Foundry has released Mari 4.6 with exciting improvements to the recently-introduced Material System. Mari is Foundry’s cutting-edge 3D painting and texturing tool.
The tireless software engineers at Foundry have worked hard on the recently-introduced Material System in Mari 4.6. The new Geo-Channels feature allows artists to integrate object-aware properties into material presets for edgeware and other effects. The new release offers a large range of procedural patterns and filters that bolster artists’ arsenal for procedural workflows and introduces vendor shader collaborations with 3Delight and VRay.
Geo-Channels seamlessly integrate into the Materials system in Mari, allowing for material looks to be driven by mesh maps, like Curvature and AmbientOcclusion. In Mari 4.6, the navigation of the Node Graph is cleaner and far more intuitive and works better within the Katana Network Material UI. All parallel streams are recognised as one connection, with a mode all set material nodes. In this node-based display, there is also auto-placement for layouts of complex networks.
“With our latest Mari release, we’ve been working on improving our recently-introduced Materials System, making sure it’s the best fit for artists and the pipelines they use,” says Rory Woodford, Product Manager, Mari. “We will continue to make Mari the one 3D painting package that strives to answer the needs of complexity and volume, procedural and handcrafted responding to the ever-evolving needs of VFX and Animation.”
What’s more, new procedural nodes have been added to enable more complex non-destructive texturing: Projection nodes, Curvature, new Fractals, new Patterns, as well as Math Operators and a variety of new Utility nodes.
There are now matching GLSL shaders in Mari, streamlining look development across Mari and Katana. Foundry is also continuing third-party collaborations with a Mari version of the Renderman PxrSurface shader and there is already a connection with the Arnold renderer, and V-Ray. There are also customizable Material file icons and extensions to the Material Ingestion Tool.
“I’m really happy to see the introduction of Geo-channels that will take my Mari procedural materials to the next level,” says Peter Aversten, Cross Show Lead Texture Artist at MPC and Founder, Meshmen Studios. “All the new fancy nodes and improvements to the node graph are the icing on the cake!”
There’s even a free version. True. With Mari Non-commercial, you get access to a free, non-watermarked version of Mari for as long as you like, so you can learn, explore and have fun at your own pace.
The full list of features for Mari 4.6 can be found here. Mari 4.6 is available for purchase on Foundry’s website and via accredited resellers.
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