Can you imagine…

…A website that covers a broad swath of the craft of color correction? Plug-ins for NLEs. Pre-production tips for DPs and Directors. Workflow suggestions for small productions staffed by do-it-all creatives. Analysis of the latest graphics cards.

Have you searched YouTube, Vimeo, blogs and podcasts for those kinds of tips, finding a few gems in a mass of sub-standard advice and even worse audio or picture quality?

Luckily over the past few years, through blog posts and User Group presentations, Twitter and training websites – and yes, a really awesome Weekly Newsletter – the pain of finding quality timely information is slowly being alleviated as more pros share their ideas and experience. But we’ve got much further to travel.

Today, the Tao of Color is proud to announce the next step in that progression:

The launch of a companion website: MixingLight.com!

MixingLight.com: 50 miles wide, 10 Feet down… Monthly

MixingLight.com is a stand-alone monthly membership-based website that’s a natural supplement to the TaoOfColor.com. Where the Tao takes a very few subjects and dives into deep detail – Mixing Light will cover a huge array of color grading topics and present them in much more digestible bits.

MixingLight.com will launch in 2Q2013 and is a partnership between colorists Robbie Carman, Patrick Inhofer and Dan Moran.

Mixing Light is geared to the multi-role creative who has become aware of how a solid color grade by a trained professional can massively increase the quality (Production Value) of the final projects they create. Mixing Light will cover the entire craft: Technique. Software and workflow. Hardware and gear. From that which is timeless to that which always seems to be ever-changing.

Mixing Light will present these topics to its members in the form of Articles, Podcasts and Video tutorials – with a protected forum allowing working professionals to have frank discussions away from the prying eyes of our clients. Mixing Light will foster a supportive community that’s always on-the-ready to figure out whatever funky new codec, gear, workflow or software our vendors are throwing our way; plus whatever hot new ‘thing’ our clients think they suddenly need to have.

And how does this differ from what Tao of Color is already doing?

Tao of Color: 50 feet wide, 10 miles down

The TaoOfColor.com is designed to take one aspect of color grading and go in-depth on it. We take one topic, 50 feet across, and dig 10 miles down examining every strata of sediment we come along – carbon-dating it, analyzing it, teaching it… so that you can do the same, replicating our workflow until one day you own it, you modify it, you master it.

For instance, our Grade-Along takes a 7 minute short film… and turns that into 10 hours of sit-next-to-a-colorist-and-ask-questions-as-he-grades training! Like I said, 50 feet across, 10 miles down.

The thing that’s been missing from the Tao is a broader view. A more generalist approach to Color Grading.

That’s where Mixing Light fits in. It’s not a replacement to the Tao. It’s a broadening of the Tao. In a very secret place in my heart, I really hope that Mixing Light is where film and video pros will develop a love for color grading… and then jump to the Tao for some really deep, lose-an-entire-weekend type of training.

At this point you may be wondering, who is crazy enough to attempt this madness – on a monthly basis, no less?

Who Is MixingLight.com?

If you think Mixing Light sounds like a LOT of work. You’re right. It is. Which is why it’s taken me almost 4 years to find the right partners to launch a montly membership site like MixingLight.com. There’s no way a single person could achieve such a lofty goal.

I couldn’t be prouder (frankly, I feel amazingly lucky) to introduce you to the MixingLight.com creative team (listed by alphabetical order, full bios at the end of this blog post):

Robbie Carman

Robbie Carman: Co-founder, MixingLight.com

Robbie is one of the hardest working colorists I know. Partner in Amigo Media, he runs a finishing shop in Washington DC . From series to political spots to documentaries and indie features, he’s got the chops and the experience to talk authoritatively about the craft. He’s also a gear-head and always kits his room out with the latest gear – and loves talking about what works and what doesn’t. On top of that he’s a prolific author, trainer and speaker. If I get my way, one series that Robbie will do for Mixing Light is ‘The Business of Time Management’. Seriously, I don’t know how he fits it all into a day.

