Linear Workflow With Max + Vray and the Autogamma Script

[braddewald]

I've been using the last few days to wrap my head around using a linear workflow. As I understand it, you enable Gamma/LUT correction, set it to 2.2, check affect material editor as well as affect color picker, set input bitmap to 2.2 and output to 1.0, set color mapping to linear and gamma to 2.2. Then save the render as an EXR.

 

I hope I got that right. One of the frustrating things to me is having to work with the new material/color editor where the colors values look way different and there is a very small range of dark colors. Then I came across the Autogamma script. It uses the cuneytozdas ColorCorrect script to convert all of the textures and colors to linear at render time so you don't have to do the "...check affect material editor as well as affect color picker, set input bitmap to 2.2..." steps in the process. This way you can work with the regular old material editor and it will still convert your colors and textures to linear at render time.

 

It seems like the best of both worlds to me. But every time I start thinking about the logic of the script, the logic falls apart. Does anybody else see any pitfalls to using this method? It's a very long and complicated thing to test so I keep having to fall back on the theory of the script itself and that's why I keep getting confused.

 

For example, the instructor from whom I learned linear workflow brought up a good point when he taught. He said that to get a regular white wall in default max, you had to set the color value to something like 95% white for it to not show up kind of gray. But in reality it's not reflecting 95% of light back like that; if you actually measured it, it would be more like 75%. So working with a linear color picker allows you to pick a color that is 75% white and still "looks" white as well. Does this logic still hold true using the above script?

 

Am I making things out to be more complicated than it should be? Or does this script seem like it should accomplish what I want: working in a 100% correct linear workflow and not having to work with a "weird" material editor. Thanks in advance!