Chaos Corona Forum
Chaos Corona for 3ds Max => [Max] General Discussion => Topic started by: ProxyFuel on 2025-08-06, 10:21:15
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Is there an official or recommended workflow for using the new Color Management system in 3ds Max 2025+ with Corona Renderer 13? I've looked around and find answers that conflict.
So far, I’ve stuck with the legacy Gamma 2.2 setup because it gives me predictable results. But I know it's time to get familiar with the newer ACES/OCIO-based color management and how it integrates across the viewport, materials, rendering, and saving.
Out of the box, I often run into issues where what I see in the viewport doesn’t match the render, and both differ from the saved image. I’m trying to establish a consistent, predictable workflow—ideally where what I see is what I get when saving a standard JPG (let’s leave 32-bit linear workflows aside for now).
Example of the issue:
Using the legacy Gamma 2.2 workflow:
I import a JPG street photo—looks good in the viewport.
It renders correctly, matches the original.
Saved output is accurate.
Using the new Color Management workflow:
The same image looks washed out in the viewport.
The render comes out darker than the original.
If I tweak the color management settings to fix the background, then my 3D elements look wrong—as if they no longer match the photo.
This inconsistency is making it hard to transition. Has anyone found a solid setup or workflow to ensure predictable results from viewport → render → saved image, especially with standard 8-bit JPGs?
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The plot thickens...
I’ve discovered something odd: if I add a JPG as a background using a Tonemap Control node, disable ACES in the tone mapping settings, and hit render — everything looks correct.
But here's the catch:
As soon as I hit Stop and render again, the image goes dark. It won’t return to the correct look until I restart 3ds Max. Then it behaves — but only for the first render. After that, same issue.
This happens consistently across multiple machines, all running the same version of Max and Corona. I’ve tried different scenes and different JPGs — same result every time.
Right now, I can’t get things to render correctly with the new color management system. Anyone else seeing this?
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The first question is - do you need to work in a color managed environment? If the answer is "I dont know" then you probably don't.
If you are working in a pipeline that is color managed then its useful since everything can be unified/delivered as expected. You will then need to understand how to use the transforms and workflow - or learn it from/with the studio that requires this (usually the fastest way since they have a workflow they can teach you - which gives you a way to connect the dots).
I’ve discovered something odd: if I add a JPG as a background using a Tonemap Control node, disable ACES in the tone mapping settings, and hit render — everything looks correct.
The ACES tone-mapper is just curve basically, its not recommended to use this in conjunction with color management.
Is there an official or recommended workflow for using the new Color Management system in 3ds Max 2025+ with Corona Renderer 13? I've looked around and find answers that conflict.
Try reading these first.
https://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2026/ENU/?guid=GUID-DA8CE2F5-1400-45A9-BFCF-A4A8968175CF
https://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2026/ENU/?guid=GUID-9FDA8D1F-1285-49F4-B025-D505D40FD24D
https://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2026/ENU/?guid=GUID-2440635A-3E84-4215-AB09-9B3F4AB772D4
If you want to understand it more thoroughly at some point, test things for yourself etc read this by Chris:
https://chrisbrejon.com/cg-cinematography/chapter-1-5-academy-color-encoding-system-aces/
Example from Chris' page of a simplified view of the workflow:
(https://i.ibb.co/Q7bKZygs/aces.png) (https://ibb.co/V0jqdf1X)
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I second what James said:
If you need the ACES workflow - use it.
If you don't - use the legacy gamma 2.2 workflow.
If you like the ACES "look", but you don't want to deal with all the color management stuff - use the legacy gamma 2.2 workflow and enable the ACES OT operator in the VFB Post tab.
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Thank you for the answers. As I expected, if there’s no explicit need for this feature, then it’s not necessary to use it.
My main concern is more about why this isn't an advanced option that can be enabled and configured by those who actually need it—instead of being a default setting applied to everyone out of the box.
I’ve been using Corona since the beta days and have always appreciated how easy it is to use while still delivering great results. But small things like this can be frustrating. I can imagine how many new users might struggle to understand why their renders look off or incorrect.
I realize this is more of a 3ds Max issue than a Corona one, but I still think it's worth bringing up
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My main concern is more about why this isn't an advanced option that can be enabled and configured by those who actually need it—instead of being a default setting applied to everyone out of the box.
Odd, in max2024 the default option is Gamma Workflow, has this changed in 2025?
I’ve been using Corona since the beta days and have always appreciated how easy it is to use while still delivering great results. But small things like this can be frustrating. I can imagine how many new users might struggle to understand why their renders look off or incorrect.
Heh, reminds me of the fun we had back in 2009 when we switched to the Gamma Workflow. People have been requesting color management in 3dsmax for a long while, if you need to streamline your pipeline then ocio is a useful wrapper for and end to end workflow. This way the artist doesnt have to think about LUTs, transforms, color spaces, rules etc the project lead can set this up and the artists can just work - in theory.
If you dont need this then you can just go about your business as usual - the intent was to reduce frustration from my understanding.
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Yep, ACES/OCIO is the default in Max 2025 and newer.
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We've found AGX to be a better solution than ACES anyway. So for us it was a case in 2026 of having to switch back to legacy Gamma 2.2 workflow so we continue using AGX and having consistency with old projects. It's a shame AGX is more complex/cumbersome to work with, but the results are worth it.