Patrick Inhofer

Patrick Inhofer: Co-founder, MixingLight.com

That’s me, Founder of this website and owner of my own grading / finishing boutique: Fini.tv. Like Robbie, I have a strong background in online finishing (having transitioned from online editor to colorist). I’ve gone from color grading on tape (using Setup, Gain, Chroma and Hue knobs) to grading in NLEs and finally in dedicated grading apps and delivering to broadcast / cable television and the indie film circuit. I’m not a gear head  (not compared to Robbie) but I’m huge on workflows that require moving projects between multiple software apps. I’m also a control surface junkie.

Dan Moran

Dan Moran: Co-founder, MixingLight.com

If Robbie and I are the Old Hands of this team, then Dan is the Young Gun. He’s an intuitive colorist and creative artist who has taken full advantage of some amazing opportunities and has the pulse of upcoming trends. Where Robbie and I make a living using DaVinci Resolve… Dan made a living working for DaVinci as a worldwide Resolve demo artist and trainer. He now grades spots and films for one of London’s hottest houses. You can bet he’ll be riffing off Resolve tutorials. He’ll also be taking the lead in MixingLight’s podcasting series – with his passion in talking to others about the craft. He’ll also be widening his view on other high-end color grading kits… and taking us all along for the ride.

MixingLight.com: The Roadmap

Mixing Light will be going into private beta around February 2013. In April (right around NAB) we’ll be going live. Yes, we have a ton of work ahead of us to get this thing off the ground. And we couldn’t be more excited about it! Between the three of us we’ll be splitting the monthly tasks of delivering consistently top-notch color correction education and training. We’ll also be tapping each of our own personal networks of successful creatives to contribute to Mixing Light on a monthly basis.

If this sounds interesting to you – head on over to MixingLight.com right now! Sign up for our Launch Newsletter – which will be delivered about twice a month until we launch. It’ll keep you up-to-date on how the launch is going, while also allowing us to deliver tips, tricks, podcasts and videos that will be representative of what we have planned for Mixing Light. And if you sign up for the Newsletter, there’s a good chance you’ll be invited into the Beta cycle – before we go live.

Or, you can sign up right here:

Share the News!

MixingLight.com: Full Bios

Robbie Carman

Robbie Carman is a professional colorist and co-owner of Amigo Media LLC a finishing boutique located in the Washington, DC area with a focus on broadcast television and independent film finishing. Robbie has 15 years of experience grading, including hundreds of programs for many of the Discovery Network channels, National Geographic, PBS, MSNBC and others. He counts technical problem solving and client communication amongst his strengths.

Robbie has co-authored many books including: Final Cut Pro Workflows: The Independent Studio Handbook with Jason Osder, From Still to Motion A Photographers Guide To Creating Video With Your DSLR with Richard Harrington, Jim Ball, and Matt Gottshalk and An Editor’s Guide To Adobe Premiere Pro (1st and 2nd Editions) with Richard Harrington and Jeff Greenberg. See all Robbie’s books on Amazon here: http://amzn.to/TM2BZK

In addition to writing,  Robbie has also contributed as the technical editor to some popular books including – Alexis Van Hurkman’s Apple Pro Training Series: The Encyclopedia of Color Correction for Final Cut Pro, The Apple Pro Training Series: Color by David Gross and Michael Wohl and The Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro 7 Quick Reference by Brendan Boykin.

Robbie has also authored many courses on Lynda.com focusing on color correction and editing. View Robbie’s Lynda.com training here: http://bit.ly/UGQ3ax

In addition to color grading and writing work, Robbie is also an Adobe and Apple Certified Instructor. He speaks regularly at conferences such as NAB, IBC,  The Editors Retreat, The NY Post Production conference, and GV Expo.

Patrick Inhofer

Patrick Inhofer is a professional colorist / finisher and owner of the New Jersey-based boutique Fini.tv. He’s a 23-year veteran of the New York City post-production community. Patrick takes his experience working at high-end full-service post houses and delivers those same services to low- and mid- budget productions, bringing them high-quality workflows at competitive prices.

