Free Wes Anderson Asteroid City Inspired LUTs

 

 

LUTs everywhere!

 

I

mmediately upon watching the trailer of the Wes Anderson's Asteroid City I thought two things:

 

1.- Color Palettes: 

 

Which I already made here 

https://blog.pablolarah.cl/2023/03/wes-andersons-asteroid-city-color.html 

 

2.- Colorgrading.

 

 I rewatched the videos about the Wes Anderson cinematography I have already seen and I got two or three more with information about the movie. Also I (unwantedly) knew about a new trend on TikTok with Accidentally Wes Anderson tiktoks.

So,I checked on my previous screenshots of the trailer and began to test some colorgrading. I got a uncolorgraded image on a video by Filmmaker IQ:

https://www.youtube.com/live/zGK17Ot4nTM

He made a short, but interesting study of the color on the film. He described Asteroid City as overexposed and saturated, almost looking like an ungraded footage ("..still looking like a log footage"). 

 

Evan Schneider, on his youtube channel, established some hints on the creation of LUTs to replicate the coloring on Asteroid City

 

 "...it actually says that it was shot on Kodak film..."

"...skin tones are pushing a little bit yellow but we can also see here that they're following kind of the teal orange line which is a common thing that colorists and cinematographers do to create natural looking color contrast..."

"...we also have shadows that kind of push into the blue tones..."

"...most of the image is sitting in the mid-tones..."

"...the highlights are quite compressed and they don't really go above 80 or 85 percent[...]pretty compressed highlights things are very smooth in the Highlight roll off..."

"...Hue for the green tones which are pushing actually kind of a cool green [...] the greens are pushed towards more of a blue cyan..."

"...it's just kind of like pastelly um I would describe it as like low contrast High saturation very pastel but very saturated..."


"...the highlights push a tiny bit green..."

 

 

 

Evan Schneider made a set of LUTs that he is selling on his website. Check the video:

https://youtu.be/LMgtoNd8eVU

 

If you watch with attention, you will see the usual oversaturated reds and yellows, and some blue in the shadows and a pervasive Teal and Orange colorgrading. The skins in some parts are redish or orange and in others, like the scene with Scarlett Johansson, the skin looks peachy. There are lots of browns and beautiful light blues and oranges everywhere. The day scenes are super sunny and slightly overexposed with dimmed lights.

 

 

Finally I created four LUTs. 

 

1.- Asteroid: 

The base LUT.

2.- Bluer Asteroid: 

The Asteroid LUT with bluer shades and greener lights.

3.- Junior Stargazer: 

This one was made altering the Asteroid one accordingly to the footage of the gas station in the desert video I found on Pexels.

4.- Scarlett: 

LUT based on the image of Scarlett Johansson on the window. A little bit greener and muddy for my taste, but it can be useful for colorgrading photos.

 

The video: https://youtu.be/Jt8NacfezVI 

 

Recommendations for selecting footage or pictures to apply the LUTs.

The youtuber on the channel Imitative Photography, made a video about How To Take Accidentally Wes Anderson Photos. He described in a diagram the key things to consider to create WesAnderson-esque photography.

 

https://youtu.be/NDMPMftpkW0 

These are:

a.- Subject:

Tchotchke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tchotchke

Vintage Fonts.

Eccentric buildings.

b.- Light:

Soft.

Diffused.

c.- Composition:

Symmetrical framing.

Planimetric Staging.

d.- Color:

Pastel shades.

Saturated red/yellow.

Bright tones.

 

And, the diagram:

 

 

 

Check the Imitative Photography's video for the details.

 

Also, as today (May 11th, 2023) Wes Anderson is trending, Lukas Lutz posted a prompt to create an image based on Wes Anderson:

[location] in the style of Wes Anderson, neoclassical symmetry, pastel color palette, flat perspective, stagelike location, cinematic framing, hyperrealistic photo, 8k, awa --ar 16:9 --q 2 --v 5.1

( https://twitter.com/lukaslutzAI/status/1656618402201632768 )

We have again some points to follow:

 

Neoclassical Symmetry.

