Download the Mimic Manual (PDF)

Mimic – Make Your Footage Look Like the Film You Love

$49.95 USD – one price, yours to keep. License covers 2 machines, activated with your key.

Here is your footage on one side of the window. Here is the film you want it to look like on the other side. Press the big button – Make Mine Look Like That – watch the result play in the PREVIEW, and if you like it, Save My LUT. That’s the whole workflow. No node graph, no color-science degree, no subscription.

Mimic doesn’t just slap the reference film’s LUT onto your footage. It watches the whole reference – sampling frames across the full run – measures your footage the same way, and builds an original LUT matched to your material, in both directions: your footage to the film, or the film’s world to yours.

Mimic + DaVinci Resolve

Mimic now connects directly to DaVinci Resolve — Free or Studio. Launch the Liberty3D_MimicHostLink script from Resolve’s Workspace > Scripts menu and the two applications work as one: Mimic sees the frame at your playhead, and the looks it builds go straight back into your grade.

New in 1.3.85: Follow keeps Mimic in step with your playhead — settle on a different clip in Resolve and Mimic pulls it in; every look you try is kept in the History, and your work is saved per project as a session.

• Grab the frame at the playhead exactly as Resolve displays it, or pull the clip’s own source file — full quality, ungraded — and let Mimic work from the original media.
• Match any look: reference footage, a gallery still, or a single image — Mimic’s HyperNOS engine analyzes the two and builds the transform.
• Send the finished LUT straight onto your node in Resolve, or save it as a standard .cube file for anywhere else.
• Grab with confidence: if one of Mimic’s own LUTs is sitting on the node, Mimic lifts it for the grab and puts it back — a look never gets baked in twice.

And Mimic still talks to LightWave3D through the Sensor’s Mimic Link — one look-lifting tool, at home in both applications.

What it reads

• Real production files: ProRes 422 and 4444, DNxHR, H.264 / H.265, FFV1, AV1 – 8, 10 and 12-bit sources, any of the 4K variations, any aspect ratio.
• Short plates and elements are fine – even sub-second clips sample properly.
• Frame folders: PNG and JPEG, 16-bit PNG and TIFF, DPX, EXR, WebP and JPEG 2000.
• Everything is processed on your own computer. Your footage never leaves your machine.

Controls that stay out of your way

• Sampling: Auto, Quick 40, Standard 75, Deep 200, or Custom (25-400 frames) – more frames for long films, fewer for a fast pass.
• Finish-it sliders: Softer/Stronger, Cooler/Warmer, Less/More Faded – composed into the LUT you save.
• Scopes, built in: waveform (RGB parade), histogram and vectorscope float over the preview while it plays, so you can judge with instruments, not just eyeballs. Click the Scopes button repeatedly to cycle through them – waveform, histogram, vectorscope, and back to off.

• Reset button: a bad file or a stuck job never means restarting the app.
• Check for updates built in – Mimic tells you when a new version is ready.

What you get

A standard .cube LUT that loads anywhere LUTs load – DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, LightWave (through the Sensor / HyperLook), and more – plus a recipe file recording how the look was built. Every LUT carries its creator stamp from your license automatically.

Your LUTs are yours: use them in your own projects, including commercial work, with no royalties.

Caveats

• Windows PC. Activation needs an internet connection once; after that Mimic works fully offline.
• The installer is unsigned, so Windows SmartScreen will ask once – “More info”, then “Run anyway”. The install guide walks you through it.
• Mimic matches in display-referred space and reads scene-linear HDR stills (EXR and Radiance HDR) directly. HDR video formats (PQ / HLG) will load, but they are not tone mapped.
• ProRes RAW is not supported – no third-party decoder for it exists. Every regular ProRes flavor is fine, no Apple software needed on your PC.

Support: support@liberty3d.com

Mimic

Mimic by Liberty3D - drop in your footage and the film you want it to look like, and Mimic builds you a standard .cube LUT that matches the look. Deep two-sided color analysis, preview with scopes, tweaks, done. Windows. Requires a license key (included with purchase) - perpetual license, 2 machines.

Price: $49.95

OWN THE UBERCAM 4 + HYPERCAM BUNDLE? YOU ALREADY OWN MIMIC.

Mimic is now included free with the UberCam 4 + HyperCam bundle. If you own the bundle, there is nothing to buy and no new key to wait for: your existing bundle license key activates Mimic, on the same 2 machines.

