Color Grading .tox for TouchDesigner with Exposure Curves, Color Wheels and more tools

Level up your real-time visuals with this advanced TouchDesigner color-grading system—a full HDR tonal-zone workflow, color wheels and selective RGBCMY controls designed for artists who want professional-grade results inside TD. In this tutorial, I walk through the entire component, how it works under the hood, and how to integrate it into your own projects. If you’ve ever wanted DaVinci-style wheels, real-time scopes, or exposure corrections directly inside TouchDesigner, this is the .tox you’ve been waiting for.

We’ll cover how the system handles scene-linear inputs, zone-based exposure in stops, hue-band isolation for Cyan/Red/Yellow/Blue, global master controls, and a flexible GLSL pipeline that you can customize or expand. Whether you’re grading live camera feeds, generative content, LED walls, or interactive installations, this component is built for speed, accuracy, and high-end color work.

Project files on patreon (links below)

Traceback:
adapted from Mark Coniglio http://www.troikatronix.com by trevorvanhoof
adapted from https://github.com/trevorvanhoof/ColorGrading by jacqueshoepffner
adapted from https://github.com/jhoepffner/TD-colorGrading by lake heckaman

Thank you to these people for their foundation work!

What You’ll Learn

How to use HDR tonal zones for film-style exposure control

Building and customizing selective color bands (Red, Yellow, Green/Cyan, Blue)

Realistic pigment-based color mixing with Mixbox LUTs

Setting up real-time scopes (waveform + histogram) in TouchDesigner

Proper linear-RGB workflow and tone-mapping order

How the GLSL shaders handle zone masks, hue gating, and color-space math

Integrating the reusable .tox into any TouchDesigner project

Included Project Files

colorGrading.tox — main reusable component

Whether you’re working in live performance, interactive installations, film pipelines, or generative art, this grading system gives you precise creative control over color in real time.

Find Me Online

Project Files / Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/water__shed

Portfolio: https://www.lakeheckaman.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lake_heckaman

00:00 – Intro
00:48 – Color Grade Component Overview
01:47 – Exposure Curve UI in TouchDesigner
03:09 – Scopes
05:38 – RGBCMY Color Band
06:49 – Basic Color Grading Process Demo
09:24 – Component Architecture Overview