Technicolor dye-transfer · OFX · DaVinci Resolve

Pour the dyes.
Print the look.
Be the lab.

Technically Technicolor DRT rebuilds the Technicolor dye-transfer process inside Resolve: the cyan, magenta and yellow dye plates of two-strip and three-strip prints, fed by a full photochemical negative. Not a Technicolor LUT. The imbibition lab in a node.

Get Technicolor DRT → See the process
4processing modes
43band negative
3dye plates + key
Look preview Live look sim
Rec.709 reference frame
Technicolor DRT dye-transfer look preview
Single Stock Modern
Technicolor Rec.709

Sample Technicolor looks as starting points. Your footage and your own dye design will land differently. Previews use a live color sim for now.

What was Technicolor, really?

It's dye-transfer printing, not an old-school filter.

Technicolor wasn't a film stock. It was a printing process. A special camera split the scene into separate black-and-white records (two colors, then later three), and each record was used to etch a gelatin matrix. Those matrices soaked up cyan, magenta and yellow dyes and transferred them, one plate at a time, onto a single blank strip. The image you remember was printed in dye, layer over layer, like a lithograph of light.

Technically Technicolor DRT simulates that whole chain in software (a real photochemical negative first, then the dye-transfer print on top), so your footage looks like it was struck on an imbibition press, not run through a preset. And the best part: you run the lab. You design the dyes, balance the printer lights, and choose the process.

B/W
Records are split

The camera separates the scene into black-and-white color records: two strips, or three behind a gold-mirror prism.

Ag
Matrices are etched

Each record hardens a gelatin relief matrix. The deeper the exposure, the more dye it will hold.

CMY
Dyes are transferred

Cyan, magenta and yellow plates imbibe their dyes and transfer them in register onto one blank strip.

⌬
The print is projected

Carbon-arc or xenon light passes through the stacked dye plates. What survives is the Technicolor image.

The process · negative → dye-transfer print

Four ways to print Technicolor.

Technically Technicolor DRT runs a real 43-band negative, then hands it to the dye-transfer print side. You pick how that handoff works, from a clean modern register pull to the authentic two-strip and three-strip processes.

Step 01 · The negative

Negative spectral simulation

The 43-band negative isn't fixed. It rebuilds itself for the process you're shooting.

Before any dye is poured, the negative is developed across a full 43-band spectrum: silver sensitivity, dye formation, HD curves, grain, halation and MTF. What makes it more than a single stock is that the spectral model reshapes itself per mode to match how the real camera split and filtered the light:

  • Single Stock (Modern). One integral tripack: red, green and blue records share a single emulsion, with the full 43-band sensitivity working as a modern color negative.
  • Two-strip. The light is split and filtered onto a double-exposed black-and-white negative, so the spectral model collapses to two records (red and green, no blue) on a panchromatic stock like Double-X 5222.
  • Three-strip. A gold-mirror prism feeds a green record plus a red/blue bipack, so the simulation runs three separate B/W negatives, each with its own filtered sensitivity.
Why it matters

Everything downstream prints from this. Because the negative's spectral response adapts to the capture path, the two-strip and three-strip looks are baked in at the silver, not faked later with a LUT.

Mode 02 · Default

Single Stock

The modern, most flexible Technicolor look. Start here.

The default. The scanned negative becomes the three printing registers, driving the cyan / magenta / yellow dye plates directly. Printer Lights set the register exposure; Register Extraction and the Gel Matrix masters anchor and shape the pull. Your projector light defaults to the modern Xenon Bulb. The most flexible, most forgiving Technicolor look, and the place to start.

Why it matters

This is modern Technicolor: the richness of dye-transfer with a clean, controllable register pull. Auto-Anchor finds your black and white points for you.

Mode 03 · 2-Strip

Process 3

Two records, no blue: the early-talkies teal and rose. Recommended stock: Double-X 5222.

Classic two-strip Technicolor. Two black-and-white records only: red and green, no blue, no silver key. The red record drives the blue-green plate, the green drives the red-orange plate, and blacks form where the two dyes overlap. The unmistakable teal-and-rose palette of the early talkies.

