Installation

Table of contents
  1. Installation options
    1. Only for me
    2. For all users
    3. Only for me (but read-only)
  2. FAQ

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

Installing and activating Flair for Maya
Updating Flair for Maya!
  1. Make sure you have all pre-requisites
  2. Download and extract all the contents of the Flair zip file into any folder outside of Maya
    e.g., Documents/Flair, C:/Flair, a shared drive.
  3. Open the folder where you extracted Flair into, this will become your installation folder
  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. After restarting, the Flair shelf should appear in Maya
  9. Click on the glob or test shelf button to verify the installation and prompt the Flair activation
  10. Activate Flair if needed.

If the drag-and-drop of the install_maya.mel file fails, make sure that its directory only contains valid ASCII characters, or Maya won’t be able to read the MEL file.

Installation options

Only for me

Recommended for individuals for simple installations without admin rights.

The installer will only insert the Flair paths into your Maya.env file for the Maya version in use.

All flair-related files are kept within the Flair installation folder, except for the license file, which is placed in:

  • Windows: Documents/maya
  • Linux: ~/maya

The “Only for me” option allows keeping different versions of Flair on different versions of Maya. However, everyone using Flair will need read/write permissions to the Flair installation folder.

For all users

Recommended for studios or institutions where multiple artists use Flair from the same workstation/server.

This method allows installing Flair automatically in all supported Maya versions, even in environments with strict read-only policies e.g., Rez.

The Flair installation “For all users” requires admin/sudo privileges to place files in:

License and modules

  • Windows: %CommonProgramFiles%/Autodesk Shared/Modules/maya
  • Linux: /usr/autodesk/modules/maya

Canvas caches

  • Windows: %ProgramData%/Flair
  • Linux: opt/Flair

After installation and activation, artists will find their presets and preferences in:

  • Windows: Documents/AppDocuments/Flair
  • Linux: ~/AppDocuments/Flair

If you need to customize where the program data (caches) and app documents (presets/preferences) are stored, you can follow the instructons within flair/maya/scripts/coop/_custom_dirs_example.json.

Only for me (but read-only)

There is a third hidden option where you can make an “Only for me” installation read-only by setting the environment variable FLAIR_READ_ONLY=1. This will force Flair to behave as if it was installed “For all users”.

For this installation to work properly, make sure the directories to save canvas caches, presets and preferences have read/write access for artists using Flair, as these will default to the “For all users” directories (which can be customized within the _custom_dirs_example.json file).

Keep in mind that the license will remain within the local Maya folder, so it won’t be available for other users.

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.