InviziGrain FAQ

Is InviziGrain easy to use? ↓

Absolutely. Step 1, choose a film stock. Step 2, press play.

Is InviziGrain accurate? ↓

Sure is. In order to ensure the accuracy of InviziGrain we have spent thousands of hours studying film stocks, working with premier film labs and collaborating with Cinematographers and Colorists to make InviziGrain indistinguishable from the real thing.

Is InviziGrain customizable? ↓

Yes. While the plugin offers 1-click presets, every feature is customizable.

Where do I put the InviziGrain plugin in my color workflow? ↓

By default, InviziGrain's luminance mapping and effects are looking for footage that has already been graded. Therefore, we recommend you apply it on a Timeline node after all of your other color corrections rather than on individual Clip nodes.

Does InviziGrain use real film grain? ↓

Yes. We created our own grain scans of real film stocks, scanned on 4K and 6K film scanners which the plugin randomizes so you never have repeated or looped grain.

Can InviziGrain simulate 16mm or Super16? ↓

Absolutely. It turns out 16mm film is much harder to emulate convincingly. This is where InviziGrain really shines. We have succesfully recreated the movement of 16mm's huge grain, giving your footage that signature look. InviziGrain can even simulate 8mm or Super8mm's intense graininess.

What is Red Bloom?↓

Red Bloom flares are highlights in the red layer of a film negative. This is a simulation of beautiful halation scatter seen in classic film stocks.

What is Acutance?↓

Acutance simulates the signature contrast of celluloid. The effect models developer chemicals that increase local image contrast, sharpening footage without clipping.

What is Shadow Grain?↓

In the underexposed (shadow) regions, real film gets very grainy. The grain you typically see in these areas dances around a lot and is bigger than other grain. Shadow Grain accurately simulates this look so that your nighttime footage or darker exposed areas have a truly realistic feel.

What is Diffusion?↓

Diffusion simulates the pleasing softness of film emulsion. It subtly diffuses the image before applying grain, making for great skin tones and lush textures.

What are Edge Threshold & Edge Reduction? ↓

Film grain visually appears to scatter less around well-exposed object edges, and this slider controls that. Most users will not need to touch this feature.

How do I adjust the luma map?↓

Easy. In the Luminance Mapping section just click on View Luminance.

Can I control luma-mapping? Shadows? And highlights? ↓

Yes. Just adjust the Shadows and Highlight sliders at the top of the plugin to push grain into the blacks and whites of your clip. You can also play with the Luminance Mapping to get even more control.

What if I don't want InviziGrain to change the color of my footage? ↓

Just turn off "Use 3D LUT" and InviziGrain will only apply film grain without affecting your project color.

What if I want to sculpt the contrast and look of my footage without making it grainy? ↓

Simple. Turn Grain Intensity and Texture to 0 then just activate Acutance, Pre Blur, and Red Bloom. You'll be able to dial in different light scattering and spatial contrast effects without adding any graininess to your project.

InviziGrain is making my text and credits too grainy. What do I do? ↓

Easy. We recommend putting all text on another layer, above/after InviziGrain is applied. It turns out that in the old days, credits & text were actually printed on special low-grain, high-contrast film stocks, so those old movie credits stayed pretty clean.

Should I use InviziGrain on RAW/LOG footage or on colored footage? ↓

We like to use it on colored footage. It's easier to dial in the final look of your project if things are already graded.

Does InviziGrain support REC709, ACES and P3? ↓

Actually, InviziGrain supports ANY color space you're working in. It runs in linear 32-bit float, leveraging Resolve's huge native color space.

Does InviziGrain work on iPhone, GoPro, A7S or other non-RAW footage? ↓

Absolutely! In fact, InviziGrain adds a dimension to compressed video formats that takes the digital edge off and gives these cameras new depth. This allows them to stand up alongside, or intercut with, footage from much higher-end cameras, like Alexa or RED.

Do I need to de-noise footage before running InviziGrain? ↓

In most cases, unless there is very significant video noise in your footage, you do not need to de-noise it first.

Can I use InviziGrain to match the film footage I've already shot?↓

Absolutely. First match your digital footage to your film footage by shooting a Macbeth chart on both cameras. Then you can use Resolve or 3D LUT Creator to match color. Next you would use InviziGrain to match the film grain. Optionally, you can shoot your own grain plate and connect it to the InviziGrain node's mask input. InviziGrain requires the exposure to be precisely medium gray.

Does InviziGrain run on Mac? ↓

Yes! InviziGrain is compatible with Mac Systems.

Can I use InviziGrain on a laptop? ↓

Technically, yes. Though you’ll need an AMD or Nvidia GPU and we recommend a powerful eGPU. Generally, we recommend InviziGrain run on a desktop for best performance.

