You can try it for free. So far I'm impressed; the only negative is that it's a web app. But the colors are both rich and natural.
https://www.color.io/?plan=individual-yearly
https://www.color.io/?plan=individual-yearly
Color.io Has Been Released
- Thread starter Aaron Kessler
- Start date
-
- Tags
- film emulation
they keep saying you create the look and then export a lut. that's fine if you want to export a lut for every single clip...
This is not meant to be color correction, it's basically designing your own film LUTs to bring into Resolve and then correct there.
Jason Myres
Administrator
"Color.io is a tool for natural color grading, driven by an engine that models the response behaviour of analog film."
In my mind at least, color grading is done in the context of a show being worked on as a complete program.
When shots are worked on in isolation, thats more look development. It would be helpful if they clarified that. At first I thought this might be an automatic or cloud-based grading solution.
"Complete color control. Zero LUTs needed."
It seems like this is an attempt to downplay LUTs, but at the same time this app's sole purpose is to create LUTs.
Also, in many facilities all of the creative workstations are air-gapped from the internet. They might have better success offering a self-contained app, even if they need to charge 3-4x the price. By making it web-only they are mostly limiting it to creators, but that might be all they intended.
In my mind at least, color grading is done in the context of a show being worked on as a complete program.
When shots are worked on in isolation, thats more look development. It would be helpful if they clarified that. At first I thought this might be an automatic or cloud-based grading solution.
"Complete color control. Zero LUTs needed."
It seems like this is an attempt to downplay LUTs, but at the same time this app's sole purpose is to create LUTs.
Also, in many facilities all of the creative workstations are air-gapped from the internet. They might have better success offering a self-contained app, even if they need to charge 3-4x the price. By making it web-only they are mostly limiting it to creators, but that might be all they intended.
Yeah, but you create your own luts, you're not locked in to someone else's LUTs.
Hasn’t this come out several times already?
I can’t really see how this will be useful as a web app, with the workflow being to export a LUT for every shot. Seems limited to a very niche audience, which isn’t the pro user.
I can’t really see how this will be useful as a web app, with the workflow being to export a LUT for every shot. Seems limited to a very niche audience, which isn’t the pro user.
It's not a color correction tool, it's a film emulation LUT designer. Not meant to export a LUT for every shot.
You may want to revisit your website copy, as it appears to describe itself as a color corrector that replaces LUTs when its actually a LUT creation application, by your own description.
In general, there are some inherent contradiction on the site that I would work out before trying to pitch it. Is it a color corrector or a film emulation product? If one of the other, I would lean into that. All the best!
Some example that are confusing and describe your tool as a color corrector-
“Color.io is a tool for natural color grading”
“Complete color control. Zero LUTs needed”
“Color.io is software for color grading that runs directly in your web browser”
“Color grading in Color.io is done with an innovative UI that controls a mathematical color transformation framework that models how analog film responds to light”
“You can use Color.io either to develop and color grade images directly in your browser”
So maybe they need to fire their marketing firm (which maybe has English as a second language?). I plan to use it to create film LUTs and I think it will work just fine for that. And yes, a real colorist would make their LUTs from scratch. 1) I have done that for years and only been moderately satisfied, 2) I quit my full-time colorist job last August and am now doing freelance full-service video. I can't afford to spend my life building everything from scratch in Resolve.
A lot of us do. How you work depends on your time management: you always have the option of hiring a freelance colorist to help.
I make videos for small businesses in Nebraska. I don't have the budget to hire anyone other than myself.
Who's behind it?
Scroll to the footer:
VisionColor™ OSIRIS
VisionColor™ ImpulZ
VisionColor™ M31
I wonder why "fylm.ai" isn't listed, either. But I think they broke up. But "CineD" recently got a deal with "fylm.ai".
https://cined.fylm.ai/
For those of you who are not familiar with those LUT packs. You will find some awful LUTs in it. The M31 is one of the worst LUTs on the market
Same goes for those "Buttery LUTs" by Matteo Bertoli. The strang thing is that Blackmagic are feeaturing this guy:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicursaminipro/gallery
Matteo Bertoli is claiming that his LUTs are better LUTs than ANY camera manufactured LUTs.
