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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 :)

Workflow for getting epic footage to a grading app other than speedgrade?

J

Joe Riggs

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Editing native Epic footage in cs5.5 and I'm trying to figure out the workflow to get to Resolve or Apple's color? Would I export a FCP xml, then import to RED cine X?

Thanks
 
Yes, XMLs are the solution. Go Resolve, it makes Apple Color look pretty outdated…
 
You can bypass RedcineX and import directly into Resolve. You can also use the Xml to regroup all used R3D into one new grading hardrive.


Pat
 
Joe, if somebody else is doing the color-correction work for you, I would ask them what their preference is. In some cases, if you're only going to deliver HD, it may be more beneficial to deliver a conformed 1920x1080 Rec709 file and let them work on that. There are pros and cons for DPX, QuickTime, or DNxHD.

As Michael Cioni says in his Reducation Post lectures, sometimes, the best way to figure out a post workflow is to start from the end and work backwards, to figure out all the steps that will get you to the end. I would also make sure that whoever is ultimately getting the show (cable, network, DVD, Blu-ray, festivals, theaters, whatever) gives you the specs they're going to need, so you can make sure the end result will be handled appropriately.

I know that many praise using R3Ds throughout the process, but my own experience is that DPX log files can work fine provided they're made correctly and give the colorist all the range they need to make the pictures you need to see. DPX files are generally faster to work with, but a lot depends on your specific pipeline, computers, and software.
 
Marc Wielage said:
I know that many praise using R3Ds throughout the process, but my own experience is that DPX log files can work fine provided they're made correctly and give the colorist all the range they need to make the pictures you need to see. DPX files are generally faster to work with, but a lot depends on your specific pipeline, computers, and software.
Click to expand...


But DPX are much heavier in GB than R3D, even 2k DPX. In either Color or Davinci, I allways worked from the R3D because this give me the best post-production solution : common hard drive can be used for 5k RT playback at Half/quarter debayer wich is fairly enough for an HD projector/LCD. And you can choose to output a 4k DPX master or HD whenever you want. (this depends if there is a lot of VFX in thoses R3D shots that have to be handled in DPX).

Patrick
 
Thank you very much for the feedback. It looks like we will be grading in Apple's Color and finishing in 2k, is the workflow any different than aforementioned posts?
Export FCP XML from Premiere, Import XML to Color?
 
Patrick Tresch said:
But DPX are much heavier in GB than R3D, even 2k DPX. In either Color or Davinci, I allways worked from the R3D because this give me the best post-production solution.
Click to expand...
Lots and lots of available hard drive space on the post house's network is already a primary requirement for anybody working in 4K. Typically, the real issue is connection speed, interface, and other issues. The extra time needed to decode R3D on the fly and shuttle it back and forth puts higher demands on processors. DPX can be less overhead, and Apple Pro Res 422 HQ (or 444 HQ) even less still.

I'm not sure trying to bring in R3D directly to Color is going to be a viable workflow for Joe's original scenario. Given the available options today, I think Resolve or Premiere are better alternatives.
 
But you can't even bring in R3d to COLOR....only wrap it to make it a 4444. In that case, just use color and wrap the R3d's and work with that....i think this will be your best bet. Or do a one light of R3d in RCX and spit out 4444 prores and work in color. This is a very solid coloring workflow. But w/out a red rocket card can take a while.
 
When did this happen? I only know of where you can wrap R3d's in quicktime wrappers and that's that....not raw R3d's.....unless something signficant has happened in past few weeks? Maybe i missed something? I had/have always worked via the red white paper on it....the R3d's are essentially turned into prores 4444 ....but if you can drop a native R3d into Color--i really would like to know how to do that...please point me in some direction on this....
 
I'm not too happy about Color using R3D files
because when I do secondary colorgrading and
uses the HSV keyer, I get really bad keyes. I have testet
the transcoded Proress 444 files with the same keyer
and here it workes perfect.
I tried to pull a key on a blue sky but it was impossible
with the R3D file.
So for me, Color is a no go.
Best
 
Shian,
Is Color GHear a set of presets? or does it allow individual control in primary and secondary coloring? I ask because after looking at the videos, all of the "looks" seem to be presets---maybe i am wrong here? As for color space and WYSIWYG.....how is this all setup? So can we grade in a chosen color space and view out to monitor via BM, AJA or Marox and feel good that our end result transcoded out will be what we graded?
 
Thanks Johnny for sharing your experience, I have only experience so far with 2K projects with it, and that was before they upgraded to ColoristaII.
What I liked on it, was that I was able to change things all the time, not baked in like with Apples Color.
 
@Johnny it's not "just" presets, it's a a way of working with these presets nodally. It's incredibly flexible. If you have a licensed version, then you also have ColorFinesse - which in CS5 you can use for secondaries, or you can use SpeedGrade to create custom LUTs for your secondaries in CS6 and Import them into AE easily. (Which is what I do now.) I graded "The Cell 2" using a very primitive version of ColorGHear, so it works just fine in a professional environment. I also teach color theory in my tutorials. Things that translate to any Grading System, for instance I was in a grading session for an episode of Femme Fatales I shot on the M-X, where the EP wanted a very specific look. We were grading in Nucoda, and the colorist didn't know how to get the look, but it's a look I've done many times in CGT, it was a simple matter of translating the same stuff that I put into my GHears onto the controls of that system. It took me 20 seconds to do, and blew everyone away.

Here's a screenshot from that episode (excuse the low res it's from the youtube promo, still waiting on footage for my reel.
HHNFuries.png



And you have all the same Color Space and WYSIWIG profiles in AE as you would elsewhere. I have links to how to setup AE and your system for accurate color so that "What you see is what you get" on export.
 
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@Johnny Friday, let me know how your experience with it is. Always open to things users notice about the system that have escaped me, and need to be addressed.
 
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