Color Selector Dialog

Any command panel> Name and Color fields > Click color swatch. > Object Color dialog > Add Custom Colors button or Current Color swatch

Material Editor > Click any color swatch.

Create panel or Modify panel > Create or select light object. > General Parameters rollout > Click light color swatch.

Menu bar > Rendering menu > Environment > Environment dialog > Click color swatch for Background, Tint, and Ambient components of Global Lighting, and various components of various atmospheric effects such as Fire, Fog, and so on.

You use the Color Selector whenever you specify a custom color parameter in 3ds max. You can work simultaneously with three different color models to help you zero in on the exact color you want.

The Color Selector is used to specify many color parameters, such as light colors, material colors, background colors, and custom object colors. (Another way to choose an object's viewport color is to use the predefined colors in the Object Color dialog.)

In most contexts, the Color Selector is modeless; that is, it remains on the screen until you dismiss it, and you can use other 3ds max controls or work in a viewport while the dialog is still visible. In other contexts, the Color Selector is modal, and you must click OK or Cancel before proceeding.

The dialog is divided into three different color selection models. You can use the controls for any model to define a color. The three color models are:

Hue/Blackness/Whiteness (HBW)
The most prominently displayed and intuitive color model is the HBW model. This model represents a natural, pigment-based way of mixing color by starting with a pure color (hue) and then making it darker by adding black, or lighter by adding white.
The main feature of the HBW model is a large square box displaying the color spectrum. Across the top of this box you have the spectrum of pure colors, or hue. Down the side of the box you see increasing levels of blackness, making the color dark as you approach the bottom.
To the right of the color spectrum box is the Whiteness box, which controls the amount of white in the color. Use higher positions to decrease the whiteness, or lower positions to increase the whiteness.
Red/Blue/Green (RGB)
The RGB model adjusts the mix of Red, Green, and Blue to define a color. This model represents the way colored light can be mixed. This is additive color mixing, as opposed to the subtractive color mixing for paint and other pigments. You can adjust values using the color sliders, the numeric fields to their right (via the keyboard), or the spinners to the right of the numeric fields.
Hue/Saturation/Value (HSV)
The HSV color model adjusts Hue, Saturation, and Value. Hue sets the color; Saturation (labeled "Sat") sets the color's purity; and Value sets the color's brightness, or intensity. You can adjust values using the color sliders, the numeric fields to their right (via the keyboard), or the spinners to the right of the numeric fields.

As you adjust the controls of one color model, the controls of the other two models change to match. The color defined by the color model is displayed in the right half of the Color Output box. The original color, before you began making changes, is displayed in the left half.

Procedures

To display the Color Selector:

Click the color swatch of a color parameter such as the color of a light or of a material component.
Note: The object color displayed by an object's name in command panels use a different, Object Color dialog. In the Object Color dialog, clicking the Current Color swatch or the Add Custom Colors button displays a Color Selector.
Make a color selection and click Close.
To keep the original color, click Reset.

To choose the hue of a color, do one of the following:

Click the Hue rainbow.
Drag the Hue slider at the top of the rainbow.
Drag the Red, Green, and Blue sliders.
Drag the Hue slider.
Use the Red, Green, Blue, or Hue spinners.

To make a color lighter, do one of the following:

Drag the vertical Whiteness slider (at the right of the Hue rainbow) downward.
Drag the vertical Blackness slider (at the left of the Hue rainbow) upward.
Drag the Saturation (Sat.) slider to the left.
Use the Saturation spinner to decrease saturation.
Drag the Value (Val.) slider to the right.
Use the Value spinner to increase the value.

To make a color darker, do one of the following:

Drag the vertical Whiteness slider (at the right of the Hue rainbow) upward.
Drag the vertical Blackness slider (at the left of the Hue rainbow) downward.
Drag the Saturation (Sat.) slider to the right.
Use the Saturation spinner to increase saturation.
Drag the Value (Val.) slider to the left.
Use the Value spinner to decrease the value.

To return to the original color:

Click Reset.
The new color is replaced by the original color, and all parameter values are reset.

To dismiss the Color Selector, do one of the following:

Click Close.
Click the dialog's Close (X) button.

Interface

Hue—Define a pure color by dragging the hue pointer across the top of the box.

Blackness—Drag the blackness pointer down the side to darken the pure color by adding black. You can also click or drag inside the box to change hue and blackness at the same time.

Whiteness—The vertical bar to the right controls the amount of whiteness. The color set by the hue and blackness pointers is displayed at the top of the bar and pure white at the bottom. Drag the whiteness pointer down to lighten the color by adding white.

Red, Green, and Blue—When a red, green, or blue slider is all the way to the left, its field reads 0. None of the color controlled by that slider is used. If the slider is all the way to the right, the field reads 255. The maximum amount of that color is being used.

The spinners to the right of each slider are another way of setting the red, blue, or green component.

The colors in the sliders change to show an approximation of what the color result will be if you move the slider to that location, without adjusting any other color parameter.

Hue—Sets the pure color. Locating the slider all the way to the left gives you pure red. As you drag the slider to the right you move through the spectrum of Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Magenta, and back to Red again. Hue is more accurately represented as a color wheel rather than a linear slider. That is why the Hue slider is red at both ends. Think of the hue range from 0 to 255 as being points on a circle where the numbers 0 and 255 are right next to each other.

Saturation ("Sat")—Sets the purity or strength of the color. A weak color, with a saturation near 0, is dull and gray. A strong color, with a saturation near 255 is very bright and pure.

Value—Sets the lightness or darkness of a color. Low values darken the color toward black. High values lighten the color toward white. A value in the middle, at a setting of 127, gives you the color defined only by hue and saturation.

Color Output—This pair of color swatches, below the Value slider, lets you compare the new color, shown on the right, to the original color, shown on the left.

Reset—Click to restore color settings to the original color.