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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Creating a custom LUT in DaVinci Resolve, and free cinematic LUT to download

EDIT (13 Aug 2014): The download link went dead for a while because of dropbox, it is now available again. 


On the movie I'm currently working on, I'm both the post-production manager and the color artist (and data manager, I guess...). So once I've chosen how to shoot the movie, (with log profile and creating dailies on the set), as a color artist, I had to prepare custom LUTs that will be used to grade the dailies.

What is a LUT? 

A LUT, or Look Up Table, is a very small file that is basically a translation table: it will convert the colors of the original file to another set, basically. This is great because it allows you to create a specific "look" that you can apply very quickly. On our set, for example, I will not grade all of our files individually. I will just apply a LUT to all the files and then export them, in matters of seconds.

How to create your own LUT. 

While you can find LUT files on the Internet (including on this blog, just scroll down on this article), the best practice is to run some tests before you shoot and create your own LUT: one style doesn't fit all. 

Thankfully, DaVinci Resolve makes it really easy to create a LUT. All you have to do is to color-grade your shot as you normally would (with no power windows, as they of course can't be included in a LUT), and then right click on the thumbnail of your file, and click on "Generate 3D LUT". And voilà!

How to download and use LUT files. 

Once you have created or downloaded a LUT, you have to put them in a specific folder in DaVinci Resolve. 

On Mac:

Hard Drive > Library > Application Support > Blackmagic Design > Davinci Resolve > LUT 

On PC: 

C:\ ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\LUT\

Then, there are two ways to apply a LUT in Resolve. You can either do it on a node, just right click on one and choose your LUT (It will most likely be in 3D LUT), or on a file, by right clicking on it, and you will see the same submenu with 1D and 3D LUT. 

The LUTs created for Incompatibles. 

Incompatibles, the movie this blog is about, is a romantic comedy shot in Monaco, in August. To create a LUT, I discussed about Romain Girard, our director of photography, about his approach on the movie, and his references. 

Our visual references were: 

We wanted a warm image, far from the usual Teal and Orange craze that you so often see in American productions. I created three LUTs. 

FULL DISCLOSURE

While they have been manipulated quite a bit, my LUTs use the LUTS distributed by the great Juan Melara, that you can find here: http://juanmelara.com.au/print-film-emulation-luts-for-download/

My references however weren't cinematic film stocks exactly, but rather photographic ones. I shoot a lot of a pictures, and my favorite film, especially for skin, is the Kodak Portra 400 UC (now discontinued), so my LUTs are a mix between a more usual "cinematic" look and the results I get from my 120 films. 

Since I wasn't able to shoot in Monaco with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera yet, I created three different LUTs based on the same core. They are all made to be used with log (film mode) footage, and will not look good with shots in video mode. 

There's the Subtle version, which aims at creating subtle colors, just a bit muted to part away from the digital look that you easily get from the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. 

Then there's the Lift version, which is the subtle version with a lift in the low mid-tones, especially on the skin-tone area, to lift a bit the shadows on faces. 

And then there's the Expo version, which is a high key version of the subtle, with more brightness and saturation. 


The LUTs are for educational purposes only. You have no permission to use it for commercial purposes. If you use it for your personnal projects, please credit me under the name Adrien Le Falher. 

Here are some frames for comparison purposes: 


































32 comments:

  1. Greetings from Uruguay! this is an amazing work, recently I have bought some LUTs but all of them seem teal and orange and I had to "grade" somo footage I did for the school I work for. The LUTs are nice but not suitable for children, I would need something like this, warm but not losing colours. I tryed to download the LUTs but they have been removed, is there any place where I can buy them. I'm very interested. Mauricio Ayala redwoodschool@gmail.com Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The download link doesn't work anymore! Can you send me the LUT to clemens (at) analog mix.com ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi!

      It's been a while, the post-production just finished and I was swamped under a lot of work. I've just updated the blog, you can now download the LUTs again. Remember, they are NOT to be used for commercial projects!

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Hi!

      It's been a while, the post-production just finished and I was swamped under a lot of work. I've just updated the blog, you can now download the LUTs again. Remember, they are NOT to be used for commercial projects!

      Delete
  4. Download link is expired... :((( Can you reupload them please?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Can you email me the luts or is there another download location? snholloman@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great work! I really like the look. Would also like to grab the LUT's if still possible. Thank you. mjs_88@hotmail.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi!

      It's been a while, the post-production just finished and I was swamped under a lot of work. I've just updated the blog, you can now download the LUTs again. Remember, they are NOT to be used for commercial projects!

      Delete
  7. Can you please send me a copy of the LUTs, dh@danielhorvat.com

    much appreciated!

    Dan

    ReplyDelete
  8. The link does not work. Could you please send me to rbaezd@gmail.com the corrected link to download these files?
    Thanks a lot

    Ricardo

    ReplyDelete
  9. Can you please send me a copy of the LUTs, gerry_destiny028@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Can you please send me a copy of the LUTs, maxngassa@yahoo.fr

    ReplyDelete
  11. Could you send LUT to me ?
    Looking forward to hearing from you !Thank you very much !
    caodien.9191@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Do you can send me a copy of the LUTs, please? My email is sergeous@gmail.com
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  13. vdovinroma@gmail.com
    please. its so look great!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Seems that the download link isn't working again. Can anbody share it?
    I am not going to use them in commercial projects. Just bought bmpcc and want to make some tests.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Can you please send me a copy of the LUTs, menanegm@outlook.com

    ReplyDelete
  16. is it still possible to download these luts?
    maybe you can send me a copy to michael.haunschmidt@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  17. can you mail me luts to nrupane@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi I would like to test those luts can you email me please? thank you great work. chicoplus@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  19. Would love to check out the luts, joncarrpro@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  20. Can you email me the luts or is there another download location? couchrocklounge@gmail.com
    PLS!!

    ReplyDelete
  21. I'd also like to check out these LUTs if they're still available, jot@jotreyes.com Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  22. I'd also like to check out these LUTs if they're still available, yainrodriguez@gmail.com Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Would love to check out the luts, yll.zymberi@gmail.com
    thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  24. I would like to test it out on canon 5D mk2. Thanks!
    Paulnwajei@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  25. I'd like to fiddle with these as well! ;) paul.koulikov@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  26. I'd also like to check out these LUTs if they're still available, boro.studios@gmail.com
    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Please email if still available.
    And thank you so much for your work on them!!!
    robot@earthlink.net

    ReplyDelete
  28. Your Content Is You Helpful Thanks......
    DaVinci Resolve

    ReplyDelete