ABSTRACT
Vector displacement mapping in Mudbox provides artists with a very powerful toolkit for the extraction and storing of complex, multidirectional displacement. Intricate forms with appendages, undercuts, folds, and bulges, such as a human ear can be stored and reused throughout the sculpting and detailing process. These details are stored in a 32-bit floating-point image format that can be used as brush stamps or stencils in Mudbox to paint complex detail onto meshes in a single stroke. Artists can build up a library of commonly used forms and reuse them on any model. Artists can access a library of specific features that follow the exact look and style of a project and apply this data to the creation of characters, props, or environments. A vector displacement map (VDM) library is a more efficient data set than a collection of high-resolution models or scene files, thus allowing for a more portable and accessible pipeline solution.
