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Remove colors or prelighting from polygon vertices
Working with color per vertex data
Transfer color data between meshes
Create and edit color sets
You can use color per vertex sets to switch
between, merge, blend, or globally modify the colors stored on your
polygonal meshes’ vertices.
For example, you can pre-light your scene by
baking your daytime lighting to one color set and then your night
time lighting to another color set for each polygonal mesh in your
scene. For more information on prelighting, see
Prelighting polygons.
You can also touch up your baked lighting results
by painting vertex colors directly into your color sets. The Paint
Vertex Color Tool lets you remove, replace (darken or
lighten), or smooth the lighting baked on your vertices. See
Assign colors to polygon vertices by painting.
In addition to storing baked lighting data,
you can use color sets to do the following:
- Add
black and white values to your mesh to represent bump.
- Use
painted vertex colors in place of blocking volumes. For example,
you can set up your game engine so that characters are allowed to
walk where vertex color values are painted white, and characters
can't walk where vertex color values are painted black.
- Pass
data on to a game engine, where it can be used to define rules or
constraints. For example, to draw areas where characters are allowed
to walk. This data is not used in Maya, so is similar to blind data
associated with polygons. See
What is blind data? in
the Polygonal Modeling guide.
You can modify existing baked CPV color sets
globally with the Modify feature using either
an HSV attribute modifier or an RGBA color channel attribute modifier.
The Modify feature creates a polyColorMod node
downstream from the CPV color set.
The Modify feature
is useful when you need to globally modify an existing color set
and don’t want to bake the color and lighting for the object again. The Modify feature
is also useful when you want to modify existing color sets to match
particular gamma requirements of some computer and interactive games
platforms. For more information, see
To globally modify an existing color
set.
To create a color set
- In
the scene view, select the polygonal mesh for which you want to
create a color set.
- In
the Polygons menu set, select one of the following:
The Color Set Editor appears.
- In
the Color Set Editor, click New.
A new color set is created for the selected
mesh.
To rename an existing color set
- In
the scene view, select the mesh whose color set you want to rename.
- Do
one of the following:
- In
the Channel Box, select the color
set you want to rename.
Select
Color > Rename Current Color Set.
- In
the Color Set Editor, select the
color set you want to rename.
Click the Rename button
or double-click on the color set.
The Rename Color Set window
appears.
- Press
the key
to delete the color set’s current name, type in a new name, and
then click OK.
The selected color set now has the new name
you specified.
To delete a color set
- In
the scene view, select the mesh whose color set you want to delete.
- Do
one of the following:
- In
the Channel Box, select the color
set you want to delete.
Select
Color > Delete Current Color Set.
- In
the Color Set Editor, select the
color set you want to delete.
Click the Delete button
or press the key
on your keyboard.
The selected color set is deleted and removed
from the editor and the Channel Box.
To merge color sets
- In
the scene view, select the mesh whose color sets you want to merge.
- In
the Color Set Editor, select the
first color set you want to merge and then -click
the other color set with which you want it to merge.
You can only merge or collapse one
color set onto another at a time. Also, merges occur from top to
bottom.
- Click
the Merge button in the Color
Set Editor.
The two color sets you selected are merged using
the Over blend style option; a blendColorSets node
is created for the new color set which replaces the original sets.
The new color set is given the same name as the first color set
that was selected.
NoteYou can change a merged color set’s Blend
Style from its blendColorSets node
in the Attribute Editor.
To blend between color sets
- In
the scene view, select the object whose color sets you want to blend.
- In
the Color Set Editor, select the
first color set you want to blend and then -click
the other color set you want in the blend.
You can only blend two color sets at a time.
Also, blends occur from top to bottom.
- Select
a blend style from the blend drop-down list located under the Blend button.
See
Blend.
- Click
the Blend button in the Color
Set Editor.
The two color sets you selected are blended
from top-most to bottom-most selection. This blend uses the specified Blend
Style. A blendColorSets node is created
for the new color set that is created. By default, the blended color
set is named blendedColorSet in the Color
Set Editor window.
To
globally modify an existing color set
- In
the scene view, select the object whose color set(s) you want to
modify.
- In
the Color Set Editor, select the
color set you want to modify and then click the Modify button.
A polyColorMod node
is created for the selected color set and the Attribute
Editor displays with the polyColorMod node
tab selected.
- Modify
attributes for either the HSV color modifiers or the RGBA color channel
modifiers and notice the change to the color set on the object in the
scene view.
NoteThe polyColorMod node
is created downstream from the existing CPV color set node. You
should use the Modify feature late in your
production pipeline only after your CPV color assignments and light
baking are complete.
The color modifications you make on the polyColorMod node
are cumulative. Normally, you should apply color modifications to
either the HSV global modifiers or the RGBA color channel modifiers.
Notes:
- The
display of Color Per Vertex (CPV) Material Blend Settings varies depending
on scene view Shading settings. In textured
and shaded mode with Hardware Texturing enabled, Add, Subtract and Multiply blend modes
will be displayed with slightly reduced quality. The correct result
of all blend modes will be displayed by switching to High
Quality Rendering mode (Renderer > High Quality
Rendering) with Hardware Texturing (Shading
> Hardware Texturing) enabled. If your graphics card
does not support High Quality Rendering mode,
you can test render using the Hardware Renderer to
preview your result. In instances where your graphics card may not
support High Quality Rendering or the Hardware
Renderer, you can switch to Hardware Shaded mode
(press 5 on your keyboard) to preview the blending without textures.