Mush3D
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Mush3D v2 Docs

Getting Started
Sculpting
Brushes
Fbx Pipeline
Commands

Getting Started

Camera Controls

  • To rotate the camera, hold down Alt and left-click.
  • For panning the camera, hold down Alt and middle-click.
  • To zoom the camera, hold down Alt and right-click.

Importing an Alembic File

  1. Open the Node Graph Area and press Tab to access the node list.
  2. Choose the “Import Alembic” node from the list.
  3. Repeat the process to create a “Mesh Draw” node.
  4. Connect the nodes by clicking on the outMesh attribute of the import alembic node and then on the inMesh attribute of the Mesh Draw node.
  5. Expand the “Display Settings” section under the attribute editor tab for the import alembic node.
  6. Click on the three dots button to load your alembic scene.

Sculpting

Brush Controls

  • Use the middle mouse button to adjust the brush radius.
  • Hold down the middle mouse button and press Shift to control the brush intensity.

To access individual brush controls:

  1. Select the desired brush.
  2. Open the Attribute Editor or Tool Settings.
  3. Locate and modify the specific brush controls to suit your needs.

Note: Sculpting brushes will be visible when a Sculpt Node is selected on the node graph. Ensure that you have the appropriate node selected to access the sculpting brushes.

Adding a Sculpt Node

After loading a Mesh on the scene, you may want to disconnect the connection between the Mesh and the Draw Node. To do this, hold the Control key and drag over the connection between the nodes.

  1. Press Tab to open the node list and select the “Sculpt” node.
  2. Connect the nodes as follows:
    • Connect the “outMesh” of your Import Node to the “inMesh” of your Sculpt Node.
    • Connect the “outMesh” of the Sculpt Node to the “inMesh” of the Draw Node.
  3. With the Sculpt Node selected, navigate to the Attribute Editor. You should find a section where you can add sculpt layers.

By following these steps, you can add a Sculpt Node to your node graph and establish the necessary connections to enable sculpting capabilities.

Choosing a Blend Mode

Auto Blend “None”:

This mode requires manual creation of keyframes on the timeline to blend your sculpted layers.

  • To create keyframes on the timeline, select the sculpt layer you want to add keyframes to.
  • Shift-click on the timeline to add keyframes.
  • Hold Control to delete keyframes.
  • Click and drag to move keyframes.

Auto Blend “Skeletal”:

This mode is designed for imported FBX skeletal files that contain 3D meshes animated by bones.

Auto Blend “4D Cache”:

This mode is specifically for facial 4D caches, which are also Alembic caches.

  • For the 4D cache auto-blending mode to work on the imported face, the face should have UVs similar to the provided “uv mesh.”
  • You can locate the uv mesh inside the “Samples” folder.
  • To transfer the UVs from the uv mesh to your face model, you can use external 3D software like Autodesk Maya, Blender, or WrapX.

By understanding and utilizing the appropriate Auto Blend mode for your specific needs, you can effectively control how the sculpted frames blend into the animation.

Show / Hide Polygons

To hide or show polygons in a mesh, you can use the following methods:

Selective Hide/Show:

  • Hold Ctrl + Shift and drag to create a green box around the polygons you want to keep visible.
  • The polygons inside the box will remain visible, while the rest will be hidden.
  • Alternatively, release Ctrl + Shift while dragging and press Alt to create a red box, which will have the opposite effect—hiding the polygons inside it.
  • To display all polygons, simply drag a box around the entire mesh without selecting any polygons.

Hide Others:

  • Hold Ctrl + Shift and click on top of a specific mesh or polygon.
  • This action will hide all other meshes or polygons in the scene, making the selected one the only visible element.

These methods provide quick ways to selectively hide or show specific polygons or entire meshes, allowing you to focus on specific areas of interest during your workflow.

Brushes

Clay

A regular Clay Brush, you can adjust the clay effect using the Tool Settings tab.

