Color Profile Issues with Cinema 4D R25 and Corona 12

[Artificenzio]

Hi everyone,

I’m having some trouble with textures in Cinema 4D R25 using Corona 12, and I was hoping someone here might have a solution.

I’ve exported my textures from Substance Painter using the Corona preset, but when I bring them into Cinema 4D, the colors look off. For example, I have a box that’s supposed to be blue, but as soon as I light the scene, I get these weird purple aberrations that aren’t in the original texture.

I’ve been trying to figure out what’s causing this, and after some research, I think it might be related to the color profile. The problem is, I can’t find any clear tutorial or workflow to fix it. I know OCIO isn’t supported in this version of Cinema 4D, so that’s not an option for me.

I also tried enabling the "Use Cinema 4D Color Space" checkbox in Corona’s preferences, but it didn’t seem to make any difference.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? Is there a solution or maybe a workaround I can try?

Thanks a lot for any help!

EDIT: i have made a test with the new version of cinema 4d  with OCIO color space and the problem is still the same.. cannot figure it out

[Nejc Kilar]

Hm hm, that to me looks like the ACES color shift. Can you try disabling the ACES OT operator in the Tone mapping stack inside the Corona VFB?

ACES OT is very popular as it has a nice filmic curve to it and it also shifts the color a bit depending on how strong the lighting / bright the bitmap is. Our users typically find that to be desirable behavior because it mimics how film & cameras work in the real world - that said it can be less than ideal for whenever you need your colors to stay as close as they can to how the client specified them.

Please give it a try and report back.

[Artificenzio]

Thank you so much for your suggestion! I tried disabling the ACES OT operator in the tone mapping stack, but unfortunately, it didn’t solve the issue.

To clarify my workflow: I created the textures in Substance Painter and exported them using the Corona preset available there. I’m using a Corona Physical Material in Cinema 4D, where I’ve plugged in the textures. Could it be that something in the Substance-to-Corona pipeline is causing this artifact? That's what I was asking myself for the last week BUT

I’ve conducted several tests and managed to find an export method from Substance Painter that keeps the material looking fairly accurate.
However,  I noticed something strange during my tests: while the material exported from Substance Painter remains blue now, any other physical material I create using the Corona Node Material turns violet when illuminated.

I also experimented with adjusting the Kelvin temperature of both the lights and the VFB in Corona. By setting everything to 5500K, I can get the blue tones back to normal, but this completely throws off the balance of the other colors. This workaround doesn’t feel practical for broader projects, as it limits control over the lighting and overall color management.


I’m really stuck at this point and not sure what else to try. Do you think there’s a deeper issue here, or is there something I might be missing in my workflow? I have attached a screenshot but feel free to ask me to provide more information

Thanks again for your help and for taking the time to look into this!

[davetwo]

Hi, is it possible to share the scene (or at least part of the texture) so we can check what profiles are at play. And do you have a RGB value swatch of the desired colour so we know what is correct?

PS. I know its not very helpful to say this. But why would you use painter to create a simple graphic like this anyway?

[burnin]

It's always best to make and share a 'Study' scene file.

Fairly correct is still incorrect - especially in 'colour science'.

[Artificenzio]

Hi
1 i am using substance painter because i am more familiar with masking in photoshop and in substance

2 i will upload the project as soon as possibile but i cannot upload the box and the texture because of NDA
so i will create a new object with the same workflow as soon as possible

[Nejc Kilar]

Hi
1 i am using substance painter because i am more familiar with masking in photoshop and in substance

2 i will upload the project as soon as possibile but i cannot upload the box and the texture because of NDA
so i will create a new object with the same workflow as soon as possible

Thank you davetwo and burnin for helping here! I also think some sort of a scene file with the issues present would be great at this point - so we can all have a more in depth look at what is happening.

Thank you for your patience!

[Artificenzio]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay in responding, but I’ve been doing quite a bit of testing.

I’m really struggling to achieve the results I’m aiming for and noticing a lot of discrepancies between how lights work in real life and how they behave in Corona. I’m sure this is partly due to my own lack of experience with 3D. I’ve worked on film sets for 15 years, so I know how to light a scene to get the results I want, but in Corona, I feel like a total beginner. I hope someone here can give me a hand—haha!

As for the pink/purple tint issue, I think I’ve managed to minimize it. However, I had to completely remove the background and rely on the VFB’s post-process settings. For now, the issue seems resolved, but I’m not confident I used the right approach—it might just be hidden for now and reappear when I change the lights or the set.

Another problem I’m facing now is the excessive reflection in the scene, which you can also see in the screenshot. This box (textured in Substance Painter, mainly because it’s easier for me to work with the PSD files from the graphic designer, which contain many masks and layers) is supposed to be made of paper, but paper doesn’t reflect light like this.

On top of that, I’m having trouble understanding how the “directionality” parameter for lights works. I’d like to create one light with sharper shadows and another with softer ones, but this parameter is confusing me. I can’t figure out which real-life property it’s supposed to emulate.

