Red Work Flow to Color

[Nitram Kowan]

OK, Ive shot my film on the Red, I utilized the Log and Transfer tool in FCP Studio to convert the files. I edited the entire piece and now I want to color correct each shot in Color. However, utilize the best quality footage (I assume the actual R3D files) and color correct them for the best quality possible for projection for film festivals. And then obviously reconform my edit. How do I do this?

 

[Uli Plank]

Which format did you choose for L&T? Native or ProRes?

You can use native right away in Color or re-conform with Clipfinder (free) if it was ProRes.

 

[Chris Bell]

Is there a RED / Color workflow available online somewhere? I'd love to try this, but would like to read a detailed (for idiots) explanation of the process.

 

[David Battistella]

I have been attempting this in the past few weeks and I have to say that it has been a frustrating process when trying to recoonect the offline to the r3d media. The biggest problem seems to be the looping bug(which does not solve the problems of recoonecting multiple cuts from the same take.

The process is pretty flawless when using fcp send to color command when ccing rendered media.

To my experience, on long reels up to 20 minutes, the process is perfect with rendered media but no where near ready for prime time when attempting to reconform to the r3d media.

Color's reconnect tool is quite poor. Attempting to relink media with color us no where near as easy as it is in FCP.

I have to say that Hans at clipfinder is a very hard worker and a great listener. He has been very responsive to the reports I have given him and hopefully there can be a more seamless way to do this.

Even doing a step by step with the FCP whitepaper was not a flawless way to finish.

If I CUT with M proxy files that works really well to, but that is not really practical at this time.


David



David.

 

[Chris Parker]

man. FCP 3.0 cannot come soon enough. with a VASTLY improved Color conform solution for working with .r3d's.

 

[Uli Plank]

FCP 3.0 cannot come soon enough. with a VASTLY improved Color conform solution for working with .r3d's.

Wasn't that called CS4 ? ;-)

 

[Luca Immesi]

In my experience I had no problems with conforming in clipfinder and color.
The looping bug tool in clipfinder works really well.
Here's my workflow:
http://www.esperimentocinema.com/jo...lor-workflow-how-to-get-rid-of-color-bug.html

 

[Chris Bell]

When you work in Color, are you correcting the proxies or the raw files? If it's the raw, how do you adjust debayer and sharpening?

 

[David Battistella]

In my experience I had no problems with conforming in clipfinder and color.
The looping bug tool in clipfinder works really well.
Here's my workflow:
http://www.esperimentocinema.com/jo...lor-workflow-how-to-get-rid-of-color-bug.html

Luca,

I agree. THis process is the most efficient way to do the edit, I am not as comfortable working with PROXIE files on longer shows and sequences. I think that with shorter projects it's fine but there are still bottlenecks with the debayer speed.

Where the problems really arise is when you have used rendered media and need to reconnect to the F proxies or the R3D media. THis is the type of problem I am getting.

Let's say I have a ten minute clip and use different parts of it ten times in the sequence.

EXAMPLE:

CLIP IS CALLED
A004_C054_06209J

THe first instance of the clip will relink to the R3d but NO other clip in the timeline with this name will relink to the r3d.

Even if I run the COLOR looping bug on the color project the problem persists.

I am looking for a tool that will clean the XML/edl so that it sees each instance of one clip can reconnect properly.

David

 

[Vigen Vartanov]

For my small project i am working with M proxies in FC , then sending it to Color . Looks like i am working with RAW sow it is ok for me .

 

[Luca Immesi]

David, we are editing a movie now and we transcoded everything to 1k proresSQ then we will export the xml and we will conform to H proxy files in clipfinder, then we will open the new proxy timeline, we will export an edl and we will import in scratch.
Did you try the import subclips command in clipfinder?

 

[Hans-Georg Daun]

Note to all who consider using "Import subclips from FCP XML" in Clipfinder

Note to all who consider using "Import subclips from FCP XML" in Clipfinder

Please note that you cannot conform with subclips (i.e. partially rendered clips) in Clipfinder.

You can extract clip segments with in/out and handles from an FCP edit by using "Import subclips from FCP XML" and you can render subclips, but you cannot conform.

Cheers,
Hans

 

[Luca Immesi]

I understand. Hans. David, do you think the problem is only related to Color or to other CC softwares? An obvious question: do you import the new xml into fcp first and then you send to color or do you import the xml from clipfinder directly into color?

