Mudbox Software Suggestions

[Freespace]

This is for all Mudbox related suggestions.

1. Dark Interface

This would be very useful to have in future iterations of Mudbox. I always prefer to use dark skin versions of programs ( I've even got a dark theme for Windows that makes most programs I use dark with white text instead of the usual white with dark text ). This is a lot easier on our frail eyes as we spend 8-10 hours a day staring at the screen. So far, Mudbox has some color utilities but mostly restricted to the viewport.

Alt-tabbing from a dark 3dsmax to a blistering white Mudbox interface at 4 AM in the morning is always a "I'm meeeeeelting" moment for me. :D

[robkoni]

Yup i'm with you on that ,would be a nice option to have ;)

[Oscar]

i agree, that would be great. maybe U should change the topic of this thread to all Mudbox sugestions...if we make new threads for each sugesstions the forum will be flooded with them :)

[Freespace]

Good point, Oscar. Modified accordingly. :)

[Hulahuga]

Nice thread you got here.
I got one suggestion: instead of hiding polys when painting, it would be good if one can freeze them :).
Cause you always want to see how well it matches the surroundings :P

[Oscar]

Mask toll does that in some way...i think that more important would be posing tool than paint freeze tool...tho i can understand what u mean. Anyways, transworm/posing tool is my number one request :P

[Darkghosty]

I'd like some sort of rendering capability... dosn't even have to be anything fancy. Something to save out my viewport at higher res (besides alt-p and scale in photoshop), give me an alpha channel for my model, maybe a little AA on the render, etc.

The flatten brush - Bring back the utility it had before, it was handy in hard surface modeling (as seen here: http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/5942/ )

Curve tool - I like the ability to draw out a curve and sculpt on it, but i'd love to be able to change/toggle the curve from 2d space to 3d space. Actually being able to draw out the curve on top of the topology of an object then sculpt on that would be spectacular. Oh and editing the curve after you've initialized it (adding move points, removing points, etc)

Hotkey addition for steady stroke please

Not sure if this is possible, but i'd like to be able to jump directly to the highest/lowest subdivision of a model. It would be a big time saver if I didn't have to jump up and down through 6-8 subdivisions to get to one or the other.

Either lock the Front, Top, Side views so you can't rotate them, or as soon as you rotate you go back to perspective automatically. I know you can create the camera bookmarks and/or reset the camera properties of the ortho views, but this can take extra time and is kind of a pain.

hmm that's all i can think of for now

[Freespace]

Something I found I miss a lot is the Scratch tool. Sure there's the Knife tool now and it has its uses, but I miss the old Scratch tool. I made a custom brush for it, but it's not the same.

A blur tool for painting would be cool.

The fact that if I export an object from mudbox without adding paint layers makes it export without uvs is quite troublesome as well.

[dessi]

maybe the abilaty to move up and down with layers without it locking them could be considerd

[robkoni]

"Hotkey addition for steady stroke please"......nice idea Darkghosty.

[Freespace]

Another thing that would be a timesaver is a History field in the Browser when I save normal/displacement maps. Because right now it keeps sending me back to the default Mudbox folder, and it always takes a while to get back to where my work files are.

[dessi]

i agree there freespace

[bb0x]

Rotating camera for showcasing purposes.

Screenshot option to take a screenshot at a higher resolution than your screen.

[bb0x]

blending of lit sphere textures
-multiply
-overlay
-screen
-etc.

[tkeller]

Something like the new Decimation plug in zBrush would be nice--
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=071265

[steelsky]

Cripes thats actually amazing.. didnt know there was anything like that... thumbs up for that aswell lol

[Hulahuga]

As Freespace said, but for all things. A pain when trying to find the right litspehere.

Ey , is it so that when you try to make a litsphere to a preset you have to apply it to an object and save it as preset. Though this can be quite difficult to make it look allright.
Can't the materials tab just show a smaller version of the litsphere automatically?

[Xerious3d]

Hey guys, great thread and suggestions.

Suggestions: Be able to use features like rotate, move, scale on a local level. We can already select faces, but i wish could manipulate them using precise tools, for posing, quick joint bends and deformations.

Wish there were a tool that allowed precise inflates for unfrozen geometry, based on a world inflate versus a brush inflate. To do some more precise hard surfacing shapes.

Take the curve feature to a whole new level. Be able to make the model live and draw precise snapped shapes.

Allow the ability to paint in the UV window. This alone can open a whole new world of possibilities in texturing.

Mudbox rules.

[steveofblackpool]

Hi all

I'm working in Mudbox 2010, but it wont let me subdivide locally. I select the poly faces i want to divide but when I shift D it just subdivides the whole mesh????

Any ideas?

Cheers

S

[steelsky]

Unfortunatly thats the way mudbox currently works... there is no local subdivision.

[polybuilder]

there's some nice ideas here... the option to change colour of UI would be handy...

