Use Cases
Nobe LutBake turns DaVinci Resolve into a LUT authoring tool. Your color corrections — curves, wheels, lift/gamma/gain, qualifiers, color space transforms, color-based OFX plugins — get baked into a portable .cube file with a single keystroke.
Here are the most common ways professionals use it.
Live Production & LiveGrade
Use DaVinci Resolve as a software LUT box in your live color pipeline.
Grade live footage using Resolve's color tools and node graphs, then capture the result as a high-quality 3D LUT. Load that LUT into LiveGrade, Teradek COLR, Flanders BoxIO, TVLogic IS-Mini, or any LUT-based device in your live production chain.
Resolve stays in the loop for its superior grading tools without being the primary switching or playout tool — you're injecting Resolve into the middle of the live pipeline purely for its color capabilities, then moving the result out as a LUT.
Typical workflow:
Feed live signal into Resolve (via SDI capture or similar)
Grade using Resolve's color page — curves, wheels, OFX plugins, PowerGrades
Press your capture hotkey
Load the
.cubefile into LiveGrade, your LUT box, or monitoring deviceAdjust and recapture as needed — each iteration takes seconds
This workflow is ideal for professionals who already use LiveGrade for live production but prefer Resolve's color tools for the actual grading work.
On-Set LUT Creation
Design looks in Resolve and export them as camera LUTs for on-set monitoring.
Instead of manually baking LUTs through Resolve's export pipeline, iterate directly in the color page and capture the result with a keypress. The updated LUT is immediately ready for your video village, director's monitor, or camera preview output.
Example scenarios:
DIT creating show LUTs during pre-production
Colorist building camera-specific LUTs for on-set monitoring
DP designing a look and exporting it for the camera team
Creating dailies LUTs that match the intended creative direction
Performance Optimization
Replace heavy color correction chains with a single baked LUT for the same look at a fraction of the render cost.
When stacking multiple color corrections or color-based plugins creates playback or rendering issues, bake the chain into a 3D LUT. The visual result is identical (within LUT resolution), but GPU load drops significantly because a single LUT lookup replaces multiple processing passes.
Only color-to-color transforms can be represented in a 3D LUT. Spatial effects (blur, sharpening, keyers), temporal effects (denoise, motion blur), and texture effects (grain, lens flares) cannot be captured in a LUT and should remain as separate nodes outside the LutBake capture range.
When to use this:
Timeline playback drops below real-time due to plugin load
Multiple instances of the same plugin chain across clips
Final delivery where the creative look is locked and render speed matters
Archiving a grade as a self-contained LUT instead of relying on plugin availability
Look Sharing & Archival
Capture any grade as a portable .cube file for use anywhere a 3D LUT is accepted.
The .cube format is an industry standard supported by virtually every color-aware application — other NLEs, compositing software, LUT boxes, camera firmware, and monitoring tools.
Use this for:
Sharing looks across editing systems (Premiere, Final Cut, Baselight, etc.)
Delivering LUTs to clients alongside final deliverables
Building a personal LUT library from your Resolve grades
Creating LUT packs for distribution or sale
Archiving creative looks independent of project files or plugin versions
Cross-NLE Workflows
If your post-production pipeline spans multiple applications, Nobe LutBake bridges the gap.
Grade in Resolve where you have the most powerful tools, then export the result as a LUT for the conform or online editor working in a different NLE. This avoids round-tripping entire projects and ensures the colorist's intent translates accurately.
Last updated