Unit 7: Narrative - Introduction to Mudbox Weeks 1 & 2

Hello Everyone,

I have been working on our Studio blog most of last week hence why the lack of updates on here, don't worry though I haven't forgotten my place... Our initial modelling introduction into Mud box felt like a lecture from Z101 purely because I couldn't help but notice the similarities between ZBrush and Mud box. The one big exception I noticed was that the Ctrl key did not mask anything instead it did the opposite effect of a brush that you are using (i.e. if you are bloating geometry it will subtract it).

What did impress me was the layering system where you can add detail above your model and dial it back should you need to or merge layers to reach further depths. The subdivide option is also present in Mud box with Shift + D adding further poly's to your geometry.



As you can see above the man is a little weird looking, this was our week one model just playing with the basic sculpting tools. There are many good things about Mud box but where it let me down was with the Move tool which is so blatant that it rips down any and all geometry without considering the outside poly's. So instead of a subtle move you get a giant ripping leap.

Next came week 2 which I got more to grips with the detailing side of things this came with me trying stamps (called Alphas in Zbrush) sculpting detail into the skins of our mesh and shaping the face how we'd like. I made my priority stubble because it was something I've always been curious about.


For the last few minutes I found myself playing with the Lighting and Render settings which was a bit of a treat as ZBrush has no backroundless PNG format. This was quite a fun experience testing different materials and lighting methods.

I can see how nice it is to work in and I'm sure there are ways of Mud box being as capable as Zbrush if you are smart about it. I personally prefer Zbrush still but now that I know what Mud box does I will certainly consider it for my organic needs in the near future... It has a few nice bells and whistles.

Anyway I think that concludes this little post regarding our Mud box lessons so far, I probably didn't have to post this but I figured keep the processes up and the mind engaged. It can't hurt me to do this in the long run.

I Hope everyone is having a good time out there.

xXStItChXx