For those who don’t know the tool: FilmLight’s Baselight is a professional colour grading and finishing system used across film, episodic and advertising pipelines. It integrates with Avid, Nuke and Flame, and extends to Baselight for macOS for flexible desktop workflows.

Complexity simplified

FilmLight has released Baselight v7, a major update to its colour grading and finishing platform. The release focuses on matte handling, machine-learning-assisted segmentation, and performance for complex, VFX-driven projects.

A redesigned matte and channel architecture underpins the release, with the new matte channel picker offering list or thumbnail previews of internal and external mattes, including cryptomattes and depth maps. Up to 128 inputs are now supported in Matte Merge, which displays thumbnails for every matte input, simplifying the selection and combination of layered mattes.

Smarter mattes, finer edges

Machine-learning tools in Baselight v7 include the Segment Anything Flexi Effect, which isolates objects using simple region selections or control points. Artists can layer multiple selections and manage visibility via the integrated Blackboard panel interface. Edge handling has been improved with an updated Edge Filter and the new Matte Refiner, which recovers fine edge and hair detail for better composite blending.

The Depth Map generator automatically extracts depth from live-action footage. Its output feeds directly into the new Depth Keyer and Depth-based operators such as Haze and Bokeh, enabling depth-informed grading and atmospheric or optical effects. All generated channels can be passed downstream or exported in multi-channel EXRs.

Streamlined finishing tools

Baselight v7 adds the Transition operator, offering multiple transition types including Flow Blend, Dissolve, Wipe, Transform and Dip to Colour. Flow Blend can repair missing or damaged frames and smooth jump cuts, effectively replicating Avid’s Fluid Morph behaviour. Additional tools include Spill Suppression for removing colour spill on chroma-keyed material and a new Chromatic Aberration operator for optical correction or simulation.

Transform Matching automates alignment between offline reference and conformed shots by analysing scale, rotation and position. It can process individual frames or full sequences, automatically generating keyframes when needed. Track roles can now be assigned, such as “Offline” or “Messed up by the DIT”, simplifying comparison workflows.

Under the hood

Texture Smoothing provides subtle skin cleanup while maintaining fine texture detail. A revised caching system improves responsiveness and reliability during client reviews. Cache protection prevents critical files from being overwritten, while the new Cache View provides visibility into active and protected scenes. Processing-intensive effects, including Flexi-based operators, now support default strip caching to pre-render complex operations. Enhanced animation graphs allow per-keyframe interpolation control across transform and retime operations. Baselight v7 also integrates ACES 2.0, Dolby Vision review, and OpenTimeline I/O.

Flexi: the plug-in brain

Flexi, FilmLight’s effects and machine learning framework, now extends to developers. It supports custom models, including Segment Anything, and exposes interface primitives such as point lists, keyframe animation and tracker-linked regions. According to FilmLight, this allows facilities to integrate their own AI-based tools directly into Baselight’s stack architecture.

System and support

Baselight v7 runs on FLOS 8.4 or later and macOS 14–15 (or macOS 26 Tahoe) on Intel or Apple Silicon. Minimum recommended memory for machine-learning features is 48GB VRAM or 64GB unified memory. NVIDIA NVS 510 and K600 GPUs are no longer supported.

FilmLight describes the update as a refinement aimed at handling modern post-production complexity. Colourists are encouraged to test v7’s machine-learning features within controlled environments before full deployment.

FilmLight Baselight v7 Datasheet
https://www.filmlight.ltd.uk/products/baselight/overview/

The post Baselight v7 refines the colourist’s toolkit first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.