Well Roost I have been polypainting quite a bit in Zbrush lately and the cavity masking tool is the greatest thing. Instead of simply overlaying a bake AO pass later you can paint it straight, using colors playing well with the general tones aso. Last model I painted that way, 30% of the airbrushing was done with cavity turned on or inverted. It makes it really close to real life airbrushing/drybrushing/wash and wipe techniques!
That's my favorite of the new brushes. It's got a lot of different uses from detailing to blocking out forms. The fill brush also has some pretty interesting uses.
Havn't tried the 64bit version yet, but so far from my experience from the 32bit trial the program is nearly unusable. Not only does it run slower then the original, but I'm getting momentary pauses after ever brush stroke. Shading looks odd as if random hard edges were placed on the models, and whenever I subdivide the false hard edges become a checker pattern across the entire mesh. I tried bringing in a model from zb to paint in mud but as soon as the model gets touched by the paint brush "Only seperated tiles are supported" appears.
Also, is their a way to turn on v-sync? in v1 it didn't have a problem but in 2009 I'm getting a decent amount of screen tearing.
Maybe it just doesn't like my laptops Geforce 8600...will give the 64bit version a go in a few days on my desktop and hope it performs better.
has anyone else had problems opening saved files? i took a break from work yesterday and when i went back to mudbox2k9 and tried to load my mesh the memory usage shot up to 2.6 gig (vista 32-bit, 4 gig ram) and crashed. seems odd when the file was fine before i saved and closed
Echoing Tacit... I'm pretty disappointed with new Mudbox. After using ZB for a while, mb just feels awkward, and the new features aren't very impressive. Working in it now reminds me why I was so happy about ZB3. It just seems very hard to get the result I'm after. Perhaps it takes a lot more time getting used to it again.
The most annoying aspect was having to change the stylus buttons to be right and middle click in order to zoom and pan without using a mouse (!!!), so now I bring up the right click menu when I want to undo, because I always had ctrl+z mapped on the pen button and it serves me well in all other apps >.< I might give MB another try, but I doubt I'd be switching, since there is little, if anything, that I don't already have in ZB.
don't use geforce or radeon... AO on nvidia only. not on fireGL either.
only quadro 600 series like 5600 and it takes super unleaded only.
eat rich people...
they taste like chicken
Seems to be some people in here with Mudbox running on GeForce and Radeon cards. Anyone got it working with an HD3850? I'll try rolling back to the 8.1 drivers suggested earlier in the post when I get back home but thought I'd see if anyone else has had some luck with this card.
I can't believe they'd make software that seems to be such a hardware snob.
nice plan, thought of that too, but mudbox is only fast as hell if the geometry comes out of mudbox, importing a X-Mio objects results in same slow handling as before, and as you can't reconstruct or import level 1 from zbrush and then level X as a layer, you won't get any advantage
I gave it a try, and while it is slower to rotate the camera around the mesh I find the actual sculpting isn't affected too much. For tiny detail work I move the camera around very little anyway, so it should be workable.
too little too late.... they need real painting tools.. they added support for more polygons, about one quarter what i can get in zbrush on the same machine, awesome, .. other than the preformance increase it seems like a step backward.. one version later and that beautiful clean interface is already starting to show clutter... i can see in 2 versions that there will be tabs surrounding the interface, that contain more tabs that host buttons that you can click to bring up a tab covered in buttons that have more tabs.
was messing around this morning and i found a way to replicate the clay brush a bit more closely than the wax brush, using the fill brush with the clay brush alpha at a high intensity (800 in this pic).
I've never tried this bizarre looking technique people are showing from their Zbrush3 workflow.
Thanks Spinx
Have to say I'm quite impressed with this new mudbox tbh, sure enough, most of it is purely cosmetic but for people who are already comfortable with mudbox... I'd say this was a pleasant boost.
I've never tried this bizarre looking technique people are showing from their Zbrush3 workflow.
