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Support for ACES
Hey there 🙂 I really like Prism, it helps us out IMMENSELY! But still, I have a (small?) request.
We are working with Houdini/Redshift and in ACES color space. So currently, when I rendered a shot I use a small HDA I built to convert the exr sequence to a jpg sequence with the ACES (rec.709) look baked in for reviewing it and showing it to the client. It would be super cool to have a feature, that when a sequence is rendered, it gets automatically converted to this format. Optimally as a render layer for easy and convenient access (see screenshot).
Maybe this could already be achieved by a post-render script, but I don't really know python or hscript, so if this could become a feature or if someone could point me into the right direction, that would be super awesome!
Greetings and thanks in advance,
Nick Pantring, 3D-Artist @Black&Code
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Hey Nick,
ACES is definitely a topic that should be implemented into Prism sooner than later.
Your HDA is reading the linear .exrs, applying a REC.709 lut and saving it as .jpg right? Are you doing that with Houdini COP nodes or are you running a background process like Nuke to convert it?
Hi,
yeah right, my HDA reads linear EXRs, does some string manipulation for the output path and writes out the sequence as JPG with the LUT applied. In the screenshot I marked the important settings. All in COPs except the string manipulation, that's simply in a wrangle SOP.
Having this automated would save a ton of time, i.e. if we rendered 20 shots (in preview quality) over the weekend, I don't need to take each one of them and convert them by hand 🙂
Greetings,
Nick Pantring, 3D-Artist @Black&Code
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Thanks for that info.
It would be possible to convert it automatically after rendering already, but that would require some python knowledge.
For an official Prism ACES/OCIO implementation I'd like to avoid being dependent on a commercial tool like Houdini or Nuke. Probably I will use the Open Color IO command line tools for applying luts.
Are there any other places in your workflow where you are using ACES and where Prism could automate the setup? For example in the Houdini viewport or in the renderview?
I totally get that you don't want this to be dependent on Houdini/Nuke. I just did it this way, because I know Houdini the best of all those softwares 😀 I'll probably need to look at Python and how I can use this for us... Do you happen to know a good starting point for me (total Python noob, I only know some VEX)? So that we can automate it until Prism eventually gets something like this 🙂
For us specifically, that's the only "problem" with ACES in our pipeline. The texture conversion happens on shader level usually (with an HDA by Saul Espinosa, if you happen to know it) and the renderview starts with the ACES rec.709 look by default. But a texture converter inside Prism would be really handy, I'd like to depend on as least as possible different softwares/plugins/whatevers. This would be the most streamlined solution I think. But I'm not quite sure how Prism could handle the conversion. Maybe with a dedicated Texture folder in the project and special naming conventions? For example diffuse textures could start/end with DIFF so that Prism only converts those and not roughness, normal, etc. maps? Just a spontaneous idea that came to my mind 🙂
There are many good python beginner courses out there. I don't want to try to recommend a specific one, but I'm sure you won't have problems finding answers to any python questions on google. If you have Prism specific questions feel free to ask here in the forum.
For a texture converter it really depends on where the textures come from and what they are named. Since not everyone is using the same naming convention I would keep it as flexible as possible and let the user select textures by pattern. Then you could search all files matching the pattern *_DIFF.jpg in your project and convert them all with one click. But just like you I'm just thinking about it and I'm completely open for any suggestions.
Hey guys, there is a new and free ACES GUI converter out there called PYCO:
https://mrlixm.github.io/PYCO/standalone/ColorspaceConvert/home/
Maybe you can rip some of his code and integrate it into Prism 😉
Thanks for the tip Marius. That really looks like a good reference.
I'm sure it will be helpful 🙂