Say hello to Mixer 2021. We are incredibly excited to share this release with you all today.

Mixer 2021 comes with a feature we have built from the ground up—support for Multiple Texture Sets. With MTS, you can set up your Texture Sets based on Materials or UDIMs and leverage our new simple workflow to target any Texture Sets with the layers in your layer stack.

This new release also contains our biggest addition to the Smart Material library within Mixer, as well as greatly improved layer dragging and export of 3D assets to your local library, to Bridge, and to Unreal Engine.

Mixer 2021 is a massive update, and we can’t wait to see what you all do with it.

Multiple Texture Sets

Multiple Texture Set support is designed to fit perfectly with the intuitive workflow Mixer is known for. MTS allows for a simplified take on how you treat UDIMs and Texture Sets. To make this happen, we’ve introduced Texture Sets and Layer Sets. Let’s get into them.

Texture Sets

Texture Sets are collections of texture maps created for a specific part of a model. In Mixer 2021, you can set up Texture Sets from either materials or UDIMs and get the same simple yet powerful texturing workflow for both setups. When using UDIMs you get one Texture Set per UDIM, when using materials you get one per material.

Layer Sets

By organizing the Mix into Layer Sets, layers can target any Texture Set, regardless of whether materials or UDIMs are your preferred workflow.

Paint across materials or UDIMs like a champ! Simply target the Texture Sets you want, and you can paint strokes across them using any paint layers or paint masks in your Layer Set.

Texture Sets Editor

With the new Texture Sets Editor, you can quickly set up your base maps and resolutions, using multi-select editing and automatic texture imports.

Stay focused

Active Area Focus makes it super clear what your layers are targeting while staying in context. This is especially useful as your layer stack grows.

For ultimate focus, you can completely hide Texture Sets from view. Leverage this as a performance boost while working on Layer Sets that target more than one part of the model.

Some things you can try with Multiple Texture Sets

  • Reuse the textures of one part of an asset for other assets in a project. For example, the backpack of a character can be used for other characters as well.
  • Swap out texture maps for one part of a car and add damage to a specific section of the vehicle. Or re-texture the head of a robot at a higher resolution for a better close-up shot.
  • Add and texture new parts to an already UV-mapped, textured model.
  • Export different texture map types for parts targeting different shaders. (More on this later).

Flatten Mix

All those layers weighing you down? Clean things up and get a performance boost with the new Flatten Mix feature.

Flatten Mix gets rid of all layers while keeping the end result intact as base maps for your Texture Sets. Keep in mind that this is a destructive operation, so carefully consider when to use this while also being aware of which resolutions you want to flatten your mixes to.

Smart Materials galore

With Mixer 2021, you get the largest Smart Material addition to date. With a focus on plastics, we have created 100 new Smart Materials, bringing the total to nearly 400. These Smart Materials are completely free for commercial use. And remember, you can always create your very own Smart Materials using Mixer.

Improved layer stack interactions

Organizing layers in the layer stack is easier than ever thanks to an updated drag-and-drop experience. If you have used other layer-based applications, you should feel right at home here.

Exporting 3D assets to your library

When you are happy with your textured 3D model, you can now export it to your local library. From there, Quixel Bridge can be used to get your new asset into, say, Unreal Engine, with one simple click.

Samples and tutorials

We have put together four new sample mixes for you to help illustrate some use cases in action.

  • Quarry – Retexturing of a Megascans 3D Asset
  • Sci-Fi Barrel – Multiple Texture Sets specified by UDIMs
  • Parking Meter – Mask export with custom export channels
  • Crunch Robot – Multiple Texture Sets specified by materials

And check out this comprehensive deep dive that runs you through everything new in Mixer 2021.

As always, you can refer to the Mixer manual should you want to learn more about specific parts of Mixer.

Free for commercial use, including assets

Mixer is a completely free tool to achieve high-quality texture outputs with a low learning curve.

This release of Mixer comes with over 600 Smart Materials and Megascans assets that are free of charge and for commercial use—regardless of license type. On top of that, Unreal Engine users get access to the entire Megascans library for free, with supported asset types available right within Mixer.

Everything you need to start creating stunning mixes is in your hands with Mixer 2021.

Download Mixer today.