Thanks Spinx
Have to say I'm quite impressed with this new mudbox tbh, sure enough, most of it is purely cosmetic but for people who are already comfortable with mudbox... I'd say this was a pleasant boost.
I totally agree with you, it seems that the latest release is aimed at users already comfortable with Mudbox's sculpting workflow, however, like Neox and so many others have mentioned, the ability to "sketch" model is still far superior in Zbrush. Users are trying to simulate "claytubes" because they want to do this. Mudbox still feels awkward as a pre-viz tool. I see it more as a detailing app. I tried to sketch from a cube to see how it feels and there were still many moments where I had to jump up/down subdivisions which made me feel like I was using Zbrush 2. Here's my results:
It took me a lot longer than a Zbrush session, but I still like this mudbox very much, I'll just have to use it for final passes. It's still far away from doing anything like my typical Zbrush workflow for concepting.
Hey Podman that's interesting. I personally feel the other way - everytime I try I cannot really '3dSketch' in Zbrush. Maybe I have a peculiar workflow? In the very early stage of a sculpt I like to use the move tool exclusively, constantly rotating the mesh to check it under all angles. For some reason I am having a hard time doing that in Z and often end up with alien fish heads > that is to say, mostly funky surface curls and whatnot. However for detailing I like Z more than Mud...
so I've been playing with it every day now for at least 40 minutes and made a couple heads, but one thing that really bothers me is that none of my sculpts are very 'smooth', a lot of the edges, even after flattening/scraping(?), smoothing and pinching, and very blobby or just plain wavy. how do you guys get around this? super awesome steady hands?
Pior, I do the same thing in the early stages of sketch sculpts, use "move" exclusively. The reason why I like it better in Z is because I don't need to always jump down to lower subdiv to this, Mudbox has more of a "give" to the surface, making it harder for me to move chunks of polys easily at high density. I don't think your workflow is wrong, it's just what you're comfortable with and it's worked out great for you, I dig your work.
bounchfx, I know exactly what you are talking about. "lumpy mesh" syndrome seems to be easier to get in Mudbox. Try and use "scrape" brush to re-establish your planes, it's great for getting forms down.
I find Mudbox to be great for not getting lumpy forms, as the flatten tool (and now scrape!) are both great at defining planes.
I personally dig it. Then again, I like Zbrush's brushes as well, it's just that the workflow doesn't appeal as much.
so I've been playing with it every day now for at least 40 minutes and made a couple heads, but one thing that really bothers me is that none of my sculpts are very 'smooth', a lot of the edges, even after flattening/scraping(?), smoothing and pinching, and very blobby or just plain wavy. how do you guys get around this? super awesome steady hands?
Im no expert and I had this same problem, especially with mudbox 1 but Ive found now that if I make sure to make the most of what each level of subdivision can do before moving up I can avoid alot of those problems. Sometimes I find if I try to add a larger form when still in a high level it just gets a bit lumpy but if I step right down and add those forms its nice and smooth.
Im no expert and I had this same problem, especially with mudbox 1 but Ive found now that if I make sure to make the most of what each level of subdivision can do before moving up I can avoid alot of those problems. Sometimes I find if I try to add a larger form when still in a high level it just gets a bit lumpy but if I step right down and add those forms its nice and smooth.
yeah this is exactly what I do, I sculpt the most I can in each subdivision before dividing it more. I'll just keep practicin
To me it seems like if you do a lot of a really small really, fast strokes you'll get some blobbyness. So slow and down, and be more sure with your strokes, that should help. Also try turning on the mouse smoothing stuff when working with smaller brushes, that can really help.
Man....I downloaded the new Mudox and it is lagging like a bastard. I am running on an unsupported operating system with an unsupported video card (Vista Premium x64 and a 8600GT) so that could be why. ZBrush 3 runs alot better for me.
One thing to add after playing with it longer than a few minutes.....my pressure sensitivity will not even work with my intuos in MB 2009. It works fine in Photoshop and ZBrush on the same machine. Must be a Vista Premium X64 P after all it is not supported....bummer.
