The Foundry releases free version of 3D texture painting tool MARI

Creative tools provider The Foundry has made another of its development tools free.

MARI Non-commercial is a free, non-watermarked version of the 3D texture painting software aimed at amateurs and students.

The business model is similar to that adopted for The Foundry’s previous free release: compositing, editorial and finishing tool NUKE.

MARI, which allows artists to texture 3D meshes for VFX, animation and games projects, won an Academy Award earlier this year.

The tool has been used in films including Avatar, The Avengers, Gravity, Interstellar and Jurassic World.

"With our non-commercial products, we want to give artists all the time they need to get familiar with the software,” said chief product officer Andy Whitmore.

“They can work on personal projects such as making their demo reels stand out from the crowd, or simply use our extensive free tutorials to thoroughly learn the software – for as long as it takes.”