Why it matters

This is the real two-strip look: limited, romantic, and instantly period. Pair it with Double-X 5222.

Mode 04 · 3-Strip

Process 4

Three records behind a gold-mirror prism: the glory era.

Classic three-strip Technicolor. Three separate B/W records (green, blue and red) split behind a gold-mirror beam-splitting prism, then printed through the full modern dye/plate side (CMYK plates plus Green Flash). The Gold Mirror Bias slider balances the prism between the green record and the blue/red bipack.

Why it matters

Three-strip is the glory era: saturated, deep, dimensional. This is the camera that shot the classics, rebuilt one record at a time.

The print side

The dye-transfer print

Every mode hands off to the same imbibition press.

Every mode hands off to the same imbibition print side: cyan, magenta, yellow and black dye plates, exposed by lab Printer Lights, then sampled through a Projector Bulb (Carbon Arc, White Flame or Xenon). What lands on screen isn't your input colors or even the dye colors. It's the light that survives the stacked dye plates.

Why it matters

Picture the projector in an old theater: the light you see is the light the dyes didn't absorb. That's exactly what we deliver.

Dye Lab · two custom panels

Pour your own dyes with the Dye Designer.

Technically Technicolor DRT ships with two panels you won't find anywhere else. The Dye Designer lets you set the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black dye colours on a hue-faithful editor, with live plate-isolation thumbnails so you can watch each plate land on its own. The Film Stock Editor lets you draw the negative's silver sensitivity, dye absorption and HD curves directly on a 43-band spectral graph, and see the print re-develop live.

  • Design every plate. Set C / M / Y / K dye hues on the hue-faithful leaf; isolate any plate to a live thumbnail; trim each dye with a Master row.
  • Draw the stock by hand. Sculpt silver sensitivity, dye absorption and HD response across the 43-band spectrum: click to add a point, drag to move, right-click to delete.
  • Max Density & Green Flash, live. Tune overall dye density and the signature Green Flash right from the panel header, with the frame updating as you work.
The Dye Designer panel in Technicolor DRT: the final image alongside cyan, magenta, yellow and black plate isolations, the dye-hue bar, and the per-dye leaf curves.
Dye Designer · macOS Metal panel

The premium tools

Get Technicolor DRT, and everything else.

Technically Technicolor DRT comes with the whole Tool Box. Become a Happy Little Noder and get every premium tool on the channel (PhotoChemist, Technicolor DRT, the Color Slicer and more), plus every update and new release. One low annual fee that will never be raised.

Plenty is free, forever

A whole set of the Tool Box is free, always. Grab the Tool Box Manager and start playing today. The premium kit opens up with a single purchase whenever you're ready.

Happy Little Noders
$47.34/ year

Everything you see on YouTube, plus every update, for less than a single film stock LUT pack.

  • Full Technically Technicolor DRT (all four processing modes, Dye Designer & Film Stock Editor)
  • Every premium DCTL & OFX plugin in the Tool Box (incl. PhotoChemist)
  • All future tools & updates included
  • Mac, Windows & Linux builds
  • Price locked, never raised
Become a member →
Billed annually · cancel anytime

Getting started

Install in a couple of clicks.

The only way in is the Tool Box Manager: it installs Technicolor DRT, keeps it organized, and updates it for you right alongside the rest of the kit. Works on macOS, Windows and Linux, no manual file-copying required.

Download the Tool Box Manager

Grab the latest release from GitHub and open it. It's your home base for every Dec. 18 tool.

Find Technicolor DRT in the list

Browse the catalog inside the Manager and select Technicolor DRT, right there alongside the rest of the kit.

Click Install

The Manager drops the OFX bundle into the right place for you, no digging through system folders.

Restart DaVinci Resolve

Relaunch Resolve so it picks up the new plugin, and make sure OFX is enabled in Resolve's plugin manager. On macOS you may first need to allow it in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Apply from the Effects library

Technicolor DRT lives in your OFX effects under the Dec18studios group. Drop it on a node: it expects a DaVinci Wide Gamut / Intermediate (or Linear) input, so add a CST with no tone mapping just before it, or set Input Mode accordingly.