Apply color management to existing scenes

Even though it's always best to configure color management when you first start a new project or scene, you may find it necessary to apply color management to existing scenes that do not use it yet.

  1. Open an existing scene that does not use color management.

    If the scene was saved in Maya 2015 or a previous version, see Compatibility with color management in older versions for information about how the legacy color profiles are converted to color spaces.

  2. Enable and configure color management as described in Configure color management.
  3. If you do not see color management controls in panel toolbars, make sure that Renderer is set to Viewport 2.0.
  4. If the Color Space attributes of the image inputs are not correct, you can change them manually as described in Specify the color space for textures and other image inputs. This applies to File textures, image planes, and IBL nodes.

    If there are many nodes to change, it is probably quicker to define and reapply the color space input rules. See Change existing input color spaces automatically by reapplying rules.

  5. Any colors and color ramps used by materials and lights in the scene are interpreted as being in the rendering color space. You may need to modify them as described in Inspect or pick color-managed color values.