So... I played a bit more with Mudbox and it didn't change my initial impression... It just takes me way too long to get to the results that I get so quickly in ZB, even after getting used to using actual keyboard shortcut to undo and ctrl for alt (opposite) brush instead of... alt key. Here's the example:
This head took me 2 whole hours!
Heads up: just out of curiosity I stuck brice's CGFX shader into a mudbox cgfx material. big mistake.. I got a recurring 'invalid parameter' warning box with no cancel option, which meant basically I was locked out of the program. Pretty bad bug, careful to save before you do stuff like that
I just tried it, and maybe I'm luckier than most, but this new version ROCKS. I'm using Vista Home Premium with a Geforce 8800 GTS.
Everything works perfectly , Wacom pressure sensitivity works fine. I just subdivided the default human model up to 8 million polys, and it's just as fast as level 1! I can sculpt and navigate without any slowdown at all. Amazing! I would start to get lag at about 2 million polys on Mudbox 1.
Anyway, great work Autodesk! I was getting discouraged at all the negative comments. Maybe I'm just luckier than most...
Fogmann, I respect you a lot as an artist, so I'd like to encourage you to try to push past any irrational software commitment you may have and really discover the true pros and cons of both sculpting applications. It can only benefit you.
Basic sculpting tools in mudbox aren't a sixth of the speed of the zbrush equivalents. You know that's an absurd idea. Your unfamiliarity with the new tools accounts for that slowdown, and unless you push past that, you'll not see how mudbox may potentially benefit you. The same principles apply to any software evaluation.
I agree! That is why I'm learning XSI now (over again, since I used to use V 3.5 back in school,but at the time Maya seemed a better choice) - ICE got me impressed and I wanted to know how to use it and take advantage of its capabilities, as well as of all other neat things that it has, and Maya doesn't have. But with Mudbox, the features offered in new version don't seem to be that impressive, and hence worth spending time and effort getting used to its workflow/shortcuts/brushes all over again, which doesn't mean I won't be checking them out more and trying all the new things in my free time. It's just that presently it doesn't justify suggesting the studio to get a copy. I'm hoping I'll be proven wrong, so I'm on the lookout for the new awesome artwork and tips/techniques/tricks and will be sure to try them out. So... less talk, more mudbox magic
Is AO working for you hyrumark? Because I'm shit out of luck with my old geforce 6600. Or atleast I'm guessing thats the problem, and I ain't keen on buying one of the recommended cards.
i've got the 8800gts, AO works fine
was messing about with the paint tools today, got some odd tearing tho at one point http://redprodukt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/draw_base.jpg
I saw in the dashdotslash tutorials he subdivides an object (even a plane) before painting on it, maybe thats a fix
just looking at pricing.. have autodesk abolished the basic version? fucks sake. this now means that I for my own personal use have to pay more to upgrade than an owner of mudbox pro. bullshit
I got my boss to get me a new PC at work with an 8800 GT, so I'll see if all the eyecandy makes MB09 more appealing. Since we're currently evaluating our next gen approach we're sort of in a position where we need to decide on which packages to go with, and so far the general consensus is that while MB has a more traditional 3D approach, ZB offers more useful options.
i tried out the demo and personally, i didnt find the new features that impressive compared to the original, its still pretty slow subidiving and going between levels compared to zbrush and thats a big deal.
Is AO working for you hyrumark? Because I'm shit out of luck with my old geforce 6600. Or atleast I'm guessing thats the problem, and I ain't keen on buying one of the recommended cards.
Yeah the AO is working for me as well, pretty cool. I have an 8800 GTS (the old version, with 640MB memory). Although I need to rotate the viewport around a bit to "refresh" it when I first turn it the AO flter on, since it makes everything in the viewport vanish when I first turn it on - but that's no big deal.
