ACES LUT for Painter

leleuxart

I recently created a LUT for use within Substance Painter to utilize the ACEScg color space and RRT/ODT. My original goal was to bring the simple Linear to sRGB viewport closer to what can be seen within Unreal Engine 4, but I also included a LUT for the standard conversion without my adjustments for those in VFX or wherever with a more standard integration of ACES. Unreal has numerous adjustments on top of ACES that I didn't really add to my LUT. It should be pretty close in most situations, aside from the couple of rendering differences between the viewports.


Iray render with a default Painter smart material. I tweaked some material to bring the rust more in line with the proper color and removed the gray metalness values. 


Simple color chart comparison, in which I used to plot inside Resolve for a quick look at the actual values. The original color chart was a free jpeg, so most of the grain in the waveform can be attributed to that.

You can see more images and get the Gumroad link(free) here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mrqd8

I hope it's useful, and let me know if there are any issues! ACES is fairly dark by default, so proper exposure and material ranges are even more important with it.

WilliamB_Art

Damn, this is awesome mate! Thanks a lot for sharing for free with us!

aanselmo

I don't understand most of what you are talking about here, but this looks awesome, just one question, this is for the viewport?

Prutsirs_JayJay

That's pretty cool!

ant1fact

Until now I used the tone mapper post processing effect, where the "Auto" setting usually yielded a filmic look but it was also a bit too dark to my taste. This looks like a nice replacement for that

leleuxart

Thanks everyone! Yeah, this is for the viewport only. Think of it as a "look" in post-process, except the look is deeper blacks, smoother rolloffs in the whites, and a slight color shift. It doesn't affect your materials or anything. 

ant1fact said:

Until now I used the tone mapper post processing effect, where the "Auto" setting usually yielded a filmic look but it was also a bit too dark to my taste. This looks like a nice replacement for that

This one might be too dark with usual defaults. Some exposure adjustments might be needed, depending on the HDRI and materials used. But, with this you're able to increase exposure quite a bit without getting the crunched, saturated highlights.

ant1fact

@leleuxart I played around a little bit in the SP sample scene. I turned off all post processing effects, except for the scenarios where I tested specifically with tone mapping on. Here are some results I got (not trying to prove a point or anything, just giving people some examples of what they can expect) - I used the default ACES LUT here, not the UE4 one. p.s. where I say ToneMapper it's the auto setting in there

Bek

Nice work. I wish Painter didn't adjust the background in material view with the LUT though. Or had a flat colour override.

ant1fact

Bek said:

Nice work. I wish Painter didn't adjust the background in material view with the LUT though. Or had a flat colour override.

That is so true!

Jerc

The environment map should definitely be affected by the LUT though, but we could imagine not applying it when the envmap is entirely hidden.

leleuxart

Jerc said:

The environment map should definitely be affected by the LUT though, but we could imagine not applying it when the envmap is entirely hidden.

It seems to be when I was testing my LUT. I think the issue is the ~15% gray that the background defaults to when Environment Opacity is at 0. Although the background appearance has no impact on the actual reflections, I think people want to be able to specify a particular color? Possibly to keep a mid-gray background without the LUT darkening it

leleuxart

I recently updated the LUTs after some feedback from some super smart ACES people  https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mrqd8

Both LUTs now have a pre-transform and expect the Log tonemapper to be used in Painter. They will look much brighter if it's not enabled, but this prevents highlights from clipping so you get the full range of the ACES ODT. My original LUTs with just the ODT were clipped before the ODT, so although the whites weren't pure white, there was no smooth rolloff.

The UE4 version has had a small shift in the display-transform to match UE4 better.