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Freevisuals
Free Butterfly Effect LUT for a cinematic look with a vintage feel, warm shadows, and muted midtones, ideal for color grading footage.
Download FREEDownload NOW!The Butterfly LUT imparts a cinematic, vintage inspired look built around warm shadows, muted midtones, and a soft teal-orange highlight split, the kind of moody, polished, slightly retro grade suited to dramatic narratives, period pieces, and artistic short films. It's named for the sense of quiet transformation this kind of grade can bring to otherwise flat, neutral footage, a subtle but meaningful shift in mood rather than a loud, obvious visual effect.
If you want a broader range of similar looks, our Premiere Pro color presets library and full LUT library both cover related cinematic and vintage grades. For a cooler, higher contrast alternative built for urban and portrait content instead, our Dramatic Urban Walk LUT is worth comparing directly against this one.
This LUT's characteristics are visible directly in its underlying color transformation data, which gives us a genuinely precise way to describe exactly what it does rather than relying on vague marketing language:
Overall, the effect reads as moody yet polished, with a retro undertone throughout. This isn't a LUT that dramatically transforms footage into something unrecognizable, it's a subtle, considered shift that nudges neutral footage toward a specific, intentional emotional register.
Applied in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, or similar software, this LUT will:
The moody, retro undertone suits story driven content over bright, commercial footage. If you're producing a short film with an emotional or introspective story, this LUT supports that tone without needing dialogue or performance alone to carry the mood.
The warm shadow tint and desaturated midtones naturally support a sense of "the past" without needing heavy manual grading. Content set in earlier decades, or simply evoking a nostalgic feeling regardless of actual setting, benefits from this LUT's built-in vintage character.
Well suited to music videos, poetry films, or any project prioritizing atmosphere over neutral color accuracy. If the goal of a piece is emotional resonance rather than literal, documentary style representation, this LUT's stylized warmth supports that goal directly.
Some wedding videographers specifically lean into a warm, nostalgic, film-like aesthetic rather than a bright, clean, modern look. This LUT fits that specific niche within wedding videography well, particularly for couples requesting a timeless rather than trend-driven visual style.
Interview footage covering personal, reflective, or emotionally weighty subject matter can benefit from this LUT's restrained, muted character, supporting a thoughtful tone rather than a bright, energetic one.
Download the .cube file from the link above.
Go to File > Preferences > System > General, then click Open LUT Folder. Copy the downloaded .cube file into this folder.
Resolve needs to be restarted, or the LUT list refreshed manually, before the new LUT appears in your browser.
Right-click your clip's node, choose LUT, and select Butterfly Effect from your custom LUT folder.
Add Lumetri Color to your clip, open the Lumetri panel, go to Creative, click Browse under Look, and select the .cube file directly.
Place the .cube file in your custom LUT folder and apply it through the Color inspector's Custom LUT option.
Since this LUT adds noticeable warmth, apply it to a clip with visible skin tones first to confirm the warmth reads as flattering rather than overly orange or unnatural before committing to it across a full project.
If your footage includes significant green foliage or backgrounds, preview how the muted midtones affect those areas specifically, since this LUT noticeably desaturates green tones.
If a specific shot needs additional adjustment beyond what the LUT provides, use your software's standard color wheels or curves on top of the LUT rather than replacing it entirely.
Always review your final graded footage at full resolution and, ideally, on a properly calibrated display before considering the grade finished.
Warm shadows paired with desaturated midtones is a specific, well established combination in cinematic color grading, and it works because it separates two different visual signals that usually move together. Warmth typically reads as inviting and nostalgic, while full saturation typically reads as vibrant and energetic. By keeping the warmth but pulling back the saturation, this LUT creates a look that feels emotionally warm without feeling visually loud, which is exactly the tone needed for reflective, dramatic, or nostalgic content that wants emotional resonance without demanding the viewer's excitement.
This is different from a LUT that's simply desaturated across the board, which tends to read as cold or clinical rather than warm and nostalgic. The specific choice to keep warmth in the shadows while muting saturation elsewhere is what gives this LUT its particular, recognizable character.
The butterfly effect, as a concept, refers to the idea that small, seemingly insignificant changes can lead to large, meaningful outcomes. That framing fits this LUT well, since none of its individual adjustments (a slight red shift in shadows, a small pull-back in green saturation, a gentle teal accent in highlights) are dramatic on their own. Applied together, though, they compound into a distinct, recognizable aesthetic that shifts the entire emotional register of a piece of footage. It's a good example of how subtle, layered color decisions often produce a more convincing result than a single, heavy-handed effect.
This is also part of why this LUT works well as a starting point for editors still learning color grading. Studying exactly how a small shadow shift and a modest saturation pull-back combine to create a specific mood is a genuinely useful way to start understanding the underlying principles that professional colorists apply manually on every project.
It's worth understanding what you're getting with a pre-built LUT like this one compared to a fully custom color grade built from scratch by a colorist working shot by shot. A LUT applies the same mathematical transformation uniformly across your footage, which is fast and consistent but doesn't account for the specific lighting conditions, skin tones, or color palette of each individual shot the way a colorist working manually would.
For most independent creators, wedding videographers, and small production teams, that tradeoff is entirely reasonable. The speed and consistency of a LUT-based workflow far outweighs the marginal improvement a fully custom grade might offer, particularly for projects with tight turnaround times or limited budgets. Where a LUT can fall short is on footage with unusual or inconsistent lighting across many different shots, in those cases, some manual correction on top of the LUT (adjusting exposure or white balance per clip before the LUT is applied) will produce a noticeably better result than relying on the LUT alone.
Applying this LUT to bright, high energy content. The muted, warm character works against footage that's meant to feel exciting or vibrant, save it for content where a quieter, more contemplative mood is the goal.
Not checking how it handles your specific green tones. Since this LUT noticeably mutes green saturation, always preview it against your actual footage's backgrounds before committing, particularly for outdoor or nature heavy content.
Overcorrecting skin tones after applying the LUT. The built-in warmth is intentional, resist the urge to fully neutralize it back to a standard skin tone unless the warmth genuinely looks unnatural on your specific footage.
Using this LUT for green screen keying without adjustment. Always key your green screen footage before applying this LUT, applying it afterward can interfere with a clean key due to the shift in green saturation.
Light Leaks Transitions In DaVinci Resolve 18 Tutorial, useful if you want to pair this LUT's vintage character with matching light leak transitions for a fuller nostalgic aesthetic.
Yes, this LUT mutes green saturation in midtones, which can affect green screen keying. Key your footage before applying this LUT rather than after.
Not particularly, its muted, warm, moody character suits dramatic or nostalgic content better than bright, high saturation styles.
No, LUTs are color transforms only and can't add texture or grain. Pair this LUT with a separate grain overlay if you want the full vintage film effect.
It's built for standard rec709 footage. Log footage will need to be converted or corrected to rec709 first, or the LUT's warmth and contrast response may look significantly different than intended.
Yes, free for both personal and commercial projects.
Yes, most editing software allows you to reduce a LUT's opacity or blend percentage, which softens the warmth and desaturation if the full effect feels too strong for your footage.
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