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Sculpting overview

In Mudbox you sculpt virtual 3D surfaces much like you sculpt real 3D objects from clay or other modeling materials. Instead of using clay, the virtual 3D surfaces are constructed using polygons.

Polygonal meshes

Mudbox works with models that use polygons as the underlying surface type. Polygons are a surface type that are widely used in the development of 3D content for animated effects in film, interactive video games, digital prototypes for industrial design, and for creating virtual 3D content for the Internet.

Polygons are comprised of straight-sided shapes (3 or more sides), defined by three-dimensional points (vertices) and the straight lines that connect them (edges). The interior region of the polygon is called the face. Vertices, edges, and faces are the basic components of polygons.

When many faces are connected together they create a network of faces called a polygonal mesh (also referred to as a polyset, polygonal object, or polygonal model). Polygonal meshes can be created in many 3D software applications (3ds Max, Maya, StudioTools, and so on) using a variety of construction techniques and then exported for use within Mudbox.

Polygons represent complex 3D forms easily and accurately. They are simple to construct and easy to modify, with the right digital modeling tools. For these reasons they are ideal as a “digital clay” for use in Mudbox.

Sculpting a polygon model

You sculpt a polygonal model using the tools located in the Sculpt Tools tray at the bottom of the 3D View.

Stroking a sculpt tool over a specific region of the model repositions the vertices in that area, changing its 3D form. When the vertices are repositioned, the polygonal faces associated with them are also repositioned. Since the polygonal faces reflect light, color, and shading information back to your eye, this changes how the form of the 3D object appears as a result.

The density of the vertices/faces on a polygonal model dictate how much fine detail can be sculpted into the model. If the polygonal model has fewer vertices, there are fewer points to change its 3D shape.

To sculpt finer detail into a model, you increase the number of polygons by subdividing it (see Increase a model’s resolution). Each time you subdivide the model, the number of polygons increases by a factor of four (if you are using a quad-based polygon mesh).

Each subdivision operation is stored on a separate layer referred to as a subdivision level. You can return to a coarser level (lower level) and easily switch between subdivision levels as required.

Related topics

Prepare a model for sculpting

Sculpting basics

Sculpt tool presets