Color Mgt in the Render View Window

#1

Hi there - I’ve done a lot of research on the Color Mgt Linear Workflow in Maya, but can’t seem to find a simple answer to my issue.

First off - I don’t want to run Color Mgt in my render settings - I’m just doing some cartoony stuff - not photoreal and it doesn’t have to be mega accurate color wise, so don’t need to learn about how to set that all up. So here’s the issue:

  1. When I run the test render of my scene after lighting it - it shows up in Maya’s render view - which is basically misleading me, makes it look better because if has Color Management turned on in there - it is adding an “Image Color Profile” and a Display Color Profile.

  2. When I render the same scene with a batch render, it looks plain and washed out because batch render does not add this Image Color Profile. I don’t have Color Management turned on in the render settings, don’t want it on. If I turn it on, my batch renders will be even more washed out.

  3. Question: How can I introduce this same exact Image Color Profile (not an input or output) into my batch renders so they look exactly like what I’m getting in my Render View?

  4. Or, if this is not available - how do I turn off this “defaultViewColorManager” node attached to the Render View - so that it looks plain and “what I see there is what I get” in the batch render. If this is my only option - I can at least re-light my scene and get consistent results between my preview Render View window and my batch renders.

Thank you in advance,
Robert

#2

which version of maya?

#3

Apologies - I forgot to list my specs in the beginning:

I’m running Maya 2014 on a PC under Windows 7.
I know they introduced this color mgt in Maya 2011

#4

Im assuming you are rendering with mentalray because mayasoftware ignores color management in rendersettings->common.
If you have not set the “enable color management” toggle in rendersettings->common and the renderview “Image Color profile” and “Display Color Profile” are both sRGB and Exposure=0.0 and Contrast=0.0 then the interactive render and the batch render should be exactly the same. The Exposure and Contrast sliders are only effective in interactive renders. They are ignored with batch rendering.

You realize however, that by not gamma boosting the render as is recommended when using a proper linear workflow, your image will not anti-alias properly. Edges at shallow angles will look all ropy and jaggy even with high sampling levels.
Linear workflow is not just for artists who feel like learning about it. It is the proper way to work in computer graphics. All monitors require a gamma boost(usually 2.2) for images to display correctly.
Sorry to get all preachy about it.

#5

Hello,
Thanks for the answer. Of course Mental Ray.

You’ve answered what I needed to know - I guess I’ll have a lot of difficulty getting the batch renders to look as good as the render view. When I’ve turned on Color Management in Render Settings with advised settings, my batch renders look extremely washed out. I’ve done some training on it but need to do more. I’m satisfied now to just get the render view to look plain like the batch renders, apparently it was Exposure and Contrast settings in “Image Color Profile” that altered it, so now I know to zero those out. That’s basically what I wanted to know.

In addition - I’m glad to get your feedback about the poor anti-aliasing. That I did not know and it seems that it doesn’t matter if we’re doing cartoons or photoreal, no one wants those jaggedy edges. I’ll work it out.

Regarding your emphasis about linear workflow: From all my readings on the forums about this… there are 2 schools of thought.

Some agree with you - they’re adamant about the importance of it because we’ve basically been doing it wrong all these years and it’s been a bunch of guess work, since we need to render for whatever intended screen we will use.

The rest are pissed off because they don’t know why it doesn’t look right and why did they have to add all this crap to make my life more complicated.

An important issue that I have also read - 3DS Max has been geared up for this a lot longer and it is more seamless - it seams in Maya, they have introduced it as an after thought, the roll out is sketchy and it is much more difficult to use, less intuitive.

It confuses me because I can’t seem to achieve any consistent, logical or expected results in the render settings. So I will do more training. I’m already starting to use MIA materials and think about color management texture settings and lighting in advance, to get ready for the right Linear Workflow on future scenes.

#6

What are you viewing the batch rendered images in? Don’t forget that the display settings in whatever that viewer is has to match the display settings in maya.

general tips - if it looks washed out, apply .4545 gamma to it. If it looks dark, contrasty & saturated, apply 2.2 gamma.

#7

Thanks for weighing in guccione. The batch render looks washed out in Photoshop, After Effects, Windows Picture Viewer, everything. I believe Photoshop is setup for sRGB. As a quick fix for my render sequence, I loaded it into After Effects, add a saturation filter, bump up the color a little with that and then added a curve filter, adjusted that and I got the images pretty close to the May Render View. A colleague of mine said that there are filters in After Effects that will setup the Gamma the exact same way as Maya, I haven’t had a chance to try it.

To summarize - I can use post production work arounds, I believe I can get the Maya Render View to look flat (washed out) and possibly identical to the batch render by setting the “Display Color Profile” both to sRGB and Exposure=0.0 and Contrast=0.0 (as per advice from willanie)
I haven’t tried this. Then it will be upon me to get it to look good through the right lighting and shaders.

What I’d still like to know is how to quickly setup Maya’s batch render to look exactly like that Maya Render View, (Maya Render View settings: Image Color Profile=Linear sRGB,
Display color profile=sRGB, Exposure=.088, contrast=2.368)

#8

Whoa it’s no wonder it looks wrong outside of the image viewer. I’ve never heard of anyone doing test renders, trying to make things look good, with those changed.

But you might be able to simply copy those values into whatever you open your renders with; did you try that already? I’m not sure ‘contrast’ will translate from app to app, but Exposure should be the same as Adobe’s.

#9

In Maya’s Render View, if you go to the Color Management menu option, the default settings are:
Image Color Profile=Linear sRGB,
Display color profile=sRGB, Exposure=.088, contrast=2.368

This result is what I have lit my scene for because you click Render to see what it will look like.
These profile settings are not there during a batch render - I’m trying to figure out how to get them on in batch render.

#10

Yea that’s where I’m looking, and the default here is 0 and 0.
Are you sure that’s your default settings with a new scene? Once you import anything, your render settings can and will change to what the scene that you imported had.

#11

A ha.
That’s the answer. My default settings must have been changed somehow.
I’m going to zero everything out and start over.
Thank you
Rob