Video Color Check

Video Color Check checks the material on the sample object for colors that are beyond the safe NTSC or PAL threshold.

• (Material Editor): Compact > (Video Color Check)

Left: Material with oversaturated colors

Right: Video color check shows black areas that are beyond the video threshold

Such colors tend to blur or fuzz when transferred from computer to video. Pixels containing these "illegal" or "hot" colors are flagged on the sample object.

You can have 3ds Max correct illegal colors automatically when you render, depending on the settings in the Rendering tab of the Customize/Preferences dialog.

Use this option as a guide only. The colors in a rendered scene depend not only on the material color but also on the intensity and color of the lighting. A material that shows as safe in the sample slot might become illegal if rendered under several bright lights. A safe practice for video is to use colors whose saturation is less than 80 to 85 percent.

Procedures

To check for illegal video colors:

1. On the Compact Material Editor, turn on (Video Color Check).

   The active sample slot now renders "illegal" pixels as black. Illegal pixels have a color that is beyond the safe video threshold.

   If Video Color Check detects illegal colors, try reducing the saturation of the material colors in question.

2. You can also check for legal video colors when you render a scene.

To change the video system:

NTSC is the default video system to check. You can change the video checking to PAL.

• In the Tools menu Options Options dialog Rendering panel Video Color Check group, change the setting to PAL.

  The sample slot does not automatically update when you change the video system preference. Turn video checking off and back on to see the change.

  Note: The Rendering panel also shows options for choosing alternate ways to display illegal pixels. These apply to renderings only, not to the sample slots in the Material Editor.