Pantone, CMYK colour as well as RGB!

[jamesg91]

Being able to select Pantone colours in the material edit/properties menu would be great. This would be particularly useful when matching colour chips for example, instead of having to convert the Pantone colours into Keyshot friendly RGB (in photoshop or by other means). Apologies if this is a repost.

Thanks

[br3ttman]

In the meantime, KeyShot 3.0's new color picker is able to pick from any color on your screen.  So, for example, if you were to have your desired Pantone pallet open in another program, such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, you could open the color mixer/picker in KeyShot, click on the color picker 'dropper' icon and simply pick your desired color from the pallet right out of the other program.  Really slick! Works nice for matching an open photo as well. 

[jamesg91]

Forgive me for being stupid, but how exactly does that work? I've had a play and can't seem to get any results? Thanks for the heads up though!

[br3ttman]

Here's a screenshot showing the trick.  You might need to study it a bit and scroll the image sideways to understand everything that's happening:
-  In the foreground I have KeyShot open with one of my Coca-Cola material and texture studies.
-  In the background I have Adobe Illustrator running with a Pantone Solid Colors window from Adobe Illustrator's Swatch Library
-  Now back in KeyShot, I'm wanting to find the perfect yellow orange, possibly to match the weathered paint on the Coca-Cola crate.  So I open the material editor in KeyShot and click on a color to bring up KeyShot's Color Picker/Mixer.
-  Notice in the upper left hand corner of the color picker that there's a little 'dropper' icon (circled in blue in my screenshot).  When you select this icon, your cursor changes into a large square swatch with cross hairs that magnify color from wherever you hover on the screen.  Notice in the screenshot below that I'm hovering over Pantone 132C from the Adobe Illustrator swatch list.  Notice also that the color bar and mixer in the KeyShot color picker window change to match the swatch.
-  Simply pick your desired color from the list!  Now that's pretty slick!  You might have to jump back and forth between KeyShot and Illustrator to scroll to the different colors from the swatch book, but there are different ways of presenting those colors in Illustrator to facilitate picking them with KeyShot.  Also, It's really helpful to have 2 monitors with the swatch book or other color reference fully extended on the other monitor.
- Ooh, almost forgot.  Make sure your running the most recent version of KeyShot (3.3.22?) to have access to their new color picker.  Good Luck!

[jamesg91]

Wow...thanks. I wasn't using the most recent version of Keyshot, which is why I was having trouble. Hopefully all should be resolved now! Thanks

[Claus Jensen]

Pantone colors are on the radar for v4 together with a general color library.

Please notice that you can also drag colors from the top of the color picker to the swatches in the bottom to have easier access the next time you open the color picker.

[Speedster]

I'm sure hoping in v4 that the "old" color pallet format (all the boxes and a slider) are added to the current choices in 3.3.15.  I miss the simplicity when you're in a hurry on a client rendering.  But I really like the new ones for careful work.  Also, PLEASE add a cancel or reset button on all color mixers!!!
Bill G

[Robb63]

+1 on the "Cancel" button for working in the color swatch window. I know undo works properly now, but I'd like to be able to cancel all of my changes at once while I'm editing a color.

[br3ttman]

Speedster/Robb63,

I too miss the 'cancel' functionality of the last color picker.  It seems like if you hit the window close 'x' it should cancel and return to your original color.  Notice however, that the original color you started with remains in the on the right side of the color bar for comparison.  So at any time you can pick in that area to return to the color you started with (circled in yellow below).  Initially, when the new mixer came out I started to put together a forum post with complaints, but found I still had all the functionality I wanted plus new features. 

The UI of this window could definitely use a little improvement.  I couldn't figure out how to use the swatch boxes at the bottom of the window until Claus revealed how they worked on this thread (Thanks Claus!)

[Speedster]

Thanks br3ttj for the trick!  I never noticed that.  Sort of solves the cancel issue, but it would be nice to have it anyway, and clicking the red X is counterintuive and not industry standard.
Bill G

[KeyShot]

It is true the red X is different on windows, but it works the same way on the Mac. We had some discussions about this and in the end we decided consistency on both platforms was important. Feel free to give us more input though on the color dialog. We are going to expand it further.