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UE5: Complete Guide to Creating and Using LUTs for Color Grading

Category: UE5
January 23, 2024

LUT stands for color lookup table. It is a small image file that contains color information of your scene.

You can create and use these LUTs in UE5 within Post Process Volume to change the look and feel of your environment.

Here is everything you need to know how to create and use LUTs in Unreal Engine 5.

Video Tutorial

Important Thing About Color Correction

Prior to doing any color grading or color correction to your environment - make sure your scene and its lighting is finished.

Using LUTs to adjust brightness, contrast or colors will not fix bad lighting.

Insert Post Process Volume

Insert Post Process Volume into your scene and adjust the following properties to disable auto-exposure inside yours scene.

  • Enable Unbound
  • Min/Max EV100 both at 0 (for UE5.3+)
  • Min/Max Brightness both at 1 (for UE5.2 and below)

The LUT property will be found under Color Grading/Misc Section:

Take a Screenshot in UE5

You need a screenshot of your environment to use to adjust colors, contrast, brightness and other image properties.

Position your view or camera inside your environment and either use Print Screen, take a screenshot with F9 shortcut or se High-Res Screenshot tool:

All of these options will work. You just need a screenshot of your environment.

Photoshop Layer Adjustments

Open the screenshot in Photoshop.

Use ONLY Adjustment Layers to adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation and colors of your screenshot.

The Adjustment Layers I usually use:

  • Levels
  • Brightness/Contrast
  • Vibrance
  • Hue/Saturation
  • Color Balance
  • Curves

Use only the ones you need to get the job done.

After making Adjustment Layers you can toggle on/off state of original image and all the adjustments with the following shortcut by clicking on Eye icon of the Layer:

  • Hold Alt + Left Mouse Click = Hide/Unhide All Layers Visibility

Save the PSD file with all adjustments so you can come back to it and make further changes later if you need to.

Creating an LUT Image

Once you've made all the adjustments, you then need to create an LUT image to use in UE5.

First you need a neutral LUT image.

Right-click on this image below and choose Save As:

Here is the original location of this image from Unreal Engine Docs.

Open this LUT image in Photoshop.

Take all the Adjustment Layers from your PSD file and drag them into the LUT image:

The LUT image will now have all the adjustments applied to it. Next is to save this PNG image as new LUT.

Go to File > Export > Export As (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+W):

Export it as PNG:

This final LUT image will be 256x16 and hold the color information that can be used in UE5.

Using LUT in UE5

Import the LUT image into UE5 by left-click and drag right into the Content Browser.

Double-click on the LUT to open up its properties and change the following:

  • Texture Group: ColorLookupTable

Select Post Process Volume, enable Color Grading LUT and use the imported LUT image:

Your scene will now look exactly how you've adjusted it in Photoshop through Adjustment Layers.

Before/After:

You can control Color Grading LUT Intensity by lowering this value:

If you need to make adjustments, go back to your Photoshop file. Re-export the LUT file as PNG again and re-import it into UE5.

You can re-import quickly by right-clicking on the LUT image in Content Browser and choose Reimport:

Important Notes on Using LUT in UE5

Epic Games recommends that you use Color Grading Tools in Post Process Volume rather than Color Grading through an LUT.

This is due to different monitor outputs that are inconsistent in how LUTs work.

From Epic Games:

  • Since LUTs happen in Low Dynamic Range (LDR) and on the final image color that was output to the monitor in sRGB space, this means that it's just a snapshot in time for what display support is and will not necessarily look the same on any display its output to, unlike High Dynamic Range (HDR) which is processed so that any color correction happens before tone mapping. For this reason, it is recommended to use the latest Color Grading color correction tools available in Unreal Engine 4.16 and later in place of using LUTs.
  • LUTs can be a good way to quickly target a particular look for your project on your current display but then you should make final adjustments using the color correction properties found under the Color Grading section of the Post Process Volume to guarantee the look is consistent across different types of displays.
  • Consistency is lost when using a LUT because any color corrections that have taken place will not work for an HDR display. The color grading properties in the Post Process Volume all operate in what is referred to as Scene Referred Linear Space. It means that the colors are consistent because they happen before tone mapping and before they are transformed into a particular display's color space. For example, if you wanted to output to a tv that uses Rec709 instead of sRGB, the color corrections would not carry over if using a LUT since color correction happens after the image has already been output to the display. For this reason, LUTs are being moved away from as a way of doing color correction image processing.

Now I still use LUTs and like the results they provide. For stand-alone environments that you are using for portfolio and showcase this is completely fine. But if you are going to publish a game then it's best to use LUTs as a way to get things going but then use new Color Grading Tools instead.

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