Cannot get the correct 3D color profile from Blender render, what am I missing?

[kyle-io]

I'm currently trying to bring in some 3D renders from Blender into Affinity Photo/Designer, but I'm finding that the colors are quite dull due to color profile issues (using sRGB/Filmic view transform), which seem to be an issue for many. I've followed quite a few suggestions, and also followed this video (multiple times) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Z-ha9D9Ro ... I do exactly as stated, but when the OCIO adjustment layers are put on and the image is exported as a png, the colors look exactly the same, with no change when I open the file in Designer. Images are exported from blender as follows:

File Format: OpenEXR
Color: RGBA
Color Depth: Float(full) 32-bit
 

Is there something I can do to get these files to display with the same colors as shown in the render view inside blender? Ideally, what I'm trying to do in the end is to bring these images over to Designer to work with for some web mockups and be able to use them in some other apps as well, and have them look identical to when I've rendered them in Blender.

[James Ritson]

Hi @kyle-io, a screenshot of your layer stack and also your 32-bit preview panel might be useful here, but generally speaking the steps outlined in my video you posted should work as long as you're using ICC Display Transform and not OCIO. The OCIO transform in Photo is non-destructive and does not affect the colour values in your exported document, so if your goal is to convert/export to a non-linear format (8/16-bit) then you need to be using ICC Display Transform.

I've got a slightly different approach that you can try which allows you to apply the Filmic looks:

• Configure OCIO with the blender configuration (e.g. extract it from the application folder)
• 32-bit Preview Panel, Display Transform to ICC Display Transform
• Add an OCIO adjustment, go from Linear (scene linear) to Filmic Log
• Add a LUT adjustment and browse to where you put the blender OCIO configuration files. Look in the filmic folder and you'll have several spi1d LUTs that correspond to the looks, e.g. Medium contrast, Very High contrast etc.
• The values go from lower to higher contrast, so filmic_to_0-35_1-30.spi1d is very low contrast, filmic_to_1.20_1-00.spi1d is very high contrast. For Medium contrast which is the default in blender, pick filmic_to_0-70_1-03.spi1d
• Finally, add another OCIO adjustment and go from sRGB to Linear. This linearises the values to account for the display colour management that Photo performs (to ensure the 32-bit view looks consistent when converted or exported to 8-bit or 16-bit nonlinear formats). This is why you need to ensure your view transform is set to ICC Display Transform and not OCIO Display Transform.

That should get you much closer to the Filmic view transform and whichever look you're using. One way to check everything before exporting is to quickly flatten (Document>Flatten) and then convert to 16-bit or 8-bit (Document>Convert Format/ICC Profile). This will switch from linear to non-linear compositing, and will show you what your document will look like when exported to a non-linear format like PNG or JPEG. There shouldn't be any tonal changes when doing this—if there are, you may need to check your 32-bit preview settings and make sure you're not using OCIO Display Transform.

Hope that helps!

[kyle-io]

I'm guessing there isn't a way for this to display/export with it looking almost the same - with your instructions, I also find it to differ immensely (more than before): 

 

These are my settings:

(fyi I tried Linear sequencer as well but the result is the same)

Edited June 3, 2020 by kyle-io

[James Ritson]

@kyle-io apologies for bumping an old thread, but I found it and realised that this issue has been long solved.

Firstly, I've done a tutorial on the main Photo channel which covers how to apply any Filmic look you want using the OpenColorIO configuration: 

 

 

Second—and this may appeal more—I set about producing some macros which allow you to apply the Filmic looks with no OpenColorIO dependencies—so you can add them to a fresh installation of Photo and get the looks instantly.

Here's a video which shows how to use them, and also gives you some workflow tips:

 

You can grab the Filmic macros from my website resources page here: http://www.jamesritson.co.uk/resources.html

 

Hope that helps!

PS the above will make it redundant now, but the issue with your above screen grabs is you're transforming from Linear to Filmic sRGB—you want Linear to Filmic Log, then add the look LUT, then finally the sRGB device transform to linearise the values. I’ve edited my original post to update the instructions!