Hello,
I really love 3D sculpting and I want to start with the free student edition of mudbox. I want to know if I can do something well without drawing knowledge.
Basicly I just want to sculpt cute animals like mouse, tiger, kitten etc …
I have already try mudbox but when I follow a simple tutorial I’m totaly lost with the result and I don’t know if it’s because of my drawing skill or just because I need more practice (twice are true I imagine).
If someone can answer me 
Thanks
I’m not an artist and figured that may be a good reason to reply.
When trying to create art you need a clear image in your mind. A target. Using reference images is very helpful. I am not saying you’ll instantly turn out pro level art. That is very unlikely. It takes a lot of time and practice to gain that level of skill just like anything else.
Some people have more natural talent than others but most fantastic artists I know have been drawing or otherwise creating art since they were young children. Literally thousands of hours of time spent on it over the years. So… you need to put the time in. BUT… just using reference images and focusing on your workflows learning the tool inside and out will help a huge amount to improve your results. Practice. Practice. Practice. You’ll get better over time with a focused effort on doing so.
Blender sculptor here.
First I would recommend using blender for sculpting, as it is free and since dynotopo it is pretty much on par with mudbox.
My initial questions are, what are you sculpting for? If this is for a game, then retopology goes hand in hand with sculpting, and this is the most tedious stage. You need to retopo your sculpt so that the mesh deforms properly and has less polys.
In regards to sculpting it takes, months to get good at, it took me months to get great at sculpting. And I started off doing all the wrong things like going straight into the fine details.
With sculpting you need to restrain yourself and you must work on the sculpt as a whole, working on landmarks and trying not to get into high level detail too soon. The following video helped me tremendously to get my sculpting up to AAA standard.
Pro tip.
You’ll probably want a pen tablet as well, mouse just doesn’t get the same workflow as a pen and tablet.
Hello and thanks for your reply guys.
@iamthwee I want to learn sculpting not for game just for me, just for create nice looking images with animals like tiger, mouse etc … I already have a tablet (5 years ago I buy it for leaning drawing ^^).
Thanks for the video, it’s awesome how fast this guy is, 1 hours for a nice looking creature
Should be posted in external tools - for future reference.
If your getting Mudbox student version for free - I’d stick with it. Blender is - an acquired taste, and takes some time and patience to work with, and Mudbox is awesome!
But if you are looking around for something that IS free check out Sculptris instead. It is free and ultra simple.
I agree with everything else iamthwee said - except the blender suggestion. 
Also consider using tutorials for just learning the interface and tools. Don’t try to create anything you want to keep while your going through the tutorials, just get comfortable with the tools and workflow.
Then when your ready and feel like you have a handle on the tool - go create something simple, and apply the knowledge you have with the tools to the sculpt.
Hello & thanks @theANIMATOR2b for the replay.
I have sculptris ofc (30 mb & free), he is really easy to use, i play with him alot for learning how to use tools. Same for the Sculpt app from autodesk on my android tablet.
In mudbox it look like I can’t create volume with the grab tool. But in sculptris I can
Illustration :
I can’t create my model from start with a sphere in mudbox ? I need a base mesh for doing something ?
If I want to learn mudbox it’s because he look really easy in the interface, more than ZBrush, I have it for free for 3 years and he have powerful render (people on internet do amazing things with it)
So i’ll remember your advice, don’t follow tutorial for sculpting, learn the tools & interface and experiment with imagination.
With what can I start ? Something easy for a begginer ?
PS: I’m french so sorry if I make ugly & big mistake in english. I try my best
Most people import a base mesh into a sculpting package or start with one of the default meshes. Last I used Mudbox they had a default human shape which was a good starting point for most anything humanoid.
Starting with a sphere really isn’t the best approach - even though it’s what most of the sculpting packages have by default.
Most modelers - when dealing with low poly either start off with a cube/box/cylinder.
But for a head sculpt I think a sphere would be a fine starting point.
The way your working - above in the screen shots - you’d need to add another layer of sub division to extrude more. And you might want to use a different tool - I believe there is an extrude tool which works like your wanting.
Also - don’t forget - you can sculpt the shape into the surface - that same shape could be cut out of the sphere shape.
But I’d suggest maybe working from a lowpoly model, importing it in to get the base shapes down.
Mudbox isn’t the best tool for posing a figure - Zbrush really has the best posing tools out of all the sculpting packages.
Sculpting was harder than modeling for me.
I think you’ll have harder time with sculpting then you would with subdivision surface modeling and model hard surfaces. Generally you can model without being able to draw, BUT i’m not sure if this also true for sculpting, and being able to draw helps.
Either way, if you want to give it a try, by all means, give it a try. If you sink enough hours into it, you’ll absolutely get better at it. Same thing as with drawing. It is just a skill, which can be learned, no magic there. (just requires training/practice).
