Exporting Look Metadata

Livegrade offers multiple options for exporting looks e.g. for sending to post production. For an overview of all ways to export information from the shot library, please see the article Exporting Shot Information.

Look metadata can be exported as a 3D LUT, as an ASC-CDL file, a camera format like ALEXA Look and AMIRA Look, AMF (for ACES), or as Colorfront’s CFE file.

Additionally there are two formats for transporting look metadata between Livegrade and Silverstack: Pomfort Looks and Pomfort Look Archives.

Exporting a Look from Livegrade

To export a look from the shot library perform the following steps:

1. Select one or multiple looks from the library:

figure 1: multiple grade selection

Figure 1: Multiple looks selected

2. Go to the Main Menu. Choose “File>Save selected Shots as” to export the selected looks (you can also use Shift+Command+S as keyboard shortcut). You can also select “File>Save current Look as” to only export the look that is applied in the currently selected slot.

3. In the export wizard you will then be able to select the desired format for your export:

Figure 3: Choose the desired format for the export

Figure 2: Choose the desired format for the export

Not all looks can be exported to all formats, so the displayed list of available formats is dependent on the grading mode of the selected shots in the shot library.

Available export formats:

  • 3D LUTs for Software: includes the CDL values and the Log to Rec.709 conversion LUT when created on the CDL Grade mode. If it has been created on the ACES mode, it has the IDT and ODT embedded in addition to the CDL values. Multiple export formats are available, which are described below.
    • Pomfort Livegrade (33x33x33, RGB order, .cube file)
    • Pomfort Silverstack (33x33x33, RGB order, .cube file)
    • Adobe (32x32x32 3D LUT, .cube file)
    • Assimilate Scratch (32x32x32 .3dl file)
    • Autodesk Lustre (33x33x33 .lut file)
    • Colorfront OSD (17x17x17 .3dmesh file)
    • Convergent Design Odyssey (17x17x17 .cdlut file)
    • DaVinci Resolve (33x33x33 3D LUT, .dat file)
    • DigitalVision Nucoda (17x17x17 .cms file)
    • Filmlight Baselight (32x32x32 .cube file)
    • REDCINE X PRO (33x33x33, rgb order .cube file)
  • 3D LUTs for Devices: includes the CDL values and the Log to Rec.709 conversion LUT when created on the CDL Grade mode. If it has been created on the ACES mode, it has the IDT and ODT embedded in addition to the CDL values. Multiple export formats are available, which are described below.
    • BlackmagicDesign HDLink Legal to Legal (17x17x17 .cube file)
    • BlackmagicDesign HDLink Extended to Extended (17x17x17 .cube file)
    • AJA Lut box (17x17x17 .cube file)
    • Panasonic Varicam (17x17x17, rgb order .vlt file)
    • Teranex Mini (33x33x33, rgb order, with float values RGB full range, .cube file)

Note: Due to lacking accuracy 17x17x17 LUTs are not recommended for color critical decisions in ACES workflows, but will still provide useful results for on-set preview

  • Pomfort Look Exchange Format (*.pfl): It creates a .pfl file that can be used to transport looks to another Livegrade or Silverstack instance. You can learn about transporting looks from Livegrade to Silverstack in the article Transferring Looks from Livegrade to Silverstack.
  • ASC-CDL: it creates a .cdl file containing the color values as specified by the ASC-CDL standard. It does not include the Log to Rec.709 conversion LUT.

If you select the according grading modes the export options will also include:

  • ASC-CDL + 3D LUT [combo]: Advanced look export splitting CDL and non-CDL components of a grade into ASC-CDL and 3D LUT files (e.g. for re-building a look in third party software)

Note: For looks including non-CDL nodes before a CDL node ASC-CDL + 3D LUT [combo] export is not possible. When importing the files into third-party applications, make sure to re-build the order of nodes like in the original look for consistent results.

  • ACES Metadata File (AMF): An XML-based format specified by ACES for interchanging the entire  setup of an ACES pipeline, including IDT, and ODT, ACES version information for all transforms, ASC-CDL values and the working color space for the ASC-CDL.
  • ACES Metadata File (AMF) + CLF: Look exchange format compatible with advanced ACES pipelines including LMTs, can be exported from the ACES CDL Advanced mode and allows round-tripping with third-party applications

Note: Non-CDL compliant grading nodes are passed on as an LMT in the Common LUT Format (.clf)

  • CFE: it creates a .cfe file containing all parameters of the “Colorfront Film” grading mode, including e.g. input and output color spaces, looks, and scene referred parameters.

4. Choose your desired destination on your hard-drive and hit “Save”. For more information about using naming schemes, please take a look at the article Using automatic naming schemes when exporting grades.

5. You can also export the still images associated with a certain look. Simply mark the check box on the export dialogue:

figure 4: still image export

Figure 3: still image export

 

Export a LUT Package of the Selected Look

With this option, you can export a look to every available 3D LUT format. Just select the grades you have to export and then click on File>Export a LUT package of the selected Grade. Finally choose the save destination and a naming scheme (more information on Using automatic naming schemes when exporting grades). Livegrade will create a folder with all the LUT formats of that grade.

Custom grading modes limitations

Looks stored in some grading modes have limitations regarding the available export formats. For a detailed list see Grading Modes.

Exporting a Look Archive from Livegrade

A Look Archive can contain one or multiple looks along with all the further metadata acquired in Livegrade.

Look archives can be exported from the whole library (“Library” folder), folders, bins or smart groups. You can export your selected folder, bin or smart group by right-clicking on it and choosing “Export Look Archive” from the context menu.

Figure 4: Export PFLA from smart group

Save the resulting .pfla (Pomfort Look Archive) file to the desired destination.

Note: You can also choose to save your hi-res frame grabs, movie recordings or imported reference media together with the PFLA in order to share your work with other units or transfer your project to another machine. See the article Sharing look archives with media for more info.

Importing a Look Archive into Livegrade

To import a Look Archive into Livegrade go to the Main Menu. Choose “File > Import Look Archive” and select the desired look archive from the Finder. The look archive will be imported as a folder in the Livegrade look library.

You can learn how to handle look archives with Silverstack from the article Transferring Looks from Livegrade to Silverstack.