Setup

Table of contents
  1. Pre-requisites
  2. Download
  3. Installation
    1. Installation options
  4. Activation
    1. First time activation
    2. Re-activation
    3. License Migration
  5. FAQ

Pre-requisites

  • Install latest Visual C++ Redistributable (download)
Requirements Minimum Recommended Notes
Autodesk Maya 2022.4 2023.3 Maya 2022, 2023 and 2024 are supported
OS Windows 10 Windows 10/11 Linux/Mac compiled on-demand for Studios, contact us
VRAM 4 GB 8+ GB Higher resolutions and scene complexity require more VRAM
Memory 8 GB 16+ GB As much as your Maya scene requires

Resizable BAR (Base Address Register) or AMD SAM (Smart Access Memory) found in modern hardware can significantly increase performance.

Download

Get a commercial, non-commercial or free version of Flair below.

Get Flair

Free versions are limited only in resolution to 1280 x 800.

Upon purchasing Flair, you can download any version through the link you receive via email.
You can also download the free version and activate a license with your activation key.

Installation

Installing Flair is as simple as a drag-and-drop.

  1. Make sure you have all pre-requisites
  2. Download and extract the contents of the Flair zip file in any folder outside of Maya that doesn’t not require “admin” rights i.e., Documents/Flair, Desktop/Flair, C:/Flair.
  3. Open the folder where you extracted Flair in
  4. Drag-and-drop the install_maya.mel file onto the Maya viewport
  5. Select for whom you want to install Flair for and click Accept (see options)
    Flair installation prompt
    Flair installation prompt that appears after the viewport drag-and-drop.
  6. Upon successful installation, a restart prompt will appear
    Dialog stating that the changes were successful
    Flair has been successfully installed.
  7. Restart Maya
  8. Click on the test file in the shelf to load our favourite sphere
  9. Activate Flair if not done previously.

Installation options

Only for me - Recommended for individuals to install and keep different versions of Flair on different versions of Maya.

This option installs Flair within your user folder and does not require administrator rights.

The license will be placed in Documents/maya and the Flair path will be inserted into the Maya.env file of the Maya where you are installing Flair in.

For all users - Recommended for institutions where multiple users will use Flair on the same computer.

This option installs Flair within your system folders and requires administrator rights.

The license will be placed in Program Files/Common Files/Autodesk Shared/Modules/Maya and the Flair module in the same folder for all the supported Maya versions.

Activation

Purchasing a Flair license enables the full functionality of Flair upon activation.
Activate Flair by entering and validating an activation key that is sent to you via email shorly after purchase.

An internet connection is required to activate and validate Flair licenses, except for the Free version.

A single Flair license can be active on only one computer at a time.
Licenses can be migrated between computers after 12 hours have passed from a previous activation.

First time activation

The first time Flair is run, you will be prompted with the following dialog:

First-time activation dialog
Select how you want to activate Flair.
  • Activate with key lets you to enter the activation key of your license.
  • Activate free version activates the free version of Flair, with limited resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels.
  • Cancel runs Flair as the free version this time only. You will be prompted again the next time Flair loads.

After clicking Activate with key, enter the activation key you received when purchasing Flair and click OK.

Enter activation key dialog
Enter your activation key in the text box.

Once activated, if the license has never been activated, you will be prompted with the End-User-License Agreement (EULA):

End-User-License Agreement dialog
End-User-License Agreement (EULA).

The EULAs for each version of Flair can be found below:

Once you have read and agreed to the End-User License Agreement, click on I Agree. You will then be asked to confirm the activation on this computer.

Confirm activation dialog
Confirm activation by clicking "Activate".

Click Activate to confirm and activate, or Cancel to abort the activation.

Re-activation

If a license has been previously activated, you may want to remove the activated license and activate a different license instead.

This is useful when upgrading/downgrading between the Free, Community, Indie or Studio licenses.

You can activate a different license by installing Flair again and choosing to delete the existing license.

  1. Open the folder where Flair was installed from
  2. Drag-and-drop the install_maya.mel file onto the Maya viewport
  3. When prompted if you wish to keep the existing license, click No
    License found prompt
    License found prompt.
  4. Proceed with the normal installation
  5. Restart Maya
  6. Load Flair to activate the new license

License Migration

Licenses can be migrated between computers (transferred) once 12 hours have passed from a previous activation.

Attempting to migrate the license before 12 hours have passed will lead to a failed activation.

To migrate the license, just follow the same steps as for the re-activation on the new computer to delete the activated license and activate the new license.

After inputting the activation key on the new computer, you will be prompted to confirm the migration of the license.

Flair migration prompt
Flair license prompt that appears if an existing license is found.

Click Activate to confirm, or Cancel to abort activation and run the free version for this session.

After a successful migration, the license in the other computer will automatically deactivate and you can use Flair in the new computer.

FAQ

I can’t install ‘only for me’

If the user-based installation won’t work no matter what, you can manually enter the required environment variable in the Maya.env file.

  1. Open the Maya.env file usually found in Documents/maya/202X/Maya.env with a text editor (make sure its the Maya.env file of the version of Maya you want to install in)
  2. Enter this environment variable: MAYA_MODULE_PATH=#YOURFLAIRMAYAPATH# (replace #YOURFLAIRMAYAPATH# with the path where Flair/maya is located)
  3. Restart Maya.

I can’t install ‘for ALL users’

The installation for all users requires administrator rights in the computer where you are installing Flair in. This is because we need to put the module file within Program Files. To do this manually, follow the steps below:

  1. Duplicate the flair.mod file within the Flair/maya folder and open the duplicate with a text editor.
  2. Change all ./ with the path to the Flair folder (with forward slashes) and save.
  3. (Windows) Copy the edited flair.mod and paste it in Program Files/Common Files/Autodesk Shared/Modules/Maya/202X (paste it in the Maya version that you want to install Flair in).
  4. Restart Maya.

I have not received my activation key

The email is most likely in your spam folder. Please double-check the spam folder of the email you entered or your Patreon email (for Community licenses).

If the license still has not arrived within an hour contact us to help you get started.

I receive an activation failure

If activation key is not valid, or the existing license is no longer valid, an error message will appear. Retry will prompt you to enter a valid activation key, and Cancel will run Flair as the free version this session.

The viewport is all black and I get the Error compiling GLSL code.

This can happen when the viewport is forced to use DirectX (e.g., with an environment variable) instead of OpenGL.During installation, we try to automatically set the Viewport 2.0 rendering engine to OpenGL, but this can fail depending on your setup. Check your Maya setup for anything that might force the viewport to use DirectX and remove it. Then, manually set the rendering engine to OpenGL (Preferences->Display->Viewport 2.0->Rendering Engine->OpenGL Core Profile). Maya will prompt to restart the application and Flair will be able to run after restarting.