Limner

Version 1.1.0 Unreal Engine 5.0 – 5.8 Personal $14.99 Professional $39.99 on Fab

Limner is an Unreal Engine editor plugin for art direction. It keeps your reference board next to the viewport and puts the references over the scene: pinned, or by themselves whenever the viewport looks through the camera or bookmark they belong to. Compare the scene with a reference as an overlay, a difference, an onion skin or a split wipe. Check the values with grayscale and notan views, extract palettes and see where the scene leaves them, and build a color script from your Sequencer shots, cameras or bookmarks.

Match the viewport’s colours to a reference with suggested post-process values, see the scene, the board and the palettes as people with colour vision deficiencies see them, and frame your shots with composition guides, safe frames and aspect masks.

A board is an asset, so the whole team gets the same references through source control. Everything runs inside the editor on your machine: no AI service, no online account, and nothing is added to your level or your game. Only Match colours writes post-process settings, when you click Apply.

Who it is for

• Environment and lighting artists who match a scene to concept art and want the reference over the viewport instead of on a second screen.
• Art directors and leads who keep the references, notes and palette of each level in one place the whole team sees.
• Cinematic artists who check the color and value flow of a sequence shot by shot.

Features

• Reference board. An endless canvas docked next to the viewport, with images, sticky notes and group frames. Drop image files, drag textures from the Content Browser, paste from the clipboard or add a capture of the viewport. Images are stored inside the board asset. A board can belong to a level and open with it. See Reference board.
• References over the viewport. Double-click an image to show it over the scene, or link it to a camera or a level bookmark so it appears by itself whenever the viewport looks through that camera or jumps to that bookmark. Four modes: Overlay with a strength slider, Difference, Onion skin and Wipe. See Viewport overlay.
• Value and colour views for the whole viewport: Values (lightness only), Notan (2 to 5 value bands) and Off-palette (magenta where a colour is far from the palette). See Values & palettes.
• Palettes. Extract the main colours of any reference, make one the board’s key palette, and see how much of the scene stays close to it.
• Compare. One click renders the viewport and compares it with the active reference: value structure, palette score, mean lightness and contrast, side-by-side previews, histograms, value band areas and hints on what to change. See Compare.
• Match colours. On the Compare page, Limner suggests the exposure, white balance, saturation and contrast (optionally midtones, highlights and blacks) that bring the viewport closer to the reference, previews them, corrects them over a few rendered passes, and Apply writes them to a camera or a Post Process Volume in one undoable step. Optional LUT texture or .cube file. See Match colours.
• Colour vision preview. The viewport, the board images and the palettes as seen with protanopia, deuteranopia or tritanopia, at 0–100% severity, and a palette check that lists colour pairs that look alike. See Colour vision preview.
• Composition guides. Rule of thirds, golden sections and spiral, diagonals, centre cross, safe frames and aspect masks from 2.39:1 to 9:16 vertical, saved per camera or bookmark in the board. See Composition guides.
• Color script. One frame per Sequencer shot, per camera or per bookmark, rendered with the real lighting and post process, with a value curve, a palette and an average colour per frame. Click a frame to go back to it, export the strip as PNG and JSON, or put it on the board. See Color script.
• Python API for all of it, including comparisons and palettes from image files without a viewport. See Python.

Quick start

1. Install the plugin, open a level and open Tools > ta Limner (in the tridiART section of the Tools menu).
2. Click New board. The board is created in /Game/ArtDirection and opens with this level from now on.
3. Drop your concept art, photos and paintovers on the board. Group them and add notes.
4. Double-click a reference: it appears over the viewport. Switch between Overlay, Difference, Onion skin and Wipe in the viewport bar.
5. Pilot a camera or jump to a bookmark, select a reference and choose Link to… > The camera the viewport looks through. From now on the reference follows that camera.
6. Turn on Values or Notan to check the big light and dark shapes, or Off-palette after extracting a palette.
7. Open Compare and click Compare viewport for numbers and hints.
8. In the Match colours card, click Solve, check the preview in the viewport, then Apply. Ctrl+Z undoes it.
9. Open Vision in the viewport bar to preview colour vision deficiencies, and Guides for composition guides. While you look through a camera, Save for camera keeps its guides in the board.
10. Open Color Script, pick a sequence, cameras or bookmarks and click Build color script.

Note

The overlay, the views, the colour vision preview and the guides are drawn on the active level viewport only. Nothing is placed in your level, Play In Editor and your game are not affected, and nothing of Limner is packaged.

Supported versions

Unreal Engine	5.0 to 5.8
Platforms	Win64, Mac and Linux editor
Module type	Editor only (not included in packaged builds)
Dependencies	Level Sequence Editor plugin (part of the engine, enabled by default)
License	Fab Standard License: Personal $14.99, Professional $39.99
Get it	ta Limner on Fab

Quick links

InstallationAdd the plugin and create your first board.

Reference boardImages, notes, groups, the canvas and its shortcuts.

Viewport overlayShow references over the scene and link them to cameras.

Values & palettesValues, notan, palettes and the off-palette view.

CompareScores, previews, histograms and hints.

Match coloursSuggested post-process values, previewed and applied in one step.

Colour vision previewProtanopia, deuteranopia, tritanopia and the palette check.

Composition guidesThirds, golden spiral, safe frames and aspect masks per camera.

Color scriptFrames from shots, cameras or bookmarks, and the export.

PythonEvery function of TALimnerSubsystem.

SettingsEvery option with its default value.

FAQAnswers to common questions.