Changing default vertex color

[Anonymous]

I have a model with vertex color that I would like to preserve and the game engine I'm using needs vertices to be white, otherwise the black color gets multiplied over the texture.  When I make new cuts to the model in Maya, the default color of the new vertices is black.  Is there any way to change this so that new vertices are created white?  

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Have you tried applying a new color via the Color Set Editor?

You can find this under Mesh Display-> Apply Color.

We also have an article on this tool you can find here!

Let me know if this helps or if you need any more assistance!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

[Anonymous]

Hi Sean, thanks for the reply!  I know I can fix them after the fact with the color set editor but what I'm trying to do is to make sure that any new vertex I create is white, not the default black.  I have a mesh with lots of vertex coloring on it and don't want to have to worry about losing it as I continue to edit the mesh... does that make sense?

[mspeer]

Hi!

If you edit a mesh you should not loose vertex color information and edits should preserve the color of nearby vertices. So if you extrude a face with white vertices also the new vertices will be white. Default vertex color is "none" not black, you can't change this (you need to create a vertex first before you can apply a color).

Please add more details about your edits and your Maya version.

[sean.heasley]

Ah ok yeah that makes sense!

I just did a quick test on a cube and noticed that if you select all the vertices and go to Apply Color and set it to white, any extrusions or changes that are made to the mesh stay white therefore it should work for you!

Let me know if this helps or if you need any more assistance!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

[Anonymous]

Thanks again Sean, this does work with some operations, but not with others.  For example, if I extrude an edge where both verts have been painted white, the new vertices are created black, and I can't figure out exactly which situations create white, and which create black, or "default" to mspeer's point, but either way Maya sees them as having a default RGB value of 0,0,0 which reads as black in the game engine I'm using.  I'd just like to make sure that any edits I make to a mesh would result in white verts, or at least have a consistent color.  Having it create both is really strange.  

[sean.heasley]

I just did some testing and yeah it looks like if you extrude an edge the color changes back to gray which is unusual.

That said, if you have an object and you are done modeling and are ready to export does applying a white vertex color across the whole model not work for you?

Also what game engine are you working in? If its UE4 or Unity I could take a look at it on my machine.

Let me know if anything changes!

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

There is no default color that can be set in Maya, default is "empty".

You are right with Extrude Edge, it does not work like Extrude Face.

Also Append To Polygon Tool does not preserve colors, Bridge does.

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

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

I'm just checking in to see if you need more help with this. Did the suggestion that @mspeer provided work for you?

If so, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for checking in Sean, I meant to reply yesterday and got sidetracked!  In the end it sounds like this is just an odd bug of Maya's.  I went to report it but when I choose "Report a Problem" I get an error in a popup that tells me I don't have IE so I reported that instead and haven't sent the vertex color one yet 🙂

Thanks again for the help, Sean and mspeer!  At least I know how to workaround this one for now 🙂

[mspeer]

Hi!

Use the following link to report a bug:

http://www.autodesk.com/maya-bugreport

[Anonymous]

Hey, thanks for the direct link!  I grabbed it out of the error in my script editor, lol 🙂  I'll report the vertex color bug as well.