How to setup ACES colour managed workflow in Baselight for use with fylm.ai?

To setup an ACES colour managed workflow in Baselight for use with fylm.ai we need to properly setup our Scene Configuration and Colour Space Journey.

Scene Configuration

  • In Job Manager create a new scene. Select ACES Template as Scene Template. This should automatically select ACEScct: ACEScct / AP1 as the Working Colour Space.
  • After creating the scene, open Views > Scene Settings and verify your colour-related settings match the following:
    Working Colour Space: ACEScct: ACEScct / AP1
    Grade Result Colour Space: From Stack
    Display Rendering Transform: ACES RRT
  • Go to Views > Cursors and set the Viewing Colour Space to match the calibration of your reference display. For example, if you are doing an SDR grade this would be Rec.1886: 2.4 Gamma / Rec.709.

Colour Space Journey

  • Insert media into your project
  • Open Views > Colour Space Journey, and verify it matches the following:
    Automatic Input Colour Space: Select appropriate input for your source material
    converted
    Working Colour Space: ACES: ACEScct / AP1
    Graded in: ACES: ACEScct / AP1
    converted with family DRT
    Viewing Colour Space: Rec.1886: 2.4 Gamma / Rec.709 (in case of SDR)
    Mastering Colour Space: Rec.1886: 2.4 Gamma / Rec.709 (in case of SDR)

Most important part is to make sure that working colour space is ACEScct and that it’s converted using ACES RRT into the Viewing Colour Space. “converted with family DRT” means that ACES RRT was automatically chosen by Baselight.

In case of a Dolby Vision grade on a 1000-nit reference monitor you would select Dolby: ST 2084 / PQ / P3 D65/ 1000 nits for both Viewing and Mastering Colour Space.

In case of RAW source footage, Baselight will automatically debayer the raw footage into appropriate Input Colour Space. For example, for Sony’s camera this might be Sony: Linear / S-Gamut3.

If you checked “Prefer Automatic/From Metadata” in Scene Configuration, Baselight will convert the RAW footage into linear, camera native space. Then, it will be converted into ACEScct where the colour grading will take place.

After you have setup Baselight properly, you should export your LUTs from fylm.ai without any ACES Input and Output transforms as this part is now taken care of by Baselight’s colour management system.