You can check his About page here: https://www.butteryluts.com/about
It is ridiculous.
I am often shocked that CineD and also BlackmagicDesign are promoting those nonsense LUTs or weird "grading websites". Matteo Bertoli is showing comparison videos on his YouTube channel where he clearly altered the LUT by Blackmagic to make the LUT from Blackmagic look worse.
Let me say this:
There is no shortcut when it comes to color grading. You have to learn things about color management and you have to understand how PowerGrades and Curves, Lift Gamma Gain, Saturation knobs, HSL, HSV, Linear and Color Space Transform tools work. Would to trust a Website doing an accurate CST for you? Nope. Not even for a ShowLUT.
Scroll to the footer:
VisionColor™ OSIRIS
VisionColor™ ImpulZ
VisionColor™ M31
I wonder why "fylm.ai" isn't listed, either. But I think they broke up. But "CineD" recently got a deal with "fylm.ai".
https://cined.fylm.ai/
For those of you who are not familiar with those LUT packs. You will find some awful LUTs in it. The M31 is one of the worst LUTs on the market
Same goes for those "Buttery LUTs" by Matteo Bertoli. The strang thing is that Blackmagic are feeaturing this guy:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicursaminipro/gallery
Matteo Bertoli is claiming that his LUTs are better LUTs than ANY camera manufactured LUTs.
You can check his About page here: https://www.butteryluts.com/about
It is ridiculous.
I am often shocked that CineD and also BlackmagicDesign are promoting those nonsense LUTs or weird "grading websites". Matteo Bertoli is showing comparison videos on his YouTube channel where he clearly altered the LUT by Blackmagic to make the LUT from Blackmagic look worse.
Let me say this:
There is no shortcut when it comes to color grading. You have to learn things about color management and you have to understand how PowerGrades and Curves, Lift Gamma Gain, Saturation knobs, HSL, HSV, Linear and Color Space Transform tools work. Would to trust a Website doing an accurate CST for you? Nope. Not even for a ShowLUT.
Applause -- totally agree 100%. Too many people just aren't willing to do the work of learning the craft of being a colorist. It's not a button you push... it's staring at a picture and thinking, "ah, let's try this." So there's always experimentation based on experience. You don't get that from an app, let alone a website.
Yes, you have to learn technique. But you also have to use tools. And different tools allow for different looks. I have spend quite some time building my own looks from scratch and have learned a lot. But my own looks are cumbersome and have many flaws. I'm well aware of the problems of VisionColor, which I why I tested this first with skepticism. After working with it, I find it valuable. And like I said, my goal isn't to be a professional colorist, it's to do the 20% that gets 80% of the results so I can focus on other areas of video production, such as making videos that actually sell and make my clients money and save them time. So if you're making $50 an hour color grading all day long, then by all means, make your own tools from scratch. I'm going to supplement my grading with this, and maybe there are other people here who might find it useful too.
Jason Myres
Administrator
Hey @Aaron Kessler, Fwiw I don't think any of us want to be critical of your use of LUTs, or Color.io, or any other product offered on the web. As an owner-operator you have the right to create a workflow using whatever tools you like.
What has been an interesting and repeating pattern with these products is they appear to come from people with film industry experience, yet they don't seem to understand how to market to the film industry. Anyone who glances through Color.io will find a number of faux pas pretty quickly just like Jason B did. Likewise, I'm not sure any of the DPs I've ever met would want to claim their show was based on something from "Buttery LUTs". These products seem to target inexperienced users hunting for a magic bullet, and to be honest that's probably a huge market.
Every show I've ever worked on has relied on a well-designed show LUT/ CTL that was central to the entire color pipeline. But you get developers waving these sorts of products around, and it creates a cryptocurrency effect where the initial idea was well intentioned, but the net result can leave some people feeling a bit scammed.
