Documentation & Support

Contact : Discord / finallut@gmail.com

Installation:

IMPORTANT NOTE:
When upgrading the add-on to a newer version, ALWAYS RESTART Blender after proceeding to the installation.

As any standard Add-on installation, go to the Edit / Preferences menu:

Then click on the Add-ons section:

And click on the Install button in the top right corner of the window.

Browse to the location of the Final LUT zip file, and click on the Install Add-on button.

Once installed, the Add-on setup panel should be displayed:

This panel offers a few options:

Apply Exposure to thumbnails: When updating the thumbnails, the current exposure setting will be also applied to them.

Force the Standard view transform: To get a proper visual result, it’s better to use the Standard view transform as it will match the color output of this add-on. Alternatively, the color transform can be tweaked in the add-on panel.

Important note: while this option is active, the view transform will always be stuck on Standard.

LUTs Directory: This is where the default .cube files are stored.

Note: any additional .cube file added by the user will be stored in another directory:

[Path to blender installation] / [blender version] / scripts / presets / FinalLUT /

Reset path and reload: If the path has been changed, this button will reset it to its default value and reload all .cube files data.

Reload all LUT data files: this button will fully rebuild all the cached data generated from the .cube files
These cached data are:
- a binary compressed version of the .cube files (to speed up access)
- the texture generated from the .cube files
- the thumbnails

When running this addon for the first time, it is recommended to click on this button to generate all the required data. This is required only once.
If this step is skipped, the process will be executed automatically when needed.

Usage:

First run

This Add-on is accessible from two blender viewports:

The 3D viewport and the compositing viewport.



If the compositor is not enabled (though the Use Nodes checkbox),

a shortcut is provided in the Final LUT panel.

Click any to activate the compositing node tree and the Final LUT panel.

If the cached data are not yet stored, you may see this progress message:


You may see this message from time to time, when any cache update is necessary. The first execution always takes a few seconds. All subsequent iterations will be a lot faster (thanks to the cached data)

Note: in a normal usage, this step will only occur when updating the thumbnails or adding / removing .cube files.

Panels

Once initialized, the add-on panel will look like this:

There is a slight difference between the panel displayed in the 3D viewport and the compositing: in the first one, a dropdown list to select the realtime compositor display mode is available.

Real time compositor setup

To see the result of this add-on in the 3D viewport, select the Rendered viewport shading option:

Or select the Material Preview shading option, and activate Scene Lights and World for a better result.

Also activate the real time compositor:

Note: The dropdown selector displayed in the Final LUT panel is a shortcut to this setting.

Applying LUT

You can now click on any thumbnail to select which LUT to use:

You will instantly see the result in the 3D viewport:

This addon is bypassing the default color management setup, so it will automatically force the viewport transform to Standard.



Note: as explained earlier, by default the View Transform will be locked on Standard, but you can unlock this by disabling this settings in the preferences.


If the color space has to be changed anyway, the dedicated dropdown displayed just above should be used instead:

LUT details and list filtering

Next to the name of the currently selected LUT, an arrow button unfold some details about this LUT:

Each LUT is classified through different categories (Gamma, Color, Key, Style)

They can also be marked as favorites, using the star button located at the top right corner of the thumbnail:

Since many LUTs can be present, it’s useful to filter them.

A dedicated menu is available right below the thumbnail.

Clicking on the main filter button on the left of the search input will display all the filtering options:

Click on the filter icon of each category to activate it:

Then a dropdown list will be displayed to select the filter to use.

The number of LUTS corresponding to this filter will be displayed at the right of the search input field.

Note: The warning sign indicates that at least one filter is active. Multiple filters can be active at the same time, but it will quickly filter out most of the LUTs, so in general, one at a time is enough.

Disabling the main filter icon will also disable all filters, except the search field.

If any string search is active, it can be removed by clicking on the X button next to the input field

Clicking again on the thumbnail will show the filtered list:

Note: the current LUT in use is added into the result list, even if it doesn’t match the defined filters.

Its name will be prefixed with a small checkmark ✔

The star also displayed at the beginning of its name indicates that this LUT has also been marked as a favorite.


Note: The displayed results count always excludes the current LUT if it doesn’t match the filter.

Thumbnails

There are three thumbnails modes:

Default: an predefined image is used.

Viewport: the current 3D viewport is captured as a thumbnail.

Render: if available, the last renderer image will be used as a thumbnail.


Note: With the Viewport and Render modes, the refresh button will update all the thumbnails with the current viewport or render.

Adding and removing .cube files can be done using the + and - button right next to the thumbnail:

As explained in the installation section, any custom .cube file added will be stored in this directory:

[Path to blender installation] / [blender version] / scripts / presets / FinalLUT /

When removing a LUT, its cached data will be erased, but the .cube file will be moved to this directory:

[Path to blender installation] / [blender version] / scripts / addons / FinalLUT / luts / removed

Or for user added files:
[Path to blender installation] / [blender version] / scripts / presets / FinalLUT / removed

Note: This behavior may change in future versions.

Compositing setup:

The add-on will always try to insert its nodes setup right before the final Compositing node.

This setup is composed of 4 main nodes: 2 tweaking nodes and 2 dedicated to the LUT computing.

The tweaking nodes are exposed in the addon:

• LUT Factor: this is linked to an internal Mix node, and is used to fade the output between the original image and the processed one.

• Exposure: controls the main exposure of the final result. The value of this node is exposed in the add-on panel

• Convert Colorspace: this node has already been explained earlier and is used to set the current color transform applied to the result.
  
  

The LUT dedicated nodes:

• FinalLUT (green): this node is the core of the image conversion

• The LUT node (pink): this is an image node referring to the current LUT texture to apply.

Note: it is recommended to not mess with this nodes setup to ensure the functioning of the addon.
This setup will be certainly modified in future updates.

Compositing options:

To keep good performances, the Buffer Groups option must always be activated:

The add-on will automatically activate it if necessary.

Note: This option seems to have been removed since blender 4.2.

Know bugs and limitations:

• This addon is a bypass of the default Blender color management. Some settings may be conflicting.

Improvements will be implemented in future versions. (Mostly according to users feedback … so don’t hesitate to contact us!)

• When updating the thumbnail in Render mode, make sure to have an active render slot in the render window (F11), and make sure that a Viewer node is enabled in the compositor and that the backdrop is displayed.
  Also you may see the compositor area to be displayed for a short time (if it’s not already visible) during this refreshing process.
  
  
  
  Note: A ”smoother” solution is currently evaluated and may be available in an update soon.
  
  

• The current color conversion uses trilinear interpolation,
  Tetrahedral interpolation will come in a future update.
  
  

• According to most LUT settings, the output color range will be in LDR (Low Dynamic Range)
  So, the LUT setup should always be the last step before the Composite node output.