About ACES 2¶
ACES Version 2 is the second major release of the ACES (Academy Color Encoding System) framework. This release focuses on refining the default rendering behavior, completing unfinished system components, and delivering a more robust and consistent end-to-end color management solution.
The most significant change in ACES 2 is the introduction of a completely redesigned suite of rendering transforms, which were developed in direct response to feedback from ACES 1 users.
What’s New in ACES 2¶
ACES 2 introduces several important improvements and additions:
- New Output Transforms for rendering ACES images to displays, featuring:
- A less aggressive tone scale with reduced mid-tone contrast and a gentler highlight rolloff
- More intuitive parameter controls for supporting custom or uncommon display configurations
- Robust gamut mapping for improved perceptual uniformity and reduced clipping artifacts
- Optimized performance for inverse transforms
- Additional transforms with preset parameters targeting common display calibration standards
- Enhanced AMF (ACES Metadata File) Specification
- Updated specification of ACES Transform IDs
- OpenEXR Compression Recommendations
- New Tools and Guidelines for generating Input Transforms, especially for prosumer-level cameras
- Look Transform Library for creative color grading workflows
- Expanded Documentation across all components
These key features aimed to address the top feature requests extracted from user feedback on ACES v1.