Abby Bader

C4D is known to be easy to learn compared to Maya, 3D Studio Max and definitely Houdini. As in color grading it's more about the artist than the tool, but my impression is that it's used quite heavily in the motion graphics part of the industry and as you say - in conjunction with After Effects. 

On 1/27/2019 at 9:57 PM, Craig Harris said:

Hey, Abby. Could you explain how you do this?

I guess it's several ways to split the channels but something like a splitter combiner node or channel boolean should do the trick.

Good review!

I have opened several images in Photoshop and they are all lined up as separate documents. Then, when I try to save this PSD-file I only get the option to save the individual documents and not a PSD-file with all the documents inside? I might be incredible stupid but this makes no sense to me. Please enlighten me.

I think that one of the reasons companies like Film Convert is doing good is that they care about accuracy. They sell a look or stock emulation and they do everything they can to make it look the way it's intended to look no matter what camera they use. This is done by matching their looks with the different camera profiles. By stating on your site that you have custom powergrades for most cameras, I think you insinuate that you match profiles. Not saying you are trying to trick your customers, I just read it that way (and was wrong) and was curious how you did it.

I understand, but how do you match the different camera profiles to ensure your presets will give the same result with different cameras?

Hi Jason! On the site you say that this is custom powergrades for most cameras. May I ask how you match the different camera profiles?

You could grade under an output LUT that transforms your scene into a display space P3/Rec709/PQ etc. That way your corrections doesn't change but it will match the different target displays. A small trim when switching output LUTs could be necessary. 

This is normal behaviour as overlay is a combination of both multiply and screen. Meaning that if your base layer is darker that 50% grey it will become darker.

Note that Overlay preserves the  shadows and highlight values, so correcting the grain layer using the gamma control should get it back to the initial state quite non destructive. 

Unfortunately, the 3RD file isn't possible to trim without transcoding to another format. Unless you need access to the RAW data you could edit the EDL to increase the time codes of each clip and transcode to any of the MXF flavors. That's more than good enough in most instances. 

That's a great list Frank, good luck with the screenings!

Managing exposure and contrast is discussed in depth in many of the case studies on this site. I would especially recommend reading Trish Cahills case as you might pick up some interesting about that topic there. 

In that league? FotoKem, Technicolor, MPC, Mill, Sim +++ Check the credits in the case studies on this site, most are represented there. 

I suggest that you read the case studies on this site as those will enlighten you on the use of printer lights and how common it is.

There are many ways to set up nodes. Balancing and exposure adjustments first followed by looks is the most common. If you prefer to use printer points or primaries is totally up to you. 

Would be interesting to see a picture of your setup Dermot? ☺

Fun gadget ☺

Study film images and you will see that the boldest contrast is in the mid tones, and to replicate that you need to learn a thing or two about contrast management.

No, it will not give you a better contrast to desat the image, adjust contrast and bring color back. Play with the curves in conjunction with the primary controls. And make sure to read Trish Cahill's Hobbit article where she explains how to work the contrast. 

The secret sauce is all about contrast management. You need to perfect the tonal curve, and also; most colorist favor heavier contrast in the mid tones than in the shadows as we're used to see in film.

Go to the edit tab, mark the clips, right click and choose "new compound clip". Now the clips will "group" into one clip and any effect you add on it will affect the nested clips. You can decompose any time.

Would still be interesting to see it 😉

Healthy and fresh skin tones, I like it. 

Can you provide us with some stills, it might open up for other suggestions?

 I would love that!

Sometimes DR doesn't "see" the clip, and one solution might be to right click on the clip in the media pool and choose "conform lock selected clip to the timeline". It's a way to force the clip and the offline timeline clip to speak together.

Can you go more in detail about what you are looking for?