Although Smoke provides a LUT Editor for creating 1D LUTs interactively, you can use 1D LUTs created outside the Smoke environment. You can also use 3D LUTs, which are always created outside Smoke.

You can use LUTs created in other Autodesk Visual Effects and Finishing products, such as Combustion, as well as share LUTs between these applications. You can also use LUTs created in third-party applications, as long as they are in the recognized format.

You can access LUTs from anywhere on your network using the file browser. This can be useful if you are sharing the same LUT between multiple applications.

For ease of use, it is recommended that you save all LUTs in the project's LUT directory, called ~/lut by default. They will be archived with the setups of the project.

All 1D LUT files must have the .lut extension.

All standard 3D LUT files must have the .3dl extension; encrypted 3D LUTs must have the .e3d extension. Encrypted 3D LUTs can be created using the Kodak Display Management system and can only be used on the system on which they were created.

To have Smoke recognize particular LUTs at start-up, you must import them into the 1D or 3D LUT list. See LUT Preferences.

You want Smoke to recognize these LUTs for the following reasons:

• So the 1D LUT can be applied to the monitor and is also accessible in the Player and View menu. See Applying 1D LUTs to the Monitor.
• So the 3D LUT is accessible from the 3D LUT box in the Player menu for viewing purposes. See Applying 3D LUTs to the Player.
• So the 3D LUT is accessible from the Reference Buffer box in the View menu to apply to the frames displayed in the reference buffer overlay. See Applying 3D LUTs to the Reference Area and Overlay.
• So the 3D LUT can be applied to a viewport. See Applying 3D LUTs to the Image Window.