LMT's / film emulation

Hello!

i’ve read alot about the ACES workflow, the documentation really helps understanding the whole concept. I’ve used aces as a starting point for a few projects now and even though i’m far from an expert on this subject, it already helped in making some nice consistent-looking grades. There are just a few things that i cannot really find here/on the web, One of them is practically applying LMT’s. I’ve seen the documentation on this forum as well. it shows some nice examples with a visualisation of the workflow.

I am using davinci resolve as my main tool for color grading. If i set the project color science to ACES(cc/cct), apply a rec709ODT in the project settings window, the adjustments in the node graph are basically the LMT, correct? Now i’ve seen a few CTL files here on the forum, but just a few. This CTL file can’t be applied directly in resolve. What is the workflow for applying it inside resolve?

Can i see the LMT simply as a lut? Is there a database with LMT’s somewhere to ‘‘play’’ with?

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Hi Rick,
Thanks for your first post and welcome!

Steve T
ACESCentral Admin

@Paul_Dore’s OFX plugin includes the LMTs from @sdyer’s examples, with user adjustable parameters.

Hi Nick, thanks for pointing me to that topic. However in that topic the first post shows a plugin which is compatible for resolve 15, at the moment i am using 16. Further down i see a link for resolve 16, but for mac only it seems. (i’m using windows 10)

Another bit further i see this link: https://github.com/baldavenger/ACES_DCTL
Is this what i need? Where is even the download link? sorry for probably asking something obvious… I’m seeing so many links which point to other links, where instructions are spreadout over multiple forums/topics, its all very confusing. The basic concept of ACES is very well documented, but how it’s applied from an end-user perspective feels kind of messy. Am i missing a page on acescentral which collects dctl’s/plugins f.e resolve? should there be one?

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I believe this is what you need:

@Paul_Dore’s plugins are very useful, and widely used. But they are not an official Academy endorsed product. So they are not hosted on an ACES site. That thread documents the development of the plugins over time, and I agree is long and difficult to find stuff in.

Perhaps @stobenkin might consider setting up a section on ACES Central for useful third party tools, which are not part of the ACES Logo Program, so not officially endorsed, but gathered together for convenience with a ‘no endorsement’ disclaimer.

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Hi Nick, just wanted to let you know that the plugins seem to work. I’m not getting great results though, by default it’s mostly way too contrasty and saturated so wondering if i’m still doing something wrong. I’m applying the DCTL’s (which i placed in the LUT folder of resolve) by selecting them in the dropdown menu of the default DCTL resolve plugin. The dctl ofx plugins provided in the other topics don’t seem to do something different, or maybe i’m doing something wrong here. Anyway, i’m still in the ‘‘playing around’’ phase. After reading all of these topics, i still think there is missing a simple, updated, step-by-step documentation somewhere though. If i ever become more of an ACES guru, i think i might consider taking that role :slight_smile: Thanks ever so much for your help.