Can someone explain why the color selected from the material tray changes when applied to the model?
Lets say I have a color selected with the RGB values 125,125,125, I apply it to a simple cube that is a component. I bring a color picker in from Affinity Photo to check it. The RGB on the cube changes to 148,148,148. If I run the color picker over the colored tile in the lower pane of the material tray the values are 125,125,125. As I move the color picker over the modeling area it reports accurately the desktop back ground color values. Color B08 in the materials tray is 102,25,0, applied to the cube it becomes 116,28,0. An uncolored surface on the cube reports as 255,255,255. Changing the face color on the back of the surface has no bearing on the front surface color values.
This is probably due to color profile differences on your monitor and other software or standards. More likely it has to do with how SketchUp handles shading. And it’s probably a combination of them. I wouldn’t consider it a problem though.
It becomes a problem when trying to do a render as the colors change again in the process and are quite different than the SU view. I understand that in the rendering process things can affect the coloring however I cannot get a result that is similar to the original views. I have tried several rendering engines with the same disappointing results.
Rendering engines add another layer of complexity to it. They are simulating light realistically, meaning you’ll get a ton of variation depending on light color, intensity, angle, and of course material properties, and that’s all before you start in with any reflections and ambient factors. You won’t get an exact match just like in real life.
I’ve found that exporting something close to what I want and then correcting in Photoshop works the best for me. I do this to match company brand colors because no matter what they aren’t correct in sketchup or renderings. It is what it is.
I was starting to come to that conclusion myself.
In the shadows settings you might try checking the box “use sun for shading” as it seems to render the colors in a flatter/purer way? Without it checked, certain faces are either in more light or more shade and will give a different result with the eye dropper as the same color will be darker or lighter in different parts of the scene…just a thought. This of course will only affect the look on screen in SU, once in a renderer its a whole other issue.
Like real world examples; what is the same color will appear differently depending on the light and shade on it, and the color temperature of the light and the reflection of other colored surfaces light onto it.
As @Monospaced says, this can be an issue when dealing with corporate brand colors, many of which are specified in pantone values. These exact colors can be hard to match in the real world with paint, as paint doesn’t come in pantone colors. The only accurate way is with printing standards (where pantone specs can be more accurately matched with CMYK values) but even that can be off unless it’s lit with the right light source.
That I understand, the same color on different rooms in my house, depending on the lighting, is way different.
I think Dave is saying (and if it isn’t the case, perhaps someone could clarify for me any way) that rgb is a numerical value no mater what the presentation method. Sure the colour can, and certainly does alter visually, but the number is simply a number. It changes presumably because the picker is reading off the screen, but that doesn’t make sense to me, as it was the same system that created that version of the colour.
I agree 100%
I must admit I haven’t read the thread in detail… just wondering if you are using the Screen Picker rather then the Colour Picker. SU has two different eyedroppers and one of them will grab any pixel on the screen while the other only picks within SU.
No biggy, the picker I am using is from Affinity Photo
Then you would need to hit only a pixel that hasn’t been shaded in any way. I’m probably going over stuff that has already been said. I’m better to stay out of here I think.
[quote=“Box, post:13, topic:110493, full:true”] I’m probably going over stuff that has already been said. I’m better to stay out of here I think.
[/quote]
Input is welcome, Go to post #1 and play with the values I have provided. Are your outputs the same as mine?
edited value/text to be consistent w/Fredo6 post below
It has been mentioned to use sun for shading…I can only add that setting “light” to a value of 0…and “dark” to a value of 81 & turn off shadows helps to display the color more consistently in SU…I have used this method along with an image swatch w/RGB values along side a model when getting initial color approvals.
Here is an example of color swatch I place “in model” with proper RGB setting of course.
Thank you Charlie, I am now in read mode only, I will try that tomorrow!
While I have rgb values provided by designers, I use them only as a starting point as my colour accurate (LOL) images are always rendered, which adds a whole new complexity with shadows and reflection, and relies on different methods of achieving colours as close as possible…
The easy way is not possible as I am finding out. I have wondered how the render out put was so " pretty". I am realizing it is time consuming and detail oriented.
Just to confuse you a little more. No two render engines produce the same result, and process textures differently (particularly when linked to SU) and perform according to the way the project is set up and the ability of the render engine do handle certain tasks. I use three mainly - which one, often depends on test images I do at the outset.
I’m working on a crazy model where everything is made of parallel lines in specific colors. I have light and dark both set to 100 with shadows off and it’s as close to plain color SketchUp will allow. The values STILL change depending on angle and they are never exact. It’s just how it is I suppose.