Skip to main content

Style Presets

Style Presets let you apply predefined or custom visual styles across scenes, shots, and entire projects. Presets ensure consistency in tone, color, and atmosphere — whether you are creating cinematic films, marketing ads, or social media videos.

What Style Presets Control​

A style preset bundles together:

  • LUT (Look-Up Table) — Color science that defines the overall palette and tone
  • Exposure and contrast — Brightness, shadow depth, highlight rolloff
  • Saturation and color balance — Warm vs cool, vivid vs muted
  • Grain and film texture — Digital grain simulation for cinematic quality
  • Vignette — Subtle darkening at frame edges for focus
  • Sharpening and clarity — Edge definition and micro-contrast

Core Visual Style Presets​

ACT3 AI includes four primary style presets that define the fundamental visual language of your project:

Cinematic Realism

  • Photorealistic film look matching live-action cinematography
  • Subtle grain, natural shadow rolloff, cinematic color science
  • Best for dramatic films, marketing videos, and social content that needs to look real

3D Animated

  • Clean CG animation aesthetic — smooth surfaces, stylized lighting
  • No film grain; rich but not photorealistic color
  • Best for animated series, explainer videos, and branded content

Cartoon 2D

  • Flat illustrated style with strong outlines and bold colors
  • No depth of field or realistic shadow — stylized and graphic
  • Best for educational content, children's programming, and stylized shorts

Anime

  • Japanese animation aesthetic — vivid saturation, stylized highlights, speed lines
  • Characteristic lighting with high-contrast cel shading
  • Best for manga adaptations, action content, and anime-style storytelling

Additional Built-In Presets​

Noir

  • High contrast with deep shadows
  • Desaturated palette leaning toward black and white
  • Hard lighting feel

Documentary

  • Natural, true-to-life color
  • Clean and grounded, no stylization

Sci-Fi Epic

  • Cool desaturated blues and teals
  • Lens flares and light leaks

Warm Drama

  • Warm orange and amber tones
  • Shallow focus feel, naturalistic

Marketing High-Impact

  • High saturation, punchy colors
  • Commercial brightness

Artistic Styles

  • Watercolor — Painterly edges
  • Comic Book — Strong outlines, flat color fills
  • Vaporwave — Pink and cyan with retro glow

Realism Variations

  • Hyper-Real — Ultra-sharp with enhanced detail
  • Natural Light — Available-light simulation
  • Vintage — Faded, lifted shadows, film-era color

Applying a Preset​

  1. In the Editor, open the Style Presets panel
  2. Choose from the built-in list or browse saved custom presets
  3. Apply to:
    • Active shot only — Overrides the project default for this shot
    • Active scene — Applies to all shots in the current scene
    • Entire project — Sets the default for all shots
  4. Preview changes instantly in the preview pane
  5. Adjust intensity using the preset strength slider

Creating a Custom Preset​

  1. Open the Style Presets panel and click New Preset
  2. Import a .cube LUT file or start with a built-in preset as a base
  3. Use the manual controls to adjust exposure, saturation, contrast, and color balance
  4. Add grain, vignette, and sharpening as needed
  5. Name and save the preset to your Asset Library
  6. Optionally share to your organization for team-wide consistency

Switching Styles Mid-Movie​

You can apply a different Style Preset to individual scenes or shots by overriding the project-level preset at the scene or shot level. This lets you shift from Cinematic Realism to Anime for a dream sequence and return to realism for the next scene — all within the same project. Use this technique for:

  • Dream sequences or fantasy interludes in a realistic film
  • Flashbacks in a different visual era or style
  • Surreal or psychological sequences that need visual contrast with the main story

Custom Presets for Brand Work​

For branded projects, create a custom preset that encodes your client's visual identity:

  • Import a brand LUT if one exists in your brand guidelines
  • Match the brand's color palette in the color balance settings
  • Save as a named preset (e.g., "Acme Corp Brand Style")
  • Apply across all projects for that client without recreating from scratch each time
  • Share the preset to your organization library so all team members use the same brand look

Integration with Color Grading​

Style Presets work together with the Color Grading panel:

  • Use a preset as the starting baseline
  • Fine-tune with manual Color Grading controls for per-shot adjustments
  • Save the combined look as a new preset for future use

The Style Presets panel provides broad strokes; Color Grading provides fine control.

Best Practices​

  • Apply a project-wide preset early and adjust per-shot only for dramatic effect
  • Test presets with draft renders before applying to full-quality output
  • For branded campaigns, create and save a client-specific preset before starting work
  • Combine a style preset with consistent lighting settings for a fully unified look
  • Always enable "Include Style Presets" in export settings before rendering final output

Troubleshooting​

Preset looks different across shots — Check that lighting settings are consistent. Presets respond to the underlying lighting — inconsistent light sources produce inconsistent results.

Preset effect too strong — Reduce the preset intensity slider in the Style Presets panel.

Preset not included in export — Verify that "Include Style Presets" is enabled in the Export Options panel.

Custom LUT not loading — Verify the file is in .cube format. Other formats are not currently supported.