Avid Artist Color

[Tom Chase]

Hello,

I am looknig to pick up a color grading surface and I am on a tight budget. I was looking at the tangent wave or Avid Artist Color surface. From the reviews I've read it seems the Avid Artist Color surface is the way to go. Has anyone had any experience using this device working in 5K with Resolve?

On a side note... I am new to the RED world and my primary output is web based films. My current workflow for me which has worked okay so far is copying the media to my hard drive, going straight into premiere CC and working with the native files on a 1080p time line, then output to MP4 for youtube. I haven't gotten into RCX or transcoding. When I was shooting on the 5D in 1080 I would export a timeline out to XML and grade in Resolve and round trip it back to premiere no major problems. With the RED R3D files, is premiere going to keep the files going to Resolve as 5k or will they proxy them and make them 1080p because of the timeline setting? Which brings me back to the surface, is the resolution of the files going to effect how the interaction of the surface and response?

Thanks sorry for some many sub questions.

Tom

 

[Marc Wielage]

I think you're better off getting the Tangent Element panels. I believe those are the best bang-for-the-buck panels, being about $3500.

The resolution of the files will mainly affect the speed at which your computer can run them through the system. Lower-res proxies generally go much, much faster, particularly in complex scenes with lots of noise reduction, blurs, and windows.

 

[Tom Chase]

Sadly my budget is under 2K.

 

[Derek Morrison]

You can star piecing them together. It's split into 4 pieces. I'm picking up the tK panel next week and the playback control panel for about 2k. The thing I like is you can buy it piece by piece.

 

[Tom Chase]

I see what your saying. So according to B&H the TK is around $1200 and the MF which has the playback controls is about $1100. If I knew I was trying to move to being more of a colorist than where I am at now I could see the investment. I would say 15-25% of my work is doing grading, and I really am looking at a surface mainly because I prefer the tactial feel of the surfaces. Plus it seems like to have the Element really where the Artist Color is in terms of knobs, buttons, and wheels you'd pretty much need almost the whole configuration.

Have you had any experience with the Avid stuff?

 

[Derek Morrison]

I have used the Avid Artist Control, I didn't like the weight of the Lift Gamma Gain, they felt too free to me. And the knobs I really hated because I would reach up to work on the keyboard or point at something on the screen and I'd accidentally change something because my arm hit one of the track balls. If you are looking for an all in one, I'd go for the Tangent Wave, it may feel plastic-y and take up more depth space, but I think its a better system. A lot of your secondary buttons and knobs are already there instead of flipping through a lot of menus that you have to do on the Artist color.

Edit: Also on your second question. You can do the same process with RED files, when going to Resolve, it continues to work with the R3D 6K/5K/4K files. So you are processing in 4K. You can set your timeline settings to 1080p and up to 3840x2160 if your using the light version. Resolve has the same settings as Adobe and RedCineX to where you can set it to 1/4 or 1/8th the resolution for playback and when you pause view the full resolution file. Then on export just set your debayer to full, set your output resolution, set it to export an xml and you can render out to your choice of resolution and go back to Premiere using the xml for audio finishing and titles/effects if you have any.

 

[Steve Das]

...Plus it seems like to have the Element really where the Artist Color is in terms of knobs, buttons, and wheels you'd pretty much need almost the whole configuration.
Have you had any experience with the Avid stuff?

Yes..you are correct on that.
Really you can't go wrong with any of the panels but some colorists do prefer the avid/euphonix which you can pick up used for
less than a third of the tangent elements system. There is one for sale now listed here on reduser.
You should read this thread...

It all comes down to personal preferences. Elements is a fabulous panel no question about it. Hands down, the best third party panel out there. Said that, with present Resolve mappings, personally, I prefer MC Color. I just couldn't justify spending almost three times the amount for something, that at least for me, does less. That's why I returned Elements and bought MC Color, again.

 

[Eric Haase]

I've used the Wave and it works well, especially for basic grading. It does feel "plasticky" and light but it actually works quite well.

 

[Paul J Steinberg]

I've been using the Avid MC Colour for about two years now and it has been brilliant. I didn't like how the Wave has a large knob below the trackball instead of the standard trackball/ring of every other control surface.

The Avid controller has a nice feel (in my opinion) and I can work quickly with it. Resolve won't allow custom mappings of panels so you're stuck with how Resolve want the layout and responsiveness of any panel. Early criticisms of the Tangent Elements seemed to be focused on how Resolve had mapped the panel. The mappings for the MC Color are pretty good, everything you use often is at your fingertips.

 

[Jaakko Rinne]

I have the Euphonix MC Color (same as the Artist Color, just manufactured before Avid bought Euphonix), which I first used with Apple Color and have now been using with Resolve for almost two years. It works well for me and I like the feel of the controls. The button mapping isn't perfect for Resolve and you can't change it, which sucks. If you're mainly looking at getting a controller with a good feel to it, I would say you'll be happy if you get the Avid Artist Color.

 

[Hal Long]

I've been using the Avid (Euphonix) for over a year and a dozen or more projects. It's performed pretty darned well and was extremely affordable (off craigslist). Clients have been psyched to see the wheels and it's fast (once you get the button layout and combinations ingrained). I wouldn't hesitate on this one.