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Autodesk Mudbox

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Autodesk Mudbox Editor's Review

Autodesk has given an overhaul to its popular 3D animation and modeling tools this year and Mudbox is no exception. The 3D sculpting and painting app, used worldwide by studios and post production setups, is actually a newer app than its siblings from Autodesk stable. Its origins can be traced to SkyMatter, a company that developed the base for making the visually spectacular Lord of the Rings trilogy. After buying Mudbox from the creator entity, Autodesk has equipped the app with features and modified it to cater to growing needs of television, film and gaming industry over the years. The latest version of Mudbox can be taken as a worthy contender to apps like ZBrush.

Mudbox can now be purchased as standalone software or you can also get it as part of Autodesk’s Entertainment Creation Suite. It can be used on Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. It runs on Windows XP Professional with SP3 and later versions, in both 32 and 64 bit variants. Systems with 4 GB RAM and hardware-accelerated OpenGL GPU is also recommended by the company. The app is compliant with Wacom tablets. You can try the 1 month demo before churning out the licensing fee. One good aspect of Mudbox is that you can access community and support right from its UI.

Mudbox is a retopology centric app. Retopology has become popular owing to growth of 3D content creation in video game industry where 3D models with large polygon counts are no longer in vogue. Nowadays, 3D artists prefer to re-topologize the models in one with reduced polygon counts but similar appearance. Retopology technique works well in producing 3D models with realistic facial expression and features like folds, wrinkles in CG. In retopology, complex details are reproduced with vector displacement maps and normal displacement maps.

Mudbox’s new version has 2 basic retopology workflows- namely Guided Retopology and Computed Retopology. In Computed Retopology, retopology operation is mostly automatic – though you can set some initial parameters. In Guided Retopology, you can draw curves as well as edge loops on a model and set parameters to execute the retopology operation. Both processes work as desired in the app and crashes are rare. However, the glitch happens when you import models and scan them into Mudbox.
One drawback of Mudbox is that it cannot deal with Scanned models unless they are prepared with Mudbox's new tools like Patch, Fair Selection and Tighten Selection. Mudbox also comes with a third retopology workflow- Create Mesh from Curves. It is quite time consuming and tedious though. In this respect rival 3DCoat's Autoretopo fares better. ZBrush’s ZRemesher and QRemesher tools also produce better results. The Autodesk team either needs to refine existing Retopology methods of Mudbox or borrow a leaf from rival apps.

Thankfully, Mudbox’s UI is intuitive and new users will not need much time to get hang of things. Mudbox excels when it comes to painting directly on the 3d models.  For texture mapping it has per-face texture mapping method named Ptex but those acquainted with UV mapping will not be disappointed either.

Positive Points:
•    Excellent compatibility with other Autodesk 3D apps.
•    Superior 3D painting performance.
•    Intuitive, easy to learn.
•    Robust Autodesk help and technical support.

Negative Points:
•    Retopology methods lack finesse, lags behind rivals.
•    Scanning 3D models can be tedious.
•    Resource hungry app.

Conclusion:
This release of Mudbox, like other products from Autodesk, comes with its share of advantages and drawbacks. Whether you should buy or upgrade to the new version depends on your existing toolset and workflow needs. Mudbox does not create any problem when you import models from sibling apps like 3ds Max and Maya. However, when you import models with formats like .fbx and .obj made in third party apps, problems can crop up. The retopology tools work well but unless you make the models in Autodesk apps, heavy editing may be required. This can be frustrating at times, along with the added time required. However, Mudbox redeems itself in 3D painting department and gives apps like ZBrush a run for their money. Autodesk needs to iron out the issues related with scanning models and then it can emerge as a leading 3D Retopology tool.

Rating: 3/5







Autodesk Mudbox Publisher's Description

Autodesk Mudbox is a fully-featured digital painting and sculpting application that can be used to design and render 3D digital artwork.

Mudbox offers a high-performance environment and professional-quality tools to help you create highly realistic 3D characters, engaging environments, detailed props, and compelling concept designs in less time.

Productivity at Your Fingertips
The creativity-enhancing Mudbox feature set is easily accessible to traditional sculptors and to both new and experienced digital artists, enabling users to become productive in hours rather than weeks. Digital sculpting tools mimic the behavior of their real-world counterparts: if you can pinch clay, you can use the tools in Mudbox.

Sculpting Paradigm
With Autodesk Mudbox you can sculpt 3D models quickly and precisely using fast, high-quality brushes and sculpting tools. Choose from an extensive list of intelligently designed default brushes or quickly tailor them for custom behavior and performance. Sculpt symmetrically on asymmetrical 3D models and quickly add high-quality detail with support for mesh displacement.

Multi-resolution Mesh Editing
Subdivide a mesh, when you want, where you want, and to what degree you want: advanced subdivision technology gives you the ultimate in polygon mesh control. Plus, innovative streaming technology helps you work quickly and efficiently on even the largest, most face-intensive 3D models and scenes.

Texture Baking
With its fast, high-quality texture baking capabilities, Mudbox solves one of the most common bottlenecks in game and film production pipelines: baking of normal and displacement maps. Bake high-quality normal and displacement maps between multiple arbitrary meshes: detail can be baked in 8-, 16-, and 32-bit maps.

3D Layers
Store different detail passes, libraries of morph targets, and more on multiple layers using the efficient Mudbox layer workflow. 3D layers can be blended, masked, erased, mirrored, and merged, just like layers in a 2D image-editing package. An intelligent, familiar layer user interface helps you quickly duplicate, merge, flatten, group, and reorder layers.

Autodesk Mudbox is a fully-featured digital painting and sculpting application that can be used to design and render 3D digital artwork.

Free download from Shareware Connection - Autodesk Mudbox is a fully-featured digital painting and sculpting application that can be used to design and render 3D digital artwork.

Publisher: Autodesk Inc | License: Shareware
Version: 2014 | Platform: Win7 x64, Windows 7, Windows 8
Released Date: | Rating: 5 | Title: Autodesk Mudbox

Author Url: http://www.autodesk.com/
Program Info Url: https://www.facebook.com/AutodeskForceEffect
Download Url: http://www.autodesk.com/products/mudbox/free-trial

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Shareware Connection periodically updates pricing and software information of 'Autodesk Mudbox' from company source 'Autodesk Inc' , so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it. Software piracy is theft,  Using 'Autodesk Mudbox' crack, password, serial numbers, registration codes, key generators is illegal and prevent future development of Autodesk Mudbox.

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