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Best way to color correct RED footage

E

Elyse

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Greetings!

Okay, so I know everyone has their own workflows on how to do things. What workflow would you peeps recommend when color correcting?

We've just been trying various methods but they all seem a bit lengthy to me and I'm sure someone out there has figured out a great workflow.

I work on FCP. Available color correcting programs: Color, also CC in AE, since graphics are involved.

Thanks in advance!
 
Well *best* way is in a Scratch Suite but that's not really cost-effective. Best way with FCP is working with the .R3D files in Color or with DPX files output from RedCine- depending on your workflow outside of Color.

Noah
 
Best way is to make at least basic CC decisions off of the RAW file, then do any fine-tuning necessary in your last product. Sometimes that's only one step (FCP-Color native) or it can be more (REDcine-DPX-Whatever).
 
Read the FCP whitepaper!
It describes three workflows. All three are valid depending on your project. There is no single best workflow for everyone.
 
Why FCP?

Why FCP?

Why do you use FPC?

"Best" source and result for CC is 48bpp TIF, like my system uses for I/O.
 
Color correcting for my studio is done with CineForm and Synthetic Aperture's Color Finesse. We convert the R3D to CineForm 4K Raw. Then we can play the CineForm 4K file in real time on our desktop and apply 3D Luts we make from Synthetic Aperture color corrections. The 3d luts color correct and play in real time. We render out to CineForm HD444 for our final master. More details can be found at cineform.com.
 
Dan Hudgins said:
Why do you use FPC?

"Best" source and result for CC is 48bpp TIF, like my system uses for I/O.
Click to expand...

I've never actually used this acronym before, but this seems deserving...

OMG! :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy:

Have you developed a DOS based CC suite? Seriously, OMG! I'm simultaneously hideously scared and bizarrely excited. Your site is too much.
 
FCP > Clipfinder > FCPtoAE = 4k Grading and Compositing.

I have been Onlining and Grading in After Effects. I dont like premiere and I think its limited in other depts. However AE is very nice when it comes to Power windows, VFX, and Color. Since you are dealing with R3d file instead of 2k tif or Dpx you can save money on a smaller Raid and still get decent Playback. However AE does not apply the LUTs used in all the other programs associated with Red R3d. You basically are looking at a 12 bit Linear Image with no LUT. Similar to CameraRGB / Redlog.

But I will say, AE is the cheapest solution to 4k R3d Compositing.
 
Offline Edit in FCP using proxys , or preferibly in any codec you desire.
It is important that the file name has not been changed. But this is offline only so the quality does not matter or color 1 bit.
Once finsihed,

Export an XLM / use Crimson / add 2 second handles for transitions ect.
Send that to REDCINE do your first light color pass to a grade you are very happy with do not clip your highlights or crush your blacks to far.
Export out QT 10Bit uncompressed if your system can handle if not you may be forced to work with a ProRes 422 codec.

Round trip VIA Crimson to FCP,
Send that to Color, Grade the MV retaining the 2 second handles in color, render, send to FCP do your final transitions finish
Export out DONE.

Good luck
 
fees

fees

makkystyle said:
Have you developed a DOS based CC suite?
Click to expand...

Because when you work with uncompressed 4K TIF frames with normal harddrives it takes about one minute per frame to do the processing. To speed that up you would want several computers, for pro work maybe 40 computers running in parallel. To cut the costs you can use FreeDOS FAT32 (tm) (or Windows ME rescue boot floopy) as the OS, FreeDOS is free, as is my system being freeish more or less right now. Most of the CC time is harddrive/OS time, not the CC which is about 20% maybe.

What that gets you is a high quality DI without high cost hardware and fees, each computer box in your renderfarm could cost maybe $250 since high res video and monitor/keyboard/mouse are not needed to process frames you can use a switch box to start each batch of frames to process. The computer just needs on mother VGA, and a harddisk rack to hold the 750GB+ harddrive with the frames to process that was formatted FreeDOS, or boot with the FreeDOS CD if the computer also has a CD drive.

The object is to produce 0K-1920-2K-4K-8k? output at a quality equal or better than profesional DI made on high end equipment. The color correction is ment to the type of color correction that was triditional in optical printing, more filters may be added later for color alteration. You can always use any third party program to alter TIF frames used at any stage of the DI workflow to get effects.
 
A well-equipped Scratch suite with a talented colorist (a rare commodity at the moment) is the best way to really do a nice color correction, in real time, with control over secondaries, cages, windows, and diffusion masks.
Anything else is less gratifying for me.
But the strength of Red post is that there are many paths.
For me, as a camera guy who is used to telecine, the Scratch room scenario works best.
Cheers,
Harry
ps- this is for TV work. Obviously, filmout work may be different.
 
I have FCP. I have CS4.

IMHO, FCP and color are still the best path for final results. I am considering Scratch but... well thats a chunk of change. Since learning color (credit to Lynda.com) I love the results. I've works with Premier and AFX for much longer but have not yet found a CC program that works as well. If one exists( and this old dog can learn new tricks) I would love it.
Until then, I use Redrushes, FCP and Color.

Just my Two cents.
 
I like the edit in Premiere natively, import the project into After Effects to color correct and output. Pretty straightforward.
 
Dan's workflow is crazy!! More power to you buddy.

I agree with reading the RED whitepapers available in the FCP plugin download from the support page, it will answer your question more thoroughly than we will. I use proxy>send to color>send to FCP>export for shortform, just know that the proxies will be dark and need to be relatively short for this workflow, and don't do any time remapping, transitions.. or anything really. For longer projects I will be transcoding everything using L&T or RedRushes into prores for offline, when offline is complete I will media manage back to proxies and export an EDL for import to Color. CC in color and send to FCP in ProResHQ. done and done, having R3Ds in color packs a punch, I love it.

oh and for the "Best" CC, can't believe nobody mentioned Quantel Pablo, it smokes everything else I have ever seen. multiple layers of 4K CC in Real Time. Plaster City has 2 I believe and one is hooked up to their 2K Christie, it's sweet!

Kevin Stanley
 
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