Patrick has worked on films, documentaries, television series, corporate videos, promos, and ID packages for a range of clients ranging from broadcast / cable networks, to indie films making the festival circuit, to corporate giants. He’s worked with directors Barry Levinson (more than once) and Bruce Sinofsky. Other clients include: HBO, NBC, ABC, Showtime, ESPN, Oxygen, AMC, Lifetime, TNT, TBS, National Geographic Channel, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, AOL, TV One, Virgin Records, Astralwerks…

Patrick’s first worked on Avid Media Composer as an Assistant Editor on HBO’s ‘The Babysitter’s Club’ in 1991. His first freelance gig in 2001 was to color correct a food documentary using Avid Media Composer’s ‘Levels’ filter (a practice he does not recommend!). He founded his first post-production boutique in 2002 and is currently the Owner / Colorist at Fini.tv, Inc.

He began teaching color correction standing before the New York Final Cut Pro Users Group in 2005 (where he subsequently became its Treasurer and, later, President). In 2010 Patrick founded the software agnostic color grading website TaoOfColorGrading.com and recently published the 100th edition of his free weekly email newsletter ‘The Tao Colorist’; which focuses on the Art, Craft and Business of professional color grading.

Patrick is also an Adjunct Professor at Hofstra University teaching Digital Color Correction for Television. He contributed to the book Color Grading with Avid Media Composer and Symphony 6 by Bryan Castle.

Dan Moran

Irish Colorist Dan Moran is based at Smoke & Mirrors London and is the ultimate DaVinci Resolve geek. His excellent technical knowledge and creative eye earned him a place as a colorist at one of the top post production facilities in London. His obsession with colors began in Photography which quickly evolved into the world of moving pictures and he started in Video Post Production in 2006. He began grading long form, commercials and features at The Element Dublin.

In 2010 Dan joined Blackmagic Design as their DaVinci Resolve Application Specialist and toured the world giving grading demos and training users. While working at Blackmagic Design Dan had the unique opportunity to work with and learn from some of the worlds top colorists and applies this knowledge to his work today.

Dan is currently focusing on commercial and music video grading. He has graded promos for Plan B, Wretch 32, Labrinth, Thorunn Antonia, Bell x1

Related Posts (automatically generated)

FTC Disclosure
Tao of Color is part of the DaVinci Resolve Beta team but purchased Resolve at full retail price and has not received compensation, goods, or services from any 3rd Party mentioned in this post. We hope, one day, this might change. Affiliate links are used throughout this website, sometimes resulting in a commission on sales (which helps support TaoOfColor.com) but without raising the price you pay by one cent.

In Part 2 we get down to specifics… what do Ben and Anthony want from the color correction of the sixth installment in their horror short film anthology series, Dead Man’s Lake?

This Skype call was originally recorded to be part of the paid color grading training series Dead Man’s Lake: The Grade-Along (more details here). But we decided instead to drop this in the Tao of Color Podcast feed since many young and aspiring colorists might find our conversation interesting – with insights into the typical concerns and issues that need to be addressed before a single frame of footage is color corrected.

Ben Franklin: Director, ‘Dead Man’s Lake’ and Founder / Show Runner ‘BloodyCuts’

Interview: Benjamin Franklin

Ben is a producer on the popular web series “Bloody Cuts”, a 13 part horror anthology that can be found at www.bloodycuts.co.uk. As a Director of Post Production by day, Ben has worked in video production for over 7 years as both and editor and colorist.

But his love for filmmaking was piqued in early 2011 when he and a few filmmaker friends (and family) found some success in one of the biggest short film competitions in the world. Using that as a launch pad for Bloody Cuts, Ben has managed to assemble a collective that’s since been covered by most major filmmaking websites, received sponsorship from top industry companies such as Millennium FX, and audience figures of over 100k. The team have also recently received an international film award from FilmSkillet.com and are seeing their work played at some of the biggest festivals in the world.

