Digital Sculpting with Mudbox

The two main goals of this book are to teach you digital sculpting with Autodesk Mudbox and to review the fundamentals of the art of sculpture as applied to digital sculpting. These two goals are distinct, but complementary.

The book combines technical “know-how” with a fundamental understanding of art and design. By the time you are finished with the tutorials in this book, you will be proficient in Mudbox and have a core understanding of sculpting concepts and know how to apply them in digital sculpting.The primary focus of this book is, of course, sculpting with Mudbox. In addition to sculpting, two workflows are covered. The first workflow goes something like this: Maya → Mudbox → Maya (Maya may be replaced with almost any other 3D program). In this scenario, a low-resolution model is imported into Mudbox, sculpted, and then the sculpted detail is exported back into Maya where the sculpting details are maintained with a combination of bump, normal, and displacement maps along with painted textures. The second workflow, reviewed in Chapter 7, involves Mudbox and technologies such as 3D scanning and printing. These workflows may look something like this: 3ds Max → Mudbox → 3D metal printing or Mudbox → digital milling or even 3D scanner → Mudbox → data direct to mold. No matter which way you look at it, once you are finished with this book, you will know how to use Mudbox and integrate it into different workflows.