 

[D.J. Sing]

Are you guys having trouble with color reading the clips that have 5-7 .r3d's? all the longer clips come into color black... Is there a known fix for this?

 

[Matt Weatherly]

So I know the roundtrip workflow works fine using "Import Clips from FCP XML" and as Hans stated above when you import subclips instead, you cannot conform back to FCP (to eventually get to Color).

I'm working on a 2 hour feature and we are doing a one light in Red Alert before going to Color to take advantage of the new color science. Rendering out the full clips takes an enormous amount of time with all of the footage we have. Due to time and cost restraints, we really need to be able to just render out the in/out points from the edit and conform those in FCP to go to Color. Does anyone have a solution to this? Should I look into more software options like Monkey Extract? Will that be able to roundtrip the in/out points in the same manner?

Thanks!
Matt

 

[jamie parry]

a little help towards something

a little help towards something

www.jamieparry.demon.co.uk/qtfuze

this is a vid i made (for myself really) of an app/method
where you edit in FCP with rendered media.
I graded a music video where the guys wanted to edit red footage transcoded to 1280x720 dvcpro-hd for their (aging) laptop but let me have a full 1920x1080 10 bit sequence to grade whilst not taking to long to conform in my room.
The video shows one way of doing this.

use my app to do a bit of stuff
reconnect in fcp
send to color
this then seems to (in color 1.5) give you access to the RED controls (ie colorspace/gamma/exposure etc)
which i use to set all the clips to camera RGB and rec 709 (cos i work in TV and that seems to work best for me) render out of color 10 bit 4:2:2 quicktimes and "send to FCP"
then I can play that out of my AJA card to HDCAM SR or whatever and grade using the davinci 2k
in this i used different bits of the SAME clip in the sequence and it all worked....
if this is of any interest post here and we'll test it further.
clipfinder is ACE but my software stuff works for me (as I am an idiot)
j

 

[Nick Shaw]

So I know the roundtrip workflow works fine using "Import Clips from FCP XML" and as Hans stated above when you import subclips instead, you cannot conform back to FCP (to eventually get to Color).

I'm working on a 2 hour feature and we are doing a one light in Red Alert before going to Color to take advantage of the new color science. Rendering out the full clips takes an enormous amount of time with all of the footage we have. Due to time and cost restraints, we really need to be able to just render out the in/out points from the edit and conform those in FCP to go to Color. Does anyone have a solution to this? Should I look into more software options like Monkey Extract? Will that be able to roundtrip the in/out points in the same manner?

Thanks!
Matt

It is not straightforward, but it would be possible to "Import Subclips from FCP XML" in Clipfinder, render in to out from Clipfinder as DPX, them conform the DPXs in Color from an EDL out of FCP.

I would not suggest you do a 2 hour feature as one, but divide into scenes/reels.

 

[Ben Brainerd]

The DPX method is probably best for this (AKA less hassle) like Nick said. And definitely break your stuff up into 10-minute or so reels.

Also, depending on your project and your tolerance for fiddly-work, it's *possible* to do QT renders of subclips via Clipfinder. It just involves manually reconnecting everything in FCP. Hey, I didn't say it was easy, or fast. Just possible.

To be honest, if you're strapped for time/storage space, Monkey Extract is probably a better bet. Costs a good chunk of change, but it'll do subclip reconforms. I think...

 

[Matt Weatherly]

Thanks guys. I did end up going with Monkey Extract, as it indeed handles subclip reconforms. I didn't want to dump a lot of reconnecting work on my colorist (or anyone else) so that feature was key.

So just to anyone whose interested, the workflow was using Clipfinder to "Import Subclips from FCP XML," replace with R3Ds, and go down the list and do Red Alert one-lights. Then I opened Monkey Extract and instructed it to apply the RSX files to the in/outs from the XML (it actually renders in/outs by default). Created new round trip XML, and rendered out from there. And FCP to Color at that point.

I kept Clipfinder as an integral part of the workflow for it's organization in moving down the list for one-lights. While Monkey is great, and has a really nice UI, it doesn't seem to have a bin of that sort (or the auto open in RA feature).

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[claudioleone]

hello, what the best setup in "pablo software" to convert RED files, to recover or develop this raw files, I'd like to preserve the highlights and keep the best contrast latitude. tks! regards, Leone.