I also would recommend blender, because it is free and powerful enough for a beginner. And I also suggest getting a tablet. Having pressure sensitivity helps a lot with sculpting. It is not required when you’re modeling (polygons/subdivision surfaces), and not sculpting.
I don’t want to create humanoid, it look too hard for me right now. I’ll start with sculptris finally because it’s more easy for me too manipulate my mesh. And if one day I think Sculptris is not enough I can switch to mudbox or Zbrush.
@neginfinity I don’t llike blender for one thing : the widget. The shortcut for scale, move and rotate don’t work like Cinema 4D, Maya etc …
I’ve already try the “classic” modeling. 10 Years ago, modeling car in GMax for Gta Vice City & Sans Andreas on PC ^^ .
I still modeling sometimes but I really want to start sculpting, bring to life all my idea is something awesome. So let’s practice
Thanks for all reply again :))
if you really wanna have fun with sculpting, go for sculptris, it’s free, it’s simple, very user friendly and you can easily begin with it.
after getting more skilled, trry zbrush, but it is way harder to use.
mudbox is… meh, too simple for a “professional” sculpt tool.
i use the 3 of them, and i still use sculptris.
tree below is all modeled and painted with sculptris, remeshed in 3dsmax, rendered in cryengine
You don’t need to be able to draw, but it helps. And you will find most successful modelers can. While they are different types of tools, ultimately drawing and sculpting are less about the technique and more about taste, design sense and having clear enough concepts that you communicate them regardless of method.
It is your choice, but blender gets close to what you can do with zbrush, and it is free. Hotkeys… hotkeys make blender powerful, actually. You don’t need UI for large number of tasks.
I’m gonna disagree on this one. Technique is absolutely required (and you use it to communicate clear enough concepts), however it can be learned.
Basically the OP will need to learn box modeling to retopo and sculpting for original high-poly mesh to base the retopo on and the best, easiest, and most organized way to do that is via Blender & CG Cookie Citizen subscription and several months of diligent work.
blender, oh… we said…simple ,not “tons of hotkeys”
If given a choice between “simple” and “powerful” I will prefer “powerful”. Something that is easy to get started with usually will significantly limit you down the road.
Hotkeys win.
wut ? simple is limited and complex is powerful ? welll no…
hotkey were great with ms-dos when you couldn’t have a graphical interface…
just imagine unity with hotkeys only. well some may like it…
the “wins” argument if infantile… “blender rules…blabla” is useless… experience is the key.
the OP stated he has no skills in sculting, drawing or modeling… i just can’t imagine him liking spending hours learning blender hotkeys while in sculptris, he just clicks and sculpts in seconds… and he can go for a more complex DCC when he wants to go for a more elaborated project.
but if you want, we can post a vid where YOU show how you sculpt in blender, and I show how i scult in sculptris.
Unity needs way more hotkeys.
This +100.
And what would that achieve… Let’s not turn this into a software war, blender is capable more than capable and yes hotkeys are way more efficient than a clunky interface. Also the sculpting UI is pretty intuitive and has nice big buttons, should you prefer to use them.
Hello guys,
I think you don’t understand what I mean (probably because my english suck 
).
I have a little modeling skill. Basicly only cars and motorbike (MX) (because I’m a big fan of motor sport)
In blender I just don’t like the guizmo. When I’m in Maya (for example) I press R and the widget for scale appear. In blender I press S and I can scale but not with the widget. I need to press S + axis for scale on X or Y etc … This is the only thing I don’t like. I know people love this way of modeling, but I don’t. I prefer using the classic cross widget for move/rotate & scale my selection. This is why I don’t really like blender.
I know blender is a powerful 3D tools, I don’t have any problems with hotkey etc … I use them alot in photoshop (I’m a webdesign / front-end developer), it’s my job and I use many hotkey in sublime & photoshop/illustrator. It’s just the behaviour of the widget.
Exactly, I just want to make fun with sculpting and If one day i’m limited by sculptris I can switch to any other sculpting tools. The tools are the same, maybe different shortcut or name but the same way of working.
Finally as I said in my previous post, I decided to start with Sculptris (easy to learn the tools/hotkey, enough for a beginner like me). I also decided to give 1 hours per days for practice drawing. Basic objets, shadow and lighting etc … He can’t be bad anyway.
@iamthwee awesome work
Thanks again for all reply.
I really think you need to be able to draw. Or at least I would say that drawing is by far the best and fastest way to learn how to be a good artist. The thing is, to be a good drawer, 99% of it is knowing instinctively where each little detail is relative to eachother, which is the same thing you need for good sculpting. It’s very transferable.
I’ve always enjoyed drawing faces and human figures since I was very young, but I’ve only ever been in a sculpting program half a dozen times. This is what I made the first time I ever sculpted anything in Blender:
So if I were you, I would practice a lot of drawing.
