Introduction to Mari - Getting Started with Texturing

In this elaborate video tutorial, we cover everything you need to know in order to get started with Mari 4 from the Foundry. Mari is an amazing texturing tool, used when you need the highest quality of textures. We hope that you learn a lot from this tutorial. We'll be sure to create a lot more Mari tutorials in the future!

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[xraycaseyx]

This might be the best introduction tutorial I ever saw

[JapjeevSinghKohli]

Can you people go over NODE BASED TEXTURING from beginner to advance series! It would be great to watch!

[vladimircools]

I'm just started out with Mari and this is a kick-ass THX guy's

[jackyll]

Love that you guys put out a Mari video. Would love to see more videos doing a deeper dive into Mari, since they don't seem to be as available as other texture software vids like Substance.

[Jens]

Sooo happy for this! Good Mari tutorials are hard to come by. Please do more in the future

[buys]

11:04[light adjustment]
15:59[paintbuffer setting/painting]
31:23[layers]
49:22[paint through tool]

[alikkadoum]

I think this is the best channel about CG/VFX in YouTube. I'm newbie into Mari, but I learned a lot with your help. Also there are almost no tutorials about Mari 4+ online. According to your videos you are the Professional VFX Artist well diving in Mari. It would be honor for me, if you will make a series of lessons including sharing layers, preps for another engines, etc. Thank's for everything guys! I appreciate all your efforts!

[irenasmitakova]

Absolutely incredible what all and how you can cover fundamentals in 1 hour! And everyone understands. Cannot wait for another tutorial :)

[Tritoon]

More in-depth Mari please, love to see how you work and prepare your textures (topics like using textures with no shadows baked) and how you paint with displacement meshes etc.

[Rokinnful]

You really deserve to have more subscribers guys. You do a really great job !

[LoganKehoePower]

Im learning so much from you guys thanks for the tutorials!

[gabrielmorod]

Absolutely amazing. Love your way of explaining things. Very grateful!

[JKierbel]

About what you guys are wondering at 33:19 ("Are blending modes affected by bit-depth?") I think the answer is "Yes and no". It could be put "simply" by saying "Yes", but it would be mostly wrong for the sake of a quick answer when the correct answer is actually "No". You guys seem to have a good handle on this issues so I'm gonna try to explain it properly to the extent that I can.

Some Blending modes are linear math operations in which the range of the input values for the operation can be any number, however big or small, and they will work just fine. For example a "Multiply blending mode" is only a multiplication and so it doesn't matter if you are multiplying "2x2" or "343954x788.4", the math operation that is being performed will work as intended. Same goes with Add, Subtract, Divide, Difference, to name some.

However, if you look up the math for some other blending modes (like Screen or Overlay, for example) the operations are relative to the value ranges of your inputs. "Overlay" would do a multiplication on the "bottom half" of your values, and a Screen operation on the "top half" of your values, but to be able to tell which is the "middle value" in order to separate those halfs, you need to be working with "constrained values" (they could be 0 to 1 clamped floats, or integers at 0 to 255 at 8bpc, 0 to 1023 at 10bpc, 0 to 65535 at 16bpc, etc).

Now, let's say in Photoshop, when you're working at either 8 or 16bit-depth, your values (max and min) are constrained to either 0-255 or 0-65535 integers as "0-100%" and they would not go above nor bellow that. 0 is black, 255(or the others) is white, so all blending modes would work. When you're at 32bits, in Photoshop that's the only floating point mode, it disables the operations which math functions would no longer make sense with values that can go above "1"/"100%", since values are "unbounded" (more on that later), so, to continue the example of Overlay: What is *half N* if "N" is undefined?

Since this is a math thingy, not a software issue, this logic applies for all software using the same math formulas in there Blending modes operations.

Neither bit-depth nor "Float Vs Int" is what ultimately determines this, even though it might be somewhat related because of practical usage of different formats and assumptions some software may make based on that. In mathematical terms this is simply a "bounded values vs unbounded values" matter. There is a formula that was made to fit certain range of values: if data fits that range it would work as expected, otherwise: not. But then again, we're not talking about mathematical abstractions here, this is a Color Management thing. And in this area we shouldn't really talk about "bounded vs unbounded", which doesn't really makes sense in this context, but "Display Referred vs Scene Referred" workflows instead, which is the true heart of this issue.

When working in a Display Referred workflow your values will always be limited to a maximum, you are tied to an output device, the only "valid" data would be that that can be represented. You're saying "255" or "65535" is white, and above that there is nothing, nothing can be brighter, that is the max. It's a "device-dependent" way of working. Then your Overlay blending mode can say "this is the top value, half that would be middle grey" (depending on gamma-encoding) and work all around from there.
In a Scene Referred workflow what matters are true light ratios and values, independent from what can be shown, and it has no "roof". You still have a limited amount of values to be stored even at 32bpc, but it is so broad that you can represent with precision real life ratios, and you're only bounded chromatically by whatever reference color-space you're working in. Data "beyond the amount that we can store" do not hold the same importance they have in a Display Referred workflow because it's focused on ratios between values, not the way they would be displayed on a certain device. So the real answer is that you can use any Blending mode when working in a Display Referred workflow, but there are a certain amount of them that don't apply when working in a Scene Referred one.

[beinaidoPichaido]

Very cool tutorial, you guys have a great dynamic. Cheers!

[Nachtadler]

Thank you so much guys for making this tutorial! It is really hard to find good tutorials on Mari pls keep going on making these. It would be really great to have a mari tutorial about the PBR workflows in Mari :)

[HunterJohn]

You guys are the best! I was just looking for this.

[anxhelo]

i though Mari was hard, thanks guys as always you are the best

[carolinahuerta]

You guys saved my life, you guys are awesome, I literally just want to eat your channel!!! hahahaha (Also, watching these kind fo videos makes me wonder why the hell did I pay college?)

[jayachakkaravarthy]

It's been a long time and awesome tutorial...

[CherylynnLima]

Do you have any tips for speeding mari up? It takes AGES just to hide and unhide a layer for me..