Maya integrates OpenColorIO v2 for state-of-the-art color management. OCIO v2 is a complete color management solution geared towards motion picture production with an emphasis on visual effects and computer animation.
- For general information about using OCIO in Maya, see Get Started with Color Management.
- For background information about OCIO, visit opencolorio.org.
OCIO v2 supports configuration files written for OCIO v1 as well. When you open a scene from a previous version of Maya that uses OCIO v1, it continues to use the same configuration file. However, only features that are available in OCIO v1 are supported when using a v1 configuration file.
New scenes created in Maya 2022 are based on new default settings for color management that follow the industry-standard Academy Color Encoding System (ACES).
When you open a scene that uses Maya's older color management system (known as SynColor), it gets automatically updated to use OCIO and the config.ocio configuration file in Maya's resources/OCIO-configs/Maya-legacy directory. This is an OCIO v2 configuration file that has the same color transforms and default input color space rules as SynColor. However, if the scene used custom input space rules then you must create them again. Otherwise, new textures will be assigned according to the default rules. In addition, custom assignments will be lost if you reapply the rules. See Define rules for assigning color spaces to input files.
To use a renderer that does not support OCIO v2, you must launch Maya in SynColor mode. To do this, set the environment variable MAYA_COLOR_MANAGEMENT_SYNCOLOR to any value before starting Maya. To revert to using OCIO v2, make sure the environment variable no longer exists and then launch Maya again. See Using Maya's Legacy Color Management (SynColor).