I got my boss to get me a new PC at work with an 8800 GT, so I'll see if all the eyecandy makes MB09 more appealing. Since we're currently evaluating our next gen approach we're sort of in a position where we need to decide on which packages to go with, and so far the general consensus is that while MB has a more traditional 3D approach, ZB offers more useful options.
you could do what we do and make all the artists try both demo's and let them choose. its just a sculpting app, its not really the process anyway, its the final results that matter. We try and let everyone work with what they are comfortable with and you find people make better art when they can make it however they want.
I was trying the paint tools last night and had a rather weird issue. When I started to paint the mesh it was covering it in squares. I would paint the shoulder of the character, and his leg would start getting covered. I kept pushing to see what would happen and the whole guy was covered in a stretched checker pattern, but it was very sporadic. The mesh did have an existing UV map, so maybe that was interfering with the one mudbox spit out?
Commador: Mudbox doesn't uv anything itself, it actually needs exiting Uv's for the painting to work, so that couldn't be the problem. I haven't had that issue yet, though, so I really can't help.
i'm running with a dark (discreet-dark-style) windows color scheme. mudbox displays light grey text on medium grey interface. is this hardcoded like the newer photoshops (i.e. unusable)? the old one adapted fine.
anyway doesn't seem particularly fast to me. on my (now fairly outdated) home box it maybe comes somewhat close to ZB2 performance levels now. minus the snappy interface.
you could do what we do and make all the artists try both demo's and let them choose. its just a sculpting app, its not really the process anyway, its the final results that matter. We try and let everyone work with what they are comfortable with and you find people make better art when they can make it however they want.
This man knows what he's talking about. I think too much emphasis today is still spent on an entire team using the exact same modeling apps. Giving artists the choice to use what they are comfortable in is going to give much better results than simply having continuity in tools and forcing some members of your team to use apps they are less than comfortable creating quality work in.
On my project atleast, very little time is spent having to deal with other people's assets in other programs, hell everything can export OBJ, and just about every modeling app can do the same thing in essence. So if i've got to go in and change up a model, one that one of our contractors has made in max, i'll simply load the OBJ up and do my changes in modo, saving a lot time having to wrestle with an app i'm not as profficiant in.
I know some people may argue when you get to highly complex scenes, like highpoly source art needing to be change, that it is important to have continuity in apps. But I will argue that with a good workflow, where you have an approved concept, you get a proportional blockout into game to be tested and approved, and then you get a highres model that is also approved, that there should be almost NO cases when you ever need to go back and tweak that highres mesh. If you find yourself doing this enough for it to matter, its more the fault of your bad workflow.
Well I finally got the chance to try out the 64bit version, and while as it did perform much better, all it did was refocus my attention from the technical issues to the workflow ones. Theirs so many problems its hard to keep track of them all. Though I keep notes on all the art apps I've used, here is a snippet from them of various issues I've seen/experienced for mud2k9 (feel free to tell me if I'm wrong on any points):
Issues (technical):
Display
- v-sync is no longer on by default (is their an option to enable at all?)
- faceted display is busted, this is a known issue (might be fixed in a patch/service pack)
- Imprint brush is glitchy (
Painting
- When the 'paint brush is small random areas will require the pen to be pressed harder before applying color
- while painting wirerame surround area will disappear temporarily till camera is moved
- "Only seperated tiles are supported" - When attempting to paint on zb3 mesh
Other
- Pauses occur before/after each brush stroke. Requires restart of either program of comp to temporarily fix
- When importing a highpoly as layer via uvs their will be distortions runing across the surface of the highest level
Issues (workflow):
Can't paint on uv's directly
Can't export paint as layered psd (have to-combine all layer maps manualy)
shift doesn't blend/blur/smooth paint
No way to see texture without filtering
No toggleable paint colors or quick pallette (though their is a workaround)
no clone brush, and workaround is not practical
Issues (wtf):
Mudbox2009s files are seamably no smaller then v1, so they get insanely large when working with very highpoly sculpts, about 10x more so then zbrush.
512x512 is the minimum size for a texture, Why should I have to resort to bodypaint or similar to deal with lower resolutions?