I don't use DaVinci Resolve. Does InviziGrain run on Scratch / Baselight / Premiere / Flame / Nuke?↓

We'll be supporting other hosts in the near future. Fill out a request through the Contact page with your interest so we know which apps to target first.

Do you offer floating licenses?↓

We are working on adding floating license support, but have an immediate solution for multi-workstation facilities so please contact us.

Can I install InviziGrain on two (or more) computers? ↓

You can only install InviziGrain on one machine. If you need a license for additional machines, please contact us, as there are some options for this.

Does InviziGrain run in real time? ↓

Yes. However, if you have all the features on and you're running 4K footage you'll need a serious GPU or even multiple GPUs. InviziGrain rebuilds every frame of your footage out of layers of film grain called silver halides. These layers interact with each other which takes a massive amount of processing power, more than any other film simulation plugin out there. It might sound intense but this is how we achieve a high level of realism.

Does InviziGrain use CPU?↓

Hardly any CPU is used as it's all GPU accelerated. If we ran on CPU it would run about 100 times slower.

Why does InviziGrain use so much GPU power? ↓

Because InviziGrain doesn't just overlay grain on your footage, it actually rebuilds every frame out of layers of individual grains then scatters light between those layers... and all in real time. To do this requires immense computational power.

Why is playback a little choppy at first? ↓

On slower disk systems you may notice lower FPS as InviziGrain pre-caches the grain frames into GPU memory. After the first few seconds, playback will go into real time and the grain will remain cached (until you load another film preset). Using an SSD, very fast RAID or fiber SAN to store grain frames should alleviate this.

Do I have to store grain in the OpenFX folder? ↓

No. You can just put an alias there (symbolic link) called “Grain” and point it to another location, ideally on an SSD or very fast RAID.

InviziGrain FAQ

General↓

Is InviziGrain easy to use? ↓ Absolutely. Step 1, choose a film stock. Step 2, press play.

Absolutely. Step 1, choose a film stock. Step 2, press play.

Is InviziGrain accurate? ↓ Sure is. In order to ensure the accuracy of InviziGrain we have spent thousands of hours studying film stocks, working with premier film labs and collaborating with Cinematographers and Colorists to make InviziGrain indistinguishable from the real thing.

Sure is. In order to ensure the accuracy of InviziGrain we have spent thousands of hours studying film stocks, working with premier film labs and collaborating with Cinematographers and Colorists to make InviziGrain indistinguishable from the real thing.

Is InviziGrain customizable? ↓ Yes. While the plugin offers 1-click presets, every feature is customizable.

Yes. While the plugin offers 1-click presets, every feature is customizable.

By default, InviziGrain's luminance mapping and effects are looking for footage that has already been graded. Therefore, we recommend you apply it on a Timeline node after all of your other color corrections rather than on individual Clip nodes.

Does InviziGrain use real film grain? ↓ Yes. We created our own grain scans of real film stocks, scanned on 4K and 6K film scanners which the plugin randomizes so you never have repeated or looped grain.

Yes. We created our own grain scans of real film stocks, scanned on 4K and 6K film scanners which the plugin randomizes so you never have repeated or looped grain.

Absolutely. It turns out 16mm film is much harder to emulate convincingly. This is where InviziGrain really shines. We have succesfully recreated the movement of 16mm's huge grain, giving your footage that signature look. InviziGrain can even simulate 8mm or Super8mm's intense graininess.

Features↓

What is Red Bloom?↓ Red Bloom flares are highlights in the red layer of a film negative. This is a simulation of beautiful halation scatter seen in classic film stocks.

Red Bloom flares are highlights in the red layer of a film negative. This is a simulation of beautiful halation scatter seen in classic film stocks.

What is Acutance?↓ Acutance simulates the signature contrast of celluloid. The effect models developer chemicals that increase local image contrast, sharpening footage without clipping.

Acutance simulates the signature contrast of celluloid. The effect models developer chemicals that increase local image contrast, sharpening footage without clipping.

In the underexposed (shadow) regions, real film gets very grainy. The grain you typically see in these areas dances around a lot and is bigger than other grain. Shadow Grain accurately simulates this look so that your nighttime footage or darker exposed areas have a truly realistic feel.

What is Diffusion?↓ Diffusion simulates the pleasing softness of film emulsion. It subtly diffuses the image before applying grain, making for great skin tones and lush textures.

Diffusion simulates the pleasing softness of film emulsion. It subtly diffuses the image before applying grain, making for great skin tones and lush textures.

What are Edge Threshold & Edge Reduction? ↓ Film grain visually appears to scatter less around well-exposed object edges, and this slider controls that. Most users will not need to touch this feature.

