Bitmap levels

[pedrox1000]

Hello everyone,

I always wondered if its possible to change the levels of a bitmap in 3dsmax just like we do in photoshop?

I will try to explain better and i attached 2 images.

So, when i want to emphasize a texture, specially wood texture, i open it in photoshop, apply levels, and pull the left slider to the right and the right slider to the left. This will create an effect wich in the render will look way better and not so washed out, because the veins of the wood will be way more noticable.

Sometimes i try to do this using the output node in 3ds max but its way harder and the color vary a lot.

Am i doing something  wrong in the 3dsmax output? Because i always find very dificult to make this effect on the textures inside 3ds max. Its very dificult to adjust the left point and the right point of the graph. And when i finnaly do it, the texture goes too much red or so and i have to color correct it 🙂

I hope you understand my question and thank you all in advance for a response

Greetings

[Diffus3d]

Check out the color correction node (non-OSL one), might be more what you are looking for. 

Best Regards,

[pedrox1000]

Hello Diffus3d thank you for your reply,

I've been using native color correction for quite some time. I think it does not make this kind of adjusment. Basically is  just putting the blacks more blacks and the whites more whites. I might not understand all the features of this node altough

[Diffus3d]

I was under the impression that's what the Gamma/Contrast and Pivot modes do in the advanced mode on lightness, but after re-reading about them you're right it's not quite exactly the same but still serve the same purpose in a different way.   

What you're doing in Photoshop though is essentially adjusting the gamma by clipping out the light and dark areas which spreads the colors out over your new spectrum with more contrast.  With the 3dsmax output, you get a similar (but too different) result if you simply move those curve points up and down, the trick is to leave them in the default positions (or close) and instead adjust the curve of the line between them.  (S-shape makes more like what you are doing in photoshop, the more vertical the center of the S shape, the more contrast.)  

However, it's a bit touch and go and kind of a pain to visualize that way.  Though much easier now with realtime rendering previews.  Or you can use the Gamma/contrast and pivots on the color correct advanced mode to do something similar.  

Or I might be misunderstanding you, and if so I apologize.

EDIT: Sorry, deadline day and I had a lot of typos.  

Best Regards,

[darawork]

Hi,

Just a tip; You could leave the bitmap as is in 3DSMax and make linked adjustments in Photoshop instead. If you right-click  a bitmap in the slate material editor you can choose 'Edit Bitmap...'. If this is the first time you have used this function it will show you a browse window to locate Photoshop.exe. Find the exe and choose it, next time it will know to launch Photoshop when you right-click any bitmap in the future and choose 'Edit Bitmap...'.
This way you can edit in Photoshop, resave and choose 'Reload' in the bitmaps parameters window. Keep making adjustments and reloading until you're happy with the result.

Regards,