Known for its flagship software products, Silverstack and Livegrade, Pomfort has been simplifying digital movie production workflows for over 10 years. Most recently, the pioneering German software manufacturer has extended Livegrade Studio, its leading app for live grading and integration of digital imaging processes on-set, to export 3D LUTs (Look Up Tables) directly to Brompton Technology’s Tessera SX40 or S8 processors via a network connection. This makes use of the innovative 3D LUT Import feature offered by the latest Tessera v3.2 software. Livegrade users can now send 3D LUTs in near real time using Brompton’s API, thus taking full advantage of Livegrade’s powerful live grading features when working with LED screens using Brompton’s Tessera processing.
Essential in applications such as image editing, film and video, 3D LUTs are used to remap the input colour values of source pixels to new output values based on data contained within the 3D LUT, thus offering a kind of colour pre-set that can be applied to images or footage. 3D LUTs are frequently used for technical and creative colour correction tasks such as display calibration, colour space conversion, on-set camera tuning, creating special effects such as monochrome or sepia, boosting shadows and highlights, or simply replicating the look of a particular film emulsion in post-production.
For users to be able to export 3D LUT information from Livegrade Studio, the Tessera processor needs to be on the same local area network as an Apple Mac running Livegrade Studio. Once the connection is established, it is a simple matter of launching Livegrade Studio software and adding the Tessera processor as a device via the main menu or through the ‘Device Manager’.
“Since developing and launching our very first on-set software for secure and comprehensive management of digital movie data, we were determined to make the life of digital imaging technicians (DITs) easier by supplying them with tools that directly served their needs. As the role and responsibilities of the DIT evolved, our software offerings grew accordingly and thus established themselves as indispensable components in their complex, everyday workflows,” says Patrick Renner, Managing Director at Pomfort.
The Pomfort team have always put great effort into advancing compatibility and software integrations with other manufacturers’ products. Integration of Tessera software v3.2’s latest 3D LUT Import feature is one such great collaboration and is already appreciated by the industry.
Peter Canning at independent design practice, High Res, was extremely complimentary about the Livegrade integration.
“At High Res we are constantly looking for new technologies to integrate and streamline the virtual production process, specifically for film workflows, as features and episodic are the core of our business,” says Canning. “The integration of 3D LUT Import into Brompton processing promises a huge win for our workflow. It gives us a very quick and simple way to deliver the colour reproduction our clients are looking for and allows us access to much more sophisticated colour management. Having experimented with the technology with our production partners we are agreed this is a major step forward for film-making with LED.”
“We are firm believers that investing in lasting relationships with partners and users is the way to go when aiming to design products of true value,” adds Renner. “Working with the Brompton team on adding remote LUT control to Livegrade Studio has been instrumental in continuing with that goal and supports our users, especially those working in virtual production, with convenient and efficient workflows by giving them direct access to the system’s colour processing capabilities and adding a new sphere of creative possibilities to their productions.”
Brompton Technology is always keen to build relationships with other developers working in related fields. “With the release of our API and 3D LUT Import features, approaching Pomfort to develop an integration for our processors was a ‘no brainer’,” concludes Hugh Davies-Webb, Product Manager at Brompton Technology. “Working with Patrick Renner and his team at Pomfort has been a great pleasure and I’m looking forward to seeing Livegrade Studio and our processors being used together in the field.”
The 3D LUT Import feature is available exclusively for the Tessera SX40 and Tessera S8 LED processors, using Tessera firmware version 3.2 onwards.