Description

Vertex Color Toolkit for Maya

A powerful addon for procedural vertex color assignment in Maya 2024+

Vertex Color Toolkit gives you complete control over how colors are assigned to your meshes. Whether you need gradients, patterns, or precise color placement, this modular pipeline makes complex vertex coloring simple.

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How It Works

The toolkit uses a four-stage pipeline:

Collect → Sort → Transform → Assign

Each stage is fully customizable, giving you thousands of possible combinations.

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Collectors

Control how geometry is grouped before coloring:

• Per Face – Color each face individually
• Per Vertex – Color each vertex independently
• Object – Treat entire object as one group
• Shell – Group by connected geometry islands
• UV Shell – Group by UV islands

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Sorters

Determine the order colors are applied:

Sorter	Description
Position	Sort along X, Y, or Z axis
Conical	Radial angle around an axis (spiral effects)
Cylindrical	Distance from a central axis
Directional	Based on surface normal direction
Distance to Object	Proximity to a target object
Proximity to Path	Distance along a curve
Island Perimeter	Distance from boundary edges
UV Position	Sort by U or V coordinates
Bounding Box / Volume	Sort by object size
Hierarchy	Parent-child depth
Name	Alphabetical by object name
Random	Randomized with seed control

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Transformers

Modify the sort values before color assignment:

• Easing – 30 easing curves (quadratic, cubic, quartic, quintic, sinusoidal, exponential, circular, back, elastic, bounce)
• Chunker – Create discrete color bands/steps
• Pattern – Repeating stripe sequences (e.g., “1,3,2”)

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Assigners

Choose how colors are applied:

• Solid Color – Single uniform color
• Gradient – Smooth blend between two colors
• Color List – Cycle through multiple custom colors

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Filters

Apply post-process adjustments to existing vertex colors. Filters work on your current selection and respect RGBA channel masking.

Color Adjustments

Filter	Description
Brightness / Contrast	Photoshop-style brightness and contrast controls
HSV Adjust	Shift hue, saturation, and value independently
Levels	Full input/output levels with gamma correction
Adjust	Offset individual RGBA channels, plus Yellow, Cyan, and Magenta
Clamp	Clamp each channel to a min/max range
Posterize	Quantize colors into discrete levels for a banded look
Invert	Invert selected channels (supports RGBA and HSV)
Channel Swap	Swap any two channels from RGBA or HSV
Randomise	Add random per-vertex variation with optional seed control

Spatial Filters

Filter	Description
Blur	Smooth colors by averaging with neighboring vertices (multi-iteration, seam-aware)
Sharpen	Enhance color edges using unsharp mask
Erode	Shrink bright regions by taking the darkest neighbor
Dilate	Expand bright regions by taking the brightest neighbor
Facetise	Flatten colors per face for a faceted/low-poly look

Baking

Filter	Description
Normals to Color	Bake mesh normals (object or world space) into RGB vertex colors
Texture Bake	Sample a texture or shading network at each vertex’s UV and bake to vertex color

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Color Set Tools

• Color Set Swizzler – Mix and remap channels from multiple color sets into a new output set. Each output channel (R, G, B, A) can be independently sourced from any channel of any existing color set
• Color Set Management – Create, delete, rename, and switch between multiple color sets per object
• Channel Visibility – Toggle individual R, G, B, and Alpha channel display in the viewport with instant preview
• Flat Lighting Mode – View vertex colors without shading interference for accurate color inspection

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Additional Features

• Noise Overlay – Add variation with adjustable scale, frequency, and phase
• Channel Masking – Write to specific RGBA channels on any operation
• Custom Color Attribute Names – Organize multiple color layers
• Reverse & Seed Controls – Fine-tune your results
• OpenMaya 2.0 Performance – Built on Maya’s fast C++ API for responsive editing even on dense meshes

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Requirements

• Maya 2024 or newer

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Installation

• After downloading the zip file unzip it’s contents
• Then place the VertexColorToolkit folder in your Autodesk Application Plugins directory which is here: C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins
• Launch Maya and you’ll see a JokerMartini menu in the main toolbar, where you’ll launch the tool from