What has been an interesting and repeating pattern with these products is they appear to come from people with film industry experience, yet they don't seem to understand how to market to the film industry. Anyone who glances through Color.io will find a number of faux pas pretty quickly just like Jason B did. Likewise, I'm not sure any of the DPs I've ever met would want to claim their show was based on something from "Buttery LUTs". These products seem to target inexperienced users hunting for a magic bullet, and to be honest that's probably a huge market.
Every show I've ever worked on has relied on a well-designed show LUT/ CTL that was central to the entire color pipeline. But you get developers waving these sorts of products around, and it creates a cryptocurrency effect where the initial idea was well intentioned, but the net result can leave some people feeling a bit scammed.
Quote by @Aaron Kessler: "And different tools allow for different looks"
But this pretty much mean that YOU are NOT in control. The tool controls you. So when you create a LUT with this tool, do you know if the LUT is in the 0-1 range. Do you know how clean the LUT is? Do you know how to stress test this LUT? What color space this LUT expects?
And how you are going to implement this into your workflow? You still have to grade inside DaVinci Resolve. Do you recreate the Look from scratch? Are you applying the LUT from the Website to your footage and hope for the best?
I love OFX plugins, DCTLs, all that stuff. But it has to work inside DaVinci Resolve. I don't want to grade inside a browser. I need scopes, I need DCTL. As I said before: There is no Shortcut.
Would you let a computer be the camera operator for a shot. Select Lens, focus, framing? I can argue: Well. My client is happy with the result.
But what if you want to change something. How can you control something where you don't even know HOW the tool works exactly.
You can work pretty fast in Resolve, too. Just apply a color space transform from LOG to Rec709. learn grading, save this a PowerGrade. Done. You can use the Look every single time and you know it will not "destroy" your image.
Learn the rules, so you can break them. Experiment. Be open with new tools. But you first have to understand the tools Inside DaVinci.
Breaking the rules without knowing the rules is just wrong. I can give a child some colors and might get an abstract painting back that might look good. So the conclusion is: Learn nothing about colors. Just take different kids and see what happens. If it looks interesting and if I can sell the painting, there is no problem?
- Cmon- Color science and colorist is a profession. Take this seriously. Learn the rules first. THEN you can break them.
But this pretty much mean that YOU are NOT in control. The tool controls you. So when you create a LUT with this tool, do you know if the LUT is in the 0-1 range. Do you know how clean the LUT is? Do you know how to stress test this LUT? What color space this LUT expects?
And how you are going to implement this into your workflow? You still have to grade inside DaVinci Resolve. Do you recreate the Look from scratch? Are you applying the LUT from the Website to your footage and hope for the best?
I love OFX plugins, DCTLs, all that stuff. But it has to work inside DaVinci Resolve. I don't want to grade inside a browser. I need scopes, I need DCTL. As I said before: There is no Shortcut.
Would you let a computer be the camera operator for a shot. Select Lens, focus, framing? I can argue: Well. My client is happy with the result.
But what if you want to change something. How can you control something where you don't even know HOW the tool works exactly.
You can work pretty fast in Resolve, too. Just apply a color space transform from LOG to Rec709. learn grading, save this a PowerGrade. Done. You can use the Look every single time and you know it will not "destroy" your image.
Learn the rules, so you can break them. Experiment. Be open with new tools. But you first have to understand the tools Inside DaVinci.
Breaking the rules without knowing the rules is just wrong. I can give a child some colors and might get an abstract painting back that might look good. So the conclusion is: Learn nothing about colors. Just take different kids and see what happens. If it looks interesting and if I can sell the painting, there is no problem?
- Cmon- Color science and colorist is a profession. Take this seriously. Learn the rules first. THEN you can break them.
Quote by @Aaron Kessler: "And different tools allow for different looks"
But this pretty much mean that YOU are NOT in control. The tool controls you. So when you create a LUT with this tool, do you know if the LUT is in the 0-1 range. Do you know how clean the LUT is? Do you know how to stress test this LUT? What color space this LUT expects?
