^ Umm, Mudbox 2009 has texture painting (full layers, stencils, custom brushes.. etc.) right on the models in the viewport and the learning curve compared to 'ANYTHING' out there is just.. non existent. Actually, if you know Windows and Photoshop, Mudbox is a piece of cake.


EDIT: Also, if you are a Max/Maya user (or anything by Autodesk), you can be sure of the fact that they are trying REALLY hard to integrate these apps together. No other app can have that edge.

frank I didn't like the first version of mudbox but the latest one is really impressive at least in the feature list. the comment about the autodesk product is irrelevant I mean I was a lightwave user and I switch to maya. I didn't feel the lack of stability. Also modo crashes a lot and it don't work on low end computer but Maya does ( athlon 3200 geforce 6100 for example).
Mudbox 2009 has a lot of painting tool and it's really impressive. You should really look at it at least to compare them with actual tool. But I do understand that the price is high for a non complete package.

Ok then, Mudbox did improve.

But you can read in many forums (3d-coat, newtek and others) that users complain about Mudbox and its instability and that it works very weak except you have high-end hardware.

I have a few friends working with Max and they complain often about crashes. It is interesting how often I get such a Max crash complain via MSN. They are angry then because sometimes they lose work.

My last crash of a beta version of Lightwave got catched and I was asked to save my work before the software closes. And then I could even automatically send a bug report where I got almost instant feedback from the developers.
That is a bit of a difference.

There's always some issue on different machines. My system compared to other users is low end (running on 6800GS, Vista x64, 3gb ram, X2 5200+). But so far I have experienced only 1 crash and even that was because of some texture import (I can increase the poly count to the 'system slowdown' level and it never crashes).

So yeah, depends on how well you keep your machine I guess. That and the fact that some other software is screwing up your system in background. You know how much Windows loves background processes.

What I am saying is that there will be bugs and they can be fixed. Mudbox may not have 'everything' other apps have but at the moment, I don't see any other app that let me jump right in for sculpting and texture painting without learning some crazy interface and useless lingo (zBrush qualifies for both, it's like using Blender..).

Anyways, just a viewpoint from a new Mudbox user, so you can ignore it I guess.

PS: If it's Max we want to discuss, then 2009 never crashed on me so I can't discuss that.

Max interface is really uggly and all those sub menus sound outdated but you'll answer me yeah bla bla bla it's just a matter of taste. I would agree the reason I just can't stand max but even so I had to use for my work and it's not this bad except the look. About modo the interface is really enjoyable. No really conventionnal but like lightwave every single tool can be access easily ( even in maya some tool are quite hard to find) and what make an interface cool, the fact you don't need to look for hours for the bevel or the extrude button. I miss the G button from maya to do the last command but that it. As long as you take time to commit to it is not like blender ( I use it too) its still logical.