You can export an image of your model as it appears in the 3D View as a .psd file. Mudbox saves an image of the 3D view and sends it to Photoshop, where you can create new paint textures or perform touch up work with Photoshop tools, keeping the view of your 3D model as a reference. You can then re-import the paint layer back into Mudbox and update with the changes you made in Photoshop.
For best results, consider the following tips before exporting an image of your Mudbox screen to Photoshop.
If you will click Use 2X Screen Size in the Save Screen Image window, you can double this figure, or Use 4X Screen Size, you can quadruple. If you have too many polygons, single pixel dropouts can occur when you re-import the paint layer.
Paint on surface areas that are somewhat oblique can appear smeared when you re-import the paint layer. Once the angle of the surface relative to the camera is greater than 65 degrees off normal, the projection falls off sharply.
To export an image of your Mudbox screen to Photoshop
Soloing the layer makes it the only visible paint layer, temporarily hiding any other diffuse layers that are not required.
Diffuse paint layers are the only layer type available for export and re-import using this workflow.
The Export Screen Image to PSD window appears.
You can enter a custom Width and Height for the image (in pixels), click Use Screen Size to automatically set the Width and Height to your current screen resolution, or click Use 2X Screen Size or Use 4X Screen Size for greater resolution.
If you enter custom Width and Height values, ensure that the resulting image aspect ratio matches the screen resolution exactly. Otherwise, the texture may not align correctly with the model when re-imported. Using an exact integer multiple of the current screen size is recommended.
Mudbox automatically launches Photoshop and the file appears in the Canvas view. If Photoshop doesn't launch automatically, see Troubleshoot paint layers.
In Photoshop, the Layers window (Hotkey: F7) contains five layers exported from Mudbox (listed in order from bottom to top):
Expand here for more information on each layer exported from Mudbox.
Contains an image of the 3D View background and camera information. The numerical string listed after the layer name records camera position information used to set 3D View back to its exact location when you re-import the .psd file after editing in Photoshop.
Editing the numerical string after the layer name or the image on the background layer prevents the texture from aligning correctly when the .psd file is re-imported to Mudbox. Do not resize the 3D View in Mudbox between export and re-import of the .psd file.
Contains a screen capture of your model(s) as it appeared in the 3D View. It displays a non-shaded (flat shaded) preview of the model with the assigned shading material. Mudbox uses this layer to accurately composite your paint edits when you re-import the file.
Contains a copy of the original paint layer(s) as it appeared from the camera at screen capture. Mudbox uses this layer to make a comparison between the original paint layers and any edits you make on the Mudbox Texture layer.
Where you paint or apply any paint edits. These are applied to your model after you save the .psd file and re-import to Mudbox.
Do not change this layer name. Renaming this layer prevents you from re-importing the file to Mudbox.
Contains a screen capture of the 3D shading of your model(s) as it appeared within the 3D View. Mudbox uses this layer to accurately composite your paint edits when the file is re-imported. It can be useful to keep this layer visible as a reference for your paint edits in Photoshop.
If you create any other paint layers in the file, merge them with the Mudbox Texture layer before saving the file and returning to work in Mudbox.
Mudbox projects the paint onto the selected layer. You can select a different layer than the original if you want to apply the Photoshop edits to a different layer.
Importing the PSD file causes the following to occur:
The projection of the edited pixels within the PSD file occurs on the model.