Baselight

[Oliver Peters]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “Hang on. The entire Avid effects interface is an utter joke tho?”

While I agree that the Avid effects interface is a bit convoluted, I would also add that I’ve created comps that would be completely impossible – or at the very least, extremely difficult – in FCP7, X, Premiere, etc. You just have to understand how to use it. Of course, for someone just starting out, it’s hard to understand without some external training.

However, the exact same can be said for After Effects by folks who aren’t comfortable with it.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[John Fishback]

I, too, am very happy with Color Finale. While it doesn’t have the breadth of Resolve’s capabilities, it now adds tracking using Core Melt’s SliceX (which uses Mocha tracking). It’s great having all this capability inside FCPX.

[Jake Blackstone]

Nucoda runs on Mac very well. The trick is, you must run it under the Bootcamp.
As far as the main advantage of BLE plugin over Resolve, is the absence of conform. You just open the Avid timeline and start grading. BLE grading operation, support for brilliant MC Color and Transport mapping (don’t bother with Elements, it’s pure garbage) and the best color science in the business makes it as close to the real thing as it’s possible for a plugin. Filmlight constantly keeps upgrading it’s capabilities, but yes, they have to rely on Avid underpinning. Free rendering and reviewing plugin is a welcome addition. Now anyone with an Avid can load BLE grades and render without a need to spend $1k. Anyone grading episodic programing, that uses Avid owes to themselves to at least give it a try. Here is a very good demonstration done by Josh Petok of the basic AVID/Daylight/BLE grading workflow.
https://vimeo.com/152250438

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[Darren Roark]

[Oliver Peters] “As far as the full system, good colorists get outstanding results and there seem to be advantages in grading over how Resolve operates. I haven’t run it so I can’t say for sure, but I’ve sent some projects off to colorists working with it and the results are great. However, those same colorists would also do great work with Resolve.”

I’d really like to know more about the advantages of Lustre or Baselight over Resolve. As I don’t always have control over what color finishing vendors my clients use I am trying understand what makes one system substantially better than another.

Not to take the lemming approach but Company 3 is a Resolve shop and have gone from being a commercial shop to doing a big percentage of the major studio features. If one of the other systems were that much better they could certainly afford to switch.

The round trip to Resolve and back to FCPX works well enough that it’s a major time saver, I’m trying to gain an understanding so I can give informed advice.

And thank you Oliver for your well thought out reviews, you are one of the few people who actually write about post production systems without bias.

[Oliver Peters]

Thanks for the kind words.

There are actually quite a few “hero” systems being used in feature film, TV, and commercial production. These would include Resolve, Baselight, Pablo, Scratch, Lustre, Mystika, Scratch, Filmmaster, to name a few. A lot of time it simply comes down to the personal preference of various colorists. In fact, in the case of the top colorists, I have heard of post houses building a room just for them because of the business they can bring in. So a “Davinci shop” might install a Baselight if they hire a top person who insists on that.

I think they all have pros and cons. For instance, Peter Jackson’s shop went to Mystika because of how it works with 3D. Company 3 is a “Resolve shop”, while Light Iron is a “Quantel shop”. Obviously each has handled quite a few top studio films. So I’m not sure you can say one is better than the other. Merely that the person making the decision prefers that one.

Regarding round trips, most top shops have more of an “old school” approach than you would think. Generally they want EDLs and original files. No VFX, a flattened timeline, and no speed effects. So while we argue a lot around here about things like interchange with XML, FCPXML, AAF, etc. the top dogs stick with the basics – reel, timecode, and a simple edit list.

Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com