Film Look Designer DCTL

[George Gonz]

Hi everyone, I'm George Gonz, colorist and creator of "Color Foundry" a collection of 3 DCTLs designed to recreate the look and feel of classic Kodak and Fuji film emulsions inside DaVinci Resolve Studio 19.1+.

I've been developing this for a while and I want to share unrestricted access with the community no watermark, no limitations, so you can actually put it through its paces on your own footage.

What's inside Color Foundry
1. Color Foundry Exposure — The foundation of the workflow. Prepares the image by adjusting exposure, color balance, and tonal response to emulate the photometric characteristics of the film negative.
2. Color Foundry Emulsion — The core of the emulation. Replicates the color response, tonal curves, and chemical properties of specific Kodak and Fuji film stocks.
3. Color Foundry Character — The finishing layer. Delivers subtle and granular final adjustments through Lights, Bleach Bypass, Printer Lights, and Split Tones, giving you precise control over the cinematic personality and style of your grade.

Try it on your footage
DCTL Plugin — expires April 30, 2026

I genuinely value the expertise and passion in this forum, and I'm looking forward to hearing how Color Foundry DCTL performs on your footage. All feedback, questions, and thoughts are very welcome — this kind of exchange is what helps tools like this grow and improve.

Thank you so much!
George Gonz

 

[Rajneesh Kassin]

What about Resolve 20, which has been out for almost a year?

 

[George Gonz]

What about Resolve 20, which has been out for almost a year?

Hi, it's also compatible with DaVinci Resolve Studio 20. Try it with your footage.

 

[Pepijn Klijs]

Hi George,

I'm getting an error trying to use your dctl.

 

[Pepijn Klijs]

After renaming the dctl's, taking out the special characters, the emulsion dctl still throws me an error.

Resolve v20.3.1 studio, windows

 

[George Gonz]

I'm getting an error trying to use your dctl.

▸ System Requirements
DaVinci Resolve Studio 19.1+
macOS 12+ — Intel i7 · Apple M1 · M2 · M3 · M4
Windows 10/11 64-bit — Intel (OpenCL 1.2+)

▸ Compatible Platforms
macOS — Metal · OpenCL (Intel · Apple Silicon)
Windows — OpenCL (Intel)

NVIDIA CUDA support coming soon.

 

[Pepijn Klijs]

▸ System Requirements
DaVinci Resolve Studio 19.1+
macOS 12+ — Intel i7 · Apple M1 · M2 · M3 · M4
Windows 10/11 64-bit — Intel (OpenCL 1.2+)

▸ Compatible Platforms
macOS — Metal · OpenCL (Intel · Apple Silicon)
Windows — OpenCL (Intel)

NVIDIA CUDA support coming soon.

So does that mean the dctl does not work on systems with a nvidia card?

 

[George Gonz]

So does that mean the dctl does not work on systems with a nvidia card?

That is correct. NVIDIA compatibility will be available very soon.
Thank you very much!

 

[George Gonz]

So does that mean the dctl does not work on systems with a nvidia card?

[RELEASE] Color Foundry — Film Look Designer DCTL (Windows / NVIDIA CUDA)
Hello everyone, We are pleased to announce that Color Foundry — Film Look Designer is now officially available for Windows users.

This DCTL has been specifically optimized for NVIDIA CUDA acceleration, enabling a smooth, real-time color grading experience directly on the DaVinci Resolve Studio color page.

Technical Specifications:
- Platform: Windows 10/11
- Hardware Requirements: NVIDIA GPU with CUDA support
- Compatibility: DaVinci Resolve Studio 19.1+

[Access via our YouTube video]

We would love to hear your feedback on performance and visuals. Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!

 

[George Gonz]

Hi everyone! I'm George Gonz, colorist and creator of Color Foundry — a set of 3 DCTLs designed to emulate classic film stocks inside DaVinci Resolve Studio. I want to give this community unrestricted access to test it on your own footage — completely free until May 30, 2026.
https://bit.ly/4cMX3NF

 

[Shebbe Klaasen]

Thanks for allowing us to try them.