Film grain visually appears to scatter less around well-exposed object edges, and this slider controls that. Most users will not need to touch this feature.

How do I adjust the luma map?↓ Easy. In the Luminance Mapping section just click on View Luminance.

Easy. In the Luminance Mapping section just click on View Luminance.

Can I control luma-mapping? Shadows? And highlights? ↓ Yes. Just adjust the Shadows and Highlight sliders at the top of the plugin to push grain into the blacks and whites of your clip. You can also play with the Luminance Mapping to get even more control.

Yes. Just adjust the Shadows and Highlight sliders at the top of the plugin to push grain into the blacks and whites of your clip. You can also play with the Luminance Mapping to get even more control.

What if I don't want InviziGrain to change the color of my footage? ↓ Just turn off "Use 3D LUT" and InviziGrain will only apply film grain without affecting your project color.

Just turn off "Use 3D LUT" and InviziGrain will only apply film grain without affecting your project color.

Simple. Turn Grain Intensity and Texture to 0 then just activate Acutance, Pre Blur, and Red Bloom. You'll be able to dial in different light scattering and spatial contrast effects without adding any graininess to your project.

Easy. We recommend putting all text on another layer, above/after InviziGrain is applied. It turns out that in the old days, credits & text were actually printed on special low-grain, high-contrast film stocks, so those old movie credits stayed pretty clean.

Footage↓

Should I use InviziGrain on RAW/LOG footage or on colored footage? ↓ We like to use it on colored footage. It's easier to dial in the final look of your project if things are already graded.

We like to use it on colored footage. It's easier to dial in the final look of your project if things are already graded.

Does InviziGrain support REC709, ACES and P3? ↓ Actually, InviziGrain supports ANY color space you're working in. It runs in linear 32-bit float, leveraging Resolve's huge native color space.

Actually, InviziGrain supports ANY color space you're working in. It runs in linear 32-bit float, leveraging Resolve's huge native color space.

Absolutely! In fact, InviziGrain adds a dimension to compressed video formats that takes the digital edge off and gives these cameras new depth. This allows them to stand up alongside, or intercut with, footage from much higher-end cameras, like Alexa or RED.

Do I need to de-noise footage before running InviziGrain? ↓ In most cases, unless there is very significant video noise in your footage, you do not need to de-noise it first.

In most cases, unless there is very significant video noise in your footage, you do not need to de-noise it first.

Devices / Programs↓

Does InviziGrain run on Mac? ↓ Yes! InviziGrain is compatible with Mac Systems.

Yes! InviziGrain is compatible with Mac Systems.

Can I use InviziGrain on a laptop? ↓ Technically, yes. Though you’ll need an AMD or Nvidia GPU and we recommend a powerful eGPU. Generally, we recommend InviziGrain run on a desktop for best performance.

Technically, yes. Though you’ll need an AMD or Nvidia GPU and we recommend a powerful eGPU. Generally, we recommend InviziGrain run on a desktop for best performance.

I don't use DaVinci Resolve. Does InviziGrain run on Scratch / Baselight / Premiere / Flame / Nuke?↓ We'll be supporting other hosts in the near future. Fill out a request through the Contact page with your interest so we know which apps to target first.

We'll be supporting other hosts in the near future. Fill out a request through the Contact page with your interest so we know which apps to target first.

Licensing↓

Do you offer floating licenses?↓ We are working on adding floating license support, but have an immediate solution for multi-workstation facilities so please contact us.

We are working on adding floating license support, but have an immediate solution for multi-workstation facilities so please contact us.

Can I install InviziGrain on two (or more) computers? ↓ You can only install InviziGrain on one machine. If you need a license for additional machines, please contact us, as there are some options for this.

You can only install InviziGrain on one machine. If you need a license for additional machines, please contact us, as there are some options for this.

Performance↓

Does InviziGrain use CPU?↓ Hardly any CPU is used as it's all GPU accelerated. If we ran on CPU it would run about 100 times slower.

Hardly any CPU is used as it's all GPU accelerated. If we ran on CPU it would run about 100 times slower.

Why does InviziGrain use so much GPU power? ↓ Because InviziGrain doesn't just overlay grain on your footage, it actually rebuilds every frame out of layers of individual grains then scatters light between those layers... and all in real time. To do this requires immense computational power.

Because InviziGrain doesn't just overlay grain on your footage, it actually rebuilds every frame out of layers of individual grains then scatters light between those layers... and all in real time. To do this requires immense computational power.

Do I have to store grain in the OpenFX folder? ↓ No. You can just put an alias there (symbolic link) called “Grain” and point it to another location, ideally on an SSD or very fast RAID.

No. You can just put an alias there (symbolic link) called “Grain” and point it to another location, ideally on an SSD or very fast RAID.