Overview

ARRICUBE Color Management System

The ARRICUBE enhances your day-to-day work dramatically by offering a possibility to match the colors of a video monitor or a digital projection with the film projection result.

As in DI projects color grading is done digitally and the directors judge the colors on a standard monitor or in a digital projection, in cinema they often recognize that the colors do not look as they are intended. ARRICUBE gives the answer to that problem by providing 3D Look up Tables (LUT), which are necessary to match the different color spaces.

The ARRICUBE system offers:

3D LUT generation by the ARRICUBE Creator software
Profiling methods for digital displays and print film
Universal 3D LUTs and universal profiles for standard applications

ARRICUBE 3D LUTs can be used in two different workflows

ARRICUBE for Video Look

In a linear workflow, when the original data came from a digital camera or a telecine the post production will be done with linear data. The unmodified images are displayed on the monitor or on the digital projector for the colour correction. In this case the images will be converted by the ARRICUBE node in the image processing engine of the ARRILASER. The colours in the film projection will then be matched to the colours on the monitor. Color management will be applied to the images on the fly and thanks to the multi thread programming of the ARRILASER software the recording speed is not influenced. The ARRICUBE for Video Look is available as an option for all ARRILASER models.

ARRICUBE Preview LUTs

Most DI projects nowadays are done with a logarithmic workflow. In this case the incoming data will be logarithmic. The acquisition is done on film and the data are scanned with the ARRISCAN. The ARRICUBE is used in form of a 3D lookup table, which changes the display on the monitor or the digital projector in the way, that the colors look like they will look in the film projection. The 3D lookup table can be loaded into color correction systems or projectors of one of our ARRICUBE partners.

3D LUT Generation

ARRICUBE Creator

The ARRICUBE Creator generates 3D LUTs, which are optimized for the customers workflow. For creating a 3D LUT an input profile of the digital display colors and an output profile of the film colors are necessary. In terms of the digital display, measurements can either taken ba the direct control with a X-Rite Hubble Colorimeter or a Konica Minolta CS200 or measurements from any other instrument are imported as text files; if a standard setting is designated, values can be taken from a library and the monitor calibration needs only be controlled. In terms of the film colors, universal values are taken out of the ARRI library, if the recorder calibration is done based on existing standards or a customized print film measurement is ordered from ARRI and imported into the Creator. Without any additional licensing the ARRICUBE Creator software allows generating 3D Preview LUTs in virtually any format for a Digital Intermediate workflow as well as conversion LUTs to feed into the ARRILASER software for a video to film workflow.

Profiling

Digital Display Measurement

For precise color measurements on all types of displays involved in the digital intermediate workflow ARRI offers a specially calibrated version of the X-Rite Hubble non-contact laser guided colorimeter. The Hubble is uniquely capable of measuring precisely and quickly in the dark, which is a vital requirement when working with film images in a digital intermediate environment. A key advantage of the Hubble is that it is a single, portable device - able to measure monitors (CRT and LCD) as well as projectors, and yet very easy to use. Just set up the Hubble on a tripod, connect instantly to a USB port on your computer, point the laser, and measure.
As precise measurements of all sorts of different devices with a filter colorimeter can only be obtained by using specific calibrations, ARRI adds the custom calibrations required for the DI process to the Hubble, which are matched against high-end, non-portable reference instruments.

Newly developed the ARRICUBE Creator software now also offers a direct control of the Konica Minolta CS200 Colorimeter. As the CS 200 has a spectral measurement all sorts off displays can be measured without any additional calibration.

Measurements of all other devices can be imported into the software.

Print Film Measurement

While on the digital side standard instruments can be used for measuring the colors, on the film side it is the tricky part. To solve this, the ARRI R&D department has invented a new machine: The CHARACTERIZER. Utilising the basic body of an ARRISCAN, the CHARACTERIZER uses a monochromator instead of the camera to measure the colors of print film. In that way the high dynamic range and the high densities of print film can be measured precisely, while the ARRISCAN film transport enables us to handle the high number of measurements, that are necessary for the profiling of print film. The results are highly reproducible and easy to obtain. This new method has been used for all our universal film profiles and is also offered as a service for customized print film profiles.