linear workflow gamma output

[tmcthree]

Apologies, I know this is a common source of confusion for the hard of thinking (me) and I know there are quite a few threads out there (and tutorials etc) but I've had a good look through them and I can't see anything that seems to address this particular issue. So..

So, I've set up what I think is the correct linear work flow environment (according to a digital tutors tutorial)

"Convert Image to sRGB for renderview" is on

In color mapping
Type is Linear Multiply

Gamma is 2.2
"Affect Background" is on
"Don't affect colours (adaption only)" is on
"Linear Workflow" is on

So the image looks ok when I render to the renderview, but when I batch render an animation the images (pngs) on the disk are very dark.

Have I missed something or am I missing something fundamental in the theory, or both (I bet it's both)

Thanks in advance

[Zach Gray]

Just because you rendered the images in lin space, doesn't mean they will be displayed that way.

Depending on what you use to view your rendered images, they will be interpreted with various default color spaces. For example, pdplayer interprets .png files with sRGB by default, and .exr as linear. In pdplayer, you can change the colorspace and force the .png files to be interpreted as lin.

This is true for nuke read nodes as well, and in AE it can be accomplished via interpret footage.

[kristianturner85]

Hi tmcthree,

Zach's right, what are you using to view and composite your renders?

Rendering Linear and writing to png is not usually the best way to go. Depending on your compositing package I would always render to floating point, 16bit(half) exr's are a winner, of course they will take up more space though. This just means if you do need to make slightly more dramatic colour corrections, you'll have the range to do so.

-K

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Apologies, I know this is a common source of confusion for the hard of thinking (me) and I know there are quite a few threads out there (and tutorials etc) but I've had a good look through them and I can't see anything that seems to address this particular issue. So..

So, I've set up what I think is the correct linear work flow environment (according to a digital tutors tutorial)

"Convert Image to sRGB for renderview" is on

In color mapping
Type is Linear Multiply

Gamma is 2.2
"Affect Background" is on
"Don't affect colours (adaption only)" is on
"Linear Workflow" is on

So the image looks ok when I render to the renderview, but when I batch render an animation the images (pngs) on the disk are very dark.

Have I missed something or am I missing something fundamental in the theory, or both (I bet it's both)

Thanks in advance

This option should be OFF. It's for old scenes and soon/already its being removed from UI.

[t.petrov]

This option should be OFF. It's for old scenes and soon/already its being removed from UI.

It has not been removed yet!
But its use is highly discouraged, because it doesn't work in all situations and there are other issues with it.

[tmcthree]

Thanks all for the replies.

So the tutorial I'm using from digital tutors must clearly be out of date. Can anyone recommend any resources/tutorials for setting up linear workflow properly in maya 2014 Vray 2.0?

Cheers

Edit. My best guess for setting it up would be...

Use the Maya gamma correction node, to correct the material colours to 0.45

Use the Vray texture input gamma attribute to set the input profile of the textures to sRGB.

Am I missing anything (almost certainly am)

[georgi.zhekov]

Hello,

You can check this one http://vimeo.com/77977682

[tmcthree]

Hi tmcthree,

Zach's right, what are you using to view and composite your renders?

Rendering Linear and writing to png is not usually the best way to go. Depending on your compositing package I would always render to floating point, 16bit(half) exr's are a winner, of course they will take up more space though. This just means if you do need to make slightly more dramatic colour corrections, you'll have the range to do so.

-K

Just because you rendered the images in lin space, doesn't mean they will be displayed that way.

Depending on what you use to view your rendered images, they will be interpreted with various default color spaces. For example, pdplayer interprets .png files with sRGB by default, and .exr as linear. In pdplayer, you can change the colorspace and force the .png files to be interpreted as lin.

This is true for nuke read nodes as well, and in AE it can be accomplished via interpret footage.

Well just to be awkward the image is not for compositing, it's for a game environment.
The scene is to be baked to a texture(s), which will be reapplied to the same models using a surface shader. The resulting scene will then be transfered to low poly models using Mayas software renderer and the "transfer Maps" utility. The final texture(s) will be used in Unity game engine...
So, I'm confused.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Thanks all for the replies.

So the tutorial I'm using from digital tutors must clearly be out of date. Can anyone recommend any resources/tutorials for setting up linear workflow properly in maya 2014 Vray 2.0?

Cheers

Edit. My best guess for setting it up would be...

Use the Maya gamma correction node, to correct the material colours to 0.45

Use the Vray texture input gamma attribute to set the input profile of the textures to sRGB.

Am I missing anything (almost certainly am)

Do not apply maya correction node if you are applying Vray correction nodes. Then you are correcting it 2x. Just use Vray and set it to srgb if I'm not wrong. There is slight difference in curve between the two (out of 3 )options listed.

It has not been removed yet!
But its use is highly discouraged, because it doesn't work in all situations and there are other issues with it.

Oh I thought I read in other topic that it was removed from nighties already, sorry my bad.