To summarize:

I think I’ve resolved the pink/purple issue for now.
I’m struggling with excessive reflections that alter the look of the scene.
The "directionality" parameter behaves in ways I don’t fully understand.


I’ve also attached my project file. Please don’t share the box design anywhere else, as it’s under a contract I signed,
Also, I can’t figure out how to share the project with the textures because every time I move it to another computer, it can’t find the textures. As I mentioned, I don’t have much experience with Cinema 4D, so I’m also attaching a zip file that includes them. (here's the texture, i don't have any other solution if not a wetransfer because they are too heavy https://we.tl/t-m5WO7Nrgfc )

[TomG]

Bouncing light is not the same as reflections btw. Reflections describe things acting like a mirror, which doesn't seem to be happening here in the scene at all; what seems to be happening is the light being bounced is very strong, and very blue. Can you send in the scene? This all just looks like the material properties are wayyyyy off. (You can send it privately by starting a ticket at https://support.chaos.com/requests/new if you want to keep the scene private and only have employees check it). Now it could be there is some massively high reflectivity AND a very high roughness which would blur the reflections and might look like this.

Directionality is less of a physical parameter really, but will do what you are looking for. Higher directionality will give sharper shadows. At 0 Directionality, the light spreads out in all directions from the source (well, up to around say 180 from the normal of the surface), and at 1 you end up with the light being focused, light rays being much closer to parallel. So if you have a square plane light, you are projecting a "square beam" the same size as the plane (just set up a simple scene with a rectangular light, a plane underneath it that the light is shining at, and adjust the Directionality, to see the result for yourself and get a feel for it). Higher directionality will take longer to render btw, and also make the light seem brighter because all the light from the source is landing in the same place rather than being spread out.

[TomG]

See https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/5325332424465-Corona-Light-Material-3ds-Max which  has some examples of how the result changes with particular values of directionality.

[John_Do]

Hi,

Your issues come from the values used in the diffuse texture, it's way too bright and a bit too saturated. It's easy to fall for this trap, especially when working with graphic design material which is meant to be seen as-is, without any articular transformation ( except a specific color profile ).

I took a quick look at your scene and brought down the diffuse texture exposure while cranking up the camera exposure :



By the way notice how the version with the darker texture comes lighter than the original image in the render and is much closer to the intended color for the paper.

On top of that, I’m having trouble understanding how the “directionality” parameter for lights works. I’d like to create one light with sharper shadows and another with softer ones, but this parameter is confusing me. I can’t figure out which real-life property it’s supposed to emulate.

Rather than using the directionality parameter, you can play with the light size to get the intended shadow look. I don't know how it's done on film sets but in CGI it's a quick and easy solution ;)

Also, I can’t figure out how to share the project with the textures because every time I move it to another computer, it can’t find the textures. As I mentioned, I don’t have much experience with Cinema 4D, so I’m also attaching a zip file that includes them. (here's the texture, i don't have any other solution if not a wetransfer because they are too heavy https://we.tl/t-m5WO7Nrgfc )

File > Save Project with Assets... to create a folder where C4D will save the scene and all it's textures

[burnin]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay in responding, but I’ve been doing quite a bit of testing.

I’m really struggling to achieve the results I’m aiming for and noticing a lot of discrepancies between how lights work in real life and how they behave in Corona. I’m sure this is partly due to my own lack of experience with 3D. I’ve worked on film sets for 15 years, so I know how to light a scene to get the results I want, but in Corona, I feel like a total beginner. I hope someone here can give me a hand—haha!

As for the pink/purple tint issue, I think I’ve managed to minimize it. However, I had to completely remove the background and rely on the VFB’s post-process settings. For now, the issue seems resolved, but I’m not confident I used the right approach—it might just be hidden for now and reappear when I change the lights or the set.

Another problem I’m facing now is the excessive reflection in the scene, which you can also see in the screenshot. This box (textured in Substance Painter, mainly because it’s easier for me to work with the PSD files from the graphic designer, which contain many masks and layers) is supposed to be made of paper, but paper doesn’t reflect light like this.

On top of that, I’m having trouble understanding how the “directionality” parameter for lights works. I’d like to create one light with sharper shadows and another with softer ones, but this parameter is confusing me. I can’t figure out which real-life property it’s supposed to emulate.

To summarize:

I think I’ve resolved the pink/purple issue for now.
I’m struggling with excessive reflections that alter the look of the scene.
The "directionality" parameter behaves in ways I don’t fully understand.


I’ve also attached my project file. Please don’t share the box design anywhere else, as it’s under a contract I signed,
Also, I can’t figure out how to share the project with the textures because every time I move it to another computer, it can’t find the textures. As I mentioned, I don’t have much experience with Cinema 4D, so I’m also attaching a zip file that includes them. (here's the texture, i don't have any other solution if not a wetransfer because they are too heavy https://we.tl/t-m5WO7Nrgfc )

Missed that, but anyways, previous post sums it pretty well.