Thougt on Vray color map.

[Aldaryn]

Since Vray is so commonly used in archviz and design, wouldn't it be nice to have a collection of color libraries to select color from directly in the VRay color UI? Like Ral, Pantone etc... I know that I can always go and look up those colors on reference cards, web databases, etc, but today morning looking in the middle of color matching it seemd as a good idea.

Not the most needed feature though, just a thought that could be later implemented, and would add to the marketing strenght, just like putting a kelvin color picker to lights these days.

A.

[RayOfLight]

that would definitely be a good thing!
End-users will be able to pick a color, and use it in their visuals, knowing that (when using sRGB/gamma corrections) the printed material will be as close as possible to the real end-result..especially interior-designers and architects will love this!
Currently we offer material-libraries for 3dstudio+vray with all those colors, perhaps they can be used? (So you don't have to look them all up)

[Clifton Santiago]

I suppose that one could take the RGB values from each RAL and Pantone color, put it into a color swatch inside the Color Correct plugin with a 2.2 gamma and start saving to a library. It would be a lot of work, unless perhaps it was a collaborative effort...

[RayOfLight]

I think it was done with a script...I'll check

[dlparisi]

Easiest thing to do might be just to enable vray color to read directly from Photoshop Swatch files (.ACO). We'd have almost all of the pantone colors right off the bat and I know some paint companies release PS swatches as well.

[Aldaryn]

Good idea! A support for hexa input for a 8bit rgb (if you input hdr data via other controls would just simply be clamped to white) would also come in handy, that way you can copypaste colors in one go, and many programs already support it thanks to the pressure from web development.

Best regards,
A.

[jujubee]

Actually that's a really good idea.

Benjamin Moore (paint company here in the US) also has all their colors available online to download for Photoshop swatches.

[vlado]

Is there any information about this file format somewhere?

Best regards,
Vlado

[jujubee]

Not sure if this helps, but here's some code related info:
http://www.duo-creative.com/chrisb/aco/
http://www.nomodes.com/aco.html
http://reference.wolfram.com/mathema...ormat/ACO.html

Here's how to create one within Photoshop:
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c055201/0

[vlado]

Ok, I'll take a look at the links; the file format does not appear to be officially described though, so anything that we may implement will be sort of a guesswork.

As for specifying light colors in Kelvin, this is quite handy for specifying real-world colors without too much guessing, and the V-Ray IES light that we are implementing for example allows you to do that.

Best regards,
Vlado

[jujubee]

Well. I've thought about this. This is really a format that should be handled through the material editor (get material.)

If you pull up the 'get material', perhaps there is an option to 'open' a library of .aco then it populates the list of either standard or vray materials with the appropriate RGB values and names taken from the .aco file.

Because, an .aco is a list of swatches - I don't know - perhaps there could be an option next to the diffuse slot of a vray material that allows you to open an .aco file then pick and choose a name from there.

I'm going to go hunt for an .aco importer - perhaps someone already wrote a script to do so.

[jujubee]

Just came across this:

http://www.oferz.com/maxscripts.php

Top of the list - ACP.

Haven't tested it out yet...

[jujubee]

This works. A little instruction however as I had to figure it out.

1) Run the .mzp.
2) Go to your customize interface/toolbars.
3) Drop down to 'OS Tools'
4) Drag and drop to empty or new toolbar.

When selecting a color, you can drag and drop swatches over to the material editor.

I assume if something like this was implemented in Vray, it would be very similar.

[RayOfLight]

the sikkens color-charts (RGB values) will soon arrive here. So I can take a look.
I understood those values are supposed to be "freeware" so I'm not sure if you can use them...I'll let you know what format they're in as soon as they arrive

[jujubee]

Huh?

What do you mean by values and not using them? You can use any RGB value you want (at least here in the US.) Nothing in this world says you can't match a color.