— completely free until May 30, 2026.

Do you mean they expire by then or they are unlimited and available for free until then.

Without having tested them yet, I'd already see 2 general concerns.

1. It's pretty odd that the CUDA version needs separate DCTLs for the emulsions. I think most users would like to limit amount of DCTL files as much as possible given it's terrible management in Resolve.
2. The mechanism is designed around display referred rec.709 which is a hard sell against many similar tools already out that do provide scene-referred workflows.

 

[George Gonz]

Thanks for allowing us to try them.

Do you mean they expire by then or they are unlimited and available for free until then.

Without having tested them yet, I'd already see 2 general concerns.

1. It's pretty odd that the CUDA version needs separate DCTLs for the emulsions. I think most users would like to limit amount of DCTL files as much as possible given it's terrible management in Resolve.
2. The mechanism is designed around display referred rec.709 which is a hard sell against many similar tools already out that do provide scene-referred workflows.

Full access, no watermarks, no limits — until May 30, 2026.
After that date, the license expires. So yes, you can use everything until then.


On Color Foundry's Workspace: A Technical Clarification
Color Foundry operates natively in Rec.709 — and that's a design decision, not a limitation.

When we talk about color management in a professional pipeline, there's an important distinction: where a tool works, and how it fits into your workflow. Color Foundry acts as an adjustment tool; exposure, white balance, and hue processing are performed assuming a signal already transformed to Rec.709, which guarantees predictable and consistent behavior across any standard delivery pipeline.

That said, this doesn't mean you're locked into Rec.709 as your project's working color space. Whether you're working in ACES, DaVinci Wide Gamut, or any other color space, Color Foundry inserts itself into that pipeline respecting your color management — without imposing or assuming any transformations outside its own operating space. That decision always stays with the colorist.

Any professional colorist will recognize this immediately: every tool has its insertion point in the pipeline, and the key is knowing where it belongs. Color Foundry doesn't replace your color management — it complements it. The tool doesn't dictate your workspace; you define the pipeline, and Color Foundry operates within it.


Why CUDA Splits Emulsion Into 4 Nodes Instead of One
On Mac, everything fits in a single node. On Windows with NVIDIA, the GPU has a limit on how much information it can process at once. Our Emulsion node is that dense — because each Fuji and Kodak negative was built from the ground up with faithful colorimetry: spectral response, saturation curves, and channel relationships researched and reconstructed to honor the original film stocks.

That density is exactly why CUDA can't hold it in one block.
The solution was to split it into 4. One node per film negative.

Does the result change? No. Not at all.
The order is the same. The logic is the same. The color is the same.


Any other questions are welcome.
Thank you!

 

[Shebbe Klaasen]

Color Foundry operates natively in Rec.709 — and that's a design decision, not a limitation.

It can sure be a decision, but it is also a limitation because the tool cannot be utilized to target other displays unless additional sub-optimal upscaling is happening after the fact. That's a separate matter from being able to color grade scene-referred. My point is when using this tool your only possible target is Rec.709 while many other mechanisms leave the display transforms up to the user, or if they have their own rendering intent, provide built-in multi targets.

That said, I'm sure it can provide something worthwhile for those primarily working with content that only has broadcast/web targets.

 

[George Gonz]

It can sure be a decision, but it is also a limitation because the tool cannot be utilized to target other displays unless additional sub-optimal upscaling is happening after the fact. That's a separate matter from being able to color grade scene-referred. My point is when using this tool your only possible target is Rec.709 while many other mechanisms leave the display transforms up to the user, or if they have their own rendering intent, provide built-in multi targets.

That said, I'm sure it can provide something worthwhile for those primarily working with content that only has broadcast/web targets.

