Foundry has launched the Mari Texture Library, a free online asset library for Mari, its 3D texture painting software, and for wider DCC workflows where the file formats allow it. At launch, the library contains more than 120 assets, including Smart Materials, Smart Masks, Smart Utilities, general-purpose textures, brush textures and HDRIs. So yes, even texture artists get a free shelf of useful things once in a while, presumably by accident.
The library is hosted through Foundry’s Community site and is intended as a shared resource for Mari users. According to CG Channel, users can also upload their own files to share with the Mari community, which turns the library into more than a static download page, provided everyone behaves like adults, an ambitious premise on the internet.
Smart Materials, masks, textures and HDRIs
The Mari-specific assets include Smart Materials, Smart Masks and Smart Utilities in Mari’s MMA and MPC formats. These are designed for use inside Mari and cover a range of surface types, including wood, metal, plastic and creature-style materials such as lizard skin.
Not everything in the library is Mari-only. The general texture assets are provided in JPEG format at resolutions up to 8K, brush textures are supplied as PNG files, and HDRIs are provided as 2K EXR files. That makes part of the library useful beyond Mari, including for look development, surfacing, lighting tests and general production noodling in other DCC applications. “Noodling” remains a technical term until someone from pipeline management enters the room.
License and access
The assets are available under the open-source 3-Clause BSD License, which allows commercial use, subject to the license terms. A free Foundry account is required to download the files. Assets in MMA and MPC format require Mari, while JPEG, PNG and EXR assets should be usable in most DCC applications that support those formats.
For Mari users, the main value is the ready-made Smart Material and Smart Mask content. For everyone else, the texture, brush and HDRI files may still be useful as free production assets, reference material or test content. As usual, “free” does not mean “review nothing and throw it into production blind,” because that is how render farms learn new swear words.
Availability
The Mari Texture Library is available now through Foundry Community. Downloads require a free Foundry account. The library is accessible from the Mari Texture Library section of Foundry’s Community Asset Hub.