Pastel color palette. 

Flat Perspective.

Stagelike location.

Cinematic Framing.

16:9 aspect ratio.

Last, but not least, there is a video about how to "Replicate Wes Anderson color palette in the color grade" by Color Grading Central  on Twitter: @colorgrading  

Steps:
1.- Compressed Dynamic Range.
2.- Low Contrast (Inverse S Curve).
3.- High Saturation.
4.- Warm/Color Separation: Cool shadows and warm midtones.
5.- Teal & Orange.

https://youtu.be/08C__HWtOAQ 

 

For more info, you can check this interesting videos of Studio Binder:
The Wes Anderson Style Explained — The Complete Director's Guide to Wes Anderson's Aesthetic
Color Theory and Wes Anderson's Style — Sad Characters in a Colorful World
Wes Anderson Symmetry & Editing Techniques — 3 Ways Anderson Balances his Edits
 
 

 

Here some examples of the LUT applied.

 

 

 

And here you have Rio de Janeiro, but in the style of Wes Anderson:

 

 

 

 

 

Recommendations for editing:

 

I made the LUTs in Photoshop 2023, as a first thing. The cube format can be used in other software. 

I am not a professional film colorist, so I am using the knowledge I have with the use of color in Photography.

 

Second, choose an image or footage following the diagram above. 

Lower the Contrast a hundred percent. 

Flatten the image (lower the highlights and raise the shadows). Check if the lower contrast looks fine. If not, raise the Contrast till get your desired look. 

Apply the chosen LUT. You can lower the opacity if the effect is too heavy for the image.

Check if the modifications are suitable for you.

Depending on the image, maybe you will need to saturate the reds and yellows. 

A little trick is to raise the Vibrance ( sometimes, a lot).

 

Finally, I used footage from Pexels and Pixabay for the video of the edited material. Check the links if you want to compare the original footage with the colorgraded one.

 

 

 

 

Also, I created a Kofi page if you want to support my work.

 

https://ko-fi.com/pablolarah

 

Behind the Scenes

1.- Font in use: Ultra by Astigmatic .
2. Download 4 LUTs inspired by Wes Anderson's Asteroid City. 

2.1.- Asteroid:

2.2.- Bluer Asteroid:

2.3.- Junior Stargazer:

2.4.- Scarlett:

Download

Alternative Link:

Download

3.- Credits for music, footage and images:
3.1.- Music:
Everything feels new: https://pixabay.com/music/beats-everything-feels-new-15241/
Author: https://pixabay.com/users/evgeny_bardyuzha-25235210/
Passion : https://pixabay.com/music/upbeat-passion-127011/
Author:https://pixabay.com/users/alexiaction-26977400/
3.2.- Footage and Images:
Red rollers image: https://www.pexels.com/@rodnae-prod/
Gas Station footage: https://www.pexels.com/@rickyrecap/
Jumping African men with red dresses image: https://www.pexels.com/@kureng-workx-2546437/
Pastelly hot-air balloon footage: https://www.pexels.com/@shvetsa/
Woman with yellow dress and man with green jacket images: https://www.pexels.com/@yaroslav-shuraev/
Handsome red hair man with woman in a field footage: https://www.pexels.com/@ron-lach/
Aereal view of water tower in a field footage: https://www.pexels.com/@e-james-merl-421916742/
Camel with a red flower image: https://www.pexels.com/@digitalbuggu/
Woman with camel footage: https://www.pexels.com/@pavel-danilyuk/
Woman with robe walking in the desert with umbrellas footage: https://www.pexels.com/@pavel-danilyuk/
Aereal view of lighthouse in the sea: https://www.pexels.com/@kindelmedia/
Handsome male couple covered with red fabric in the desert: https://www.pexels.com/@cottonbro/