Thursday 7 July 2011

The Death of Mudbox Hub

Made a decision this morning, a one I've been putting off for over a year. I've not been a big person who visits forums for about 2 years now. So I am giving someone the chance to take over mudboxhub.com as I simply don't have the time or inclination to run it anymore. To be blunt it makes no difference to me if it survives or not although I would be a little sad to see the forum go and vanish into internet oblivion as it not only gets a lot of hits still and ranks high in Google but was the 1st post Autodesk buyout forum dedicated to Mudbox. (It was created simply as the Mudbox community asked time and time again for a dedicated forum once again....never as a ego trip because as my wife would tell you my ego can be big enough without any help from a forum *joke*)

But before I simply killed it and switched it off I thought I would give the Mudbox community a chance to keep it going if they wish, but either way it won't be me running it. What I am not interested in is it being absorbed into another forum or site as that negates the whole idea of an independent and dedicated forum.

So if anyone does want to take over completely the Mudbox Hub forum ASAP then let me know. Now anyone who is interested should move fast as I am not dicking around on this and don't want to waste any time on it. I simply do not have the time or inclination to run that place anymore. It had a lot of firsts that I'm a bit proud of....for example it was only the 2nd 3D place online to open a subscription streaming service, the 1st plug-ins for Mudbox were made available there including MudWalker which has since spawned a plethora of clones. After the massive video tutorial dump I did a month or so back I said back then that there was a very good chance it'd be the last big dump of tutorials on Mudbox ....maybe for good or for a very considerable time. I stand by that.

I feel it's time for others to do a lot of tutorials for Mudbox for free. I've done my share and about 600 other peoples share as well over the years lol. In my time in 3D I've released 13 DVD's and hundreds upon hundreds of hours of free videos and feel to be blunt that I have done more than enough for now. I could keep on going and putting a shed load of videos out but right now there is little point or even motivation for me to.

What worries me most is that now I am seen as a lecturer who happens to be an artist and freelancer...when reality I am a freelance artist who just happens to teach now and again to try and help people starting out. I'm in the process of changing my life a bit and simplifying things. While I've always worked long hours, these days there is less inclination for the majority of those hours to be for videos and emails bailing others out for free. At the age of 40 I don't feel like I want to have yet another thing to absorb time out of my life that I could be spending either with my wife and kids or actual paid work.

As I mentined earlier I have been putting off this decision for the last year and a half. Its a decision there is no going back from, and I do warn anyone I am looking at some either taking it over within days .... or it will be reduced to a simple splash page and a few videos. It makes no difference to me either way.

The deadline is Sunday 10th July. I should also point out this is NOT the domain but running the site I am talking about. The domian is worth too much to simple give away.