Setting Up ACES

What Is ACES?

ACES (Academy Color Encoding System) is a way to make sure all footage shares the same “color language” and has access to the widest possible range of colors.

It is a type of Color Management that handles how colors are captured, stored, processed, and delivered. While “color management” is the general idea of keeping colors consistent, ACES is a specific industry standard implementation.

There are many Color Spaces (a defined ranges of colors) associated with ACES. Our project uses one in particular called ACEScg, which has a very large Gamut (color range) called AP1 that’s ideal for editing, VFX, and compositing.

Most images you have worked with previously were in a Color Space called sRGB. That Color Space is built into almost every device and program by default.
ACES is not automatically installed in most software. You may need to install or enable ACES support in your editing or compositing program.
If you try to view an ACES image in something like Windows Photo Viewer (which doesn’t understand ACES), it may look different or incorrect compared to viewing it in software that has ACES.

When we are finished with an episode, our final ACEScg edit will be converted and exported in the sRGB Color Space for YouTube.

Why ACEScg?

In short, It makes our work easier!
It can store a much wider range of colors than sRGB, which means we keep more of the detail our cameras capture.
This extra color information makes grading look better, compositing more accurate, and keying cleaner.

General Working Settings