Mudbox 2013 Cookbook

Mudbox 2013 Cookbook

Overview of this book

"Mudbox 2013 Cookbook" covers a variety of techniques that can be used to bring your imagination to life. You will be able to create detailed characters and environments like the ones found in games, movies, and on television. Each recipe is one more building block towards digitally sculpting your ideas into reality. "Mudbox 2013 Cookbook" is written in recipes so that you can refer back to it whenever you seek help. The advanced techniques described in this book cover the whole spectrum of Mudbox's capabilities. With this book you will learn the foundational techniques in using Mudbox as well as more advanced ones "Mudbox 2013 Cookbook" will guide the reader step by step through the process of creating brushes, sculpting, 3d painting, lighting assets, extracting normal maps, and many other techniques. If a recipe is too advanced for you then you can visit the suggested recipes listed at the end of the recipe to learn supporting techniques. Supporting images are used for readers who understand things more visually. Each recipe is rated for difficulty so that you can find techniques that line up with your skill level. Once you complete the beginner and intermediate recipes you will be able to move on to the more advanced recipes.

Mudbox 2013 Cookbook

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewer

www.PacktPub.com

Preface

Free Chapter

Ready? Set...

Introduction

Installing Mudbox 2013 documentation

Setting up hotkeys

Increasing the resolution on your model

Bookmarking the camera view

Downloading and enabling stamps, stencils, and base meshes from the Internet

Adding and adjusting your image planes

Sculpting on different subdivision levels effectively

Recording a movie while you work in Mudbox

Setting up colors and other preferences

Setting up your Wacom tablet

Working in expert mode

Heads Up

Introduction

Revealing the wireframe for edge location

Setting up a basic three point lighting scheme

Organizing your tabs for smoother navigation

Locking down the camera for reference matching

Creating a stone tile by adjusting brush properties

Using the object list to manage multiple objects

Setting up layers for easily adjusting sculpt details

Setting up stamps, stencils, and image planes using image browser

Broad Strokes

Introduction

Creating a concrete damage brush

Customizing your brush and adding it to your tool tab

Creating your own Imprint brush for adding presculpted details

Using the Freeze brush to get hard edges and isolate your sculpting

Using the Fill brush for detailing corners and crevices

Matching a reference silhouette using the Grab tool

Fine Tooth Comb

Introduction

Creating a zipper using a custom stamp

Creating a custom stencil from a stone wall carving

Creating a rock wall that tiles seamlessly in all directions

Tricks for painting with stencils

Tricks for painting with stamps

Adding a stencil or stamp to your toolbox

Creating a custom rock stamp

Get In and Get Out

Introduction

Flattening to UV space

Deleting the highest level of resolution on your model

Blocking out a rough Mayan pyramid using a displacement map

Importing, exporting, and working with multiple objects within Mudbox 2013

Creating a terrain

Shine On

Introduction

Creating a Blinn material

Using a simple Blinn material

Using Lit Sphere to mimic other materials

Creating a gold bar

Creating a glass sculpture

Time to Paint

Introduction

Painting a rock texture using projections

Painting out seams on a rock using the Clone brush

Painting a rock Specular map

Painting a rock Bump map

Adding text to a cape using Flatten UV mode

Adding dirt to a cape using a layer as a mask

Ready for My Closeup

Introduction

Creating a light

Creating a three-point lighting preset

Lighting an indoor scene with a simple light setup

Enhancing your scene with viewport filters

Creating a rock normal map with a normal map filter

Creating a turntable

One Step Forward

Introduction

Posing a lamp cord by adding joints to your mesh

Posing multiple objects at the same time

Adjusting joint pivots and painting weights

Creating a human rig by importing joints

Get Baked

Introduction

Extracting sculpt information as a normal map

Extracting an ambient occlusion map

Adding grunge inside crevices using the Dry Brush

Extracting and using a vector displacement map for sculpting

Customer Reviews

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Setting up your Wacom tablet

This recipe will describe how you can set up a Wacom tablet for use with Mudbox. A Wacom tablet is a tablet that you can draw on with a digital pen, to allow for more organic lines and shapes in your digital paintings or sculpts.

Getting ready

First, you will need to plug in your Wacom tablet. Next, you will need to make sure you have the latest drivers for your tablet installed. You can find the latest drivers for any Wacom product at Wacom's website, www.wacom.com/CustomerCare/Drivers. Your tablet may have also come with a disc that has the drivers on it. You may need to restart your computer once the drivers are installed.

How to do it...

Now that you have the drivers for your tablet, you can go to Wacom Tablet Properties shortcut by hitting the Windows key and typing in wacom. This should reveal the Wacom Tablet Properties shortcut in your start menu list. Next, you should click on this shortcut to reveal the window that looks like in the following screenshot:

The Tablet section will list the tablets you have installed and connected to your machine. Tool is where you will choose which part of the tablet you would like to set up, the pen or the tablet itself. If you click the + across from Application, you will be able to add a customized setup for any software installed on your system. Otherwise, it will use the settings you have configured under All Other.

It is recommended that you set your pen buttons to Middle Click and Right Click for camera navigation. With these settings you will be able to do the following:

Tumble (rotate around a center point of interest) the camera by holding Alt and dragging the pen tip along the surface of your tablet
Track (pan up, down, left, and right) the camera by holding Alt and holding the button on your pen that was set to Middle Click while moving the pen tip just above the surface of your tablet
Dolly (zoom toward and away from a center point of interest) the camera by holding Alt and holding the button on your pen that was set to Right Click while moving the pen tip just above the surface of your tablet

Alternatively, you could set up your navigation keys to use the buttons on your tablet itself. Keep in mind that you can set your tablet buttons and your pen buttons to anything you want, including a keystroke, which will allow you to enter a series of key presses. This is helpful for mapping hotkeys to your tablet buttons or your pen buttons.

You can also set the slide bar to allow you to zoom or resize your brush size or intensity. In the following screenshot, you will see an example of the tablet settings window:

Mudbox 2013 Cookbook

Mudbox 2013 Cookbook

Overview of this book

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Current Title:

Mudbox 2013 Cookbook

Setting up your Wacom tablet

Getting ready

How to do it...