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Herbistry LUT Loader icon
Universal LUT loaderby Herbistry · for Final Cut Pro & Motion

Herbistry LUT Loader

Every LUT you own, previewed on your own footage before you commit to a thing. Herbistry LUT Loader opens the formats Final Cut won't touch on its own, builds a grid of every look sitting right on your actual clip, and lets you click one on. It's free, and it's yours to keep.

Herbistry LUT Loader artwork: a glossy 3D character built from the letters L, U, and T, wearing sneakers and holding a paint bucket in each hand, standing in front of a color-splashed backdrop with a color wheel, waveform curve, and film strip

The short version

What LUT Loader does

Drop it on a clip and the inspector fills with a grid, one tile per look, each one already showing that look applied to your actual footage, not some stock reference chart. Click a tile and it's on your clip. It opens the formats Final Cut won't touch by itself, .cube, .3dl, .csp (Cine Space), and .look (SpeedGrade), so whatever a color pack or a colorist hands you, it loads.

It ships with the free Herbistry Starter pack, nine looks, already sitting in the grid, so there's something to click the second you install it. Load a single file of your own, or point it at a whole folder and pull in a pack at once. Dial Intensity to back a look off instead of running it full-strength, and if you actually care about interpolation or color spaces, Advanced Color is one toggle away, hidden until you ask for it. This manual walks the whole thing top to bottom.

First run

Get it, and add it

LUT Loader is free and unconditional. No license key, no watermark, no trial clock. Here's the whole path from download to a look on your footage.

  1. Grab it, free. Head to the Herbistry LUT Loader page on fordeetv.com and download the installer. It costs nothing.
  2. Install it. Open the installer and follow along. It's notarized by Apple, so there's no security warning to fight past. If Final Cut or Motion was open, quit and reopen it so it picks up the new plugin.
  3. Drop it on a clip. In Final Cut Pro, open the Effects browser, find Herbistry ▸ Herbistry LUT Loader, and drag it onto the clip you want to grade. In Motion, it's the same, applied as a filter on a layer.
  4. Pick a look. The Herbistry Starter pack is already loaded, nine looks, so the grid isn't empty on first launch. Click a tile and you're grading.

All on your Mac

LUT Loader does all its work on your machine, applying every look locally, right where you're editing. There's nothing to sign into and nothing phoning home.

Preview before you commit

The look grid

This is the whole idea. Every look you've got loaded, from the Starter pack to anything you bring in yourself, shows up as a tile in a grid, and every tile already shows that look sitting on your actual clip. Not a stock chart, not a gray card. Your shot.

Click a tile and that look is on your clip, right now. Nothing to confirm first, just click and look.

Dial it in

Intensity

0 to 100

Dials how hard the look hits. Full strength gets you the look exactly as built. Back it off and you get a lighter touch, same look, less of it, handy when a LUT is a little heavier than your shot can take.

0

Untouched. The clip reads as shot.

100

Full-strength, the look exactly as built.

Grid showing sample cards instead of your footage?

Move the playhead onto the clip. The look grid previews use whatever frame the playhead is sitting on, so with the playhead parked somewhere else on the timeline, off the clip, there's no frame for it to preview yet and you'll see the plain sample cards instead.

Shooting Log?

Log footage is flat and desaturated on purpose, that's the whole point of shooting it, it protects highlight and shadow detail for the grade. A look built for a normal picture won't land right on top of raw Log, colors muted, contrast crushed. Apply your camera's Log-to-Rec.709 conversion first, then put the look on after. Same order every time: convert, then grade.

Bring in more looks

Loading a LUT pack

The Starter pack gets you going, but you're not stuck with it. Add a LUT Pack pulls in a whole folder of looks at once.

  1. Click Add a LUT Pack. It's sitting right in the inspector next to the grid.
  2. Pick the folder. Point it at the folder your looks are sitting in, the folder itself, not one file inside it.
  3. Every LUT inside lands in the grid. Each one shows up as its own tile, previewed on your footage exactly like the Starter pack.
  4. Click through them the same way. Pick a look, dial Intensity back if you want less of it, done.

