Mudbox Workflow

This has been my first test with Mudbox, previously I have only ever used Zbrush for any form of high poly sculpting and the workflow to bring that back down to something workable within a game engine isn't exactly quick or easy in my opinion. Mudbox seems to be great working alongside 3DsMax, I can make changes in the 3DsMax file to do with geometry or UV mapping and send them to Mudbox to update the working model there. I have found this particularly useful later on in the project where I have realised UVs haven't been right when I've exported the normal map (and so I change them in 3DsMax, update in Mudbox and re-export normals).

This module for me has been a lot more about trying to get this workflow in to my head than it has been about making rigid-modular assets. My interpretation of the 'modular' aspect of the project was to produce organic shapes that can be slotted together in an array of different rotations/positions to create new and exciting scenes. 

In the first test below, I created the basic object inside 3DsMax and sent it to Mudbox. I found sculpting using 3DsMax's hotkeys and a mouse to be the most effective way to sculpt. Using the tablet seemed wrong in comparison to Zbrush, the camera control system in Mudbox seems to be flawed when it comes to tablets...

After sculpting up to 3,000,000 polys I then could make a new 'export operation' which would extract normal/AO/displacement maps at whatever resolution I desired, from whatever iteration of the subdivided model I chose (I seem to choose the second iteration or one step up from the original mesh) and the poly counts are perfectly reasonable for the models. 

I then use the AO map as a guide when I'm painting on highlights and more detail in Photoshop.