Introduction to MARI

Taught by Brittany Drew

Course Number:
MAR102
Software Version:
2.5 
Original Run Date:
January 2014 
Duration:
9 hours 51 minutes 
3D
MAR102 explores the awesome flexible power that is the robust Mari software. We address using Mari in your texture painting workflow, including using it in conjunction with other software such as Maya, Mudbox and Photoshop. We also cover essential texturing techniques to get the artist up and running with Mari in no time!

Prof Brittany Drew is an Los Angeles based texture painter, working in visual effects, games, freelance illustration as well as concept art. She worked at Rhythm & Hues as a Texture Paint TD (Technical Director) on “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters,” “Seventh Son,” “RIPD” and other projects. She assisted in the Texture Department's transition from Bodypaint to Mari, assisting fellow artists as well as writing tutorials for their internal Wikipedia pages. She started her career at The Foundry where she helped create and refine demo material for use at events such as SIGGRAPH. Brittany loves puzzle solving and all things art. The artistic drive and the technical challenges of a texture artist was a perfect fit for her. She loves expanding her knowledge as well as teaching and helping others.

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Introduction to MARI
Watch our overview of the course

Class Listing

Class 1

Intro to Mari's interface, display options, palettes and Mari's toolbox. Setting up the Mari Cache and starting a project, customizing the interface. Mari's Paint Buffer projection system and the relationship of shaders, channels and layers. Starting work on a basic prop asset.

Class 2

Continuing work on the prop asset. Discussion of projection options, masking, and shaders. Using the shading types and lights palette to help preview your model. Using object, patch, and polygonal level selection options in Mari. Creating a brush library and importing favorites from Photoshop into Mari. Building custom shelves. Setting up triplanar projections to quickly create a base, and other procedural options Mari has.

Class 3

Continuing work on the photo-real asset. Creating masked layers for rust, paint, and scratches etc. Use of Mari's new layer, mask and grouping systems to add additional detail. Using cached layers to reduce the real time render load on your machine. Developing the additional maps necessary for rendering quickly and easily using Mari's channel copying, layer sharing and filter options.

Class 4

Working with multi-patch objects and prepping them in Maya. Methods for prepping low poly or simple objects for texturing use in Mari. Use of the object palette for switching between low poly and high poly versions as well as updating object versions. Mari's potential for working with multiple objects in a scene. Generating AO in Mari. Creating custom selection sets. Using previously created texture bases to quickly propagate to similar objects.

Class 5

Translating Mudbox naming conventions into Mari and working between the two programs. Sculpting details into an asset. Working with Mudbox to create overall shape variation and detailed sculpts. How to use Mudbox to transfer maps between objects with different UVs if necessary. Previewing newly generated maps in Mari's shaders to preview as bump, normals and/or displacement.

Class 6

Working with organic assets. Photo projection for skin, patch tools, and extracting current layer patch maps to assist in the clean up of problem areas.

Class 7

Texturing fabric and clothing through use of a tile base layer. Weathering the fabric with wrinkles, wear and tear. Adding realistic details to avoid an overly tiled look.

Class 8

An extended look into Mari's abilities. Using animated objects in Mari to preview how the texture reacts to movement. Color management through use of custom LUTs to preview and adjust color alteration. Projector basics: Working with projectors to generate render turntables and still frames. Exporting layers and current model view for paint-overs in Photoshop.

Class 9

Nuke:Mari Bridge. Importing camera views from Maya or Nuke for use as a projector. Spherical HDR projectors for environments.

Class 10

Intro to Ptex, the robust UV less work flow developed by Disney. What is a texel, and how are the maps handled without UV's.