It is a pleasure to continue this technical conversation. Your observation regarding output targets is highly valuable; this type of analysis helps both colorists and filmmakers select the right tool for their specific vision.

On Rec.709 as an Operating Environment
The choice to operate within Rec.709 is intended to provide an environment of maximum predictability and fidelity. When working with spectral reconstructions of classic film negatives (Kodak/Fuji), this standard ensures that the tool's behavior remains consistent and precise across every adjustment.

Color Management
We understand that modern workflows demand flexibility. For this reason, while Color Foundry provides the character and color science of the film negative, we rely on DaVinci Resolve dynamic color management to handle project elasticity. This allows the user to scale their deliverables across various scenarios—such as Cinema, HDR, or Web—while maintaining the achieved aesthetic integrity.

We sincerely appreciate your feedback.
Thank you for this exchange.

 

[Rajneesh Kassin]

Hi everyone, I'm George Gonz, colorist and creator of "Color Foundry" a collection of 3 DCTLs designed to recreate the look and feel of classic Kodak and Fuji film emulsions inside DaVinci Resolve Studio 19.1+.

I've been developing this for a while and I want to share unrestricted access with the community no watermark, no limitations, so you can actually put it through its paces on your own footage.

For $349 and $699 (respectively), I'd like to read the documentation first before I download anything. Unfortunately, your site doesn't give us access to the manuals without purchasing it.

Note that we can get the documentation for free from Dehancer (which I already own) and Filmbox Pro (ditto).

 

[George Gonz]

For $349 and $699 (respectively), I'd like to read the documentation first before I download anything. Unfortunately, your site doesn't give us access to the manuals without purchasing it.

Note that we can get the documentation for free from Dehancer (which I already own) and Filmbox Pro (ditto).

The user guide is available in the link I shared earlier — no cost, no sign-up required. https://bit.ly/4cMX3NF
If you have any specific questions after going through it, I’m here.

 

[Rajneesh Kassin]

The user guide is available in the link I shared earlier — no cost, no sign-up required. https://bit.ly/4cMX3NF
If you have any specific questions after going through it, I’m here.

This is what I see on that link on your site:

I'd also like to hear an explanation as to how your new plug-in compares to similar offerings from PixelTools, Dehancer, Filmbox, FIlm Convert, Genesis, and all the many alternatives out there.

 

[George Gonz]

This is what I see on that link on your site:

I'd also like to hear an explanation as to how your new plug-in compares to similar offerings from PixelTools, Dehancer, Filmbox, FIlm Convert, Genesis, and all the many alternatives out there.

Color Foundry© works at the colorimetric level. Each film stock is engineered at the emulsion — with a rich, dense colorimetry faithful to the original character of each stock.

Exposure lays the photometric foundation — exposure, white balance, tonal response, and color body. Designed to correct source exposure, white balance, development controls, and color richness.

Emulsion is the core. Four film negative stocks, each with normal, high, and low density options. Designed to reproduce the specific characteristics of different film negative emulsions. It introduces the color response, tonal curves, and chemical properties of specific films.

Character is the final layer — granular control over highlights, shadows, bleach bypass, printer lights, and split tones. Precise. Designed to provide the final layer of color for the Film Look Design

Each DCTL has its own color adjustment sections. Each section includes a checkbox to activate or deactivate it, allowing you to isolate each stage and see exactly its contribution to color correction. Before and after, at every step.

This workflow constitutes the essence and richness of Color Foundry©. This is what distinguishes it from Filmbox, Genesis, Dehancer, and others.
The best way to see the difference is to use it yourself.

No watermarks. No limitations.
Completely free until May 30, 2026.

Try it on your footage: → ko-fi.com/s/ad178b2998

 

[Rajneesh Kassin]

This workflow constitutes the essence and richness of Color Foundry©. This is what distinguishes it from Filmbox, Genesis, Dehancer, and others.

Ah, I see.