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Flair Docs

Release Log

Table of contents
  1. Flair 1.0.2
    1. Materials
    2. Shader styles
    3. Sequence renderer
    4. Flair Graph
    5. Miscellaneous
  2. Flair 1.0.1
    1. Materials
    2. Shader styles
    3. Flair Graph
  3. Flair 1.0.0
    1. New Material
    2. New 3D Styles
    3. Opening up our Framework
    4. Sharing Feedback
    5. Demo Reel

Flair 1.0.2

Released 08.03.2023

OUT NOW!

This massive patch update focuses on fixes, stability and improvements over existing tools and styles that have been highlighted these past months. From improvements to the Sequence Renderer to accept name tags, to fixing VRAM memory leaks that happened when changing styles since the MNPR days. We are also happy to add support for Intel and AMD graphics cards! Read below for a full list of changes.

Walk cycle demo scene in a cutout style
Nurbs Walk-Cycle availablle in Demo Scenes
Improved Cryptomattes with TAA

Materials

  • Fixed - Nurbs not seen in the Flair viewport.
  • Fixed - Cryptomatte irregularities due to first pass offsets making pixels from different passes not match.
  • Improved - Removed Specular in Alpha attributes and made specularity support transparency.

Shader styles

  • New - Cat style - Adding experimental versions for bleeding (Algorithm attribute).
  • New - Cat style - Support for resolution-independent effects.
  • Fixed - Frayed style - Feathering effect not working.
  • Fixed - Frayed style - Problem where meshes couldn’t be selected with camera-based selection.
  • Fixed - Cutout style - Colored cutouts not working.
  • Fixed - Blurry edges and cryptomatte fringe due to FXAA being active while using TAA.
  • Fixed - Style changing not working for Demo versions at high resolutions.
  • Fixed - Support for non-synthesized canvases.
  • Improved - Making Bloom optional in shader styles.

Sequence renderer

  • Improved - Storing sequence renderer GUI preferences with the style.
  • Improved - Adding name tags <> to sequence renderer name (insert via right-click).
  • Improved - Adding time remaining to render progress dialog.
  • Fixed - Double file extension when rendering single files.

Flair Graph

  • New - Added multiply color shader.
  • Fixed - Guassian blur implementation not working with radius 0.
  • Fixed - Ranges of Global Spinboxes being too narrow.
  • Improved - Removed unimplemented Graph settings to avoid confusion.
  • Improved - Updating shader dialog Docs button.

Miscellaneous

  • Fixed - Batch Render not working when Flair was installed.
  • Fixed - Heads-up-display (HUD) not being removed from playblasts for non-Demo versions.
  • Fixed - HUD appearing on presets created with the Demo version.
  • Fixed - VertexFX brush tip not changing.
  • Fixed - Motion vectors not showing under certain conditions.
  • Fixed - VRAM Memory leak when unloading and reloading shader styles (leak existed since MNPR!).
  • Fixed - Crash due to using Point Lights with transparent shadows enabled in Rendering Globals.
  • Improved - wording in Import/Export UI.
  • Improved - Robustness of Import/Export when mesh objects can’t be wrappend in MFnMesh.
  • Improved - Adding additional resolutions for floating viewport (1080x1080, 2048 x 1152).
  • Improved - Splash window to be non-blocking and only show once fully loaded.
  • Improved - Splash window to only appear once per day.

Fixed - Flair not working on Intel and AMD graphics cards. We will now test before each release with the integrated Intel graphics card and our in-house AMD SteamDeck!

Steam Deck running Flair for Maya
Steam Deck running Flair for Maya on Windows.

Flair 1.0.1

Released 20.10.2022

Based on your feedback this first month, we are releasing our first patch update!

We will continue releasing patch updates alongside feature updates to improve the experience of working with Flair for everyone. Don’t forget to continue sharing your feedback in the Discord server so that we can prioritize fixes and new features.

Steam Cowboy 3D model by Black Spire.

Materials

  • Fixed - Colored shading not working with cast shadows.
  • Fixed - Semi-transparent objects not contributing to cryptomattes under certain circumstances.

Shader styles

  • Improved - Pigment density effect with dark colored canvases.
  • Improved - Coexistence of drybrush and granulation effects.
  • Fixed - Canvas texture dissapearing after shaders were reloaded.

Flair Graph

  • Fixed - Graph not opening after changes in the graph were not saved.
  • Fixed - C++ graph not loading automatically when style was changed and Graph was discarded.

More changes under the hood that will become evident in future releases.

Flair 1.0.0

Released 25.09.2022

Finally, after more than 3 years of development, MNPRX has become Flair.

This change is not only a rebranding but a whole evolution of our plugin. There are so many internal and external changes that it is impossible to write them all down here. What matters is that Flair is getting closer to our vision of our ideal stylized renderer, as seen in our new feature reel.

New Material

We developed a new real-time material from scratch outside of Maya’s ShaderFX framework. In other words we now control the entire rendering pipeline and have brought native support over new features such as light-linking, file nodes, full resolution UDIMs, hypershade previews and even render per-vertex motion vectors and crypto mattes—all in real-time in the viewport!

New 3D Styles

All MNPRX styles have been ported over to Flair to use OpenGL instead of DirectX for future cross-platform compatibility. However, we have also created some exciting new shader styles. These include the Sketch and Cat styles as seen above. They are still evolving as we continue to refine them, so make sure to test them out and share your thoughts with us.

3D model by Nikolay Tsys.
3D model by Jose Diaz.

Opening up our Framework

The biggest limitation of MNPRX was that you could only use the styles it came with. That starts to change with Flair, as you can use the new Flair Graph to modify and even create your own shader styles from scratch! While still in beta stages, we have decided to release it to gather feedback as soon as possible and learn your thoughts and wishes for it.

Flair graph beta screenshot
Using the Flair graph to mix/match/write shaders to create your own style in Flair

Sharing Feedback

As a small team (currently only Santiago is at Artineering), we can’t develop all the features we wish to have at once—we need to focus our development efforts. For this purpose, we are opening a #vote-on-features channel on our Discord server to suggest, aggregate, and vote on different features to implement in Flair. The most requested features will be developed and included in future updates. So, please help us spread the word and guide our future development.

Demo Reel

Finally, to bid the MNPRX name farewell and welcome Flair, we have decided to release our first demo reel! After three years of existence, you have created some amazing productions, which we wish to celebrate and highlight. Thank you for using MNPRX/Flair and for your continuous support!!