Mudbox 2018.2 Update Adds Dynamic Tessellation, Freeing Up Artists to Just Sculpt

It has been a long while since Autodesk’s Mudbox has had anything of note going for it. What started out as an application that had such promise from former Weta digital artists Tibor Madjar, David Cardwell and Andrew Camenisch in recent years seemed neglected. The latest update to the digital sculpting tool changes that. Dynamic Tessellation lets you sculpt and not have to worry about the resolution of the mesh of that you are working.

What if your Mudbox sculpting tools could tessellate your mesh as you sculpt with them? And what if that tessellation is dynamic, automatically adding tessellation only where and when you need it?

The feature works so that users can just work and not have to have concern for some of the technical aspects of digital sculpting. Dynamic tessellation is brush based, and once it’s on, there is rarely a need to mess with any of the settings. Voxel-based sculpting tools have similar features, such as 3D-Coat’s Live Clay.

Adding more resolution is a function of the brushes that you use and your view while sculpting. Previously in Mudbox, you had to figure out how much geometry you needed. You could subdivide, adding more resolution everywhere, or start with a base mesh. Mudbox’s new solution allows you to create incredibly detailed models just by starting with simple primitive like a plane or sphere.

Mudbox also adds some other features of note:

• High-DPI monitor support
• Custom Edge Bleed setting for each Texture Map Extraction operation
• Paint Brush Gamma Correct Blending option for linear color blending
• General workflow improvements; i.e.
• Resize brush size and strength from a zero value by using MMB-drag
• Grab Tool Ctrl to grab surface using the normal direction
• Tooltips have been improved

Find out more here.