SOFTIMAGE TO MUDBOX pipeline

[thorsnuts]

Hello..

I was wondering if anybody could share their process when using Soft and Mudbox together.

My issue is that the unit system in both are so different. My mesh in Softimage take up the full grid... so its pretty big, but when I send to mudbox, its so small that the brush size has to be 1.1 do anything.

is there a way to sync the units or the size of the mesh between the two?

thanks again,

[Daniel Brassard]

Change the linear unit in Mudbox

Under Window->Preferences, User Interface - you'll see an option to change the linear units.

Change the Mudbox default unit to cm or metre (corresponding Softimage unit system is decimeter i.e 10 cm). Mudbox default unit is cm. Test with a cube created in Soft of one unit and see how big it is in Mudbox.

Yoou can also do the reverse, create a unit cube in Soft and compare with Mudbox. Then scale the model in Softimage to compensate for the Mudbox scale difference.

Remember to freeze the scale transform before import/export between Soft/Mud or the brushes will not work as expected (too big or too small)

Good luck.

[thorsnuts]

thank you.. ok I changed the Linear Units to Centimeter but I don't see a place to put the number 10. The only place I see to put a number is the Double Click and Drag Box Size.

thank you

[Daniel Brassard]

OK, that should do it. (appology if I confuse you in the earlier response, I corrected it)

Remember Soft model will now be 10 time bigger in Mudbox (or 10 time smaller, I forget), but you can correct scaling in Soft or Mudbox before import/export if necessary.

Test with a Softimage unit cube to confirm

(Drag box and double click unit has nothing to do with the linear units, you can ignore these settings for now).

[Firebird]

If changing units in mudbox isn´t enough, I normally just scale my models up by 10 or more after importing into Mudbox. (for very small object, bolts screws etc)

For texture, normal maps etc it doesn´t matter anyway and if I export a mesh back to SI I just have to remember to but the scale in Mudbox back to 1,1,1.

Can be a bit painful with lots of objects but works.

[thorsnuts]

thank you guys..