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Hi James Thanks for that. It has been while since I used the filmic ones and forgot that indeed, they are for exr files. Your explanation here is very useful though (for why and how to use them). Yep, Blender does send things out untagged but I have modified the default colour space in Affinity and Photoshop and that works seamlessly. And in many ways, I could save myself a world of pain by just sticking with that simple work flow. The layers are a help though so I will have another look at your new macros. cheers

@James Ritson Oh and for clarity sake, you asked if Blender can be set up to use ACES etc. If on a Mac, right click the Blender application>package contents>contents>resources>3.6>datafiles>colour management If you swap out that config and the LUTs etc with another set (in my case Eary Chow's AGX config) then that determines the colour spaces. ACES configs can be inserted here too. So this allows for wider gamuts - although I think there is an issue with the Blender developers wanting to retain sRGB as the standard space and that's presenting issues. btw, I use a fork of Blender called Bforartists which has all the functionality of Blender with the difference that you can find these functions or intuit them. That is to say, it is a much more logical, cleaned up user interface rather than the 'tack another bit on and add another million keyboard commands, somewhere' of the original. Well worth a look.

Hi @James Ritson Thanks for getting back and that above post is one I tried to send yesterday but had all manner of problems logging in. I am not sure but I believe Eary and crew are aiming for BT2020 to be the default colour space (or possible colour space anyway) and then the configs will modify downwards - or at least, the display native can be chosen - so it will include wide gamut displays. P3 is the one they are focussing on, hence my request to Eary to write a specific AdobeRGB one for me, which he kindly provided stanzas for and I cobbled together, badly. (Their developer discussions are way beyond my pay grade but as a painter, I am interested in their talk regarding colour perception.) As you can see in the above, the config does allow you to specify different linear spaces including AdobeRGB. Blender can be set up to use different OCIO spaces and ACES is supported (but despised by Troy and crew as a pseudo solution. Again, above my pay grade.) At the moment, when I use the AGX config with Adobe RGB as the colourspace I often get complaining error messages when importing if the source texture is in another colourspace. But if it is adobeRGB, it seems fine. It also seems to save to adobeRGB as converting it to sRGB in Affinity or photoshop presents the usual compressed gamut. These are user descriptions rather than an under the hood explanation but it might allow you to figure out what is actually going on. I saw your macros by the way and actually bought and installed the filmic version in V1 which were very handy. The approach is a far simpler method than messing about with exr files - but they do allow all those useful layers. At present, the simplest workflow from Blender is using that AGX config and adobeRGB display space (I have a wide gamut monitor) exporting to Tiff and it opens all colour correct in Affinity or Photoshop - but without the compositing options of an exr. Hence the hopes for V2.2 It is my guess that Photo has not taken into account the expanded color spaces of Blender - and the upcoming increasing gamut that v4 should further provide - so it is assuming the sRGB limit. But - non-code writing user guess. Congrats on your very useful video tutorial series btw. Very clear, comprehensive and concise. Compared to the the usual "hey guys" YouTube videos that make my heart sink and which only get to some form of useful information around the 7 minute mark, yours are in another world altogether. The world of useful information. Cheers

Hi @James Ritson and @Chris B I tried disabling OCIO conversions in preferences. I enclose the results below of a file rendered as exr using agx and adobe linear from Blender - as in first screenshot. Results are not great but it might help. I am a bit reluctant to fiddle with the config as that is the path of tears, but may give it a go and report back. I think there is a plan to shift the default Blender colourspace, or at least broaden it with AGX and retain backward compatibility. Might the reason for the linear sRGB. Anyway, these - in case they are useful.

Hi @James Ritson Very much appreciate you chiming in here and for your work with Affinity generally, very helpful. I will try disabling the preference as a first step and see if that helps, then report back here. My efforts and modifying configs generally go astray. Just a heads up - the GitHub Troy Sabotka config was the initial one he wrote as a proposition, a swag of developers have then taken it on and refined it, so it is way behind what will find its way into Blender. AGX will be implemented by Blender by V4 by the looks and the config they are basing it on is Eary Chow's (also available on Github). The config I am using is his, and then modified by him, at my request, to include the AdobeRGB colourspace, rather than just P3. So if the developers are looking at AGX, please refer to Eary Chow's as it is almost fully integrated into the upcoming Blender builds. The previous thread at Blender Artists charts this and the most recent posts include the Blender developers reports on implementing AGX as the new default. I hope this helps and is not just preaching to the choir. Best Stephen

