Is there something special, using MARI instead of Zbrush?

Farina · Jun 2016

Hello guys!

At the moment i try to learn the fundamentals of texturing. Specially to make the sss fast skin maps.

I only want to know, what experience you have with MARI and Zbrush? I mean, could i get the same result making maps with zbrush (texturing) Spotlight as with MARI?

I mean, both of them can texture. But its the same process or not?

I can make Maps in Photoshop too, so why MARI? WIll i get a better result at the end with Mari?

2bytes · Jun 2016

Mari is the top of the class at texturing for a VFX pipeline and Substance Painter is for a games pipeline although many use NDo if they prefer Photoshop. Mari has lost a bit of ground since Painter has a very fast material based system but is still king.

Dont use Zbrush for.texturing if you intend to integrate your work into a proper pipeline.

If you plan to do everything in Zbrush then it hardly matters. Just, if you want to learn skills that a studio is looking for then use the aformentioned apps.

2bytes · Jun 2016

Mari has unlimited texture resolution because of UDIMs, and supports a camera projection system of texturing which are needed in VFX. It has great tools for warping and controlling your source textures as well. It supports 16bit and 32bit textures if you want to paint displacement maps at an even higher resolution then a sculpting program can manage.

musashidan · Jun 2016

2bytes said:

Mari has unlimited texture resolution because of UDIMs, and supports a camera projection system of texturing which are needed in VFX. It has great tools for warping and controlling your source textures as well. It supports 16bit and 32bit textures if you want to paint displacement maps at an even higher resolution then a sculpting program can manage.

Yes, Mari is the in a field of its own in VFX texturing, but don't forget that ZB also supports UDIM and can use projection painting and the power of Photoshop via ZApplink.

sprunghunt · Jun 2016

musashidan said:

2bytes said:

Mari has unlimited texture resolution because of UDIMs, and supports a camera projection system of texturing which are needed in VFX. It has great tools for warping and controlling your source textures as well. It supports 16bit and 32bit textures if you want to paint displacement maps at an even higher resolution then a sculpting program can manage.

Yes, Mari is the in a field of its own in VFX texturing, but don't forget that ZB also supports UDIM and can use projection painting and the power of Photoshop via ZApplink.

Substance painter now supports UDIM

https://www.allegorithmic.com/blog/substance-painter-21-here

JedTheKrampus · Jun 2016

Although you can't yet easily paint across two UDIMs in SP, so you should choose your seams carefully.

2bytes · Jun 2016

Supporting a feature, and actually haveing it fully integrated are not the same. Painter doesnt allow painting acrossed UDIMs which makes it a hack. Its just painting in UV space above 0-1. The entire point of UDIM is to paint seamlessly regardless of seams. What if your needed the face of your character to be split into 4 Udims?

Not trying to sound like a fanboy, Mari has its own limitations and overcomplicated workflows. Even Mudbox has a complete solution , even if it is no longer being developed. Having used all of these except Zbrush, it is absolutley necessary to be ableto work in iterations because of feedback, isolate and fix specific parts of the texture and to do it quickly.

Is there something special, using MARI instead of Zbrush?

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