Paint file formats and color bit depth

The following table lists supported file formats and bit depths for painting in Mudbox.

File format	Bit Depth/Datatype supported
PTEX	8 bit unsigned integer 16 bit unsigned integer 16 bit floating point 32 bit floating point
PNG	8 bit unsigned integer
TGA	8 bit unsigned integer
TIFF	8 bit unsigned integer 16 bit unsigned integer 16 bit floating point 32 bit floating point
OpenEXR	16 bit floating point 32 bit floating point
Photoshop	8 bit unsigned integer 16 bit unsigned integer

Color bit depth

While image resolution (the number of pixels in both the horizontal and vertical axes) is key in determining the detail and definition in the images you create on paint layers, the color bit depth of a paint layer is also critical to consider, depending on your particular production pipeline and file output requirements.

Color bit depth refers to the number of colors that can be displayed within an image. The higher the bit depth (16 or 32 bit), the larger the color palette that can be used to represent the image. This provides the possibility of representing a much richer (and more subtle) range of shading compared to images with a lower bit depth (8 bit).

Images with higher color bit depth retain their characteristics better when edited compared to lower bit depth images in terms of the ability to adjust their brightness, color, and contrast, which can be particularly helpful when working in a production environment when the image criteria must respond to changes in design direction.

Note: In general, the higher the image bit depth, the larger the file size. Keep this in mind when painting and mapping images with larger resolutions and higher bit depths in Mudbox, as they can rapidly consume graphics memory. See also Graphics memory optimization.

Painting with very low strength brushes produces better results when the paint layer is of a higher bit depth (16 bit floating point) compared to paint layers that are 8 bits per channel.

Related topics

Painting overview