Their's no offline documentation...
standard sculpt works similar to bulge by default and setting the sculpt to push/pull in cameras direction (what should be default) does not work correctly with symmetry
local subdivision can't be done anymore
I really wanted to like the new mudbox, but honestly theirs just too many problems for me to see it as anything but a pre-beta released as a full product. well hopefully they either release some amazing patches / service packs for it or get it right for Mudbox 2010, till then I'll be sticking to Mudbox1 and zbrush.
Dave Cardwell here one of the Mudbox team. Just wanted to chime in and answer some of the questions(my name was mentioned in posts here). We hear you guys loud and clear and are taking in the feedback. Keep posting so we can take it all in!
Mudbox 2009 is new. What you see in the app in the first day of use is not all thats there. You should give us a chance to answer your questions. You have all been playing with other apps for years so we understand you know where everything is in those apps. But you did not on the first day or week. Mudbox presents solutions for problems that other apps do not solve in the areas of sculpting and texture painting that can improve your work. Let us work with you on that. We are passionate about building killer tools and want do get you guys the best stuff. We wont stop until we get that right.
For those of you who have not been over to the Area (I never did before coming to Autodesk because the navigation was crap[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Davec/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG]) Let me share some links to videos here:
http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/forums/viewforum/97/
Videos there on:
How to work back and forth with Photoshop
How to clone (We are adding a cone brush for every one besides this. We know some don't like the work around )
How to brush using another mesh
How to use all brushes in your Photoshop library in Mudbox
The other thing I wanted to tell you is that we understand some of you have brush lag, white screens and so forth. You need to run the correct hardware and driver for Mudbox. We went for Semi advanced specs because;
A. Its a new app and we want to be positioned for the future
B. We talked with most major game and film studios in the US, Canada, UK, Japan and ALL used nearly the same Nvidia hardware which we support in Mudbox 2009. So we had to make the app work for them. Not one studio told us they use Ati across the company. None told us they were planning to go Ati. Its great hardware but was not widely used all Im saying. Most had Quadro FX or 8800 Nvidia gpus and newer (which run Mudbox well). Even companies that specialized in Wii games were using high level Quadro FX gpus (that surprised me a bit).
Does that mean you need to go spend a lot of money to upgrade? NO! Certainly not. My 8600 mobile runs Mudbox very well. But we expect you all to have at least good gaming level hardware.
Anyway. We are here to answer your questions and help you experience the best of what Mudbox has to offer. No. Mudbox does not solve world hunger but its does some fantastic things in the areas of painting and sculpting providing solutions that others currently dont. And we are always open to your feedback to make it better.
Replies
err.. u should start that sphere has loads of character thanks fer the brush tips! any more?
Also, is their a way to turn on v-sync? in v1 it didn't have a problem but in 2009 I'm getting a decent amount of screen tearing.
Maybe it just doesn't like my laptops Geforce 8600...will give the 64bit version a go in a few days on my desktop and hope it performs better.
The most annoying aspect was having to change the stylus buttons to be right and middle click in order to zoom and pan without using a mouse (!!!), so now I bring up the right click menu when I want to undo, because I always had ctrl+z mapped on the pen button and it serves me well in all other apps >.< I might give MB another try, but I doubt I'd be switching, since there is little, if anything, that I don't already have in ZB.
don't use geforce or radeon... AO on nvidia only. not on fireGL either.
only quadro 600 series like 5600 and it takes super unleaded only.
eat rich people...
they taste like chicken
Seems to be some people in here with Mudbox running on GeForce and Radeon cards. Anyone got it working with an HD3850? I'll try rolling back to the 8.1 drivers suggested earlier in the post when I get back home but thought I'd see if anyone else has had some luck with this card.
I can't believe they'd make software that seems to be such a hardware snob.
everything autodesk touches turns to shit
/boredom
Thanks Spinx
Have to say I'm quite impressed with this new mudbox tbh, sure enough, most of it is purely cosmetic but for people who are already comfortable with mudbox... I'd say this was a pleasant boost.
