End of September for release!

they said at the end of the month it will be released

i guess i need to get myself a copy of mudbox 2011

Great extension of the features, good to see you guys working hard, Cheers

It's great to see the ptex support, but we're still stuck with UVs! I hope we can get it fully integrated soon with color textures being read from and written too. But all and all a great first step, and a good update. Thanks!

My favorite feature is the Transfer Properties (sculpt and paint) , but everything else is just so useful too. Opacity painting was on many peoples wishlist, now we can paint our characters hair within Mudbox. Love the new AO, blend modes.

This is a very welcome array of very useful features. Some of which I've been asking for myself for some time. Thanks for that.

One question about the Update Topology feature though. Does this only work with the Send to Maya option, or is there some way to do it using standard .obj file exporting and importing? I don't use Maya but would find that feature very useful. Does it just use the Transfer Properties feature internally? In which case I guess that could be used instead.

I personally don't see the point of PTex if you still have to have UVs and a fixed res texture in the first place. Baking displacement to ptex textures I can see the point of, but for other maps, not really getting it.

@ianucci - yes you can now freeze details based on sculpt or paint layers

This looks interesting, the rebuild feature is something I have been hoping for as it will make swithing from other rival packages easier. I am interested to know if you can import poses such as facial blend shapes and do per pose sculpting on wrinkles/fatty bulges/ tendons etc. it would be cool to export a facial blend shape network with corresponding displacement maps back to Maya or whatever.

FalconCrest, the rebuild lower subdivision levels means you can bring in a high res mesh as an obj from Zbrush or 3D coat and recontruct the lower levels. It is useful in a production environment where artist prefer different tools or packages. It means you can go back to the base level before any subdivision without having to bake out maps or trying to import as levels.

awesome features!!!!!! if these are bonus what are we going to see in 2012!!!!
too good!!!

request for some friends,
can you please add subs for hearing impaired artists?
thanks!

@Yiannisk - glad you like what you see. Youtube now has a Closed Caption beta running! Try it out....click the "cc" bubble at the actual YouTube link and select "transcribe audio". It seems to do a n "ok" job. Here are the direct links:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMby1zgy4YY
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AVPgHOzJD4&feature=related

All of these features look GREAT! I was just wondering if there are any minor UI updates that come with this release that might not be big enough bullet points to make the press release?

Things like:
- Improved panel docking, more flexible positioning.
- Ability to save UI layout/prevent from resetting each time application starts
- Easier 'snap to orthographic' view (instead of looking through camera each time)
- Persistent camera bookmarks
- Properties panel cleaned up

Minor improvements like these might not make headlines but I think everyone likes the ability to customize their workspace (especially us Cintiq/Intuos) and reduce the amount of work-flow related repetitive clicks. Thanks in advance,

-NBreslow

PS: While we're on the subject I would love a pop up tool properties dialogue box that could be triggered with a hotkey to access stuff like size/strength/falloff/etc. This is a feature found in every major painting/sculpting application that is sorely missing from Mudbox.

YiannisK - Glad someone is thinking about these things too!

I DEFINATELY DO NOT WANT MORE ZBRUSH CLUTTER/SLIDERS/ETC! Just wanted to make that clear! The thing I love about Mudbox is that it has a cleaner/simpler UI than ZBrush and (for the most part) the settings make sense. Still, there is room for improvement!

I use a Wacom Cintiq and I map Brush Size (B) and Strength (M) to both my pen buttons because I access those settings most often. This means I lose middle/right click but have compensated by adjusting my Pan & Zoom hotkeys to Alt-B and Alt-M so I can navigate without issue. I have to use the mouse sometimes to do some clicking - not such a big deal.

I really like the Sculptris popup settings where you get visual feedback for size, can adjust strength, enable masking, etc. in a simple, gestural way. I think Mudbox would benefit from something like this. It could be simple - strength & size sliders, BUILDUP SLIDER (sorely missing a hotkey like size/strength) checkbox for invert, mask toggle, stamp toggle, last tool toggle. Basically something that would save you from making a round trip to the Tool Properties panel, which isn't as persistent as I would like because it shares space with other UI elements and their Properties. This would save you having to map all of your Wacom buttons to Tool settings or using Radial Menus. Also, it would be so much easier to work in EXPERT MODE with everything you need to sculpt is one hotkey away. Plus, imagine being able to access color on the fly when painting? I really think it is an option they need to look at including. I would map it to a Cintiq side button (the bottom left one) and be able to use my Pen buttons for middle/right click again. Sure, that's just me and everyone is going to have a different setup that caters to them but like I said, there is a reason every other painting/sculpting application has this option - because people use it! I subscribe to the theory often used in web design that the fewer clicks and searching you have to make to get what you want, the better user experience you have.

Not being able to save the workspace really sucks for Cintiq (and probably all tablet) users. I am a righty so every time I want to select a tool I have to go across my body to the tools panel at the bottom left of the screen - very unintuitive. If you were a traditional artist you would put your brushes next to your canvas on your strong hand side, correct? In traditional art you don't have to search for your tools, they are on the table next to you. One thing I will say for ZBrush is that you can customize the UI and get rid of most of the wonky UI crap. I use a setup very similar to this one:

http://lesterbanks.com/2010/08/zbrush-4-custom-user-interface-tutorial/

Note the Brush strip to the right of the viewport and the settings to the top of it (ignore the stuff on the way right, more ZBrush clutter) - this is the essential stuff and I can access it with minimal movement.

