Autodesk Mudbox

Mudbox is a computer-based 3D sculpting and painting tool, similar to software such as ZBrush, Blender or Silo. Although I’ve never used any of them before, my first reaction when I tried my hands on Mudbox is just on word, “Fun”. Unlike Autodesk Maya, the interface on Mudbox is simple and clear; rendering and placing different layers are as familiar as in Adobe Photoshop. Work using digital pen and tablet to ‘sculpt’ details out of a blank head or shape, after a while it just becomes a second nature and most of all, it is effective and a really powerful software to know how to use. I find that the very second I started sculpting, I sort of start to automatically experiment with different stamps, brushes, materials and other available tools; which I find very seldom happening when trying out a new software, it usually gets really intimidating and you don’t really dare to touch anything other than what you’re told, but not for Mudbox.

With no knowledge whatsoever in digital/non-digital sculpting, I created this on the first day of Mudbox,

which I’m really satisfied with.

The project that were given was to create a face out of someone in the class, I chose Luke Hayes as my test subject and here is his reference photo and his finished 3d face with texture and paint layers.

The project that were given was to create a face out of someone in the class, I chose Luke Hayes as my test subject and here is his reference photo and his finished 3d face with texture and paint layers. 

Its not a perfect sculpt and there’s definitely room for a lot of tweaking and improvements, however, I realized that this is not really the professional way of doing a sculpture; 3D artists usually start of with low-res polygons in software such as Maya or 3D Max to create the shape and features of the subject, then port it to Mudbox or ZBrush for the detailing, that way the features and likeness are more established and unchanged; because one problem that happens to many of students in class is that the 3d model kept tweaking every second its being edited on different angles, which is downright frustrating.

During my own time I decided to do a research more on the usage and creations utilizing this software, so I borrowed a book called DIGITAL ART MASTERS (vol 4) and I realized that many artist used 3d sculpting softwares not just for creating models to be used in movies or games, but also for concept art, photorealistic art and creations along that lines. Using combination of sculpting software (ZBrush/ Mudbox), Adobe Photoshop and 3D software (Maya/3D Max), different artist creates 2D images that could really be extraordinary yet still keeping that 3D anatomy, light, texture and other attributes right; which I find really fascinating. Here are some examples:

Thom Yorke Caricature

By Andrew Hickinbottom

Software used: 3D Studio Max, Mental Ray & Photoshop.

Don Quixote De La Mancha

By Fabricio Moraes

Software used: 3D Studio Max, Mudbox & Photoshop.

Reaching Out
By Sonke Maeter
Software used: Blender & Photoshop


In conclusion, I think that Mudbox is a very useful software and something that I'm really interested in especially as my focus is on concept art, its definitely an addition of software that I'd be fiddling with very often from now on.