Need help from a veteran Red member...going back to RED ALERT

[CaseydeFremery]

Hi guys,

Years ago, I worked on a short film and due to circumstances, I ended up having to do the color correction myself before I really had any clue to what I was doing. This was back in early 2010-ish and I was using Red Alert for my color correction. I got used to it at the time but a big mistake I made was whenever I messed with the color, I saved it to the actual R3D file. I've wanted to go back into the project and get all of the clip settings back to square one default settings. However, I don't know how to do it. Anyone have any tips and tricks to restoring original looks in Red Alert? I know Red Cine and others took over so any help would be appreciated

 

[Mikael Lubtchansky]

It is not possible to write changes inside the R3D itself (it is your original and as such remains untouched).

If I recall correctly before REDCINE-X, the sidecar file (containing the changes you made to color / debayer settings) was a .RSX file (replaced now by the .RMD file).

Inside each .RDC folder (RED DIGITAL CLIP) you should have one or more .R3D files (the actual RAW image data from camera) and one .RSX file created by REDAlert to save the look settings.
Delete or move those RSX files and you should go back to original camera look (you can do a file search for ".RSX" to remove them all together).

 

[David Battistella]

The best way to accomplish this is to open the files in the latest version of REDCINE X. You can then turn on advanced mode in the preferences and you will then see the clips with the original colorspace from the day you captured the footage.

For the record, Red Alert does not burn information into an R3D file, but it does burn it into a rendered QT file for example. So, if you have the R3D it is no problem to apply whatever look you want to those R3D file now. THe only limitation might be that you can not TRIM the R3D file as prior to (i think it was build 15 or 16) you could not trim the R3D media.

David

 

[CaseydeFremery]

The best way to accomplish this is to open the files in the latest version of REDCINE X. You can then turn on advanced mode in the preferences and you will then see the clips with the original colorspace from the day you captured the footage.

For the record, Red Alert does not burn information into an R3D file, but it does burn it into a rendered QT file for example. So, if you have the R3D it is no problem to apply whatever look you want to those R3D file now. THe only limitation might be that you can not TRIM the R3D file as prior to (i think it was build 15 or 16) you could not trim the R3D media.

David

Good to know it doesn't permanently change the R3D. The method I've been using to reconnect all the footage from my 2010 project file to now was to relink with the _H proxy file since it doesn't allow me to re-link with the R3D on my timeline (nor does that workflow ever really work for me). The _H reverts to the bad color correction look instead. Would your advice be to go into Red Cine, go up to preferences and change it to default, then export new files to use? The tricky thing for Redcine and me is that I have a harder time coloring unless I see the timeline so I usually prefer to export new files if I'm working with older Red footage.

Hopefully that made sense

 

[Detlev Eller]

With final cut pro timelines ..... try "xml out" (from timeline with proxies) ... import to RCX, set lookup path in import window ... reconnects perfectly well(!)

else, the xml can be manipulated with a text editor ... do a bunch of find/replace operations to remove the _H. part and depending on your specific file/path structure it may be necessary to replace the path as well.

 

[David Battistella]

If you set the looks in redcine X and use the Regenerate QuickTime proxies in redcine X, then it will recreate the qt proxy files in the folder alongside the r3d. If the file path doesn't change you should be good to go.

The qt proxy is looking at the sidecar file that is telling qt how to display your colors.

You could also try what dealer suggested to export an XML from FCP 7 and open the timeline in Redcine X, color it there and then reader it out.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Years ago, I worked on a short film and due to circumstances, I ended up having to do the color correction myself before I really had any clue to what I was doing. This was back in early 2010-ish and I was using Red Alert for my color correction. I got used to it at the time but a big mistake I made was whenever I messed with the color, I saved it to the actual R3D file.

You could conform it all in Resolve and then just ignore the metadata and color correct within Resolve. You can always refer to your temp original color as a reference just to see what ballpark you were in. Note that you still need a calibrated monitor, a color-managed output, and scopes to do this correctly.

The flaw with trying to use a utility like Redcine-X Pro for any kind of final color correction is you won't have the finesse involved with making subtle changes that only affect part of the frame, which is a very important part of correction. I couldn't do my job these days without windows -- I've had jobs where we literally have a dozen simultaneous tracking windows, and it's a huge, huge difference than just doing one overall adjustment to the entire frame. Secondaries and keys are also of critical importance for similar reasons.