And how you are going to implement this into your workflow? You still have to grade inside DaVinci Resolve. Do you recreate the Look from scratch? Are you applying the LUT from the Website to your footage and hope for the best?
I love OFX plugins, DCTLs, all that stuff. But it has to work inside DaVinci Resolve. I don't want to grade inside a browser. I need scopes, I need DCTL. As I said before: There is no Shortcut.
Would you let a computer be the camera operator for a shot. Select Lens, focus, framing? I can argue: Well. My client is happy with the result.
But what if you want to change something. How can you control something where you don't even know HOW the tool works exactly.
You can work pretty fast in Resolve, too. Just apply a color space transform from LOG to Rec709. learn grading, save this a PowerGrade. Done. You can use the Look every single time and you know it will not "destroy" your image.
Learn the rules, so you can break them. Experiment. Be open with new tools. But you first have to understand the tools Inside DaVinci.
Breaking the rules without knowing the rules is just wrong. I can give a child some colors and might get an abstract painting back that might look good. So the conclusion is: Learn nothing about colors. Just take different kids and see what happens. If it looks interesting and if I can sell the painting, there is no problem?
Any idea how condescending you sound?
I am just tired of seeing so much "weird" tools and people still defending it.
I find it kind condescending to read things like:
- "different tools allow for different looks."
- "I find it valuable. And like I said, my goal isn't to be a professional colorist"
Or the guy from Buttery LUTs saying the default LUT by Blackmagic and ALL other Rec709 LUTs are terrible compared to his Buttery LUT.
To me, this is condescending. Most professionals will not speak up against those LUT packs and IMO it hurts our industry.
I find it kind condescending to read things like:
- "different tools allow for different looks."
- "I find it valuable. And like I said, my goal isn't to be a professional colorist"
Or the guy from Buttery LUTs saying the default LUT by Blackmagic and ALL other Rec709 LUTs are terrible compared to his Buttery LUT.
To me, this is condescending. Most professionals will not speak up against those LUT packs and IMO it hurts our industry.
Lars, you're taking a very limited personal point of view and are implying we should all follow that lead.
"I love OFX plugins, DCTLs, all that stuff. But it has to work inside DaVinci Resolve. I don't want to grade inside a browser. I need scopes, I need DCTL. As I said before: There is no Shortcut."
Whatever works for you. I use different tools that suit me fine. No need to condescend anyone for their tools of choice.
Jason makes some fair points about the claims on the website to be a 'full colorgrading solution' - which apparently color.io is not. But if someone can build a useful LUT with that tool that suits their needs, it's entirely unclear to me why you feel the need to take this attitude. This is a forum where people share their interests and expertise.
Think of it like this: when the first electronic musical instrument came out, a lot of people considered it "weird".
"I love OFX plugins, DCTLs, all that stuff. But it has to work inside DaVinci Resolve. I don't want to grade inside a browser. I need scopes, I need DCTL. As I said before: There is no Shortcut."
Whatever works for you. I use different tools that suit me fine. No need to condescend anyone for their tools of choice.
Jason makes some fair points about the claims on the website to be a 'full colorgrading solution' - which apparently color.io is not. But if someone can build a useful LUT with that tool that suits their needs, it's entirely unclear to me why you feel the need to take this attitude. This is a forum where people share their interests and expertise.
Think of it like this: when the first electronic musical instrument came out, a lot of people considered it "weird".
Buttery LUTs is something I've tried and found severely wanting. And yes, I agree this tool is limiting. It's not perfect. But I can easily get an aesthetic from it that I've been wanting for a long time but could not make in Resolve. I've tried countless other tools and know what you mean when you say sometimes you feel scammed. But for those of us who can't spend all day in Resolve or who just aren't good at the math, we have to rely on tools created by other people. And I've used every tool in Resolve and every color space possible and just not gotten my desired results. I have great respect for those who build their own tools from scratch, I don't mean to downplay the importance of that by sharing this new release.
