Managing the look pipeline

A “Look” in Livegrade represents the color pipeline, which is applied to a log-encoded image in order to create a preview of the final look on the filmset.

It includes the following image processing steps:

primary color adjustments via CDL and Saturation correction nodes
secondary color adjustments via curves and creative LUTs
input and output transforms via LUTs or ACES transforms

In the following article, we will guide you through the most important steps when setting up a look in Livegrade:

Configuring the look filter via the slot settings
Setting up the nodes via the node list
Setting the target colorspace via Livegrade’s settings

Configuring the look filter#

The look filter can be found in the slot settings as part of a slot’s filter chain.

To access the look filter of a slot:

Click on a Slot
Click on the Slot Settings tab within the slot panel in the bottom-right of the main screen
Scroll down to the Look filter

The look filter is available in every slot and will be stored with every shot – even if the look is neutral.

The look filter consists of the following options:

Grading mode: defines rules for adding, removing, and reordering nodes in order to follow standardized look pipelines and allow related export options such as CDL+LUT and AMF 2.0. It also provides a default look template consisting of several nodes.
Output colorspace: sets the output colorspace of the look pipeline
Exposure assist: sets the exposure assist LUT to respect the underlying log format

Set the options above wisely and find more detailed information about each option in the corresponding reference article slot settings.

After configuring the look filter, let’s take a look at the individual image processing steps.

Setting up the nodes#

A look always consists of several color correction steps, the so-called “Nodes”.

Node list#

The node list on the left side gives you a quick overview of all color correction steps of your look pipeline. It can be used to

Access and adjust a particular node of your look pipeline
Enable/disable a node
Spot which node contains changes

Edit the node list#

The Edit button on the bottom-right of the node list lets you enter edit mode. The edit mode can be used to

Add and remove nodes: depending on the current grading mode you can add and remove nodes of different types, such as CDL, Saturation, RGB Curves, HSL Curves, HHS, Knee curve, 1D LUT, 3D LUT
Re-order nodes: depending on the current grading mode you can change the order of image processing by re-ordering the individual nodes
Edit a node’s name: the node’s name is an important identifier when linking nodes (nodes with the same name will be linked) or applying node presets (node presets will be applied on nodes with the same name)
Set a pipeline tag: if you are working with dual pipeline looks, you can tag each node to a specific pipeline.

To exit the edit mode, press Done on the bottom right of the node list.

Order of nodes#

The order of nodes defines the order of the image processing operations from top to bottom.

However, in order to allow standardised exports, there are a few aspects that should be considered:

All standard grading modes ensure the fixed order of input transforms > primary color adjustments > secondary color adjustments > output transforms. CDL and Saturation (used for primary adjustments) cannot be ordered between LUT and curve adjustments or vice versa
CDL and Saturation nodes will always be mathematically merged together. That means that the order within the CDL and Saturation section does not affect the resulting image and is only used to provide an overview of different editing steps, for example, using a “Balance” node to match individual cameras to each other and a “Look” node to creatively make an entire scene a little cooler or warmer.
Curve and LUT nodes will always be processed from top to bottom. That means that the order of the curve and LUT nodes affect the resulting image.

Setting the target colorspace#

As mentioned before, the output colorspace of the look can be set in the look filter of the slot.

In order to make sure that the production’s target colorspace always matches the look’s output colorspace, the target colorspace can be set in Livegrade’s settings.

This allows Livegrade to warn you if the output colorspace of your look does not match the target colorspace.

To set the target colorspace, open Livegrade’s settings

via the menu Livegrade > Settings…
and click on the “Grading” tab.

There you will find the option to set the target colorspace.

As soon as the look’s output colorspace does not match the target colorspace, a warning will appear within your look filter.