As great/clean as the UI is in Mudbox I think they have a little refining to do before I will be completely comfortable working with it 100% of the time (though I do use it more and more).

Just my two cents,

-NBreslow

Is the Ptex export also available for painted texture because they didn't mentioned it in the video. At siggraph it was mentioned by the guy from pixar in the beta so I hope we can export all type of data into Ptex and not only displacement, normal, vector and occlusion but color map too.it will be pretty weird to need uv's only for color texture with renderman. I hope the feature will be complete at the final release.

I think because i am not used to working in zbrush i do not miss or feel like using any these
and still work faster with minimum travels to the panel on the right and get exactly the results i expect.

i would rather have the brush selection or falloff coming under the tip of the brush in a mini strip if anything.
ofc everyone's way of work differs but i believe mudbox encourages you to use the optimal workflow.
sounds like a good setup you have on your brush btw! i will give it a try!

colour selection works exactly the same as it works in photoshop for ages .
and that is simple and nice. you click on your colour slot, and pick your colour
with a nice ring like painter.i would love to have a tiny mix colour palette floating in screen space
like i keep my colours in photoshop on a corner of the page or like the mix palette in painter.

i really like sculptris!! i think it will eventually replace zbrush.
i'll be a little mean now, and i will say that pixologic, is so desperate, that actually bought a free tool
that has better implementation of sculpting tools than their solution, and splashed their logo on it
so that they don't lose users to it. as if they didn't have enough trouble with mudbox.

visual feedback for size is there, with the ring, it can't be any clearer and straight forward than that.
as well as a decently indicative strength mark. zbrush and sculptris might be a little fancier, more sleek
as a UI presentation but it's not so important to me.

there is a very healthy dose of competition that brings even better tools in our hands and this is great!

what i would like to see is when i am changing tools in expert mode is a quick visual confirmation
that indeed the brush has changed (and which is it) or the falloff mode i am using by briefly displaying its icon.
ofc a go to last tool hotkey would be handy but instead of that hotkey, i use the one for the brush
i need. since i would need to use a hotkey anyway that is not much of a problem since i have even more
options than just the last one, and still only with one key.

something else i would like, is 1-2 slots for an arbitrary temporary tool to use with a combo like it happens
with smooth for example. this way i would be able to to have lets say.. wax with ctrl+shift or even one more,
with alt+shift i.e. grab. or any other tool i prefer defined from a drop down menu in the preferences
or hotkeys menu.

personalized UI would be great. workspaces like photoshop.
i am sure that the option to bring the east panel west would be welcome for many users
(maybe it's already there? never tried it)


ofc there is space for improvement but right now i believe that it is by far the most efficient
and user friendly professional sculpting tool. these added features gave a nice bonus to the users,
and i can't wait to see what the next version has in store for us

Great comments and suggestions.......keep them coming.

@tijude: colour ptex extraction is not in the CURRENT release of Mudbox. How did those caps get in there?

@Kanishk Chouhan: this release is only available to Subscription customers. Check with your school as they may have access to it. It's not available in a student or trial format.

@NBreslow: "I wish someone from Autodesk would comment on some of the points raised here about the UI and the next release for subscription customers. "

Well - there's only so much that we can say about an upcoming release that is not being released within the same quarter (legal reasons). However, improvements to the UI is something that is being looked at and there are some ideas (several mentioned here) that are being taken into consideration. The Mudbox UI will always be kept clean and simple to allow users quick access to anything they need.

All of these suggestions here are great and, perhaps, we need a new thread in the Suggestions area in the forum?

Hi Craig,

Thanks for letting me know about the legality - didn't consider that. I am glad that someone is listening and that some of the thoughts mentioned here are being considered. I too want the UI to remain very clean, hopefully a few unobtrusive additions and needed fixes will make their way to the product soon.

I am going to cut and paste some of what I suggested into a post on the suggestion forum. Cool!

@YiannisK - Please cut and paste your thoughts into the thread I am starting. I would do it for you but I don't want to misrepresent your feelings on the subject by doing it myself.

Can't wait for this release!!

-NBreslow

when will we see those selection , masking tool improvements ... it is making the progress slugish to pick everytime from the tabs or shortcutting . plsss

hey i believe there is already a thread started that is officially the place to drop some ideas there.

Trying to get bonus tools to work with advantage pack...frustrated.

Anyone here know if there is a path I need to change in the bonus tools program folder to point to the advantage pack install?

Or if there is something bonus tools installs in the Maya program directory that I need to copy over to my advantage pack install?

Thanks,

-NBreslow

"the only issue that I see in this workflow is that any work that I do in Mudbox with Geo to skeleton relationship, can not be passed back to Maya. "

i have not tried it since i am not using maya but since it works in mudbox and you can export FBX i think the rig would hold anyway. You might want to give it a try.