I totally agree with you, it seems that the latest release is aimed at users already comfortable with Mudbox's sculpting workflow, however, like Neox and so many others have mentioned, the ability to "sketch" model is still far superior in Zbrush. Users are trying to simulate "claytubes" because they want to do this. Mudbox still feels awkward as a pre-viz tool. I see it more as a detailing app. I tried to sketch from a cube to see how it feels and there were still many moments where I had to jump up/down subdivisions which made me feel like I was using Zbrush 2. Here's my results:
It took me a lot longer than a Zbrush session, but I still like this mudbox very much, I'll just have to use it for final passes. It's still far away from doing anything like my typical Zbrush workflow for concepting.
[ame]
-Rodney
Spinks this brush looks nice!
custom tube and rake tips was cool:
http://www.dashdotslash.net/Mudbox2k9/RakesAndTubes/RakesAndTubes.htm
bounchfx, I know exactly what you are talking about. "lumpy mesh" syndrome seems to be easier to get in Mudbox. Try and use "scrape" brush to re-establish your planes, it's great for getting forms down.
-Rod
I personally dig it. Then again, I like Zbrush's brushes as well, it's just that the workflow doesn't appeal as much.
Im no expert and I had this same problem, especially with mudbox 1 but Ive found now that if I make sure to make the most of what each level of subdivision can do before moving up I can avoid alot of those problems. Sometimes I find if I try to add a larger form when still in a high level it just gets a bit lumpy but if I step right down and add those forms its nice and smooth.
yeah this is exactly what I do, I sculpt the most I can in each subdivision before dividing it more. I'll just keep practicin
This head took me 2 whole hours!
And this in zBrush took only about 20 minutes:
[ame="
As Arsh said... too little too late....
Everything works perfectly , Wacom pressure sensitivity works fine. I just subdivided the default human model up to 8 million polys, and it's just as fast as level 1! I can sculpt and navigate without any slowdown at all. Amazing! I would start to get lag at about 2 million polys on Mudbox 1.
Anyway, great work Autodesk! I was getting discouraged at all the negative comments. Maybe I'm just luckier than most...
More truthful words have never been said.
was messing about with the paint tools today, got some odd tearing tho at one point
http://redprodukt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/draw_base.jpg
I saw in the dashdotslash tutorials he subdivides an object (even a plane) before painting on it, maybe thats a fix
Yeah the AO is working for me as well, pretty cool. I have an 8800 GTS (the old version, with 640MB memory). Although I need to rotate the viewport around a bit to "refresh" it when I first turn it the AO flter on, since it makes everything in the viewport vanish when I first turn it on - but that's no big deal.
you could do what we do and make all the artists try both demo's and let them choose. its just a sculpting app, its not really the process anyway, its the final results that matter. We try and let everyone work with what they are comfortable with and you find people make better art when they can make it however they want.
anyway doesn't seem particularly fast to me. on my (now fairly outdated) home box it maybe comes somewhat close to ZB2 performance levels now. minus the snappy interface.
I am not going to waste my money on the upgrade, deleted before I even reached the end of the trial. So
This man knows what he's talking about. I think too much emphasis today is still spent on an entire team using the exact same modeling apps. Giving artists the choice to use what they are comfortable in is going to give much better results than simply having continuity in tools and forcing some members of your team to use apps they are less than comfortable creating quality work in.
On my project atleast, very little time is spent having to deal with other people's assets in other programs, hell everything can export OBJ, and just about every modeling app can do the same thing in essence. So if i've got to go in and change up a model, one that one of our contractors has made in max, i'll simply load the OBJ up and do my changes in modo, saving a lot time having to wrestle with an app i'm not as profficiant in.
I know some people may argue when you get to highly complex scenes, like highpoly source art needing to be change, that it is important to have continuity in apps. But I will argue that with a good workflow, where you have an approved concept, you get a proportional blockout into game to be tested and approved, and then you get a highres model that is also approved, that there should be almost NO cases when you ever need to go back and tweak that highres mesh. If you find yourself doing this enough for it to matter, its more the fault of your bad workflow.
