Dylan R. Hopkin

Hi there, the LUTs I used were modified versions of the Film Looks LUTs that come with Resolve. I changed the contrast curve and selectively modified the saturation curves somewhat. But the main part of a normal Kodak 2383 D55 LUT will be good. Just remember to feed it with the correct input gamma and primaries (cineon / REC709). cheers Dylan

Hi Vicent, glad to hear you liked the masterclass. You can still use LGG for cinema grading, even though they are primarily designed for REC709 / G2.4. Many Colourists do, however I would always recommend using the offset or HDR grade tool Global first for exposure / wb. Then use Lift to tweak your black level / Gain for your white level. I seldom use gamma, since the math behind it "bends" the image in an non-linear fashion. These days I find myself using HDR grade tool Global / Temp / Tint for a lot of the heavy "lifting" (not lift as in black level). When set up correctly the HDR grade tool is colour space aware, meaning that it manipulates the image with the source colour space / gamma in mind. Which again yields cleaner grades. Custom Curves are also color space aware when set up correctly in a Color Managed project. However a never use Custom Curves for shot by shot balancing, but I do use them during more scene based look-design such as split-toning and contrast curve adjustments that span an entire scene or movie. Hope this helps. Cheers Dylan

Hi all! Thanks for the positive feedback on the masterclass. I am extremely happy that you guys found it useful. There are so many ways of handling colour in tandem with storytelling. I find myself constantly trying different methods to see how I can improve my creative approach during look dev and client sessions. Have a great new year! Cheers Dylan

I am not a Fusion expert by no means, however I think the technique described in these tutorials could be adapted to deform your sales bubble, and create a page curl. hope this helps cheers Dylan dylanhopkin.com

Cross fades are your friend. I did a an entire one-shot 90 min feature film like that. (Resolve 14). But since you are doing a commercial, which is shorter in length, keyframing multiple dynamics could also be an option. Or a mix of techniques. It really depends on the amount of power windows involved. You could also consider using multiple adjustment clips too. Resolve 16 or newer 😉

I think an even more important question is, "What is a perfect skin tone?". In real life, skin tones will change a lot depending on the surrounding light. Since skin tones can vary a lot, within certain neighbouring hue-ranges. Which direction you like to push them during grading depends on taste. "Real" vs "Unreal" colours in any given lighting situation. i.e. comparing skin tone under normal sunlight vs under sodium vapour light-sources vs fluorescent light vs cheap LED-light etc. As you mentioned, many feel that skin tones "must" line-up to the i-line (often called skin tone line) on the vector scope. This can be a good point of reference, but then we are back to what skin tones would really look like in real life. However, we don´t always want realisme. For maintaining consistent skin tones through out a scene or an entire movie, I find that using the Resolve-lightbox and viewing several images side by side can really help catching skin tones that have drifted off a bit. Another trick is to qualify the skin tone you like, make a mental note of where on the vector scope it lies, and then compare this "reference" hue with skin tones on other shots, and adjust accordingly. Not sure if this answered your question though B.) Cheers Dylan dylanhopkin.com

Another thing I also do is blend is in some of the original source, so the clip keeps a subtle amount of the original noise (depending on how bad the noise is of course). Alternatively you can add grain to the denoised footage with a common grain so that the texture blends nicely. Plastic feeling footage is never nice B.)

Same as Anton, I do NR as either my first node or the first node after a CST-node. All at Clip-node-level. That way you can node-cache the NR-node (User Cache), and everything downstream from that will be real time. (Depending on your hardware of course.). I have the NR-node in my pre-built nodetree. However, I only use the NR-node when it’s really needed. Not a fan of overusing NR. Cheers

What I also like about the highlight (HL) tool is that keeps some of the saturation in the effected areas when you reduce the highlights. But as with other tools, if pushed too far, things can look un-natural. It’s all a matter of taste I suppose.

All tools that effect certain tonal ranges "qualify" in a certain fashion. However, not all of these tools let you adjust which tonal range that acts on. The range is a set to a specific area. Therefore my two different suggestions for the Highlight (HL) tool. When you create the qualifier yourself you have more control of the effected tonal range. Cheers Dylan

In DR I tend to use the Highlight (HL) tool to achieve pleasant highlight Rolloff. It can be used either globally (don’t push it too hard globally though), or qualify a specific highlight range, and apply the Highlight (HL) tool to the qualified area. All the above is usually done in Log-space, pre-LUT / pre-contrast expansion (valid for DR YRGB projects). You can blend the two methods too, when applied to separate pre-LUT nodes. From what I have read, Paul Dore has a good DCTL / OpenFX for highlight Rolloff too. But I have not tried it myself. https://github.com/baldavenger Hope this helps B.)

Me too. Disable / Enable nodes can give the spinning wheel of death on MACos. Sometimes frequently. We have talked to BMD design, but no fixes yet. The bug is intermittent, therefore, in my case, difficult to replicate 100%.

I have used a fixed node structure for years. A couple of times a year I evaluate the current version, and try to improve it. Often I tailor the structure for a specific project for a specific workflow. But the core setup is usually constant. * I also scratched my head when I saw the connection between node 3 and 9 in Walter Volpatto`s setup. I must investigate what sorcery this is 🦄.

Thanks Seth, I’ll give that a try!

“The secret lives of Colours” https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Lives-Colour-RADIO-BOOK/dp/1473630819 Great interview with the author here: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-secret-lives-of-color/