Color management¶

Reference for the Designer's color pipeline: input texture interpretation, working space, output transforms.

Working space¶

Internally the path tracer always works in Linear sRGB. This is correct for physical light calculations; gamma-encoded values produce incorrect lighting.

The Designer handles input → working and working → output conversions automatically.

Output spaces¶

Space	Use case
sRGB	Web, social, 8-bit screens (default)
Linear sRGB	VFX comp pipelines that grade downstream
ACEScg	Cinematic look-dev
Rec.709	HD broadcast

Picked from Rendering > Color Space > …. The active space lands in the .esk bundle's manifest.json so the framework matches at runtime.

Input transforms¶

Per-texture role defaults:

Role	Default input space	Linearize on load?
Albedo / Diffuse / BaseColor	sRGB	yes
Normal	Linear	no
Roughness / Metalness / AO / Mask	Linear (single channel)	no
HDR environment / IBL	Linear	n/a (already linear)

Per-texture overrides: select the texture in the Project Explorer, in the Properties pane set Input Space to the correct value.

OCIO¶

The Designer ships ACES 1.3 by default. To swap in a custom config:

Preferences > Rendering > OCIO Config → pick a config.ocio file. Custom configs unlock additional output transforms in the Rendering > Color Space menu.

Display gamut¶

The Designer queries the active monitor's gamut on startup. On wide-gamut displays (P3, Rec.2020), output is mapped from the chosen working space using OCIO's display transform.

For deliverables targeting a different display than your authoring monitor, render through OCIO's "display reference" mode: a flat output that downstream comp tools can re-grade for the target device.

Bit depth and format¶

Format	Bit depth	Space
PNG (8-bit)	8	sRGB encoded
PNG (16-bit)	16	sRGB encoded
JPG	8	sRGB encoded
EXR (half)	16 float	Linear (chosen output space)
EXR (full)	32 float	Linear (chosen output space)
TIFF	8/16/32	Any

For VFX prefer EXR; for delivery prefer PNG.

Brushwork¶

The brush system writes into the working space at the working bit depth. When the result is exported as a PNG, the brush mask is sRGB-encoded; when exported as EXR, it stays linear.