Clayground
Autodesk stopped selling and renewing three-year Mudbox subscriptions on 7 August 2026, and monthly and annual ones end on 7 November 2026. Mudbox 2027 is the last release; anyone subscribed on 7 August gets five years of Mudbox 2027, with support and security fixes for the first three and no new features. There is no single free replacement. Blender is the free full program with a proper sculpt mode. Clayground's browser studio is a free place to sculpt forms and characters on any computer or phone, and its Quest app does it in VR with your hands. Neither does production texture painting or very dense meshes.
What Autodesk announced
Autodesk's stated reason for ending sales is that Mudbox has had no significant new features since Mudbox 2019. Three-year subscriptions stopped selling and renewing on 7 August 2026. Monthly and annual ones stop on 7 November 2026. If you already hold a subscription, Mudbox 2027 keeps working for you; check Autodesk's own notice for what your licence gets.
The free options, honestly
| Topic | Good for | Hard part |
|---|---|---|
| Blender (sculpt mode) | Free and open source. Sculpts, paints, retopologises, renders and animates, so it is the closest free thing to the whole Mudbox job. | A big interface to learn; sculpting is one mode among many. |
| Clayground browser studio | Shaping a character or a form in a minute on any computer, Chromebook or phone, with nothing to install and no account. Volumetric clay, layers, colour painted on the clay, GLB, OBJ and STL export. | No UVs or texture maps, no retopology, and not for very fine detail. |
| Clayground on Meta Quest | Sculpting with your hands in VR, free, on the headset with no PC. | Needs a Quest; the headset's memory limits detail. |
What Mudbox did that the studio doesn't
Mudbox is known for dense meshes and for painting textures onto them. The browser studio sculpts volumetric clay instead of a mesh, so it never tears or stretches, but it has no UV layouts and no painted texture maps. Colour goes onto the clay and exports with it. If your work ends in a textured, retopologised model for a game or a film, the free route is Blender, and the paid ones are ZBrush and 3DCoat, which are the two that CG Channel named when the news broke.
Where the studio is the better tool is the first hour: blocking out a character, trying a shape, making something to print or to take into Blender. There is a clay layer for each part, mirror and radial symmetry, and the Print (STL) button gives you a file for the slicer.
Bringing a model over
The studio doesn't read Mudbox's own files. Export your model from Mudbox in a format Blender opens (OBJ or FBX), save it from Blender as GLB, then use Import GLB in the browser studio. Textures don't come across, and very fine detail may soften. For a sculpt that started in Clayground, export it to Blender the other way round.
What I'd do this week
- Keep sculpting while you decide. Open the browser studio and make something small. Clay, Smooth, Move and Mirror cover most of what you did in your first session in any tool.
- For detail and finishing, learn Blender's sculpt mode: Blender sculpting for beginners.
- If you need a professional tool, compare ZBrush and 3DCoat. The ZBrush alternative guide says where ZBrush is worth the money.
- If you have a Quest, try VR sculpting.
Questions people ask
Is Mudbox discontinued?
Autodesk stopped selling three-year subscriptions on 7 August 2026 and ends monthly and annual sales on 7 November 2026. Mudbox 2027 is the last release, and subscribers keep it for five years with support for the first three.
What is the best free Mudbox alternative?
For a full program, Blender. For sculpting forms and characters in a tab with nothing to install, the Clayground browser studio. Neither replaces Mudbox's texture painting.
Can I open my Mudbox files in Clayground?
Not directly. Export a mesh from Mudbox, bring it through Blender as a GLB, and use Import GLB. Textures don't come across.
Do I need an account?
No. Your sculpt saves on your device.
Sources
Checked 27 October 2026.