New Software to preview LUTs in Gallery (Windows - LUTastic)

[Felix Mueller]

Release! v1.4 now offers these changes:

- smaller font size in previews
- remembers previous paths for input file and LUT folder
- improved JPG image quality
- Displays LUTs 55 at a time, up to 1000 LUTs per Folder
- Added left and right buttons to click through LUTs
- slightly faster in generating previews
- improved stability
- added error messages for better bug reporting
- corrected aspect ratio for non-widescreen sources

You can try it now over on:

http://fatpigtures.com/#lutastic

 

[Felix Mueller]

UPDATE: v1.3 now has increased LUT compatibility and clear error messaging.

 

[Felix Mueller]

Update! Release 1.4

 

[Gunleik Groven]

I will take a look at this. Looks cool

 

[Felix Mueller]

@Gunleik Groven:
it's untested as of now with .R3D files.
Let me know if there's any problems there.
In the mean time you can use screenshots as source material.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Thanks. Just so I understand this completely, this is a LUT viewer, you cannot alter the LUTs in the software?

 

[Felix Mueller]

correct. this is intended for previewing LUTs you already have so you can decide which one you'll use as a starting point.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

If I have a 10/16 bit log file as source, that works as well as with an 8-bit screenshot, right?

 

[Felix Mueller]

It's based around ffmpeg, so whatever formats that supports, will work. I'd assume thats fine, but have not tested that particular combination.

 

[Philip Magnussen]

Review of LUTastic

Review of LUTastic

Thanks Felix, this is a great little app, and very welcome to intermediate level editors like myself who rely on LUTs.

First of all, I know that experts will point out that grading for yourself and creating Powergrades is the way to go, but for beginner/intermediate editors LUTs are a godsend. For a small fee we can purchase a LUT library to quickly and easily give our footage a reasonable grade.

Coupled with DaVinci Resolve as a free editing tool with amazing power and features, life seems a breeze! Until you need to test many different LUTs - there DaVinci forces you to select one LUT at a time. Oh dear.

So began the quest to find a means of previewing LUTs quickly with my own source material - and voila, Felix has already created a great tool.

My Review:
LUTastic is a simple little application that allows you to select a source video, then select a LUT folder, then it magically displays how the different LUTs would affect your source material - this is in a single frame gallery format, but you can then open any number of them as videos to compare them side to side - Super COOL!

This easy to use application is a dream for anyone that isn't sure of the final look they want, and you need to try different looks to find what works for that particular shot. Alternatively, if you are more advanced and know what you want but your client wants to see choices, you can flick through hundreds of LUTs quickly and easily.

LUTastic is clearly a labour of love for Felix - he saw a need, built a simple app to do the job, and has made it available to the whole world. I highly recommend that you purchase this product if you use LUTs - it's a sound investment especially compared to what you probably already spend on a decent LUT library, and presumably any further changes will depend on whether Felix is recompensed for his effort through sales.

I've summarised the pros and cons below, but don't let them seem overly critical - basically it is a great small app and functions as designed; these cons I list are only superficial and would improve the user experience but aren't necessary for the core purpose of the software.

Pros
1) Small download size and fully portable (no installation is required - just extract the zip file and get started.

2) You can preview video clips, not just a single frame

3) You can keep several video previews on screen at once to compare (however there are no controllers to restart/scrub each video)

4) Simple to use, reasonably intuitive and with simple instructions presented on screen

5) Video plays 4K ProRes well, (the ffmpeg files appear to be the same as in 1.3, but I could swear the video playback is smoother - maybe I'm fooling myself!)

6) JPG refresh is definitely much faster in 1.4

7) 1.4 remembers the folder locations you used last time - Yay!


Cons
A) The instructions are context sensitive - firstly they explain that you need to select a source video and LUT folder, then this changes to explain how you select LUTs and open a video preview. This is great, but the first time I used it I never noticed the first help text changing to the second (it doesn't help that I have a 40" monitor so I was attracted to the pretty pictures as they loaded - perhaps on a smaller screen I would have noticed the new text!). Perhaps highlighting the instructions as they change?

B) when changing the source video file, the single frame previews don't refresh - however by opening up a video preview it is clear that the new source video has loaded. The workaround to this is to then reload the LUT folder, which forces a refresh of all the preview images, but this is an extra step that isn't needed. Perhaps a refresh button, or even better an auto-refresh when either the source video or LUT folder is selected/changed?

C) when selecting the LUT folder the popup window asks you to "Choose .cube LUT folder" but the display of the folder contents shows "No items match your search" so it is not immediately clear you are in the right folder. I have confirmed the folder has 137 .cube file, so not sure why this is - perhaps a windows 10 "feature" or perhaps the display flag is set incorrectly behind the scenes. This is obviously not the planned effect, so presumably this is actually a problem that only I am having, and it isn't a big deal.

D) I have only tried the trial so far, and the previous/next buttons are not active in the trial, but their placement is right next to the Source video selection, so intuitively it would appear they are for switching source files.

E) I tried selecting 4K Raw (DNG files) but it told me it could not create preview - possibly due to the LUT being incompatible, but I figure this is an incorrect error report and LUTastic can't yet handle DNG files.

F) the FFMPEG video player can be slow to start (fair enough) but there is no notification to the user that LUTastic actually received the click on the large picture - you just have to be patient and sure enough a video pops up! A notification splash could fix this, but again it is minor once you are familiar with the way the app works.

G) The video preview windows have no controllers, so you can't pause or scrub.

H) Likewise there is no means of selecting a still frame for comparison other than the first frame of the video. If you want to check out how a particular shot looks with different LUTs you'll need to extract a sample source video with the first frame being the one you want to compare, then all the JPG previews will be of the shot you want.

Recommendation - Definitely worth the price, definitely does the job well. Buy it! :hurray:

 

[Felix Mueller]

thanks @Philip Magnussen for the detailed review&feedback!
I can only agree with the points you made and these will be put on my todolist.

Good news: G) is actually an undocumented feature of ffplay and also of LUTastic - you can use your keyboard to control the video preview spacebar is play/pause and arrow keys scrub!
I have not been able to find the complete list of controls there, so I opted not to mention it, but obviously I should have! :-D

happy holidays!