Foundry has released Mari 4.2, the latest version of its texture painting software, adding a new mirrored projection system for painting symmetrical details onto models.

Although it’s a big – and long-awaited – feature, it’s the only new one in the update: aside from mirrored projection, the changelog consists of bugfixes.

Paint symmetrically onto models with any arbitrary UV layout
Mirrored projection enables artists to paint on one side of a model and have the strokes mirrored onto the other, without the need to prepare the UV layout of the model specially first.

An automatic masking system prevents paint strokes overlapping the mirror plane, which itself can be positioned anywhere on, and locked to, the model, making it possible to paint with any camera alignment.

You can see the workflow in action in the video above.

Pricing and availability
Mari 4.2 is available for Windows 7+ and CentOS/RHEL 6+ Linux.

The Mac version of 4.x is delayed by changes to the Qt UI libraries as part of support for VFX Reference Platform 2017: according to the FAQs, it’s in progress, but nine months on, there still isn’t a release date.

Both nodelocked and floating licences cost $2,068. New rental options are also available, discussed here, and starting at $59/month or $599/year.

Read a full list of new features in Mari 4.2 in Foundry’s release notes

Visit the Mari product website

Tags: Foundry, Mac, macOS, Mari, Mari 4.2, mirrored projection, new features, price, symmetrical painting, system requirements, texture painting, texturing