CGTalk - Color issues with screenshots from 3DS Max

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ThreedyModeler

12-07-2005, 07:34 PM

I have been noticing a very odd phenomenon on my new workstation.

When I do a "print screen" from 3D Studio Max and paste it into Photoshop, It changes the color, contrast and reveals hideous color banding. It does not seem to do it when pasting screenshots from Windows or 2D graphics. I have gone through all of my gamma settings (for Adobe, Max and my graphics card) and nothing seems to change the results.

I tried changing my Max viewport driver from Direct3D to OpenGL, but it didn't fix it. I am fairly sure it is a problem with PS and not Max. I have checked the image settings in PS, it is set to RGB, and not to Palletized or anything. I tried changing the Color Settings, and it doesn't seem to have any effect. My coworkers and I can't seem to figure it out! :shrug:

Has anyone had similar problems? If so, how can it be resolved? It makes me wonder if when I am painting a texture in PS, then apply it to my model in Max, am I really seeing what I am getting?

Here's a screenshot showing the ammount of difference.
http://www.malomations.com/taber/cgtalk/wtf.jpg

Here's some sytem info:
Dell XPSB Workstation
Nvidia GeForce 6800GT
3DS Max 8
Photoshop CS2
WindowsXP Pro

Please help! :sad:

ctp

12-07-2005, 09:42 PM

Yeah, I've seen this sort of stuff before, especially on new workstation+monitor package solutions with windows preinstalled from suppliers like HP and Dell... they like to add a color profile for the monitor.
If this is the case and it's active, you should be able to see it by right-cliking on your desktop, choose properties to get the Display Properties, select Settings tab, click Advanced, select Color Management tab, and see if theres a profile in that list.

They're usually located in a place like C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color
But you can also search for .icc or .icm files to find them.

Try to remove the profile from the list. (can't remember, but I think I even had to rename the actual file and restart the system to be all clear of it)

Photoshop likes to use such profiles, but with these preinstalled generic profiles it doesn't always come out too well.

Hope this helps.

EricChadwick

12-07-2005, 09:45 PM

What happens when you paste into plain old Paint? Would be a good test to see if the clipboard itself is the problem.

Another way to export the 3ds Max screen to an image is to Make a Preview, but save it out as a still image rather than the default AVI. Might work better for you.

ThreedyModeler

12-07-2005, 09:48 PM

ctp - Thanks for your reply. After I posted the thread, I kept on messing with stuff (including the Color Management profiles you mentioned) and shut down and restarted Max and Photoshop, and then it seems to be be working fine now. Since I had been tinkering with a lot of stuff, I am not sure exactly what fixed it, but I am fairly sure the problem was in what you were describing. I actually went through the wizard and created a new Color Profile, and saved it with a new filename, and I guess that's what fixed it.

Now, I'm just hoping everything will still work fine tomorrow after I have restarted my computer :rolleyes:

Edit: Eric - yeah, I was thinking about trying to paste into Paint, but thats when I did one last paste into PS and realized I had fixed it. Oh yeah, and I had forgot about the Preview function... I guess since it wasn't an animation it slipped my mind. There is also the "Grab Viewport" function under "Tools" which works well for grabs. If the problem rears its ugly head again, I will try all these tests to try and zero in on who's to blame. ;)

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