In this test scene, the colors on the left object are picked using Maya's color swatch and the right colours are projected using a texture. Thanks to color management, the colors match perfectly even though they came from different sources. Furthermore, they look identical in the Viewport, Attribute Editor, Color Chooser, Render View and i-Display. You can download the example scene here.
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Maya 2015 Extension and newer versions introduce improved colour management options. The important changes are:
In Maya 2015 and older, once the colour management is enabled, 3Delight for Maya will automatically adjust the gamma of shader colour attributes, discerning what should be managed and what should not (see this page for details). This works on the assumption that the actual colour attribute value is set to a colour in a non-linear space.
The colour management options in Maya 2015 Extension and up assume that the shader colour attribute values are in a linear space. This allows a proper rendition of the colour everywhere else.
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The two approaches are mutually exclusive. A scene shaded with color management options enabled in Maya 2015 Extension will contain shader colour values in linear space, which is incompatible with the 3Delight for Maya color management workflow. For this reason, it has been disabled by default in Maya 2015 Extension and later. To configure 3Delight for Maya colour management, head over here and ignore the remainder of this page. |
Rendering Space is set to scene-linear Rec 709/sRGB. This is the default.
Rendering Space specifies the luminance curve that should be applied to rendered images. scene-linear Rec 709/sRGB is a color space with a linear luminance (gamma) curve. Images are generally rendered with a linear gamma. The final gamma correction is applied at the end of the processing pipeline, by a compositing software, after other effects are processed. |
View Transform is set to sRGB gamma. This is the default.
View Transform specifies the luminance curve of the monitor you are using to display Maya. It can affect how colors are displayed in the Color Chooser, Attribute Editor, Viewport and the Render View. This should be set to the gamma curve your monitor is calibrated to. sRGB gamma and 2.2 gamma are the most commonly used options. |
In the UI Settings section, turn on Show Color Managed Pots.
This option controls if the colour attribute gadget in the Attribute Editor are shown with a colour-corrected color. It has no effect on the color Chooser. Turning it on is optional, but recommended. |
Color Management preferences are saved in the scene, except Show Color Managed Pots and the Input Color Space Rules, which are per-user preferences that remains valid for all scenes. |
Portion of the Common tab, in the Render Settings window.
In the Common tab, Color Management section, make sure that Correct Gamma of Shader Color Attributes is disabled (this is the default value).
When this setting is off, 3Delight for Maya assumes that the shader colour attribute values are in a linear color space and will use them directly. This is the case when using the Color Chooser with its Enable Color Management feature turned on.
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The compact version of the Color Chooser, as it appears when clicking on a color gadget in the Attribute Editor.
The Color Chooser's Mixing Color Space setting and Color Management setting are effective for the whole scene. They are reset to their default values when creating a new scene or opening one. |
The same 50% gray colour attribute value displayed with Color Management disabled (left); Color Management enabled and Mixing Color Space set to Rendering Space (middle), and Color Management enabled and Mixing Color Space set to Display Space (right). Some important differences are highlighted.
Changing the Color Management toggle or the Mixing Color Space has an effect most elements of the Color Chooser, including the large current color square in the upper left corner, the color palettes (in the upper right corner and in the lower section), the gradient square in the Ring Color Wheel, the numeric values displayed in the Numeric Input section and the sliders in that section too. The table below summarizes the effects of these two controls.
Color Management Off | Color Management On | ||
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Mixing Color Space: Rendering Space | Mixing Color Space: Display Space | ||
Selected colour renders as it looks | No | Yes | Yes |
Natural control of sliders and gradients | Yes | No | Yes |
Actual attribute values displayed in the numeric fields | Yes | Yes | No |
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Since there is no single perfect combination of settings, some possible workflows would be:
You will have to learn to live with the sometimes awkward slider / gradient adjustments, but this setting works for picking a colour by its looks on screen and for setting a colour to a specific numeric value. You don't have to remember to change a setting before and after setting a colour value to a specific numeric value.
You will have linear sliders and gradients all the time, but you will have to remember to change a setting before and after editing a color set to a specific numeric value. The two states are a bit more obvious than changing the Mixing Color Space value, which can help to spot a forgotten, incorrect state of the Color Management toggle.
Using the compact Color Chooser (single left click on a colour gadget), you can turn off Color Management, set your numeric values, then turn back on Color Management so you will not forget to do so later. The attribute values entered in the numeric filed will remain effective. For some reason, the large Color Chooser (double-click on a color gadget) behaves differently; changing the Color Management setting reverts the attribute to its value before the Color Chooser was displayed. |
The Viewport, with important colour management settings highlighted.
In the Viewport'sRenderer menu, make sure that Viewport 2.0 is selected (this is the default).
Only the Viewport 2.0 renderer supports colour management; choosing any legacy viewport renderers will be displayed with a linear gamma and make the Viewport gamma option menu insensitive. |
The Exposure, Gamma and View Transform settings of the Viewport toolbar are temporary. Their values are not saved with the scene. Upon an New Scene / Open Scene event, they are reset to their default value. |
Render View SettingsThe Render View, with important colour management settings highlighted.
i-DIsplay SettingsThe 3Delight Preferences window.
The View → Color Profile menu in i-Display.
Texture File Settings (Maya 2015 Extension)In this Maya version, the texture color space options are more primitive. You can define a Default Input Color Space in the preferences. When you create a new texture node, such as the File 2D Texture node, its Color Space attribute will be set to the value defined by the Default Input Color Space preference. You can manually override this setting for each texture node.
The Input Color Space Preferences section in Maya 2015 Extension.
The Color Space setting of a File 2D Texture node in Maya 2015 Extension.
Texture File Settings (Maya 2016 and newer)Setting Up Texture File RulesThe Color Management section of the Maya Preferences window contains a Input Color Space Rules section. You can define here associations between a texture color profile and file name patterns and extensions.
The Input Color Space Rules section, in the Color Management Maya Preferences.
Creating a "hdr" texture rule.
Texture Nodes SettingsA portion of the File 2D Texture Node attributes.
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