Sculpting >
Sculpting basics

Sculpting in Mudbox is as easy as loading a model, subdividing it to increase its resolution, and selecting a sculpt tool from the Sculpt Tools tray and stroking on your model.

1. With a model loaded in the 3D View, click the Sculpt Tools tab to display the Sculpt Tools tray.
2. In the Sculpt Tools tray, select a sculpt tool.
3. In the 3D View, position the cursor on the model and press the left button and click a few times in the same location without moving the tool cursor across the surface of the model.
   NoteIf the following message appears: The mesh you are trying to sculpt is too coarse for the size of your brush, you’ll need to either increase the resolution of your model or increase the size of your sculpt tool. For more information, see Increase a model’s resolution and Edit sculpt tool properties.

   The vertices on the model move slightly outwards in that region. Each click moves the vertices within the region of the tool cursor upwards from their previous position. How far the vertices move is affected by the Strength property combined with the Falloff setting. The Size property is represented by the circular tool cursor that appears whenever it is over the model.

4. Drag the tool cursor across the surface of the model while pressing the left button on the stylus/mouse.

   This time the vertices on the model move slightly outwards along the path that you dragged. This path is called a stroke. A stroke appears continuous but is actually made up of many stamp impressions that overlap each other. You can adjust how much the stamps overlap by adjusting the Stamp Spacing property.

   NoteAll sculpt tools do not move the vertices outwards by default.

5. To reverse the sculpt direction for any sculpt tool, press the Ctrl key, and drag the cursor across the surface of the model while pressing the left button.

NoteWhen you click a tool icon in any tray, the tool properties display in the Properties window located on the right side of the user interface. You can change a sculpt tool’s properties (for example, Size and Strength) in the Properties window, or by using hotkeys.
NoteYou can quickly modify a sculpt tool’s falloff value by selecting a falloff preset from the Falloff tray. For more information, see Sculpt Tool properties.

Related topics

Sculpting overview

Prepare a model for sculpting

Sculpt tool presets

Edit sculpt tool properties