right click on the object > Isolate
3. To unhide, right click on the object > Isolate (again)
Hiding Areas for better Performance with High Poly Counts
Display > Isolate is the way we can view just a portion of our model easily, hiding unwanted details.
To do this more easily
1. Select some polygons (v) under the Select/Move Tools tab, or select an object
2. right click on the object > Isolate
3. To unhide, right click on the object > Isolate (again)
All the lights for a scene are found in the object viewer. Click on the light in the viewer to see it’s settings. We can
2. Adjust manipulator on off, detach the light from the camera, switch on shadows while the light is selected
3. Create new lights from the create menu create > lights
4. Lighting presets are found in the Lighting Presets tab, bottom right of screen and we can create our own. The default setting resets lights back to normal.
We can also switch Ambient Occlusion, Cavity Occlusion, depth of field and other viewport display modes under the “Viewport Filters” tab which is under the object list tab.
All the lights for a scene are found in the object viewer. Click on the light in the viewer to see it’s settings. We can
1. hold L and click and drag in the view port to change the direction of a light.
2. Adjust manipulator on off, detach the light from the camera, switch on shadows while the light is selected
3. Create new lights from the create menu
create > lights
4. Lighting presets are found in the Lighting Presets tab, bottom right of screen and we can create our own. The default setting resets lights back to normal.
We can also switch Ambient Occlusion, Cavity Occlusion, depth of field and other viewport display modes under the “Viewport Filters” tab which is under the object list tab.
