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Apply visual effects

You can apply visual effects to the 3D View using the Viewport Filters. These filters can enhance your sculptures and assigned materials and aid in recreating an environment that mimics how they’ll be rendered in another application. When turned on, these filters appear as a post-processing effect that is applied in real-time to everything displayed in the 3D View.

NoteViewport filter settings are not saved with a Mudbox scene file (.mud).

You can save an image of the 3D View using the Save Screen Image... feature. For more information, see Save an image of the 3D View.

You can turn on the following filter effects to modify how the model appears in the 3D View (provided your computer graphics card supports these Cg-based effects):

- Tonemapper
- Depth of Field
- Ambient Occlusion
- Screen Distance
- Normal Map
- Non-photorealistic

NoteAll of the Viewport Filters rely on features provided by more advanced graphics cards. If the display of any viewport effect is not as expected, compare your hardware’s specifications to the hardware listed at http://www.autodesk.com/mudbox-hardware.

Using the Tonemapper filter

The Tonemapper filter works by remapping the color values for what displays in the 3D View. Adjust the Tonemapper properties to compress, expand, or shift the tonal range of the rendered scene.

You can also simulate interesting glow effects using the Glare property. This feature is useful when you use HDRI images for environment and material maps and you need to evaluate the model with an overall level of brightness or contrast applied.

1. Turn on the Tonemapper filter by clicking the Viewport Filters tab, then click the box to the left of the Tonemapper item name so that the eye icon appears (or click on the name itself).
2. Display the Tonemapper properties by clicking the Tonemapper name.

   The properties appear in the Properties window.

Using the Depth of Field filter

The Depth of Field filter lets you simulate the depth of field effects inherent to optical camera lenses in real time. That is, a specific near and far range from the camera can be defined where items within the specified range appear in focus and items outside the specified range appear out of focus, or blurred.

Depth of field helps to reduce the overall digital sharpness that is inherent to computer graphics and makes a model appear with characteristics inherent to an optical camera lens.

1. Turn on the Depth of Field filter by clicking the Viewport Filters tab, then click the box to the left of the Depth of Field name (or on the name itself) so that the eye icon appears.

2. Display the Depth of Field properties by clicking the Depth of Field name.

   The properties appear in the Properties window.

NoteTurning on the grid can aid in setting the correct Focus Distance when using the depth of field filter.

Using the Ambient Occlusion filter

The Ambient Occlusion filter lets you simulate the occlusion effects that darken cracks, crevices, corners and points of contact on rendered surfaces.

This filter aids in evaluating the overall 3D form of a model in fine detail areas, much like moving a light across the front of the surface helps to evaluate the surface highlights and subtleties of its overall form.

1. Turn on the Ambient Occlusion filter by clicking the Viewport Filters tab, then click the box to the left of the Ambient Occlusion name so that the eye icon appears (or click on the name itself).
   NoteIf the following message appears: Ambient Occlusion process took <n> seconds. Filtering of 32 bit floating point textures may not be supported by your hardware. Disabling texture filtering in the preferences may improve performance. This indicates that your hardware and graphics may not be supported for running Mudbox. Save your work, turn off the Use Texture Filtering option in Render section of the Preferences window, then restart Mudbox and load your file again to see if the Ambient Occlusion filter effect is improved. Compare your hardware’s specifications to the hardware listed at http://www.autodesk.com/mudbox-hardware.
2. Display the Ambient Occlusion properties by clicking the Ambient Occlusion name.

   The properties appear in the Properties window.

NoteThe Strength property controls the intensity of the ambient occlusion effect.

Using the Screen Distance filter

Screen Distance is useful for quickly creating stencils, stamps, or displacement maps from your sculpted objects in the scene. Turning on the filter changes the display of the 3D View so that objects become shaded from black to white based on their distance from the camera’s origin point.

Use the Save Screen Image... feature to capture the 3D View as a depth map that you can load as a stamp, stencil, or use as a bump or displacement map.

1. Turn on Screen Distance by clicking the Viewport Filters tab, then click the box to the left of the Screen Distance item name so that the eye icon appears (or click on the name itself).
   NoteAll objects within the 3D View are taken into account when calculating the depth display and affect the resulting effect. For best results, turn off the grid (Display > Grid) and any other unnecessary objects.
2. Display the Screen Distance properties by clicking the Screen Distance name.

   The properties display in the Properties window.

3. Adjust the contrast of the black and white values in the display by increasing or decreasing the White Level and Black Level properties. Turning on the Invert property reverses the depth map effect on the object.
4. To save an image of the 3D View, select File > Save Screen Image...

NoteSince the image produced by the Screen Distance filter is essentially a depth map, it can be also used in an image editing application as a filter effect for depth of field effects for still images.

Using the Normal Map filter

Normal Map shades objects in the scene using RGB color values based on the orientation of their surface normals. It’s useful for quickly creating and previewing simple normal maps using objects you’ve sculpted or imported into the scene without having to use the extract texture maps feature.

For example, you could arrange several 3D objects to create a normal map of a wall of bricks with window openings, window ledges, or an electrical control panel with gauges and buttons, or a panel effect with recessed grooves for the wing of a spacecraft, and so on.

1. Turn on Normal Map by clicking the Viewport Filters tab, then click the box to the left of the Normal Map item name so that the eye icon appears (or click on the name itself)
2. To save an image of the 3D View, select File > Save Screen Image...

   The saved image can be applied as a normal map in Mudbox or another 3D application.

Using the Non-photorealistic filter

The Non-photorealistic effect displays objects in the scene with a hand-drawn, sketch-like appearance. This filter is useful if you want to present your sculpted work so it appears more conceptual in terms of its development.

1. Turn on the Non-photorealistic filter by clicking the Viewport Filters tab, then click the box to the left of the Non-photorealistic item name so that the eye icon appears (or click on the name itself).
   NoteSince the viewport filters affect all items within the view, you may prefer to turn off the grid (Display > Grid).
2. Display the Non-photorealistic properties by clicking the Non-photorealistic name.

   The properties display in the Properties window.

   TipYou can adjust the shading Material and Tonemapper properties to achieve interesting effects when using the Non-photorealistic filter.
3. Adjust the noise properties to modify the fill and stroke effects. For more information on the properties, see Non-photorealistic properties.
4. To save an image of the 3D View, select File > Save Screen Image...

Using the NVidia Ambient Occlusion filter

The NVidia Screen Space Ambient Occlusion filter (SSAO) lets you simulate the occlusion effects that darken cracks, crevices, corners and points of contact on rendered surfaces.

NoteThe nVidia SSAO viewport filter is available for use only on computers using late model nVidia graphics cards. This feature is currently not supported for use on other graphics cards. It is provided as an alternate to the Ambient Occlusion filter described above.

This filter aids in evaluating the overall 3D form of a model in fine detail areas, much like moving a light across the front of the surface helps to evaluate the surface highlights and subtleties of its overall form.

1. Select New Filter from within the Viewport Filter window ( ) menu.
2. To turn on the filter, click the box to the left of the nVidia SSAO name so that the eye icon appears (or click on the name itself).
3. Display the nVidia SSAO properties by clicking the nVidia SSAO name.

   The properties appear in the Properties window.

4. Adjust the properties as required. For more inoformation on the properties, see nVidia AO filter properties.

Related topics

Tonemapper properties

Depth of Field properties

Ambient Occlusion properties

Screen Distance properties

Normal Map properties

Non-photorealistic properties

nVidia AO filter properties