I just got a mail saying that Autodesk and Skymatter have signed a definitive agreement for Autodesk to acquire substantially all the assets of Skymatter.

I've not really used Mudbox but I understand it to be similar to Zbrush but a true 3D app as opposed to Zbrush being 2.5D.

I wonder if we're going to see much progression in brush based modelling in Maya or if they're going to keep it as a seperate application

Could be interesting,

Mat.

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i hope they combine, i would LOVE that.

i used mudbox, but once zb3 came out, i gave it up, lol.

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yeah its brush based and really easy to get into - far easier than ZB from a basic level but then again it doesnt have half the tools. I know Mudbox 2 was on the cards this year and would probably be including 3D painting and some other nifty additions to bring it more towards the likes of ZB whilst still being sufficiently different.
Here's hoping that Autodesk really push it and start throwing lots more development at it. It'd be nice to see the displacement mapping features fully integrated with maya and 3ds max as it can be a bit tricky to find nice settings.
I think a standalone would probably be better for now but there wouldnt be anything wrong with integrating it directly into the maya/max interface for some seriously good modelling capabilities.
I read the mudbox forums a lot and you get the usual gripes about autodesk possibly screwing it up but I think that it'll develop a lot faster for the better now

Si

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Hi Mat

Yeah I mentioned it in my Maya 2008 thread, a plug in of some sorts would be great. I've never used mudbox just Zbrush, the lack of the painting tools made it a bit of a letdown in my opinion.

But to be honest I got to grips with Z pretty fast, which helped a lot then again I only use about 10% of what it can do.

As for the devlopment of mudbox, I really think that Autodesk will throw loads into it, lets face it the level of detail that you can apply in sculpting packages and the interactivity between the user and the software via tablets has made a lot of CG movie (and still) characters the dogs do dars, this cant of gone unnoticed at autodesk, also streamlining the intergration of the sculpt into the pipeline would be a huge bonus as I find it a bit of a pain messing about with settings all over the place.

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