@Chris B Also, don't know if you know this thread and these two guys, you probably do https://blenderartists.org/t/feedback-development-filmic-baby-step-to-a-v2/1361663/505?page=24 Eary Chow who produced the config I am using and is developing AGX for Blender and Troy Sabotka who is around there too. He wrote Filmic for Blender and wrote AGX to replace it which various folk are refining. They are all over OCIO and color management and are stupid helpful to anyone who asks. I am sure they could/would lend a hand. Cheers

AGX to sRGB for comparision

Hi Chris, Yes that is mostly it. Very low contrast, washed out images. A couple of options in my config don't seem to do anything at all when adobe RGB is selected - false colour and none in particular (this might be a limitation of that particular config). I also notice in 32 bit preview, that if AGX is selected as source and adobergb as output, the image is almost grey scale and very washed out (see screenshot). Much better with RGB as output, so again, maybe the config. It would be expected for AGX to look a little lower contrast but the results are very extreme. Changing the output also causes the Source to default to Guard Rail. Not sure if this is expected/normal behaviour. Cheers

HI @Chris B I have joined the beta group, installed 2.2 and the update and the Ocio configs seem to be working! Although the config I supplied seems to yield pretty odd results. Let me test those a bit but essentially all seems good. Thank you for your persistence and the developer's work to get Ocio v2 working. Thanks Walt for pointing out the location of this forum. As I was led here by a direct link and have not visited the forum at all, I didn't notice it was a dedicated beta section etc. The obvious is not always obvious, to the otherwise engaged. Despite the garden path though, it looks like all is good. Thanks again Chris.

Hi @Chris B thanks for sending that video. I think I see the problem. Are you using a beta version of the software? In ash’s original email above it said v2 supported ocio 2 but didn’t mention the need to download a beta. I thought we were just testing it as targeted user of ocio. I see now at the bottom of that email there is a suggestion to join the beta program which I didn’t realise would be a necessary condition. I guess joining would allow me to download that version. Is that right? Can try tomorrow if so. Sorry for any misunderstanding that may have caused your developers anguish and added to your workload..

Thanks @Chris B Thankyou, that sounded hopeful as I did have the configs on an external mvne drive connected via Thunderbolt. However, shifting the configs to the User/Documents folder on the Mac Studio's main drive resulted in the Affinity OCIO being seen but having the same issues (no change of image and missing 'slots') and the AGX config I shared with you not being seen at all (all fields for OCIO being blank). Not sure what is going on. I might try a reinstall of Affinity when I get a chance. I do have Affinity V1 also installed on the same volume - would that be an issue? Cheers

Hi @Chris B i have uploaded the config files you requested last week but forgot to notify you. Then did notify you but that message seems to be missing here. Hope this one gets through and you can access the files cheers

Hi @Chris B, Please find attached a screenshot and 2 videos showing the issue. I did also point my agx config file to search the same folder as per the instructions. Hope this helps. 32 bit preview.mov ocio adj.mov

Hi @Ash and @Patrick Connor After further testing it looks like it is not working on my Mac Studio M2 Ultra, Ventura 13.4.1. I have installed your config as instructed but when opening any exr file the 32 bit display panel shows only 'raw' in the drop downs (there appear to be other slots but there is no text filling them.) There is a limited choice of 5 variations in the other drop down list. Selecting any combination of these does nothing to the image. The OCIO layer option shows many more choices in source colour space and destination colour space but again, none of these changes the image. I use an adaption of an AGX config from Eary Chow in Blender which is written in OCIO v2 format and allows an AdobeRGB workflow. If the program is directed to that config rather than yours, it does not load at all. An earlier version of this config, written for OCIO v1 does work in Affinity Photo V1. I hope this helps toward fixing it. I would very much welcome OCIO v2 in Affinity Photo (and rather hastily bought the update thinking it would work without issue.) Not a gripe, appreciate you making the effort toward providing it. I do think though there are many Blender based workflows that will pick up Affinity 2 once functionality is assured. Let me know if you need further feedback. cheers

Hi again @Ash, My apologies, it has been a while and I forgot we can supply our own OCIO config files to work with Affinity and these can include adobe rgb. It does work with the provided OCIO profile, (at least for ICC display transforms. However, it does not work or seem to be recognised with an OCIO V2 config file I use in Blender which includes AGX and Adobe RGB. Also if I apply an OCIO adjustment layer on my exr files from Blender (which are encoded as Adobe RGB (Linear)only RAW appears visible or as an option in the drop downs, and selecting the various displays does nothing. Using a Mac Studio Ventura. Hope that helps.