User interface >
Using the Color Chooser

The Color Chooser window appears when you click any color swatch while working in the Mudbox user interface (for example, the Properties window, Preferences window, Material properties, and so on).

The Color Chooser lets you:

- Select and specify colors for a property or material using either the Color Wheel or Color Palette.
- Select colors visually using either HSV or RGB color space.
- Select colors from any location within the 3D View.
- Select colors from an image file you load in the Color Chooser.
- Blend colors and select colors from blended values.
- Save frequenty used colors in the Color History.
- Select colors numerically using float or integer values (depending on the color model).
- Create and save custom color palettes (including color palettes from other paint applications).

Controls

Color History

The Color History section displays the currently selected color and provides a variety of methods to quickly select and re-select existing colors in the scene.

Current/Previous color

  The large color box in upper-left region of the Color History is split into two sections. The upper section displays the currently selected color; the lower section displays the original or previously selected color.

Eyedropper

  Selects whatever color is below the cursor position. Click the eyedropper icon then click any area in the 3D View or Color Chooser to select the color as the current color.

  The eyedropper behavior is as follows:

  - Clicking an object samples the combined results of any visible texture layers as they appear in the 3D View.
  - Lighting and shading on the object are not taken into account by the eyedropper. That is the color is sampled directly from the material/texture image. This ensures an accurate match when painting.
  - Clicking an image plane samples the pixel colors on the image.
  - Clicking anywhere else in the user interface samples the color at that location.
  NoteThe Eyedropper is also available in the Paint Tools tray.
Persistent color palette

  Use this to select from a set of standard primary colors and gray-scale values by clicking the color palette in the Color History. This palette always contains the same color set.

History

  As you continually set colors on an object, those colors are added to the history so you can select them in the future.

Color Wheel

The Color Wheel section provides a variety of methods to select colors.

Ring

- Drag the tool cursor around the outer ring to change the color hue that gets displayed in the center shaded box
- Select the amount of color saturation by clicking within the center shaded box.
- The Ring selector is also available in the compact Color Chooser.

Spectrum

Displays a continuous color range to select from.

1. Drag the cursor within the spectrum to select a color hue.
2. Drag the slider below the spectrum to adjust the color saturation for the selected hue.

Image

The Image tab lets you sample colors directly from an image.

To load an image into the box, do either of the following:

- Drag an image from a browser into the box.
- Click the Load... button and navigate to your image using the File Browser.

To select a color from within the image area:

1. Click-drag the tool cursor over the image to magnify a specific region of the image.

2. Release the mouse/stylus button to select the current color under the cursor location.

Blend

The Blend tab lets you blend four colors together and choose any color within the shaded region.

1. Drag any color from the Color Palettes to one of the corners to change the colors being blended in the shaded region.
2. Click in the shaded region to select a color.

Numeric Input

Numerical color values are entered using the Numeric Input section.

- Type values into the associated field.
- Drag the associated slider to adjust the numerical value.
- RGB or HSV color models are supported.

Color Palettes

The Color Palette lets you store up to 256 colors per palette.

- Select a color from the palette by clicking it.
- Relocate a color value to another location within the palette by dragging and dropping it on the new location.
- Store any current color by right-clicking its square in the color palette.
- Load existing color palettes (or palettes from other 2D applications) or save your current palette by clicking either the Load... or Save... buttons.
- Choose between multiple color palettes using the drop-down menu.