Mudbox is dead What are the Alternatives?

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Mudbox is dead What are the Alternatives?

Mudbox will be taken offline. Autodesk will stop selling new licenses. Here is some alterantives to the Oscar Winning VFX software used on LOTR and King Kong

Game Development

August 14, 2026

1–2 minutes

autodesk, Mudbox

So Autodesk decide to take off their sculpting software mudbox and stop selling new licenses come 7 Nov 2026.

It was originally developed at Weta Studios / Skymatter used mostly on Films and VFX projects. you can read about its history in CG Channel and Wikipedia.

I personally have used Mudbox for my own time as a CG Artist working on engineering projects it was intuitive when it came out around 2005 – 2006 most notably was its used in Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings and King Kong.

What I liked about Mudbox over Zbrush was it was a layer based sculpting system.

Why no one uses it

Lack of updates? I feel it was on Maintenance mode every since autodesk bought it and tried to bundle it with the Maya and 3dsmax suites. And the cg market moved to Zbrush with its impressive features even though the UI was so clunky.

What are the options?

Right now the options are

Nomad Sculpt

I discovered how good nomad sculpt is
byu/arcangoth inNomadSculpting

Blender Sculpting

Open source and Free Blender has come a long way to include sculpting

Zbrush

3d Coat

Not used it but I feel 3d Coat can compete in this area too

Armour Paint (Sculpting coming in the future)

https://armorpaint.org

Opensource Future

My bet is now Blender and Nomad, These newer one seem to be chipping away at the established CG Softwares, Blender has proven itself to be very capable. Nomad is still new but I think it has a shot to become its own thing for sculpting.

When will the software end?

Overview

Starting on August 7th, 2026, Autodesk will be discontinuing the sale of new and renewal of Autodesk Mudbox subscription(s). Mudbox software’s 3-year subscription offering will be discontinued on August 7th, followed by the end of sale of 1-year and monthly Mudbox subscriptions on November 7th, 2026.

If you have an Autodesk Media & Entertainment Collection 2027 subscription, you will continue to have access to Mudbox. The 2027 version of the Media & Entertainment Collection will be the last to include Mudbox.

Via CG Channel