The Mimic installer is inside your bundle download – grab the latest bundle package, run Mimic-Setup, and paste in the bundle key from your original purchase email. That is the whole setup.

And the two were built for each other: with Link LightWave3D on, the look you are building in Mimic streams live into Layout through the HyperCam Sensor, so your render wears the film’s look in VPR while you shape it.

Prefer Mimic on its own? The standalone purchase above is unchanged – $49.95, perpetual license, 2 machines.

Already own Mimic? Download the latest version

If the in-app update ever gives you trouble – a download that stalls or a connection that drops – you can always get the current installer right here instead.

What’s Improved

Version 1.3.38 — The Big Reading Update

The sampler is rebuilt: the count you pick is the divisor (Quick 40, Standard 75, Deep 200), spread evenly from the first frame to the last. ARRI QuickTimes whose color tags are recorded as “reserved” now read correctly. R3D developments try REDLine’s GPU path first, and TIFF developments ingest about five times faster, with a live progress count. LightWave F10 EXRs load by channel name. New in this release: Reports Mode (plain-text metadata reports for any footage — nothing decoded, nothing leaves your machine), the Tool Console (every tool run recorded with its command and exit code), MIDI control surfaces with Learn (Roland MX-1 and Access Virus TI maps included), an Ignore alpha match option, a Monitor color pin (Shift+click; release by Shift+click, menu or Esc), Mimic Link to the Sensor in LightWave, and Shift+click factory homes on every slider.

Version 1.3.6

CHECK FOR UPDATES, FIXED FOR REAL

The built-in updater now does its whole job: Check for updates finds the new version, downloads it, verifies the complete file arrived before calling it done, and retries on its own if the connection stumbles. More updates are coming shortly, so it is worth pressing that button now and then – it works.

SPIRIT – THE GUARD ON THE MATCH

Spirit watches the match itself. When Mimic builds your look, the recipe can push colors harder than anything in the film you are matching actually contains – that is where neon, clipped-looking color comes from. Spirit measures the reference film’s own color extremes and gently bends anything straining past them back inside, working on color intensity so hues stay true. It is a guard, not an effect: at -100% it is completely off, and everything it does is measured from your reference, never a preset.

NEW: ULTRA

Spirit and both bumper guards (Blacks and Clipping) now have a fourth character: Ultra, beyond Hard, with roughly double the grip. Reach for it with hot, saturated references, or whenever you want the guard to hold a tighter line. Soft, Firm and Hard are unchanged.

F9 MAKES THE LOOK. F10 SAVES IT.

Borrowed from LightWave, on purpose. In Layout, F9 renders a frame and F10 renders the animation – if you have spent years in LightWave, those keys are already in your fingers. Mimic keeps the habit: F9 runs the match, F10 saves your LUT.

SLIDERS, REBUILT

The mouse wheel now scrolls in the natural direction, and clicking anywhere on a slider’s track brings the value straight to your click and drags from there. No more jumping.

Earlier in the 1.2 line:

• Reads once, ranges freely (1.2.1). Each clip is read into memory once. The frame-range sliders then choose from the frames already in memory – moving a range never sends Mimic back to the file – and a MEMORY LIMIT you set (beside SAMPLING) plus a live readout show exactly what is being held. Custom sampling counts are honored all the way to 3000 frames, as far as your memory limit permits.
• Zebra on the Monitor (1.2.1). Animated stripes mark the pixels that are blowing out and the pixels that are crushing, live, while you drag. Push a finish slider and watch the stripes grow; bring the Post limiter up and watch them clear. Classic red over the highlights and blue over the blacks, or one stripe color of your choice.
• Scopes with a scale (1.2.1). The waveform parade carries a 0 / 50 / 100 scale and two amber markers at the same ceiling and floor the limiters protect.
• A split that lines up (1.2.2). In Split view, the wipe line sits on the picture itself in both the preview and the Monitor, at any window size – where the line is drawn is exactly where the two halves divide.
• Measures the picture, not the bars (1.2.3). If your material is letterboxed, the bars are left out of the measurement: the look is figured from the picture. A lone stray pixel – one hot sparkle or one dead spot – cannot set your black point or your white point either.
• Scopes that stay on top (1.2.3). Float the scopes into their own see-through window and they stay visible above the Monitor while you work.