Everything stacks into one grid

One pack or five, it doesn't matter. Whatever you add sits alongside the Starter pack and anything else you've loaded, so your whole library lives in one place instead of getting buried in folders.

Just the one file

Loading a single custom LUT

Got one look, a single file from a colorist, a camera maker, wherever? Skip the whole-folder step.

  1. Click Load Custom LUT… Same inspector, one button over from Add a LUT Pack.
  2. Pick the file. Final Cut won't open these on its own; LUT Loader will.
  3. It lands in the grid. One new tile, previewed on your footage, ready to click.

Formats it opens

  • .cube the most common LUT format
  • .3dl a widely used color-grading format
  • .csp Cine Space
  • .look SpeedGrade

For when you need it

Advanced Color

Most people never open this, and that's exactly the point. It's off by default, and everything grades correctly without it. It's there for the times you actually need to get specific.

Advanced Color

Off by default

One toggle. Flip it on and two more controls show up underneath: Interpolation and the Input/Output color-space settings. Flip it off and they tuck back out of sight. Most looks just work without ever touching this.

Off

Hidden. The grid and Intensity are all you need.

On

Interpolation and color-space controls appear.

Interpolation

Trilinear · Tetrahedral

Sets how LUT Loader reads between the LUT's sample points. The difference is subtle, and most LUTs read fine left on the default. It's here for the rare LUT, or the rare eye, that wants the other method.

Input / Output color space

Match the LUT

Tells LUT Loader what color space your footage is coming in as, and what the LUT expects going out, so the math lines up with whatever the look was built for.

One grade, the whole stack

Grading a whole timeline with the Title

Applying LUT Loader to every clip down a long timeline gets old fast. The companion Title grades the whole stack in one shot instead.

Filter

Effects ▸ Herbistry
  • Drops onto one clip at a time.
  • Good when different clips want different looks.
  • Each clip gets its own grid, its own Intensity.

Title

Titles ▸ Herbistry
  • Sits on a lane above your clips, an adjustment layer.
  • Good when a whole stretch of timeline wants the same grade.
  • One grid, one Intensity, applied to everything underneath.
  1. Find it under Titles. In Final Cut's Titles browser, look for Herbistry ▸ Herbistry LUT Loader.
  2. Drop it on a lane above your clips. Stretch it to cover two or more clips underneath, sitting above the footage instead of on one clip.
  3. Pick your look. Same grid, same Intensity slider, right there in the Title's own inspector.
  4. Everything underneath grades at once. No applying it clip by clip down the timeline.

One look, one Title

Change the look on the Title and every clip under that lane updates together. Want a different grade on a different stretch of the timeline? Drop a second Title over that section instead.

Cheat sheet

Quick reference

The sliders and toggles at a glance, from one end to the other.

ControlOne endThe other
Intensity0: untouched footage100: full-strength look
Look grid previewPlayhead off the clip: sample cardsPlayhead on the clip: your footage
Advanced ColorOff: grid + Intensity onlyOn: Interpolation + color space appear
InterpolationTrilinear: the defaultTetrahedral: the alternate method
Add looksLoad Custom LUT: one fileAdd a LUT Pack: a whole folder

Before you install

System requirements

LUT Loader is a Mac video plugin. Here's what you need.

Operating system
macOS 13.5 or later
Ventura and up.
Works in
Final Cut Pro 10.8.1 / Motion 5.8 or later
The filter goes on a clip, the Title on a lane above it.
Mac type
Apple Silicon Mac
Runs natively on M1, M2, M3, and later.
Price
Free
A notarized installer from fordeetv.com. No key, no watermark.

Get help

Stuck on something?

Trouble installing, finding it in the Effects browser, or getting the grid to preview your footage? Reach out and we'll sort it.

Contact support →