When ARRI released information about their ENG-style, "documentary" camera, AMIRA, there were several reasons for filmmakers to get excited, like its lower price point and the promise of ALEXA-level image quality. Another great feature is the ability to import custom 3D LUTs, and now, ARRI has sweetened that deal by offering a free grading program called the AMIRA Color Tool, which lets users "create, extract, and organize" AMIRA Look files, and then export them for in-camera use.
ARRI seems like they're dedicated to getting users as comfortable and confident with operating the AMIRA (I'm thinking about the AMIRA Camera Simulator, here). A great next step in easing users in is making a tool for creating Looks. Using LUTs is certainly helpful in getting a pretty good idea of what grade you're going for on a project, and what ARRI does by developing this color tool is make that process much simpler and faster -- especially if you're familiar with ARRIRAW Converter 3, since it uses the same user interface.
Here's a bit from ARRI about the free AMIRA Color Tool:
ARRI provides the AMIRA Color Tool as a free software that allows you to modify looks from the AMIRA camera or conveniently create completely new looks for the AMIRA camera. The AMIRA Color Tool can playback native Log C ProRes clips from the camera and apply different looks. To be able to use the AMIRA looks in other post processing tools, the AMIRA Color Tool provides the option to export looks as a 3D LUT. Creating a complex look with the color wheels and sliders of the AMIRA Color Tool is much faster and more convenient than creating the same look directly [in] the camera. The AMIRA Color Tool is available as application for OS X 10.7 and for OS X 10.8/10.9. This first version is a beta version.
Check out an introduction to the AMIRA Color Tool below:
The AMIRA Color Tool seems like a great asset for those who have adopted the ENG-style camera to make LUTs quicker and easier, and though the AMIRA is still a rental-only option for most of us, there's still a good chance that you'll come in contact with this camera if you work in documentary, news, or low-budget filmmaking.
Link: AMIRA Color Tool -- ARRI
[via AbelCine]
