SkinMatch DCTL 2.0 is a skin-tone analysis and correction tool for DaVinci Resolve Studio from Passion Fuels Ambition (PFA). It uses a visual color-mapping system to help colorists quickly identify whether skin falls on, near, or outside the intended target range, reducing reliance on constant vectorscope checking and complex qualifier setups.

At the center of SkinMatch is its AI Skin Tone Map, which uses Orange, Yellow, and Blue indicators. Instead of relying only on an abstract reference line, the system translates skin-tone status into immediate visual feedback in the Viewer, followed by dedicated Hue, Brightness, and Smoothness controls for refinement.

WHAT'S INCLUDED

• 1 SkinMatch DCTL
• .dctl format
• Commercial License
• Long-term updates according to PFA's update policy

FEATURES

• AI-powered Skin Tone Map
• Orange, Yellow, and Blue visual indicators
• Skin Tone Line alignment assistance
• Direct visual feedback in the Viewer
• Dedicated Hue control
• Brightness control
• Smoothness control
• Analysis based on skin-related Hue, Saturation, and Luminance ranges
• Reduces reliance on constant vectorscope checking
• Reduces the need for complex qualifier setups
• Designed for consistency across cameras and lighting conditions
• Non-destructive processing
• GPU-accelerated
• 32-bit floating-point processing
• Camera Log support
• ACES compatibility
• HDR10 and Dolby Vision support
• Windows, macOS, and Linux support

AI SKIN TONE MAP

SkinMatch uses a three-color visual map to indicate the status of potential skin regions:

• Orange – skin aligned closely with the target Skin Tone Line
• Yellow – close to the target and potentially requiring additional refinement
• Blue – non-skin areas such as backgrounds, clothing, or certain shadow regions

This converts skin-tone evaluation into direct visual feedback inside the image.

Instead of constantly shifting attention between the Viewer and vectorscope, the colorist can inspect the map, make an adjustment, and immediately evaluate the result.

SKIN TONE ALIGNMENT

SkinMatch is designed to assist with bringing skin toward the reference Skin Tone Line.

Typical applications include:

• Identifying hue shifts in skin
• Checking consistency between shots
• Matching footage from multiple cameras
• Working across different lighting conditions
• Maintaining skin consistency throughout a sequence
• Checking skin before stronger creative look development

HUE CONTROL

The dedicated Hue control adjusts the color direction of the skin region toward the target indicated by the Skin Tone Map.

It can assist when skin appears:

• Too magenta
• Too green
• Too red
• Too yellow
• Shifted by lighting or white-balance conditions

BRIGHTNESS CONTROL

Brightness provides tonal refinement for the skin region during correction.

Combining Hue and Brightness control is particularly useful when matching shots with different exposure levels.

SMOOTHNESS CONTROL

Smoothness controls how the correction transitions into surrounding areas.

This helps avoid excessively hard processing boundaries and produces a more natural transition around corrected skin regions.

HUE, SATURATION & LUMINANCE ANALYSIS

SkinMatch analyzes regions that fall within Hue, Saturation, and Luminance boundaries associated with human skin.

The tool uses this information to distinguish likely skin regions from other image areas and communicates the result through the Skin Tone Map.

STREAMLINED SKIN-TONE WORKFLOW

A conventional skin-tone workflow may involve:

• HSL qualifiers
• Vectorscope analysis
• Skin Tone Indicator Line
• Multiple correction nodes
• Manual hue adjustment
• Rechecking masks after adjustments

SkinMatch consolidates key analysis and refinement tasks into a dedicated DCTL.

It does not eliminate every use case for Resolve's vectorscope, qualifiers, tracking, or spatial masks. Those tools remain valuable when technical verification or object-specific isolation is required.

MULTI-CAMERA & LIGHTING WORKFLOWS

SkinMatch is designed to assist with skin-tone consistency across different image sources.

Typical applications include:

• Multi-camera productions
• Interviews
• Commercials
• Music videos
• Narrative filmmaking
• Weddings
• Beauty and fashion work
• Mixed-lighting footage

Once footage is placed into an appropriate color pipeline, SkinMatch can serve as a consistent skin-analysis tool across shots.

WORKFLOW

A basic workflow:

1. Establish the appropriate color-management or Color Space Transform pipeline.
2. Perform initial exposure and white-balance corrections.
3. Add SkinMatch DCTL to a node.
4. Enable the Skin Tone Map.
5. Inspect the Orange, Yellow, and Blue regions.
6. Adjust Hue toward the intended target.
7. Refine Brightness when necessary.
8. Adjust Smoothness for natural transitions.
9. Verify the image and vectorscope when appropriate.
10. Continue with creative look development.

WORKING WITH PFA DCTLS

SkinMatch can be combined with other PFA tools including:

• Color Slider DCTL – color separation and targeted color control
• Movie Density DCTL – subtractive saturation and color density
• FilmFade DCTL – Filmic Gray and split-toning control

Separating these operations into dedicated tools can help maintain a structured grading node tree.

COLOR PROCESSING

According to PFA's technical specifications, SkinMatch supports:

• Rec.709
• P3
• Rec.2020
• ACES
• Camera Log workflows
• HDR10
• Dolby Vision
• 32-bit floating-point processing
• High-resolution workflows, including 8K+

VERSION

Current Version: SkinMatch DCTL 2.0

SkinMatch 2.0 centers around:

• AI-powered Skin Tone Map
• Orange / Yellow / Blue indicator system
• Skin Tone Line alignment
• Hue adjustment
• Brightness adjustment
• Smoothness control
• Real-time visual feedback

COMPATIBILITY

• DaVinci Resolve Studio 17 or later
• DaVinci Resolve Studio 18
• DaVinci Resolve Studio 19+
• Windows
• macOS
• Linux
• CUDA
• OpenCL
• Metal
• DaVinci Resolve Free is not compatible

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• DaVinci Resolve Studio 17 or later
• CUDA, OpenCL, or Metal-capable GPU
• At least 4 GB of GPU memory recommended
• 8 GB or more recommended for 4K/HDR workflows

NOTE

“AI-powered” is PFA's terminology for the Skin Tone Map system. According to PFA's documentation, the tool analyzes regions within skin-related Hue, Saturation, and Luminance boundaries and provides visual feedback to guide the colorist; it should not be interpreted as fully automatic grading that replaces colorist judgment.

SkinMatch requires DaVinci Resolve Studio and is not compatible with the free edition.