In this interview we were asking questions Jack Greasley, MARI Product Manager at The Foundry. MARI is a 3D digital paint tool that will revolutionise your workflow. Capable of handling vast numbers of pixels, MARI out performs all other paint tools in speed, flexibility and processing capabilities. MARI allows artists to concentrate on painting detailed, multi-layered textures directly onto 3D models in a fluid and natural way. MARI was used in famous blockbusters as you can see in image gallery at the end of this interview.
Q: MARI is a 3D digital paint tool. If we would ignore the „3D“, could we compare it with Photoshop?
A: MARI has a very powerful painting and image manipulation engine. It works at full floating point accuracy and uses the GPU to accelerate all pixel processing operations. MARI was originally developed for texture painting, but we've found that our users are able to utilise this power in lots of different ways. MARI doesn't currently support traditional flat 2D painting a-la Photoshop, but it is certainly able to make some tasks performed in PS quicker, easier and more intuitive.
Q: If you had to describe MARI to a user, what would you say?
A: MARI is a high end 3D digital painting application.
Q: Can you tell us three main advantages of MARI?
A: Ease of use, speed and extreme data handling capability.
Q: How long you were developing MARI?
A: I've been working on MARI for about 6 years now. I was the lead developer and project manager at Weta Digital in New Zealand where MARI was originally developed and have been MARI Product Manager here at The Foundry since 2009.
Q: Was MARI originally developed by The Foundry? What was the reason for making this kind of software?
A: MARI was actually originally developed at Weta Digital in New Zealand during the production of Avatar. MARI was created because no other package could come close to being able to handle the level of detail and complexity that Avatar presented. We also wanted to create software for texture artists that freed them to do what they are good at – painting. We were writing the application while the artists were making the film, sometimes releasing three or four new versions a day. Weta Digital and The Foundry have had a close working relationship for many years and MARI caught The Foundry’s eye as an innovative application that they could see becoming a commercial success and the took over development in 2009.
Q: What unique technologies can we find in MARI?
A: MARI has a very powerful virtual texture system for handling large numbers of very large textures, a fully GPU accelerated painting and image manipulation system and a unique database engine that can handle many hundreds of Gbs of data.
Q: Its MARI GPU or CPU based?
A: MARI uses both, but the CPU is used mainly for managing and organizing data and the GPU is used for all display, creation and manipulation of pixels.
Q: Currently MARI can import only two object types (*.obj and *.ptx). Do you plan to implement more import formats?
A: We are looking at other file formats to support, with Alembic a likely candidate, although we don't have a version number for that feature yet.
Q: MARI was used in several blockbusters. Are you especially proud on a certain one?
A: I think Avatar is still my proudest moment. It gave birth to, and shaped the development of, MARI. Without Avatar you would not have MARI.
Q: What new features you planning for the feature? Can you unveil something?
A: We released MARI 1.4 at the end of November 2011 which introduced Photoshop layered PSD import. We want to do more in this area and have some exciting plans for 2012 so watch this space.
Q: Do you think an artist need a tablet to be able to create great artworks or its enough to use the mouse?
A: I don't know any artists who don't use a tablet as their painting tool, so I'd say it was pretty much essential.
(c) Game of Thrones, HBO 2011. Image courtesy of BlueBolt Ltd.
The Three Musketeers. (c)Summit Entertainment & Constantin Films. Image courtesy of Mr.X.
(c) Coca-Cola Enterprises. Image courtesy of Fido.
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