Move

A regular Move Brush, you can adjust the fallof area using the Tool Settings tab. You can shoose from World or topological Mode.

Cloning

The Cloning brush is a powerful tool that allows you to transfer surface details from one mesh to another. It differs from a morph target brush as it can clone surface areas of meshes that are positioned differently in space. This makes it ideal for creating new characters by morphing different ones together.

To access different cloning modes, navigate to the Tool Settings tab. Here are the available modes:

Bind Points Mode:

This mode clones details from the bind pose state of the mesh. It is useful for cleaning up undesired deformations or restoring the original shape.

Shape Browser Mode:

In this mode, details are cloned from a selected mesh in the Shape Browser tab. It is effective for copying character features from different characters and incorporating them into your current mesh.

Blend Shape Mode:

This mode clones details from the source mesh connected to the blend shape node. It is particularly useful when working with 4D caches and can help fix areas where the transfer has failed.

By utilizing the appropriate cloning mode from the Tool Settings tab, you can seamlessly transfer surface details between meshes and achieve the desired effects in your sculpting process.

Wrinkle

The Wrinkle Brush allows you to create dynamic wrinkles that simulate the deformation of the mesh as you sculpt. It utilizes the difference between the current pose and the rest pose (the first animation frame) to generate realistic wrinkle effects

Inflate

The Inflate Brush allows you to move vertices along their normals, creating a bulging or inflating effect on the mesh.

Crease

The Crease Brush is designed to create a cut effect on the mesh by pinching the vertices towards the center of the brush.

Average Deltas

The Average Deltas brush is a useful tool when sculpting blend shapes to achieve more organic deformations. It allows you to average the deformation caused by the selected layer, resulting in smoother and more natural transitions between different shapes.

Erase

The Erase Brush is a tool used to remove or erase the deformation applied by the selected layer.

Freeze

The Freeze Brush is a tool used to “freeze” or protect a specific area of the mesh, preventing other brushes from affecting it during sculpting or editing operations.

Weights

The Weights Brush is a tool used to paint weights for a deformer nodes.

Jiggle Drag

The Jiggle Drag Brush is a tool designed to test and preview the jiggle effect of a Jiggle node. It is available in the brushes toolbar only when a Jiggle node is selected.

Fbx Pipeline for Games

Importing FBX Files:

  • Use the FBX node to import an FBX file into Mush3D.
  • Add multiple nodes to the scene as desired.

Exporting FBX Files:

  • To export the final result, create an Export FBX Node.
  • Insert the Export FBX Node between the last deformer node in the chain and the Mesh Draw Node.
  • Note that deformations from nodes prior to the Export FBX Node will disappear. To retain those deformations, create “Sample Keys”.

Creating Sample Keys:

  • With the Export FBX Node selected, hold Shift and click on the timeline to create sample keys.
  • It is recommended to create sample keys on the first frame, last frame, and some additional frames in between.
  • Keep some distance between the sample keys and consider adding them to hero frames of the animation.

Exporting:

  • When the FBX file is exported, it will contain an extra blend shape for each sample key.
  • These blend shapes will be combined and animated to ensure that what you see in the game engine matches the results in Mush3D.

The FBX pipeline in Mush3D offers a powerful solution for achieving accurate deformations, cloth simulations, jiggles, and more in real-time game environments. It enables seamless integration of sculpted skeletal animations into game projects, delivering high-quality results and maintaining consistency with the animations created within Mush3D.

Commands

Python Support in Mush3d

Mush3d offers minimal Python support, making it easier for teams to script shots. Right now, we’ve got just 3 commands to play with:

  • importAlembic
  • replaceAlembic
  • exportAlembic

Examples:

Import Alembic:

import mush
mush.importAlembic(“your_file_path”)

Replace Alembic:

import mush
mush.replaceAlembic(“your_file_path”)

Export Alembic:

import mush
mush.exportAlembic(“your_file_path”)