Grading artists LUT files in Fusion.

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This in depth article covers ways to use a grading artist 3d LUT file to view your work in Fusion. It’s shows alternatives to using stacked LUT’s, and shows how to test your workflow for clipping. It’s part of a series of articles on Log colour and Linear workflows in fusion.

  1. Outline of a linear workflow
  2. Simple Log to Lin workflow in Fusion
  3. Using Stacked LUTs in Fusion
  4. Log Maths: Converting between gain and f-stops

How It started

We’ve been looking at a tigher workflow between the Quantel suite and the compositors at Lexhag. While setting up the linear workflow for DPX sequences and LUT files. I noticed some clipping issues in the viewport and started this thread at pigsfly.com. That thread grew into this document from some work arounds suggested by Eyeon’s tech support (who have been awesome), some head scratching, and a bit of maths. As a result this problem has been fixed in the latest version of Fusion.

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Camera Data

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It’s worth checking out arenafilm who have a detailed database of filmbacks and lens combinations for various cameras.

Also dpreview have a review of sensor sizes for DSLRs.

I’ll try and keep a useful summary here.

Company Model Film Back aspect Pixels
Arri Alexa 26.136 x 14.702 mm / 1.0290 x 0.5788” (Monitoring/EVF) 16:9 3168 x 1782
Arri Alexa 23.760 x 13.365 mm / 0.9354 x 0.5262” (ProRes) 16:9 1920 x 1080
Arri Alexa 23.760 x 13.365 mm / 0.9354 x 0.5262” (RAW) 16:9 2880 x 1620
Red Epic 5120 x 2700

Simple Log to Lin workflow in fusion

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This will show you step by step the basic Log color to Linear color workflow I’m using in Fusion. It replicates what the DoP and Director saw on their monitor when the footage was shot. It’s short and sweet. But I have links to good articles if you want to know more about Log colour.


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3dsmax maxscript Mirror ball

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This maxScript generates a mirror ball. I wrote it for fun, as part of some project related RnD.

There are a few parameters for you to play with, and it’s a lot faster than building one by hand. But be warned things can get a little slow with a lot of mirrors. You can download it as part of my maxScript pack.

See here for installation instructions

Installing the Designimage Maxscript pack

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Tell me what you think

Sign up to my youtube channel for tutorials and my twitter feed for updates. I’m thinking of making the scriptpack only available if you subscribe to a mailing list. The scriptpack will remain free but I’d like setup a patreon for some new things I have in mind.

Tell me what you think in the comments below.

Download and unzip

The first thing to do is download the scriptpack from gumroad:

free scriptpack download

Donations not matter how small will help pay for bug fixes and updates. But just type 0 in the text box to download for free.

Automatic Installation

These maxScripts should install automatically using one of two methods. First open 3dsMax then either:

  • With Max open drag and drop the KenzorsScriptPack.mzp  file onto a max viewport
  • or from the 3dsMax menu bar pick MAXScript > Run and choose the KenzorsScriptPack.mzp file

If everything works you should see this message.

Manual Installation

Sometimes windows permissions can get in the way of the automatic install. However If the automatic installation fails for some reason, you can simply copy the files to the correct location manually. A .mzp file is simply a renamed .zip file. To install the scripts by hand you just have rename it and unzip it.

  1. Rename KenzorsScriptPack.mzp to KenzorsScriptPack.zip
  2. Unzip the files keeping the folder structure.
  3. Copy the KenzorsScripts folder and its contents to your 3dsMax ‘user scripts‘ directory.
  4. Copy the userMacros folder and its contents to your ‘userMacros‘ directory.
  5. Copy the userIcons folder and its contents to your ‘userIcons‘ directory.

You can check you ‘user paths‘ in max by going to the menubar.. .. Customise > Configure System Paths > select the ‘System’ tab > and checking the paths for  ‘Additional Macros’  ‘Additional Scripts’ and ‘Additional Icons’ You can also find paths by using the getDir comand in the the maxScript listener window like this.

getdir #userMacros
getdir #userIcons

Another tip is to use the shellLaunch command to open the windows folder. So this will open Windows Explorer at C:\Temp\SomeFolder (if it exists).

shellLaunch "explorer.exe" "c:\\temp\\somefolder"

This means you can open the userIcons folder directly using maxscript like this

shellLaunch "explorer.exe" "$userIcons"
shellLaunch "explorer.exe" (getdir #userIcons)

Running the scripts

The MaxScripts are run using my ‘Script Navigator’ utility or by simply navigating to the .ms file in 3dsmax Instructions and videos for these MaxScripts can be found on my maxScript page and on my youtube channel.

Further information

I’ll be posting updates to my profile on scriptspot For those of you that are interested the guys at scriptspot.com have written this post about maxScript it’s history and how to use it. http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/tutorials/script-installation-in-3ds-max

Autodesk

3ds max maxScript help

autodesk-3ds-max overview