Recreate the Muted, Otherworldly Look of 'Dune' with These Free LUTs

Since no one is going to be going on location to another planet in order to shoot a sci-fi epic any time soon, color grading is the only way to convey an otherworldly vibe of an alien landscape here on earth. And that’s where LUTs come in handy.

And if you’re a big enough fan of the latest reboot of Dune, this free Free Dune LUTs Pack from Premiere Cuts will put you on the path to recreate it. These LUTs are also featured in their Retina Grading Asset Pack for $35 if you'd like additional resources.

Designed to take full advantage of Adobe Premiere’s Lumetri Color Panel, the Dune LUTs Pack contains two LUTs that can get you on the road to creating the stark look from Dune.

Check out the tutorial below for how to utilize these LUTs.

Director Denis Villeneuve didn’t just want to repeat what was done before. He actually wanted the desert spice planet of Arrakis to leap off the page of the novel and show movie fans what it looked like on-screen.

“I wanted the movie to be as close as possible to the vision I had when I read the book at 13 years old,” Villeneuve told GamesRadar. ”I wanted the fans of the book to, as much as possible, recognize the description, the atmospheres, the world that has been depicted in the book. I wanted to be faithful to Frank Herbert as much as possible."

Villeneuve also didn’t want to make his telling of Dune to look like a cookie-cutter sci-fi film either. He wanted to find its own look and identity. Consequently, it took a lot of time and deep thought to avoid the inspiration of the bright, arid look of a garden variety desert planet. The result is a planet that seems to have been as impacted by the dusty realm of spice mining as it is from the sun that warms it. Conversely, that translated into a shadowy, muted depiction of a world clouded by spice dust.

With the Merga LUT and Lynx LUT and a few tweaks in Lumetri, Premiere Cuts says that fans of Herbert's book will be able to come 99% as close as Villeneuve did in his post process. 

The LUTs are designed based on RGB Color Model Theory driven by standard video format, Rec 709, and are optimized for a smooth gradient look. And while the video tutorial shows the LUTs being used with Adobe Premiere, they are also compatible with tools found in Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop, and others, thanks to the Industry standard LUT Format (.cube).

Moreover, you can’t beat the price, as Premiere Cuts is giving away these LUTs for free. Get the pack now and make your own Herbert-esque sci-fi epic!