Mudbox features real-time view port rendering, which previews models under different lighting and rendering conditions. To experiment with Mudbox’s viewport rendering, click on the Viewport Filters tab. Click on the box next to the Tonemapper to turn it on. The Tonemapper manages the brightness in the scene, the tonal range, and glare effects. Adjust the Gamma slider to brighten or darken the scene. Next, turn on the Depth of Field and adjust the Depth of Field and the Focus Distance sliders until the areas of the scene you want are in focus. Turn on and adjust Ambient Occlusion to simulate global illumination (Figure 5.18).
Summary
In this topic, you learned that it is important to efficiently UV map a model to get the most of Mudbox’s paint tools. You have probably figured out that painting with Mudbox is a straightforward process that allows you to be creative, and you can create textures for just about anything you can imagine with ease. However, there are some considerations to take into account when painting in Mudbox. At this point, the shaders in Mudbox are basic tools compared with shaders and materials in programs like Maya or 3ds Max. As a result, if you want transparency or advanced options like subsurface scattering, you have to export the model along with its textures and build custom shaders in your favorite 3D program. In the next topic, you will learn to extract displacement maps, export models from Mudbox, and then apply the displacement maps to the model in various 3D programs.
FIG 5.18 Experiment with the Viewport Filters to Render the Model In Different Lighting and Rendering Conditions.
