MUDBOX 2009: LEARN FROM THE BEST

CG Talk has a few Mudbox related items I’d like to share with you. First up, freelance artist, digital software trainer, author and digital sculpter Wayne Robson shows us how he does a 20 minute concept sculpt in Mudbox. Check out the video below to see his “alien monster-like thingy” come to life. Only use ZBrush? It doesn’t matter, the techniques used are transferable into other sculpting programs.. just watch.

Here is how this tutorial video came about:

“I’ve had a lot of emails asking about how I approach head concept sculpts and get them down in 20 – 30 mins or so. So here’s a detailed video in real time explaining why and how every approach is made as I sculpt. Hopefully it gives some insight into my way of working for fast creature concepts for those that asked for it. Its only one of a number of ways I work, but with practice is something anyone can do in mud with ease.”

“I’ve kept it in real time so that its easier to see exactly what is going on at what point and why. Once at this stage normally I’d retopologise the sculpt and do the ‘proper’ one and take it to a finer level. Remember that my way of working may or may not suit you and isn’t set in stone…”

Wayne

I also wanted to share with you the new Mudbox blog over at Autodesk. This is really good stuff. And it’s all free which makes it kick ass! I really got to start producing some new work though. I’ve been spending all my time looking for things to blog about and watching tutorials instead of working on my portfolio for 2009. These links are inspiring so I think I may try to do some quick 20 minute sculpting concepts. OK, maybe 40 minute concepts.. yea, that sounds more my pace. I haven’t tried characters since school so.. this may be interesting.

MUDBOX REALTIME NORMAL MAP DEMO

When I started modeling my first environment at VanArts, we had some problems with the ZBrush licenses so I ended up downloading a trial of Mudbox instead. This program totally saved me as it was the perfect tool for what I wanted to do. I wanted to create a cave environment for my demo reel and Mudbox was a perfect fit for me. I loved how similar Mudbox was to Maya, so I was able to learn it very quickly.

The other day I found this demonstration on Mudbox 2009 someone did for Autodesk. It shows a crazy feature at the end of the video that is truly special, you have got to see it. I found this on a forum on some site I had never seen before, 3DM3.com. Ever heard of it? I wanted to make sure I give this site credit and to tell you that this site is frackin‘ amazing!
There are so many awesome free tutorials for you to learn from. Tutorials for Maya, 3Ds Max, ZBrush, Lightwave, XSI Softimage and some other programs I haven’t heard of. Definitely bookmark this site because I think this site is on the level of Polycount, and CGSociety. Very well made, incredibly useful content and a enthusiastic community of CG artists. I don’t know why I didn’t know about this site before. I thought I had found just about every site I could and then this one comes out of no where. But it’s a good find so I’m happy to share it with you.