Gamma Correction & Linear Workflow Part 1 of 2

A beginner's explanation of gamma correction and linear workflow for 3D applications.

Part 1 of 2.

Tip: Click on the video's title to bring up the larger YouTube player.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• gamma correction
• linear workflow
• LightWave
• 3D
• modo

[KOZIACE]

very cool man, thank you!

[pixsimdesign]

Thanks. I'm in the process of updating this tutorial to correct some of the horrendous mistakes with some of my statements I made.

Although as mentioned in the other comment, the CG stuff is correct, just the explanations as to what Gamma is, and why it exists. There's more to it than I mention in the video.

[PhoenicianC4D]

Thank you mate , you are a saver .

5*

[pixsimdesign]

Thanks, glad I could help, although I do need to update this as I've recently found out some more information that would make this tutorial more technically accurate, but it's not anything that affects how you work in 3D with gamma.

[halocritian]

Thanks!

[jussing]

Excellent tutorials, thank you! Only comment is, I'll agree with "arnaudmeuret"'s comment from 11 months ago., about swapping the text for "input signal" and "light intensity" at 3:40. As it reads now, it says that an input signal of 50% will result in a higher light intensity than 50%, when in fact you mean the opposite. I know, you've made disclaimers for all that stuff, and you're working on a new version. :) Just wanted to clarify what was wrong with it. Thanks again for these great vids.

[Anotherblackseason]

@cyborgtroy Ok! Thank you for the help.

[cyborgtroy]

@Anotherblackseason - I would suspect that most consumer cameras are pre-corrected, though if you have a high-end camera, it might have a linear option somewhere, or use it by default.

[Anotherblackseason]

@cyborgtroy And the confusion continues! LOL So, if I take a picture with my digital camera is it linear already or non-linear? I usually use the diffuse setting in Modo to adjust my textures since that is the way I learned - I adjust so they preview and render the way I want them to look.

[cyborgtroy]

@Anotherblackseason - You'd probably have to guess, based on where you got them. I believe most free textures, camera images, video, stuff you drew in Paint, etc., will be pre-corrected and should be linearized before using them.

Whereas if you generate your own stuff or get textures from a site that specifically says they're already linear, then in that case they may be linear already.

I don't know if JPEG has a way to tell, and it wouldn't be reliable.

[Anotherblackseason]

@cyborgtroy Thanks, still a little confused. How do I check my textures which are jpegs to see if they are linear?

Thanks!

[cyborgtroy]

@Anotherblackseason - You want everything to be linear up until it's displayed, so if your input images are already linear, you only have to make sure that your preview (Photoshop) is doing a gamma correction before displaying it, so that it looks correct when you edit it.

If your inputs are already gamma-corrected, then you would want to do an inverse gamma to lineralize them, and still make sure that any editing tools are doing a gamma-correct preview, so that you don't mess them up.

[Anotherblackseason]

Thanks for the tutorial. I'm in Modo so does that mean I just set all the texture Gamma and output Gamma to the same value? Or, do I need to de-Gamma my textures in Photoshop before using them? I'm a little confused as to how to apply the Linear workflow.

[PhilippeFreestyle]

using a gamma shift filter set to 1,10... is this smart in order that the colors arent that much washed out? because I don't have quicktime pro... i would highly appreciate an answer, greetings, philippe