2017

ACES in Autodesk Color Management
The output transforms supplied with Autodesk Color Management combine the RRT and ODT, as well as
the optional LMT, to convert directly to a format suitable for specific devices.
Autodesk Color Management ships with a variety of IDTs.
These transforms can be found in the camera and film categor-
ies. In addition, you can use IDTs from other sources.
A
ACES can be used as a working space, or as a connection
space for your chosen working space.
B
There is a variety of combinations of RRT and ODT available
in the RRT+ODT/ directory. The combination of RRT and RDT
to render the DCDM is the ACES_to_DCI-D60 transform.
C
Most of the transforms in the RRT+ODT/ directory include a reference to the look transform (LMT). The
transform currently set as the defaultLook alias in the Autodesk Color Management preferences is applied
before the RRT. The look gets applied in ACESproxy space as recommended by the ACES standard.
All internal processing is performed at 32-bit floating-point precision, so the conversion to ACESproxy for
application of a look transform (and then back to ACES) avoids the quantization and clipping imposed by
the integer-based implementation of ACESproxy used on set.
The RRT+ODT/ transforms apply the look transform in such a way that the look is not applied for the final
output, but can be activated for viewing. Some Autodesk applications, such as Smoke and Flame Premium,
allow you to toggle the look transform on and off interactively for display. This provides a way to quickly
preview the on-set look in VFX, in editorial, and as a starting point for final color grading.
If you need to bake in the look for output, you can use a custom color transform to apply the
default_look-ACESproxy.ctf transform from the misc/ directory before the RRT+ODT transform. See
Custom
Color Transforms
(page 1320).
Choosing a Working Color Space
Autodesk Color Management lets you use any color space as your working space, and provides transforms
to support many of the common and standard color spaces. You can use these transforms to convert images
to your chosen working space on import, and to convert images to a specific working space for particular
operations.
In general, it's best to use a wide-gamut color space for working. This ensures that you can properly represent
as many colors as possible. For example, digital cinema (DCI) contains colors that cannot be represented
using the Rec. 709 primaries (used by sRGB and HD video) without using negative values. Autodesk Color
1308 | Chapter 25 Colour Management