As the series comes to its midpoint, Ben’s commitment to it has seen him take on many different roles within their productions, demonstrated most recently when he took the Director’s chair for ”Dead Man’s Lake”.

You can find Ben at:

• Website: www.bloodycuts.co.uk

• Twitter: @bloodycutsfilms

• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bloodycuts

Anthony Melton – Editor, ‘Dead Man’s Lake’ & Digital Producer, ‘BloodyCuts.co.uk’

Interview: Anthony Melton

Anthony Melton is the Digital Producer for Bloody Cuts Films; a 13 part anthology created for the love and tradition of horror.  Being a multidisciplinary creative he designs and develops the Bloody Cuts website and brand, generates supporting digital material; including the behind the scenes films, and now assists in the overall production of the series.

Starting with Dead Mans Lake Anthony has been part of the Assistant Direction team and is heading towards Directing his own episode of Bloody Cuts. On Dead Man’s Lake Anthony performed 2nd AD duties and was the lead Editor. He also provided supporting visual FX work and Motion Graphics.

When Anthony is not hooked to his digital “Lamantation Box” for Bloody Cuts, he works for LAW Creative: a marketting communications agency in Hertfordshie and London. You can follow Anthony on twitter @AnthonyMelton and hear him host the Bloody Cuts podcast here: www.bloodycuts.co.uk/podcast/

You can find Anthony at:

• Website: www.bloodycuts.co.uk

• Twitter: @AnthonyMelton

• Day job: LAW Creative

Tweet, Like, or Leave a comment! (bottom of the page, no registration required)

Listen Now 

Spoiler Alert! There are spoilers throughout this conversation. If you haven’t already, go ahead and watch the 8-minute short horror film, ‘Dead Man’s Lake’ before listening: Dead Man’s Lake

Listen to Part 1 | Find out how you can color correct this short film

Subscribe in iTunes | Subscribe to the Tao Colorist Sunday Morning Newsletter

Discover Tao Of Color’s Masterclass – DaVinci Resolve 8 & 9, Apple Color 1.5, Colorista 2!

More Interviews

This interview is part of an on-going interview series with the movers, shaker, and thinkers involved in the field of professional color grading for moving images. When I have new episodes to release, they are released on Tuesdays. To be notified you may follow me on Twitter (@patInhofer), via our RSS feed, and on iTunes.

Update: This training is now available for sale! Check it out here

Announcing: Tao of Color’s Grade–Along Series

When I started this website in 2010 there were three things I wanted to do with my membership-based training:

• Build my training around meaty short films that allow colorists to practice their craft in a meaningful way. Training that has real challenges to overcome. Training that prepares you for working with real clients on real jobs. As one member told me with my first Masterclass training (paraphrasing), “Patrick, I love your training but that short film feels like a job.” EXACTLY.

• Have a rotating stable of short films that can continually challenge even experienced colorists—while giving (aspiring) colorists the opportunity to work with different cameras, different codecs, different techniques.

• Short films where the copyright owner is willing to let others download the camera originals and use their grades in their demo reels and for client private demos.

Finding this combination of elements is… difficult.

There are plenty of artists willing to share their work—but the projects often are not challenging enough, or not interesting (from a color grading perspective), or they’re shot on low-quality codecs (I don’t want offer one h.264 DSLR-originated film after another).

The BloodyCuts homepage

Then I met the filmmakers at BloodyCuts.co.uk
Or more precisely, I exchanged emails with Ben Franklin, one the filmmakers behind a terrific horror film anthology site: BloodyCuts.co.uk. Ben calls himself the Show Runner for this website anthology, which has a goal of showcasing 13 horror short films. They were about to shoot horror film #6, Dead Man’s Lake. After hearing the details of the upcoming shoot I knew this project could be perfect for the Tao. Their short films have extremely high production values. They’ve teamed up with top London creature house, MilleniumFX. And they were planning on shooting using an Arri Alexa at 4:4:4 using the LogC profile.

From my perspective this film had all the earmarks of a great training title.

