Marc Wielage
Forum Replies Created
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If it works on sequences with 1000 cuts, then don’t do sequences with 2100 cuts.
I would divide the project up into reels (short sequences), then use nested timelines to render out the entire project as a single file.
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That’s interesting — in theory, the cache mode should be updated and replaced every time you make a change. It would figure that if a glitch happened, it would be embedded in the visible clip as it played back. What puzzles me is why it didn’t update.
A 1 TB cache is pretty crazy!
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In that case, you gotta work and just figure out how to match it as best you can. If it takes windows and masks and keys, so be it. Crap happens.
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One important thing to remember is that Shot #1 (say, the interview subject) and Shot #3 (interview subject an hour later) are never going to be seen back to back. There will always be a shot inbetween them. The match does not have to be 100% in order for the audience to buy into it.
I’m reminded of the famous story about Michael Bay, who is very hostile to the idea of matching to still frames in color. His point (which is an interesting one) is that you have to see the entire scene in context, not as individual shots. Only the DP and the colorist are going to be aware if the two shots aren’t precisely matched. As long as it works in context, it doesn’t matter. As directors have reminded me before: “my audience does not have a still store. Move on.” I’ll still make it a 95% match if I can, but life changes, the sun changes, cameras change, things are never 100% perfect.
If the two shots are cut back to back, then and only then it absolutely has to match.
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I have not seen this to be the case in my experience. Keyframes on the correct node will always affect the color-grading values, assuming they turned on within the selection box. Open up the disclosure triangle and see what color grading parameters are turned on and which are turned off. If Primaries are turned off, then that’s not going to happen.
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Well, you’ve basically described the essence of what color-correction is. The process requires you to match one shot to the next so they flow seamlessly. There’s no automatic or magical way to do this (even Auto Match has its limitations) beyond time, skill, and experience.
Still frames and scopes, plus a calibrated monitor, will help quite a bit. Power windows may or may not be necessary depending on what’s happening in the scene. But if it’s a natural light change, then I would guess it affects all of the scene and not just the actors in it.
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Tracking keyframes and regular Node keyframes are different. Tracking keyframes only hold shapes and positions; regular Node keyframes contain color corrections, window positions, key values, curves, the works.
There are cases where I specifically use one or the other, but you have to do a regular Node keyframe if a change in color or level is involved. Frequently I’ll track a window and make a separate node change on top of it for some reason or another. Sometimes, I just need to knock down the opacity just to fade the window out. The advantage of using the Tracker is the auto-tracking function, which you don’t have with regular keyframes.
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Most likely what they need to add is a “refresh connection to Cache drive” or something like that, sort of like a Relink command.
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[Michael McCune] “would you use, as I have been using, a simple elliptical shape with feathering or would you use a more precise but certainly more demanding bezier-based shape?”
It depends. A lot will hinge on how much difference there is between foreground and background, and how hard you’re hitting the face in terms of light. I will occasionally use multiple windows — one around the person’s body to bring the background down, and another window just on the face to lighten and/or sharpen it — in order to pull the person forward into the frame. But it all depends on the lighting of the source material.
When you’re trying to work fast, sometimes simple is better, and a basic oval will work fine… particularly if you have 600 shots to get done in 8 hours. If it’s a :30 second commercial where you have 4-5 hours with clients, then you can have a custom shape with 17 Bezier curves on it and go crazy. I haven’t seen any performance difference with different shapes, and I tend to draw custom shapes frequently unless I’m in a big hurry.
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[Michael McCune] “Please mention general considerations or guidelines for this application. Perhaps suggested minimums for the number of cores??? Memory bandwidth??
“I think this is going to be very difficult unless you invest in a Linux system with at least 4-6 GPUs. The moment you get slammed with 5K or 6K R3D files and temporal noise reductions (or several blur nodes), real-time 4K playback on actual 4K displays is going to slow down alarmingly.
Fast i/o, as suggested above, is going to be mandatory as well. You could certainly work on 4K projects and monitor in HD, then deliver in 4K, but monitoring in 4K real-time will be costly. And a calibrated Grade-1 4K display or projector will not be inexpensive. I think the display itself will cost about as much as the computer or the drives. Last I checked, either the Sony BVM-X300 or the Canon DP-V2410 are in the range of about $35,000. Projectors are more. At the moment, I’m not convinced anything less expensive will tell you the truth.