OK here it is faster than you probably thought.. Wave 2 of the Mudbox 2009 ‘From The Ground Up’ free high resolution video tutorials series. I’ve put a temporary low res version of part one up (due to a file naming mix up part 2 got put up 1st on The Area). So as not to disapoint those of you following the series I decided to do a very fast encode of the 1st part and put that up to hold you guys off till the high res version appears in a couple of days.
Here is it, the last part of Wave one of the Mudbox 2009: ‘Ftrom The Ground Up’ series that is a 41 min hard surface texturing video tutorial in Mudbox 2009. Wave 2 should be starting in a day or three. All hasn’t been sweetness and light in Wayne Towers though…
It’s been a helluva week and looks like someone has taken a very serious exception to the ‘Ground Up’ series and the QuickStart one. In the last 2 week I’ve had 2 attacks with drive killer taking out over 4 terrabyte of drives (and turning them into paperweights…along with the last year of work) and tonight at 7.27pm GMT my paypal account hacked…. is that going to stop the series? No chance ;) I don’t give in to bullies. So I’ve lost a year worth of models and contacts….but models I can easily make again..and contacts know me well enough to know where to find me.
What I’m most angry about was a model I was never going to share, that was a cartoon character in the Aardman animation style I did for my son. The beauty of working as fast is that its no biggy to redo stuff in a night or three. But that model was special so I’m livid that my son was left disapointed.
If anything it just makes me even more detirmed to keep this running as long as I can… I’m notoriously pig headed and no way will I let something like this stop these videos from being released… So its safe to say that I’m rattling more than a few cages with people that would rather that these high resolution free tutorials weren’t out there or made available for free. I vowed to keep this revolution roling as far as I could and I will, no matter what. Plus contingency plans were made a while back.
Wayne…
PS in case anyone thinks I’m being an attention seeking loonatic I have proof of the above happening and have passed it on to Dave Cardwell at Autodesk in case anyone accuses me of being some idiot making it all up…I know I’d have trouble beliving it if I read someone posting this….
This started as a doodle that I ended up taking a bit further tonight. Its a viewport render from Mudbox 2009 and is of a 300, thousand poly sculpt (just because you can use lots of polys, doesn’t nean you must!) Maps: 2k bump, diffuse and specular
Please note: Internet explorer has SWF sound issues..if your experience this please use firefox. (if you experience these issues in any other browser please leave let me know. thanks)
Here a video to demo mudbox’s capabilites as a painting program I’ve been asked to do by Autodesk. It covers some of the its plus points in comparision to other software and what I personally consider its strong points from a texturing point of view. Its not meant to be a conprehensive list, more of a overview. it shows the texturing of a enviromental model with multiple 2k diffuse, spec and bump maps. If this was to be used as an in game asset obviously this texture size would be cut down and a tileable bump used instead.
I’ve uploaded a online viewing /downloadable version and also a version for those of you with Apple iPhones. Feel free to share it with people you think may be interested.
Here’s the link to Part 5 that not only covers brushes in depth, but also includes a hard surface sculpting tutorial as well. We’ll be using a hard surface sculpt such as this one in the next couple of videos that cover texturing in detail. There’s still plenty left to come yet.
I’ve uploaded 2 new video tutorials tonight, The 1st is another video in the Mudbox 2009 QuickStart series showing what has to be the quickest way possible to reliably and uber fastly setting up your depth of field in Mudbox. So if you have trouble finding the sweet spot sometimes, then you are REALLY going to want to watch it. The workflow is one that Dave Cardwell came up with by the way.
The 2nd video is sort of the red headed stepchild of ‘QuickStart’. While not officialy part of the series, it covers an in depth introduction to Headus UVLayout in a simple to understand way. Although it is aimed squarely at the crowd of mudbox users watching the ‘QuickStart’ and ‘Ground Up’ free video tutorial eries available here, on TheArea, CGArena, and many many other places, its also just as useful for those who don’t use Mudbox.
I’ve also uploaded a couple of new timelapses over in the tutorials section as well for those who like to watch them. Including a timelapse of what only toook 12 mins…so rather pointless speeding it up really lol. I’ve also just recorded wave 2 (or most of it) for the second time for the ground up series. I wasn’t happy with the World of Warcraft style orc, so have redone all the videos this time with something I’m a lot happier about. You’ll be seeing that particual model again once some new features arrive that I know about.
Once they are all uploaded to youtube I’lll link to them here (although they are already available on this site in the tutorials section.)
I must mention for those that have missed the notice on the tutorials section that remember you can use the techniques I’ve invented in production in any way you like but I do not allow them to be used in books, dvd’s videos or tutorials. I retain all copywrite and have made enough other people rich over the years at my own expense. (Both by being either ripped off, or left uncredited for things I’ve invented workflow wise)
I’m sorry to have to add that but at the end of the day the things I’ve came up with, its not right for others to rip them off wholesale and make a shed load of money off them. They are meant to be free and not an excuse by lazy writers or tutors to make a fast buck and I will prosecute if this is not respected. If you do not like that proviso, then feel free not to watch the quickstart or ground up videos. But I feel it only fair after teh tie and effort I’m putting in for these two series.
A freestyle doodle done in 20 mins and shown at x4 speed in this video. Don’t take this one too seriously as a model as it was done to unwind (along wiht another 12 min doodle I stuck on youtube as well. As I get time I’ll video some of my doodle sessions and upload them for those interested.
For those of you that use twitter, you can follow me using the link above. Although god alone knows why you’d actually want to unless your really nodey or curious. lol
I’ve had a few days off as the flue I have has started to site a bit…..plus after recording wave 1 and most of wave 2 I needed a few days break so as to not burn out.
In this video in the QuickStart series we cover how to use Mudbox’s 32 bit Painting ability to combine 2 32bit displacement maps. This is useful for times when you have an art director who likes the details from 2 different version of a sculpt and allows you to combine details quickly and with ease. (Incidentally you could also use similar workflow for correcting 32 bit maps by turning lights into flat mode and sampling the pixels you wish to use to paint. )
Today bring a new vido in the quickstart series that outlines how to capture your lighting rig from 3d max and create a high dynamic range image that can then be used in mudbox for image based lighting. In this way you can get some great lighting effects.
I’ve heard a lot of people declaring that mudboxes ‘on target’ abilities are nothing more than a pipe dream and are useless in production as it ‘can’t possibly replicate’ a full render. Just to prove how much horse crap actually does come out of some people on forums these days (joke) I recorded this that shows a model matching the eventual target in max. The max render used mental ray final gather and a pretty complex set up.. Mudbox matched to about 99% and was in real time.
So yes, it is possible providing you read the manual…if anyone says to you mudbox can’t do it…just tell them I told you they are wrong….very wrong….
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