Retopo Workflow between Autodesk Catch123D, 3ds Max and Mudbox

Autodesk’s Gary Davis has been a busy man over the past few days. In this video, he shows the basic concepts behind the workflow and interop of Autodesk Catch123D, 3ds Max  and Mudbox. Highlights include the FREE creation of high resolution, textured models using photogrammetry techniques in Autodesk Catch123D (3D models from real-world photography). The resulting, high resolution, triangulated mesh is cleaned up in 3ds Max and then, using the one-click interop between 3ds Max and Mudbox, a live link is created and the models is passed off to Mudbox.

Using the new Retopology feature of Mudbox 2014, a cleaner, quad mesh is generated with lower levels of detail, a normal map is extracted from the original high resolution mesh, and the final result is passed back to 3ds Max for use in tasks like rigging, lighting rendering or exporting to a game engine.

Autodesk Mudbox 2014 Service Pack 1

Mudbox 2014 Service Pack 1 addresses quality and stability issues with remeshing (retopology), Multi-Touch interaction, and other fixes across several areas including the Grab tool. For more information and a list of what’s fixed, please refer to the Release Notes.

Installing Autodesk Mudbox 2014 Service Pack 1

• On Windows platforms, this service pack is designed to patch your existing Mudbox 2014 application. Do not uninstall Mudbox before installing this service pack.

Autodesk Suite Updates Page Added

With the introduction of the Autodesk Design Suites (2012), you now have lots of packages to manage, ensuring they are all up to date with the latest Service Packs etc. So, to help make this easier, we have added an Autodesk Suite Updates page to the Technical Downloads section on our website.

This will give you an idea of the latest Service Packs for each product in the relvant Autodesk Suite you have installed.

Please visit the new page at:

http://www.microconcepts.co.uk/members/downloads/autodesk_suite_updates/

123D Sculpt Released for iPad

Autodesk's mobile applications have a new addition in the form of 123D Sculpt for the iPad.

Autodesk 123D Sculpt app for iPad allows you to Sculpt and Paint interesting and realistic 3D Shapes. This app is Free for a limited time period.

It is easy to get started. Choose a shape from the library of Creatures, Humans, Vehicles and more. Then push, pull and paint to make the sculpture your want. When you are done, take snapshots in the camera room or create animated QuickTime turntable movies to upload to YouTube or email to friends.

Current Service Packs for 2012 Products

We thought it was about time we highlighted the currently available Service Packs for the 2012 Autodesk products, which are included in the new Product Design and Factory Design Suites:

- Inventor Fusion SP2

- Autodesk Mudbox SP3

- Autodesk Showcase SP1

- Factory Design Tools SP1

- Autodesk 3DS Max Design SP1

- Autodesk Sketchbook Designer SP1

These can all be found on the Autodesk website, or listed on our own Micro Concepts Website. Alternatively, click on the relevant link above!