Even more important—Ben and his colleagues  are pursing this anthology as an excuse to be continually making movies to help them develop, refine and challenge their filmmaking abilities. This project isn’t about making it big on the film festival circuit. Or developing the next Tales from the Crypt (though they could certainly pursue those options). Nope, it’s about developing their craft. And in our emails it became clear that in developing their craft they were open to the idea of bringing other filmmakers along. Filmmakers just like you, reading this blog. With Ben and his team’s openness, Dead Man’s Lake: The Grade-Along was born.

Not just a training title, but a Series is born
The concept behind Tao of Color’s Grade-Along isn’t that it’s a one-shot deal. Dead Man’s Lake is the first of this series, and the first in the horror genre of this series. Over time we’ll be rolling out other genres, other challenges–as we meet filmmakers with meaty short film projects that seem appealing from a training perspective.

But these films won’t be available for purchase indefinitely. They’ll be here for a month or two… and disappear. Eventually to be replaced by other projects, new challenges, up-to-date software. That’s the goal.

And the projects in this series will always be recorded in a specific way… as a Grade-Along

A Grade-Along is like riding shotgun with me as I work
Viewers will be watching me work as I touch the footage for the first time. This means you’ll see my mistakes–not just successes–as well as how I get out of my predicaments. I talk out loud, imagining we’ve got you sitting right next to me and we need to get you trained up to take over for me on the night shift. And I’m never just training you only on software. Workflow, technique, client interaction–if you’re going to take over this chair we need to make sure you’re prepared.

Besides recording the screen, you’ll usually (since sometimes a camera doesn’t roll or a file gets corrupted) have a camera recording me plus a birds-eye view recording my actions on the colorist control surface (you can do these techniques perfectly well using a mouse–but it’s important you see me working at (mostly) full speed).

The goal is to get beyond software and into the craft
Most training titles are geared toward learning software. Here at the Tao, our perspective is that the software is merely a means to an end. There’s no point in learning the software if you don’t have a cohesive project to craft and hone your skills. Repetition is the key to learning a new skill or mastering an existing skill. Color grading someone else’s footage to someone else’s vision is almost always far more challenging than grading your own stuff to your own vision.

Teaching software + technique + client interaction + camera original footage from short films is the hallmark of not only of the Grade-Along but Tao of Color’s Masterclasses as well.

Click through to see a preview of Dead Man’s Lake: The Grade-Along

Introducing Dead Man’s Lake: The Grade-Along
We can’t thank Ben Franklin and his team enough for this opportunity to get the Grade-Along Series off the ground and into the hands of colorists (professional and aspiring) everywhere.

And I’m thrilled to present to you Dead Man’s Lake: The Grade Along. Click through to see a preview to the first title in this series (shipping in October). You’ll also get a Behind-the-Scenes look at the DaVinci Resolve project we’ll be color grading, as well as the final release of Dead Man’s Lake. And if you sign up for our special Dead Man’s Lake Announce list, when the training is released you’ll get a discount coupon to save you some real cash.

Tweet, Like, or Leave a comment! (bottom of the page, no registration required)

The ‘Tao of Color’ podcast lurches back to life this week!

Join me as I talk with the two raving lunatics behind the Horror Anthology website, BloodyCuts! Yes, we all make it out of the podcast alive – but not after discussing what drives these up-and-coming filmmakers.

At the start of this podcast I also drop an announcement about a joint venture between Tao of Color and BloodyCuts – to bring you some cutting edge training. If you have the stomach for it, scroll down to listen to the podcast!

Ben Franklin: Director, ‘Dead Man’s Lake’ and Founder / Show Runner ‘BloodyCuts’

Interview: Benjamin Franklin

Ben is a producer on the popular web series “Bloody Cuts”, a 13 part horror anthology that can be found at www.bloodycuts.co.uk. As a Director of Post Production by day, Ben has worked in video production for over 7 years as both and editor and colorist.

