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Grading RED RAW Footage & Sample Workflows

Brian Iannone

Brian Iannone

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I'm looking for resources on color grading RED RAW footage. Grading raw video (especially footage so flat-looking) is something that is new to me and I'm looking for any videos, tutorials or advice on the process (to be honest, I'm relatively new to color grading altogether). Mainly, what to do in REDCINE-X and what should be done in something like Premiere. I'm also trying to understand what typical workflows are when working with RED footage (i.e. 1. RC-X > Premiere > Resolve, etc...).

I know it's a pretty general-sounding question, so sorry about that. But, I appreciate any help and/or advice. :-)

(By the way, sorry if this has probably already been discussed to death. I haven't been able to find much direction on current versions of RC-X and involving Scarlet footage.)
 
This is a great question in general for we new Scarlet owners. I have found a LOT of info in the RED WORKFLOW forum that likely will not only answer your current questions but also inform you of stuff you didn't even know you needed to know... worth spending a few hours there rolling thru old posts (or even posting new Qs yourself) as all this has been discussed with Epic owners for some months now.

Stu Aull
Alaska
 
Thank you everyone. :-)

stu aull said:
This is a great question in general for we new Scarlet owners. I have found a LOT of info in the RED WORKFLOW forum that likely will not only answer your current questions but also inform you of stuff you didn't even know you needed to know... worth spending a few hours there rolling thru old posts (or even posting new Qs yourself) as all this has been discussed with Epic owners for some months now.

Stu Aull
Alaska
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Excellent idea. I'll probably be spending the next few days there.


Meryem Ersoz said:
you'll probably learn more about grading by taking the color grading classes at fxphd.com - they're very good and tend to be RED-centric.
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I hadn't heard about them before. Thanks for bringing that up. I'm registering immediately.


Ryan Koo said:
Some tutorials here:

http://nofilmschool.com/2011/11/reds-free-color-grading-application-redcine-x/
http://nofilmschool.com/2012/01/red-workflow-redcine-x-premiere-pro/
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Thanks Ryan!


Thomas Pohl said:
Here is a free workshop about the Redcine X basics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2E44PoVngI

Cheers
Thomas.
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Thank you Thomas!


Chris McKechnie said:
Check out resolve. Best IMO, and they offer a lite "free" version. Full software costs $1k
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Would you happen to know of any useful video tutorials on Resolve?
 
Get the books by Alexis van Hurkman and Steve Hullfish! They are obligatory for our students at Braunschweig University of Art.

FXPHD has a tutorial for Resolve, albeit not free. I remember someone pointing to a lengthy video presentation of Resolve that answers a lot of questions, check the workflow section of REDuser.
 
Can anyone explain how to create proxy files to edit in final cut and then send to resolve for color and relink for export? I've been trying to figure this process out. Thank you!
 
My workflow:

Camera > import R3d > PREMIER > Magic Bullet Looks / AE for Color Correct > Render out of Premier.

No transcoding or proxy files. I don't use RCX except for previewing. I keep trying to integrate it into my workflow but it's just not plugging in nicely.

I am playing around with Resolve Lite.
 
Uli Plank said:
Get the books by ... Steve Hullfish! They are obligatory for our students at Braunschweig University of Art.
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Absolutely "The Art of Color Correction" by Steve Hullfish.

The best book there is on color correction, IMHO.

It shows how to color correct in system-independent terms, then gives examples with most of the major color correction tools.
 
another good learning tool, I've found, is Magic Bullet Looks - people sometimes criticize Magic Bullet for offering predictable looks - but their looks offer a baseline to start building looks - and you can see exactly what tools were used to build the looks and mess around with them, because they're customizable - you can add a little bit of this, take away a little bit of that and see how all of these tools interact and affect each other, from a range of starting points....this can be more helpful than trying to create looks from scratch on your own footage. at the end of the day, you want to be able to originate not imitate, but Looks is good because it helps you to see the thinking behind how some of these looks are originated.

working with RAW files consistently has made me better at coloring, but it's still like watching a child pick out notes on a toy piano, versus a real colorist who is a virtuoso playing fully articulated concertos on a grand.....
 
First Light in RedcineX, Premiere to Resolve. No rendering until the export from Resolve, pretty amazing to work this way with 4k files!

Resolve is the fastest grading solution I have ever used and it access' the RAW files (you will need a couple of CUDA Cards, but hey thats cheaper than the Red Rocket), Realtime grading with out any rendering.

Compared to the Colorista II/Looks combo it will cut your grading time in half. (My speed comparison is with Colorista/Looks in FCP7, I have not used them in Premiere.)

Alexis van Hurkman's book is a must read.
 
I have watched everything I could find on the net for Resolve (including all the links in this thread) and very few people mention classondemand.net's free training for Resolve Lite.

You have to sign up for an account and install Silverlight on your PC, but it is far and away the best free training available on-line right now. It's totally worth the 10 or so minutes to sign up and set up.
 
Another vote for Alexis Van Hurkman's book, Color Correction Handbook: Professional Techniques for Video and Cinema. Very good as an overall intro to color-correction on a variety of platforms, with a lot of emphasis on DaVinci Resolve.

I believe Alexis is involved in doing a new Resolve manual, but I don't know the details; I expect we'll know by NAB in April. Good guy, too.
 
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