I think that an option to add iridescence to a texture/material would be a great addition


cheers
James

[sculptfx]

The option to change Mouse Cursor and Drag Marquee color from black to something of our own choice. I sometimes work with a dark background so having a bright red or green color would help a lot.

[steveofblackpool]

Steelsky, regarding the local subdivision... cheers, I thought I was doing something wrong.

Lads,

Got another problem....I'm trying to use the nifty FBX export from Mud 2010 but have had problems. Got a successful FBX export from Mud but everytime I try and import into Maya2010 it freezes. I made sure to check the FBX import in the plug in manager.

Am stuck proper? Anyone else had issues?

cheers

S

[steelsky]

No probs mate ;)...

Mayas not my app so cant help on that score im afriad :(

[polybuilder]

hey Steve... on the mesh you are exporting....how many polygons are you talking about??

If this is a few million, then Maya just might be struggling to load the model/mesh at all... it's happened to me a few times anyways (when I knew no better)... if it's a low poly count then I'm not sure as to why the fbx won't load or Maya hanging up


James

[Hulahuga]

When doing hardsurface sculpting, or anything else for that matter, it would be great to use the freeze brush (or an entirely new) to prevent the subdivision mechanism from smoothing selected parts of the sculpt.
One could also set degrees of "non-smoothing" on selection (but that's overkill).

[steveofblackpool]

James

Reckon that must be it. My poly count IS a few million and when Maya tries to load the file, the egg timer starts spinning as if it's struggling to import the mesh. After a few minutes I just force quit Maya. Do you 'Page down' to the low res mesh before exporting the fbx from Mudbox? Would that even help?

Steve

[polybuilder]

Sorry Steve... I forgot to mention that.... yes, I had to lower the density of the mesh in mudbox by pressing the pagedown key... I think the lowest I could get into Maya was around a million polys... and even then Maya was struggling to pan around the scene...

I was only bringing my meshes into maya to create the high res normal maps for them... but that can be done in mudbox now... in seconds!!



James

[mercenary]

Dunno if this has been covered, but I'd like a way to protect the base mesh from sculpting. Sometimes I forget to click on the layer I'm working on and waste a lot of work on the base mesh.

[polybuilder]

I totally agree with you there mercenary!... or at least a warning stating that you are about to sculpt on the base mesh/layer would be great.



James

[mercenary]

I'd like to have the current level of sub division persistently visible somwhere in the HUD.

I would also like a way to lock the rot trans and scale of what I'm working on so I don't accidentally move it.

Thirdly I'd like to be able to flatten selected layers into the base mesh. Or a way to replace the base mesh with one that I'd modified in another package but still keep my layers.

[Wayne]

I'd like to have the current level of sub division persistently visible somwhere in the HUD.

I would also like a way to lock the rot trans and scale of what I'm working on so I don't accidentally move it.

Thirdly I'd like to be able to flatten selected layers into the base mesh. Or a way to replace the base mesh with one that I'd modified in another package but still keep my layers.

A lot of those have been asked for alot (which usualy means Autodesk at the very least take the request more seriously). Some stuff like retaining layers could prove a pain to code and keep bug free with all the vertex changes possible and delat layer re-organising etc.... but not impossible.

Wayne...

[o-o]

...translate tools and posing tools that could use curves directions for more precise actions (hmm..it rimes, must be a good suggestion )

[gunslinger]

Here's my wishlist

-Import a greyscale texture as a mask
- Combine texture painting and sculpting at same time
- Copy mask betwen levels
- Ability to change opacity of sculpt layers on any level, when any level is active
- 'Jump to level' function rather than walking up and down
- Introduce Pose layers, allow true blending poses
- Allow pose tools transformation presets
- Pose tool symmetry
- Sculpting on flatten UV mesh retains sculpt detail when unflattened again
- Ambient occlusion still buggy as hell
- Render turntable output format limited to png, need tif, jpeg etc
- Render turntable output needs interactive preview window, or render resolution gates on screen
- Wax brush does not inherit falloffs correctly

[Groen]

- Combine texture painting and sculpting at same time
Yes please. Would save a lot of time from having to carefully paint bumps that matches the diffuse or vice versa.

[oglu]

please report all these ideas also to autodesk...
its the only way to get the infos to autodesk...

in the mud help menue....
help --> suggest a feature

[gunslinger]

The suggest a feature page does nothing, just has this ...........no forms to fill in.
And I really would need a lot of incentive to fill in a page for every one of my suggestions above! :)

Suggest a Feature

We regret we cannot respond directly to all suggestions we receive, but all reports are carefully logged and tracked. If you ever require more information on this report, please refer to it using the number you will receive shortly by email.

Do not submit a list of suggestions in one form. Only the first issue will be logged - the rest will be rejected. Please submit a separate form for each issue.

[o-o]

..some marking menus that could be customized.

Alpha opacity channel in material attributes that could be created and edited with some erase or paint tools. This would be very useful when creating hair , it could raise mudbox as painting tool to the next level.