Mike Most
Forum Replies Created
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I guess the guys who are coloring the vast bulk of “A” titles – you know, the lead DI colorists at Company 3, Modern Videofilm, Technicolor, and others – all qualify as “prosumers” in your book.
Robert, I don’t know why you continue to harp on these things. Clearly you don’t like the product, and that’s certainly your right. But when top notch colorists with the most demanding clients in the world (and forgive me, but I doubt that your clients are more demanding than Michael Mann, Michael Bay, Ridley Scott, JJ Abrams, and countless other directors – and cameramen, too…) are happy with a grading system, it’s a bit ludicrous to guise that system as “prosumer.”
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Not that it’s always relevant, but I would point out that MIstika is also approximately 200 times the price (not an exaggeration). Besides, all “this is better than that” talk almost always overlooks the single most important factor, which is the person running it and their skills. Everything Company 3 turns out is graded on Resolve. And Company 3 turns out the lions share of “A” titles in the industry, not to mention some of the most admired color work. I would also point out that many, if not most, of the most admired television productions are done on Resolve as well, at various companies. That doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily “better” than everything else, but it does mean that it can do anything that a colorist needs or wants to do, and do it efficiently and at the highest quality level. It also doesn’t mean that it has the best implementation of every feature, but it does mean that a number of the most talented and demanding colorists in the industry, working with what is probably the most demanding clientele in the world, like what is there an awful lot.
It’s not the system. It’s the colorist.
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for #3: Right click on any shot in the timeline on the color page and choose “Use Remote Grades”, or select to always default to remote grades in the setup pages.
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I would counter that without that panel, there might not be amazingly sophisticated and complex software available to the vast majority of those users for free. When you consider that the software itself should, by rights, be selling for many thousands of dollars more than it is (and even at its ridiculously low price, the vast majority of its users don’t pay for it), that’s a rather small concession to make.
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The gradient power window only defines one side of the window, with the width of that side being infinite. The other “side” of the window is, by definition, outside the scope of the frame. So the window exists between your defined edge and the outside of the image, and your correction is indeed “inside” that window, assuming you don’t invert it. Previously, to get a similarly defined area, you would have to use a rectangular PW and repeatedly resize and reposition it depending on how wide you wanted it to be and the softness. With the gradient, you just position it, adjust the rotation and softness, and you’re done. I don’t find any of that confusing or time consuming, especially compared to what you had to do previously.
As for Baselight, ALL windows in Baselight can be created by drawing them where you want them and, yes, that can be a bit more efficient than predefining each one to be in the middle of the screen, as Resolve does (although this is a lot less restrictive if you have the DaVinci control panels, which enable trackball control of window position). Frankly, though, if you watch an experienced operator on either one, preferably working with the dedicated control panel, there’s really little to no significant difference in productivity. It’s when you reach for a mouse and need to point to a specific area on the screen that productivity goes to hell (whether people realize it or not). But all of those things are based largely on personal habits and preferences.
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To me it’s exactly what it should be. The hard edge defines the boundary and the arrow defines the softness. The arrow points towards the underlying area that is being left alone, with everything on the edge side of the boundary line being affected. The arrow is defining the falloff of the windowed correction to the unaffected area, exactly the same as the outer lines do on all of the other window types. The windowed correction is overlaid on the base correction, and the on screen controls indicate that. I don’t understand why you think it’s incorrect, but you can always invert it if you find that easier…
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If you’re using Version 10, you can do this by saving the look node(s) as a Power Grade. Power Grades can be appended to the existing correction with a double click. This works on either a single shot or a bunch of selected shots, so you can now do what you asked.
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I thought I’d revisit this because some changes in version 10 make this pretty simple.
In version 10, you can create your network and save it as a Power Grade. Power Grades can now be appended with a double click. So if you select the entire timeline and double click on the Power Grade, it will be appended to every shot (the first node will be left in place, but that’s inconsequential). That pretty much gives you what you were asking for, and it works with or without the DaVinci control panels.
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We see a lot of this in much the same way. I agree with you about Baselight, and I’d go further and say that there’s something kind of special about the way Baselight “feels.” I find that it’s “easier” – sometimes considerably easier – to get a really perfect result, especially when working with log material and the film grade strip, than it is with just about anything else (although I don’t have a lot of Lustre experience). Just something about the way Baselight mixes color that’s really effective. But I agree about the need to have at least some familiarity with all of them, and I try to do the same, even though I’m not a full time colorist anymore.
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> It should be done by the qualified artist and by using a proper software- AE, Smoke, Nuke etc, where >client will get much better results, much faster and at the lower cost, rather that trying to cram it into DI >session. Sometimes more is not better…
But sometimes it actually is. As an example, my friend Leo Marini (he owns Local Hero in Santa Monica) has made his reputation on being able to incorporate basic VFX creation into his DI sessions (he uses Scratch, which is arguably a bit better suited for that kind of thing) and has attracted a very nice following of directors and DP’s who really appreciate his approach. His policy is that if he feels it will take more than 5 or 10 minutes in the DI room, he sends it off to a VFX artist, but a lot of “clean up” things don’t really take any longer than that, and his clients can see the results instantly, at full resolution, in a theater environment. So it’s a give and take. Of course, Leo is a very experienced VFX compositor and graphics designer as well as a very talented colorist, and not many people sitting in DI chairs fall into that category. But for the few that do, it’s a very valid and successful approach, if a bit unorthodox. I would also note that Steve Scott, who does nearly all of the Marvel shows at Technicolor, has really pushed Autodesk for more complete integration of Lustre and Flame, for similar reasons (it helps that Steve started as a Flame artist, of course…..). For artists like Steve, Flame Premium is preferable to standalone Lustre, just as Scratch is preferable to Resolve for Leo.
Jake, I’m curious. What programs do you own, if any? Over the last few years, you and I have discussed Resolve, Baselight, Nucoda, Lustre, Pablo, etc. I’ve run the 2K, Resolve, and Baselight (and Pablo, very briefly..) in facilities I’ve worked in, but I’ve only owned Resolve, and only since it became a Blackmagic product. I know you have an appreciation for multiple systems just like I do, but you seem to favor one over others at any point in time, and the one you favor seems to change. At one time you were much more of a Baselight fan, and I seem to recall you favoring Lustre for a time as well, but now it seems you lean to the Nucoda camp. Just curious…..