Common Zbrush Sculpting Brushes In Mudbox By Neil Blevins Created On: Dec 21st 2012 Updated On: Dec 31st 2012
While it's rarely possible to get perfect 1 to 1 parity between
different pieces of software, here's a few common zbrush brushes
replicated in Mudbox. They may not get you 100% of the way there, but
they'll definitely do a similar job, and will let you use more easily
whichever piece of software you prefer.
Unfortunately, Mudbox doesn't have the best brush preset system,
making it impossible for me to just give you these brushes. So instead
I've made notes on what sculpting tool to start with, what settings to
change, and then use "Add Tool" to save the result.
Clay
Similar to: Zbrush Clay Tubes
Description: Displaces out. Uses a square stamp to avoid the blurriness
of the
standard round brush. Stamp is not randomly transformed.
Usage: This is a great brush for laying down some material when you
want to build up a human face or add form to a rock. The square edge
helps avoid the mushy look, and simulates the smear you'd get from a
finger on real clay.
Settings:
Wax
Stamp: Square (Try an oddly shaped hard edged stamp for a more organic looks)
Random: Rotation And Scale 10%
Distance: 1 (may need to be higher if you swap out the square stamp with something else)
Buildup: 100
Falloff: 3
Update Plane: On
Direction: Averaged Normal
Polish
Similar to: Zbrush HPolish
Description: Brush follows the surface and cuts away. No stamp. Similar
to the flatten brush, but flatten can displace the surface upwards,
whereas this brush will only cut away. Also similar to the default settings of the Scrape brush, but nice to have these settings saved in a specific tool.
Usage: Great for cutting away at your surface in flat chunks. Good for
hard surface modeling like building robots or body armor.
Settings:
Scrape
Stamp: None
Random: None
Distance: 0
Buildup: 100
Falloff: 5
Update Plane: On
Direction: Averaged Normal
PlanarCut
Similar to: Zbrush Planar Cut
Description: The first point on the surface you touch defines the
plane, then cuts away at all lower surfaces to get a perfectly flat
area. Produces sharper edge then you get with Flatten, Polish or Trim.
Usage: Great for getting a perfectly flat plane to avoid that mushy
look. Great for getting the big shapes of a crystal or rock.
Settings:
Scrape
Stamp: None
Random: None
Distance: 0
Buildup: 100
Falloff: 5
Update Plane: Off
Direction: Averaged Normal
PlanarAdd
Similar to: Zbrush Planar
Description: The first point on the surface you touch defines the
plane, then add to all lower surfaces to get a perfectly flat
area. Similar to Clay tool, but strokes form planes instead of wrapping around your surface.
Usage: great way to add flat planes of rock on boulders, especially when you want to layer the planes ontop of each other.
Settings:
Wax
Stamp: Square
Random: None
Distance: 0
Buildup: 100
Falloff: 5
Update Plane: Off
Direction: Averaged Normal
Trim
Similar to: Zbrush Trim Dynamic
Description: Similar to Polish, but uses a square stamp to give the cut
some texture.
Usage: Good for slicing away at sharp edges, for example, good for
making chiseled rock effects, just start with a sphere, use Planar to
get the big planar shapes, then use Trim to remove some of the hard
edges to make the rock look like it has been hand carved.
Settings:
Scrape
Stamp: Square (Try an oddly shaped hard edged stamp for a more organic looks)
Random: Rotation And Scale 100%, Position 30%
Distance: 5
Buildup: 100
Falloff: 5
Update Plane: On
Direction: Averaged Normal
Chisel
Similar to: Zbrush Trim Adaptive
Description: Similar to Trim, but trims based on your camera view
instead of the surface normal, which has the effect of chiseling out
large chunks of your model.
Usage: Great for taking large chunks out of your surface. For example,
when making rock, use Planar to get the big shapes, Trim to make the
edges look hand carved, then Chisel to add damage.
Settings:
Scrape
Stamp: Square (Try an oddly shaped hard edged stamp for a more organic looks)
Random: Rotation And Scale 100%, Position 30%
Distance: 5
Buildup: 100
Falloff: 5
Update Plane: On
Direction: Camera
A couple last notes: If you're getting unexpected results:
Resolution: Try lowering or upping the subdivision level. The brushes will act very differently depending on how much
geometry it has to pull and push around.
Brush Strength and Size: The strength and size of the brush will change the look as well, and will need different values depending on
how large your object is in units.
Base Geometry: Finally, the brushes will act differently depending on the base geometry. So using Trim on a sphere will give you different
results from using Trim on the edges of a cube. So try them on different base shapes and see what works best for the result
you're after.