Issues (technical):
Display
- v-sync is no longer on by default (is their an option to enable at all?)
- faceted display is busted, this is a known issue (might be fixed in a patch/service pack)
- Imprint brush is glitchy (
Painting
- When the 'paint brush is small random areas will require the pen to be pressed harder before applying color
- while painting wirerame surround area will disappear temporarily till camera is moved
- "Only seperated tiles are supported" - When attempting to paint on zb3 mesh
Other
- Pauses occur before/after each brush stroke. Requires restart of either program of comp to temporarily fix
- When importing a highpoly as layer via uvs their will be distortions runing across the surface of the highest level
Issues (workflow):
Can't paint on uv's directly
Can't export paint as layered psd (have to-combine all layer maps manualy)
shift doesn't blend/blur/smooth paint
No way to see texture without filtering
No toggleable paint colors or quick pallette (though their is a workaround)
no clone brush, and workaround is not practical
Issues (wtf):
Mudbox2009s files are seamably no smaller then v1, so they get insanely large when working with very highpoly sculpts, about 10x more so then zbrush.
512x512 is the minimum size for a texture, Why should I have to resort to bodypaint or similar to deal with lower resolutions?
Their's no offline documentation...
standard sculpt works similar to bulge by default and setting the sculpt to push/pull in cameras direction (what should be default) does not work correctly with symmetry
local subdivision can't be done anymore
I really wanted to like the new mudbox, but honestly theirs just too many problems for me to see it as anything but a pre-beta released as a full product. well hopefully they either release some amazing patches / service packs for it or get it right for Mudbox 2010, till then I'll be sticking to Mudbox1 and zbrush.
Dave Cardwell here one of the Mudbox team. Just wanted to chime in and answer some of the questions(my name was mentioned in posts here). We hear you guys loud and clear and are taking in the feedback. Keep posting so we can take it all in!
Mudbox 2009 is new. What you see in the app in the first day of use is not all thats there. You should give us a chance to answer your questions. You have all been playing with other apps for years so we understand you know where everything is in those apps. But you did not on the first day or week. Mudbox presents solutions for problems that other apps do not solve in the areas of sculpting and texture painting that can improve your work. Let us work with you on that. We are passionate about building killer tools and want do get you guys the best stuff. We wont stop until we get that right.
For those of you who have not been over to the Area (I never did before coming to Autodesk because the navigation was crap[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Davec/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG]) Let me share some links to videos here:
http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/forums/viewforum/97/
Videos there on:
How to work back and forth with Photoshop
How to clone (We are adding a cone brush for every one besides this. We know some don't like the work around )
How to brush using another mesh
How to use all brushes in your Photoshop library in Mudbox
The other thing I wanted to tell you is that we understand some of you have brush lag, white screens and so forth. You need to run the correct hardware and driver for Mudbox. We went for Semi advanced specs because;
A. Its a new app and we want to be positioned for the future
B. We talked with most major game and film studios in the US, Canada, UK, Japan and ALL used nearly the same Nvidia hardware which we support in Mudbox 2009. So we had to make the app work for them. Not one studio told us they use Ati across the company. None told us they were planning to go Ati. Its great hardware but was not widely used all Im saying. Most had Quadro FX or 8800 Nvidia gpus and newer (which run Mudbox well). Even companies that specialized in Wii games were using high level Quadro FX gpus (that surprised me a bit).
Does that mean you need to go spend a lot of money to upgrade? NO! Certainly not. My 8600 mobile runs Mudbox very well. But we expect you all to have at least good gaming level hardware.
Anyway. We are here to answer your questions and help you experience the best of what Mudbox has to offer. No. Mudbox does not solve world hunger but its does some fantastic things in the areas of painting and sculpting providing solutions that others currently dont. And we are always open to your feedback to make it better.