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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Considering my first color grade panels for my first big grade job - Efficiency?

E

Eirik Nicolai Heim

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Hi,

I just received my first big job as a colorist, a TV-series: 7 x 43 minutes. I use Davinci Resolve and I have graded for some time now, but mostly short edits for web, commercial and music videos with not that tight schedules. We are a small production company and we have to do some of everything, but my goal is to develop as a cinematographer and in post as a colorist.

Will start the grade job on Wednesday. I understand that the panels will give more accuracy and in time more efficiency. Should I go for something like the Tangent Element? Will it help me straight out the box with no experience with a panel? This job will pay for the Tangent Element of course, but I am not sure if I should invest now.
 
Hi Eirik,
I think you should go for a Tangent Elements TK only. In this way, you will have more accuracy in color and contrast corrections, without loose your time learning all the others Elements panels.
Good luck! ;)
 
Thank you for the reply :) Maybe that is a good option yes. It is just that they just have the bundle locally, but I suppose it should just take some days to order it.
 
Ok. That sounds good. I will be grading quite intensely, suppose it will be in my fingers quite fast then, and I am quite familiar with resolve as well. Will I "not be needing" my mouse and keyboard when I am into it?
 
Eirik you would need your mouse and keyboard, when grading not every thing is mapped out in Davinci... I would definitely look in to using a wacome tablet instead of a mouse... as you can keep the pen in your hand while using the Tangent Element so you can work faster( works for me. (if you know how to use a wacome ) And i keep the Keyboard above the panel... like this http://instagram.com/p/vA9TFXmlYi/
 
Nice set up Kristan. I have a wacom tablet actually and I like to use it. Did not think about that. I will most likely have a quite similar set up at my home office in Tromsø and my new reference monitor will arrive shortly. I think I will bring my wacom tablet and go for the element, the bundle. Will be grading in Oslo this time.
 
Choice of a grading panel is as personal as a choice of sex partner. Some like boobs, while some like brains. To each his or her own:)
I can only speak from my own perspective. I use both Elements and MC Color and I had swapped back and fourth those two panels FOUR times. Why? Because I had hoped against all odds, that a beautiful $3500 Elements panel would work well with Resolve. Well, the bottom line, a $1300 MC Color is hands down the best third party panel that is used with Resolve right now. Buying Elements is a waste of money and at the end of the day the much cheaper MC Color will allow you to be more productive and save quite a bit of money in the process.
So, right now I have both panels sitting next to each other on my desk. I use Elements with Nucoda and I use MC Color with Resolve. That's right, I prefer to use MC Color with Resolve!!!!
 
Jake, can you elaborate a little bit why you prefer the MC over the Elements or Wave in Resolve?
 
I thought the MC Colour wasn't supported. Also, you can't get them new any more (or am I looking at an older model)?
 
I think both MC Color and the Tangent Elements panels are perfectly usable and work fairly well. The mapping isn't perfect on either of them, but the user experience isn't bad with either of them. Both of them pale in comparison to the full-size daVinci panels ($30,000), but you can get work done on them. I just did a final pass on a feature in 20 hours, using a combination of MC Color, keyboard, and mouse, and it was fine for what I needed to do. To accomplish really fine adjustments, having a panel is absolutely mandatory.

Although... I know of at least one major colorist who has done about 9 or 10 enormous $200 million films with only a keyboard and mouse (albeit with Lustre).
 
jussi rovanpera said:
Jake, can you elaborate a little bit why you prefer the MC over the Elements or Wave in Resolve?
Click to expand...

As I already said, MC Color is much cheaper, it has much better mapping, therefore I can work much faster with it, than with Elements and unlike Elements, it is much more portable. Elements is the best third party panel there is, just not for use with Resolve.
 
But compared to Wave? It's more compact for sure.
Does the Avid artist have controls for contrast and pivot? I only found the mapping chart for resolve 9.
 
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