What’s New

1.0.5 – The Adjustable Middle

The gap between the two preview panels and the rest of the window is now a working divider. Hover it for the up-down resize cursor, then drag: the preview panels grow while the preview stage gives up the same height, or the other way around, live as you drag. Double-click the divider to return the standard layout. Your split is remembered between launches, and resizing the window keeps the balance you chose.

1.0.4 – From the Field

Zoom and pan on both preview panels (scroll to zoom 25%-800%, drag to pan, double-click to fit), whole frames shown at any aspect ratio in any mix, reliable mid-session material swaps, and a Reset that returns everything to a true fresh-launch state.

1.0.3 – Scopes, Reachable

The built-in scopes – waveform (RGB parade), histogram and vectorscope – float over the preview, with the Scopes button in the PREVIEW row where it belongs. Click it repeatedly to cycle through the three scopes and off.

How to Run It

1. Put your footage on the left and the film you want to match on the right. Drag and drop a file or a folder of frames onto either side, or use the Choose buttons. In the file picker you can Shift-click or Ctrl-click a run of stills and they become a sequence for that side. On the film side you can also right-click to paste a still from the clipboard, or paste a direct link to an image or video file.
2. If you want only one scene measured, drag the range strip under either picture to narrow the window – Mimic measures only what is inside the range.
3. Press MAKE MINE LOOK LIKE THAT.
4. Check the proof with the view buttons: Mine, Mine + The Look, or Split. Hover any pixel to read its Before and After RGB numbers.
5. Season the result with the Strength, Warmth and Fade sliders if you like. The Pre limiter guards the measured look before the sliders; the Post limiter guards it after them.
6. Press SAVE MY LUT and use the .cube in your editor or compositor.

The first time Mimic opens it asks for your license key (it arrives in your purchase email). Paste it in and click ACTIVATE – that is a one-time check. One key covers 2 machines. A small file called cert-mimic.ldc lives next to the program afterwards: it IS your activation, so leave it where it is.

Tips for the best match: representative footage measures best – a few different shots beat one long take of a single scene, and longer sections measure more accurately than very short clips.

Shortcuts

Playback

• Spacebar – play or pause the preview, from anywhere in the app. (While you are typing in a text box, the spacebar just types a space.)
• Left / Right arrow keys – step one frame back or forward; stepping pauses playback. Click a picture first to give it the keys – hovering a top panel focuses it too, unless a text box is active.

Finish sliders (Strength, Warmth, Fade)

• Shift+Click a slider – snap it to exact zero, the pure measured look.
• Double-click a slider – jump it to the value you clicked, rounded to the nearest 5%.
• Alt+drag any slider – fine adjustment at a tenth of the pointer’s speed. Works on the limiter sliders (Highlights, Shadows, Knee and both Amounts) too.

Pictures (top panels, preview, Monitor)

• Mouse wheel – zoom around the cursor, from 25% to 800%.
• Drag – pan a zoomed picture.
• Double-click – fit the whole frame again. A small Fit pill also appears while you are zoomed – click it for the same thing.
• Hover – a card floats beside the pointer with that pixel’s Before and After numbers. Move off the picture and the card stays pinned on the last pixel, so you can work the sliders against a fixed reading; move over the picture again for live readings.
• Click an empty top panel – open the file picker.

Range strips

• Drag an edge – trim the measured range.
• Drag the middle – slide the whole window.
• Double-click – back to the full range.

Split view

• Drag the wipe bar – it moves in the preview and the Monitor together.
• Double-click the bar – return it to the center.

Monitor (its own window, from the Monitor button)

• Z – cycle the zebra: Off, Hot, Crushed, Both. The Monitor needs the focus for this – click it first.
• Right-click – the zebra menu, with stripe colors: Classic (red over highlights, blue over blacks), or red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta or white.
• Ctrl+F9 – borderless fullscreen on the display the Monitor is sitting on. ESC brings the window back.

Scopes

• The Scopes button cycles Off, Waveform, Histogram, Vectorscope. The scopes open on Waveform when Mimic starts.
• Right-click the scopes on the preview – Float the scopes into their own see-through window.
• In the floating window: drag anywhere to move it, drag its edges to resize it, and right-click for the scope mode, the fade (Full, 75%, 50%, 35%) and Dock to Preview. ESC, or closing the window, docks the scopes back instead of switching them off.

Layout

• Drag the divider under the top panels – trade height between the panels and the preview. Double-click it to restore the standard layout. Your split, the Monitor and the floating scopes are all remembered between launches.
• The opening splash can be skipped with a click or any key.