Apply Color Tool - Maya 2017 - Not working Properly

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

I have a workflow I use at work to apply vertex color to a mesh for our game.

After having some issues with Maya 2015 for another reason I decided to try 2017 before I saw that 2018 had come out.

Upon trying the method of picking a color and applying it to a face I noticed that I'm not actually getting the color I picked and its giving me the color seen in the "Alpha with Color" swatch.

I would expect the result to be the color being applied is the color in the "Color" Box.

Unfortunately this is not what I'm getting.

I've tested this in 2018 and it works as intended in 2015 and 2016.

Was hoping someone could verify this on their end if they are using 2017.

Thanks.

[mspeer]

Hi!

1. In Mesh Component Display set Display Color Channel to "None" or "Emission"

2. Viewport 2.0 set Color Management to "off" if you want to use the Color Picker next to Grab Color, or use the Color Picker inside the Color field.

If you want a workflow like in in previous Maya Versions you may disable Color Management completely in Preferences

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous just checking in, did @mspeer's solution help at all?

[Anonymous]

It's not quite working how I would expect it too.  It's close but there are still some issues.

So in 2015, If I apply vertex color to a cube and say I apply colors with full opacity and then a few faces with say .1 alpha then I would see something like the first image attached.

However in  2017 I'm not seeing that.

The color is there but the alpha/opacity is not reflected.

so while the first step fixed the ability to apply the correct color, now its not applying the right alpha value.

[mspeer]

Hi

You also tried disabling Color Management in Preferences instead of 1. and 2. ?

[Anonymous]

I did, still no luck 😞

[mspeer]

Hi!

The following works also for alpha with Maya 2017 update 4:

1. ...shape: Set Display Color Channel to "Diffuse".

2. In Viewport: Lighting -> Use Flat Lighting

3. Disable Color Managmenet in Viewport or Preferences if you want to use both Color Pickers (otherwise only the Color Picker inside Color works).

The problem may be that with Legacy Viewport and default settings "Use All Lights", without a light in the scene there is a totally different lighting than with Viewport 2.0 (Legacy Viewport seems to be the one that's wrong).  For flat lighting they use the same lighting. However i'm not sure if it should work this way or the way like you expecting it. I event can't test how it worked with Maya 2015.

If you are sure there is something wrong:

Please report this problem (bug?) to Autodesk.
Help -> Speak Back -> Report a Problem

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous just checking in, are you still having this issue?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Seems to be working correctly now.

Had to disable color management in preferences to get the alpha portion to work correctly when I picked a color I wanted.  Didn't have much effect when setting the shape to diffuse.  But we do have a script that sets the scene to use flat lighting to preview and it does use the legacy renderer.  So maybe the Color Management was the ticket.

thank you for the help.

Cheers.