Next Steps to Not Sucking at Color Grading
I was grading on an Apple Macbook Pro with an Nvidia GT750M, and it was pretty slow grading 1080p ProRes footage in ACES. You system should have 32GB of RAM or more and power GPU like an Nvidia Titan or 1080. The ACES color space requires a large amount of RAM and GPU power. Step 5: Color Grade Like Normal and Export Like Normal You’ll notice that the footage is much brighter and essentially transformed from Slog2 to Rec709. Right click the SLOG2 clip and navigate to “ACES Input Transform.” This will only be available if you are in the ACES color space. Step 4: Change ACES Input Transform to SLOG2 In the “Video” tab of the “Clip Attributes” window, under the “Data Levels” section, select “Full.” Apparently Resolve automatically tries to normalize your SLOG2 footage but we want to work directly with the raw data. Most people are going to be exporting to Rec.709.įind your SLOG2 footage in the Media Panel and right click it and select “Clip Attributes…” and a window will open. This is assuming you want to export to a Rec709 display, not a projector or HDR monitor. Change the “ACES Output Transform” to Rec.709. Using the tabs on the left of the window pane, navigate to the “Color Management” tab. Step 2: Change the ACES Output Transform to Rec.709
Open File -> Project Settings and select the “Master Project Settings” on the left tab.Ĭhange the “Color Science” to “DaVinci ACES” Sandisk SSD Extreme – Step 1: Change “Color Space” to “DaVinci ACES”
But this workflow should work for almost every camera. We’ll be using Sony A7S MKI footage shot to an Atomos Shogun Recorder 4K ProRes 4:2:2 8bit.
In this tutorial I’ll show you how to set up a Color Managed workflow in DaVinci Resolve and how to color grade in the ACES Color Space and export to Rec 709. It took about 5 people to explain to me why this was the “best” workflow and then how to actually execute it. But hopefully this journey will be helpful for someone other than me.ĭaVinci Resolve Color Managed Workflow + ACES I might get it wrong for a while and I’m admittedly a terrible colorist. Luckily I have some very smart friends like Allister Chapman, Tim Kang, Rob Bessette, Graeham Nattress, Michał Matwij and the Cinematography Database community.Īs I learn this new world I’ll be sharing my results on YouTube and all of our channels. There are so many companies selling LUTs that I can’t tell what is legit and what is snake oil. I’ve personally found it very difficult to wrap my head around the new color workflows. The production pipeline has evolved and now modern cinematographers need to understand the technical color grading workflows.
On top of that, high resolution footage (4k, 6k, 8k) from Red cameras can be edited on modest professional computer systems.
However, there was no expectation for a DP to understand the entire technical workflow of a professional colorist.īut times have changed! Black Magic Davinci Resolve is now free (for HD exports) and Adobe Premiere ships with Lumetri, which is basically Lightroom for video. As I progressed as a DP, I was invited to supervise quite a few color grading sessions at Company 3, Technicolor, and Kodak. So very few people got hands on time with the system.
At that time a DaVinci 2K system with hardware was over $250,000. I started shooting on s16mm and 35mm and the Sony Cine-Alta. My EXCUSE: My generation of cinematographers was not expected to be able to operate a DaVinci Resolve system. When it comes to color grading, I suck balls.