ARO -- Illuminating Creativity

LumaTik Live Light

See the Light Before You Set It

LumaTik uses a 478-point face mesh to project photorealistic cinematic lighting directly onto your subject in real-time. Point your camera. Pick a preset. Watch Rembrandt, Split, or Golden Hour appear on their face instantly. This is not a filter. It is a simulation of real light hitting real skin.

The physics-based engine renders true inverse-square law light falloff with soft radial feathering at the face perimeter. Every preset is a fully configured lighting recipe built from real portrait photography technique. Select one and it renders on your subject immediately.

Rembrandt

45 deg key, triangle shadow

Butterfly

High front, nose shadow

Split

Hard 90 deg side light

Golden Hour

Warm low-angle sun

Paramount

Classic Hollywood glamour

Loop

Natural, flattering

Low Key

Dramatic deep shadow

High Key

Bright, commercial

Cross

Two-side cross light

M/mk AI Director

An AI DP in Your Ear

M/mk (Mimic) is the embedded AI Director of Photography inside ARO. It watches your camera feed, scores your lighting, composition, and framing, and coaches you toward the exact setup you are trying to recreate. It stays silent until you ask.

Real-time score bars

Lighting, Composition, and Framing scored live and overlaid on the camera feed.

On-demand voice coaching

Tap "Coach Me" and M/mk speaks in a calm, cinematic voice. No auto-play. No noise.

Cinema scene knowledge

Knows the exact light placement for 12 portrait presets and 16 iconic film scenes.

Real-world light placement

Tells you where to move your actual lights to recreate any cinematic look in your space.

Wake phrase activation

Say "Hey Mimic, coach me" and M/mk responds hands-free while you work on set.

Cinema Scene Knowledge

M/mk Knows These Films

Ask M/mk to coach you on any of these scenes and it describes the lighting DNA, then guides you to recreate it with real gear in your space.

Roger Deakins

Blade Runner 2049 -- Interrogation

Single Fresnel overhead at 80 deg down, warm CTO gel. Eyes go dark. Oppressive, clinical. 10:1 ratio.

Gordon Willis

The Godfather -- Office

Overhead key at 80 deg tilt, warm CTO. Eyes in deep shadow. The Prince of Darkness signature. 8:1 ratio.

James Laxton

Moonlight -- Beach

Cool blue key (8000K, CTB) from camera-right. Warm accent from camera-left. Skin glows against blue shadows.

Emmanuel Lubezki

The Revenant -- Forest

Warm backlight (CTO) from directly behind. Cool skylight fill from camera-left. No front key. Golden rim.

Hoyte van Hoytema

Her -- Apartment

Giant soft key from camera-right, 4000K, half-CTO. Matching soft fill from camera-left. Dreamy overexposure.

Linus Sandgren

La La Land -- Planetarium

Deep blue under-fill (8000K) from below. Purple strip lights from both sides. Cool backlight. No warm tones.

3D Studio Engine

A Full Studio in Your Browser

The ARO 3D sandbox is a GPU-accelerated lighting environment built on Three.js. Design, test, and export complete lighting setups before you ever touch a light stand.

Build your lighting rig virtually. Position up to 6 independent lights with full control over power, height, rotation, color temperature, and modifier type. The camera engine simulates a real photographic exposure triangle with depth of field and tone mapping.

6-Light Engine

Independent control over power, height, rotation, tilt, kelvin, hue, and modifier.

Camera Physics

ISO, shutter speed, aperture, depth of field, bokeh, and tone mapping.

Blueprint Export

Generate professional lighting diagrams and CSV data sheets for your crew.

Cloud Projects

Save, load, and share complete lighting setups from any device.

Live Demo

Watch ARO in Action

When a live demo session is active, you can watch ARO being demonstrated in real-time below. Sessions are announced on social media. When offline, try the app yourself.

Live Demo Stream

Offline

Follow ARO on social media to be notified when the next live demo starts.

Try ARO Yourself

Live Chat

ARO Studio Welcome to the ARO live demo. Ask questions about LumaTik, lighting presets, or anything you see on screen.

The Creator

Joshiua

Creative Director -- Leidos Inc.

ARO was built by a Creative Director who got tired of watching talented people waste hours on lighting problems that could be solved in minutes with the right tool. The gap between knowing what a lighting setup should look like and actually executing it on set was the problem ARO was designed to close.

With a background spanning high-volume content pipelines, broadcast production systems, and cinematic pre-production, ARO is not a side project. It is the tool that should have existed years ago -- a pocket-sized Director of Photography that speaks the language of light.

ARO is the only mobile-first, real-time cinematic lighting simulator on the market. It combines 3D physics simulation, AI vision coaching, and on-set AR overlays in a single app that runs in any browser, on any phone, with no install required.

Contact for Licensing

Your Pocket
Director of Photography

See the Light Before You Set It