Mari Calibration Workflow

Begin by opening your base mesh in Mari and assigning an Arnold-compatible shader. This shader will serve as the foundation for evaluating surface detail during the texturing process.

Enable the bump channel in the shader and set its resolution to 16K. A high-resolution bump setup ensures that fine surface details such as pores, wrinkles, imperfections and other subtle skin variations are clearly visible while working in Mari.

If you are starting from a simple or low-resolution base mesh, you can increase its subdivision level directly in the Object Parameters section at the top of the project folder. This provides smoother shading and more accurate feedback when previewing bump and displacement details.

Next, configure your Arnold shader with neutral and consistent values:

• Set the roughness to 0.35, which offers a balanced specular response without overly glossy or matte highlights.
• Set the diffuse color to neutral gray (0.5). This removes color bias and allows you to focus purely on surface detail, contrast, and depth.

Once the shader is set up, import your SKAP displacement map into the bump channel. Adjust the bump intensity directly in the Arnold shader to fine-tune the perceived depth and strength of the surface details.

This step is crucial for finding the right balance before moving on to final displacement calibration in the render stage.

This setup provides a clean, neutral viewing environment, making it easier to evaluate and refine SKAP-generated details with precision.

Start by creating a mask or a mask stack. Inside it, you can paint in black or white the regions you want in order to control more or less detail density.

Once your maps are cleaned up and refined, simply export the mask by right-clicking on the layer and selecting Export → Export Selected Layers.

Finally, here is how to use the mask created in Mari or Substance inside Maya with Arnold.

First, import your mask into a File node. This mask will be used to control the areas where the displacement will be applied.

If you want to adjust the mask intensity, you can connect it to an aiRange node, which allows you to easily remap and control the output values.

Node setup:

• Create an aiMultiply node.
• Connect the aiLayerShader (or the node containing your displacement) to Input 1.
• Connect the mask (or the output of the aiRange, if used) to Input 2.
• The aiMultiply node multiplies the displacement by the mask, ensuring that displacement only affects the desired areas.

Then, connect the output of the aiMultiply node to the displacement input of your shader.

The aiRange node is especially useful for controlling the strength of the mask. It allows you to increase or decrease displacement intensity in specific areas. For example, you can add more displacement to the nose, mouth, and upper eye areas, while reducing or completely removing it from other parts of the model.

By setting up a clean and neutral shading environment in Mari, you create the ideal conditions to accurately evaluate and refine SKAP-generated details. Using a high-resolution bump preview, neutral shader values, and appropriate subdivision ensures that surface information is clearly readable and free from visual bias.

The use of masks or mask stacks adds an essential level of control, allowing you to locally adjust detail density and fine-tune sensitive regions with precision. Once refined, exporting these masks becomes a straightforward step that integrates seamlessly into the rest of the pipeline.

This workflow establishes a solid foundation for consistent, high-quality results, ensuring that SKAP displacement and detail maps translate faithfully from Mari to final rendering in Arnold.