Color Intelligence releases Colourlab Ai 3 Creator and Pro
Originally posted on 11 January 2024, and updated for the Pro edition.
Color Intelligence has released Colourlab Ai 3, the new version of the AI color grading tool.
The update rebuilds the software’s colour engine from scratch, providing “10 times the precision” of the previous release, and makes it available for Windows as well as Macs.
A ‘truly transfomative’ AI-based next-gen colour grading system
First released in 2020, Colourlab Ai is an AI-based colour grading system.
The software is capable of matching the grade of a sequence of shots to a reference shot or image to a quality described in reviews as equivalent to the first pass by a human colorist.
Co-developed by colorist Dado Valentic, founder of training provider Colour Training, the technology has been adopted in the broadcast, VFX and games markets.
Users of Colourlab Ai and its sibling tools, looks design plugin Look Designer and film grain generator Grainlab, now include Disney, Electronic Arts, HBO and Netflix.
Colourlab Ai 3: rewritten AI color engine with ’10 times’ more precision
Color Intelligence describes Colourlab Ai as a “complete reimagining” of the software, rebuilding the AI colour engine from scratch.
The updated engine “incorporates encoding, decoding, and tokenizing systems from LLM in a novel way” and is described as having “10 times the precision” of that in Colourlab Ai 2.
At the time of writing, there is no feature list for version 3 in the online documentation, but other features mentioned on the Color Intelligence website include:
- AI Reference Library
- Showlook Library
- New iPhone 15 Pro profiles
- New Log Encoding
- New Auto Balance
- New Auto Exposure
Now available on Windows, and live syncs with DaVinci Resolve
Other changes since Colourlab Ai 2 is that the software is now available for Windows as well as macOS.
In addition, live sync of grading with DaVinci Resolve is now available in the Creator edition of the software as well as with more expensive Pro and Studio subscriptions.
The Creator edition also live syncs with Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro.
A recording of Color Intelligence’s livestream on workflow in Colourlab Ai 3 Pro. The Pro edition supports ACES, and is also available as a server application and OFX plugin.
Updated 23 October 2024: Color Intelligence has released Colorlab Ai 3 Pro.
Key changes in the Pro edition include the fact that the AI color engine runs in the ACES and DaVinci Wide Gamut color spaces.
Color Intelligence describes Colourlab AI 3.2 Pro as the “first neural engine to work natively in ACES”.
Available as an OFX plugin and server application as well as a desktop app
In addition, as well as a desktop application, Colorlab Ai 3 Pro is available as a server-based application and an OFX plugin.
The new OFX plugin makes it possible to use Colourlab Ai natively inside DaVinci Resolve, Nuke and Baselight, with support for Autodesk’s Flame due in future.
The plugin works on Linux systems as well as macOS and Windows.
Colourlab AI Server is a “powerful background application” for managing licenses for the OFX plugin, with the designated server “automatically match[ing] and distribut[ing] licenses” across all of the workstations within a facility.
The Pro edition also now comes bundled with film emulation and look development plugin Look Designer and film grain-management plugin Grainlab.
Pricing and system requirements
Colourlab Ai 3 is compatible with Windows 10 and macOS 13.0+.
For the Creator edition, new perpetual licenses cost $300. Rental costs $15/month or $150/year.
For the Pro edition, new perpetual licenses cost $995 (via the reseller B&H). Rental costs $49/month, up $10/month since version 2, or $495/year, up $196/year.
Read an overview of the new features in Colourlab Ai 3 Creator on the product website
Read an overview of the new features in Colourlab Ai 3 Pro on the product website
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