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Colour Management and Data Management



Archiving

Projects

When performing a project archive, the following colour management data gets archived:

  • The file path to the OCIO config. An OCIOZ archive file can be generated during the archiving process. See Generate OCIOZ.
  • The project-specific config overrides such as the working space, rules, views, context variables, user colour spaces, user view transforms, and project transforms. See Project-Specific Config Overrides.
  • The project-based colour settings such as the Media-Relative Look Search Path, 3D-LUT Interpolation, CDL Style, Preferences Locking, and Menu Filtering. See Project-Based Colour Settings.

Missing OCIO config on project restore

When the project archive is restored, the application will use the original location of the config. If this location is not available, it is possible to recover the OCIOZ archive file that was generated during the archiving process following these steps:

  1. Manage the restored project using the Project Management page.
  2. For the OCIO Config, change "Keep Current Preferences" to "From File".
  3. Press "Browse" to open the file browser.
  4. Use the "Project Home" bookmark.
  5. Access the "colour_mgmt" folder and select the file named "config.ocioz".
  6. Confirm the change by pressing "Modify".

Clips and Sequences

When archiving Clips or Sequences, the colour management settings are references to items in the OCIO config, unless a User Colour Space override is used, in which case it is serialized with the Clip.

When the content is restored to a different project, it should point to the same OCIO config that was used to produce the archive to avoid errors such as missing colour spaces, views, or displays. Any missing items will be coloured in red in the Colour Management tool.



Using Content from Legacy Versions (SynColor)

Projects

Restoring or migrating a legacy project will convert its entire SynColor policy as an OCIO config. It will also include all the User Colour Spaces, User View Transforms, and User Displays that were created as part of the SynColor policy.

Clips, Sequences, and Setups

When bringing clips, sequences, or setups from SynColor, it is important to use one of the Legacy presets provided with the application. These presets emulate the SynColor colour policies that were previously available. See OCIO Config Presets.

Content referencing User Colour Spaces, User View Transforms, or User Displays coming from SynColor will be added to your config overrides.

For setups referencing transforms that were previously located in the SynColor transforms collection, the file paths are converted to point to the OCIO legacy preset folder where all these legacy transforms can now be found: /opt/Autodesk/colour_mgmt/configs/legacy_configs/syncolor_ctfs.

Obsolete Colour Spaces

SynColor supported various colour spaces that are out-of-date and are therefore not present in the new default OCIO config. For example, imports from digital cinema cameras using vendor colour settings used in previous generations of cameras that were tagged with a colour space in SynColor may now be tagged as Unknown. To avoid this, you may import the media into a project that uses one of the SynColor compatibility configs. Alternatively, you may use the new default config if you import the old footage using the current generation of camera colour settings.

Restoring Projects that used the FilmLight Colour Policy

Projects that were created with the Truelight Colour Spaces Autodesk Flame Colour Policy cannot be automatically migrated to OCIO. You will need to manually convert your project using the following steps:

  1. Convert or restore your legacy project. You will get a warning dialog box saying "SynColor policy migration interrupted". The new project will be created with the default OCIO config.
  2. Download from the FilmLight website the Truelight Colour Spaces OCIO config and use the Manage Projects panel to set this as the OCIO config for the project.
  3. Open the Colour Management Preferences and select the desired displays.
  4. The colour space tagging on imported media will be shown in red text. This is because the colour space names in the OCIO config are somewhat different. Go into the Pre-processing options for each clip and select the equivalent colour space name (i.e., the new name) to tag the media.
  5. The colour spaces in Colour Mgmt tool menus will also be shown in red text. Select the equivalent colour space (i.e., the new name) from each menu.


Workgroup Collaboration

Collaboration between Projects

When sharing content between projects, they should use the same OCIO config accessible on all the workstations in a shared location. The default colour management settings can also be centralized. See Using a Centralized Location for a Workgroup.

Note that the Project-Specific Config Overrides are not shared between projects except for User Colour Spaces which are serialized and added to your config overrides upon browsing, adding, or receiving the content.

Collaboration between Workspaces

When multiple users work on the same project simultaneously (for example, on a project server), it is important to reload the Colour Management Preferences using the Reload Config button when any modifications are done from another Workspace during your session.



Using a Centralized Location for a Workgroup

When working in a Flame Family workgroup or performing remote rendering with Burn, ensure the OCIO config file path and any external colour transforms referenced in Clips or Setups are accessible on all workstations and nodes. The Shared Colour Management Path and Default Colour Management Settings can be centralized to simplify this workflow.

Shared Colour Management Path

The Shared Colour Management Path, which is located inside the Shared folders (/opt/Autodesk/shared/colour_mgmt/) can be centralized using the sysconfig.cfg file. This folder contains the following:

  • The exported OCIO configs from the Colour Management Preferences.
  • The colour transforms that were exported using the Shared bookmark in the Export LUT file browser.

It can also be used to share configs, colour transforms, or any related colour management files.

Default Colour Management Settings

To ensure all projects within a workgroup use the same Colour Management Settings, the /opt/Autodesk/cfg/default_colour_mgmt_settings.cfg file containing the default values taken when creating projects can be centralized using the sysconfig.cfg file. See Project-Specific Config Overrides for the complete list of settings that can be centralized.

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