But his love for filmmaking was piqued in early 2011 when he and a few filmmaker friends (and family) found some success in one of the biggest short film competitions in the world. Using that as a launch pad for Bloody Cuts, Ben has managed to assemble a collective that’s since been covered by most major filmmaking websites, received sponsorship from top industry companies such as Millennium FX, and audience figures of over 100k. The team have also recently received an international film award from FilmSkillet.com and are seeing their work played at some of the biggest festivals in the world.

As the series comes to its midpoint, Ben’s commitment to it has seen him take on many different roles within their productions, demonstrated most recently when he took the Director’s chair for ”Dead Man’s Lake”.

You can find Ben at:

• Website: www.bloodycuts.co.uk

• Twitter: @bloodycutsfilms

• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bloodycuts

Anthony Melton – Editor, ‘Dead Man’s Lake’ & Digital Producer, ‘BloodyCuts.co.uk’

Interview: Anthony Melton

Anthony Melton is the Digital Producer for Bloody Cuts Films; a 13 part anthology created for the love and tradition of horror.  Being a multidisciplinary creative he designs and develops the Bloody Cuts website and brand, generates supporting digital material; including the behind the scenes films, and now assists in the overall production of the series.

Starting with Dead Mans Lake Anthony has been part of the Assistant Direction team and is heading towards Directing his own episode of Bloody Cuts. On Dead Man’s Lake Anthony performed 2nd AD duties and was the lead Editor. He also provided supporting visual FX work and Motion Graphics.

When Anthony is not hooked to his digital “Lamantation Box” for Bloody Cuts, he works for LAW Creative: a marketting communications agency in Hertfordshie and London. You can follow Anthony on twitter @AnthonyMelton and hear him host the Bloody Cuts podcast here: www.bloodycuts.co.uk/podcast/

You can find Anthony at:

• Website: www.bloodycuts.co.uk
• Twitter: @AnthonyMelton
• Day job: LAW Creative

Tweet, Like, or Leave a comment! (bottom of the page, no registration required)

Listen Now 

Spoiler Alert! There’s a spoiler about 40 minutes into this conversation. If you haven’t already, go ahead and watch the 8-minute short horror film, ‘Dead Man’s Lake’ before listening: Dead Man’s Lake

Want to color correct this short film? Check out Tao of Color’s Grade-Along Series.

Listen to Part 2

Subscribe in iTunes | Subscribe to the Tao Colorist Sunday Morning Newsletter

Discover Tao Of Color’s Masterclass – DaVinci Resolve 8 & 9, Apple Color 1.5, Colorista 2!

More Interviews

This interview is part of an on-going interview series with the movers, shaker, and thinkers involved in the field of professional color grading for moving images. When I have new episodes to release, they are released on Tuesdays. To be notified you may follow me on Twitter (@patInhofer), via our RSS feed, and on iTunes.

Say Hello to the 'Tangent Element' Colorist Control Surface

The ‘Tangent Element’ is the newest colorist control surface on the market and just started shipping about 3 weeks ago.

The Tao of Color visited our good friends at The Studio – B & H,  the professional video division located inside B & H Photo in New York City, to get our hands on this surface and give it a test drive in DaVinci Resolve.

The Studio-B&H’s Michel Suissa and Tao of Color’s Patrick Inhofer also offer up some buying advice.

—-

UPDATE 1: I’ve been informed that for DaVinci Resolve, the Buttons panel (Bt) and the Knobs panel (Kb) must be purchased together. One panel won’t work without being paired with the other panel.

—-

Topics covered include:

• Physical size versus the Tangent Wave
• Portability
• Functionality vs. Wave in DaVinci Resolve
• Live demo – with DaVinci Resolve
• Overall Impressions
• Buying advice for Resolve colorists
• Buying advice for Scratch ad Scratch Lab colorists

If you want to buy the Tangent Element, scroll down below the video and click on the banner. Your price stays the same but you’ll be supporting this website.

• And here’s the Tangent Element homepage

• If you haven’t already, check out and subscribe to the internet’s best darn (mostly) weekly Color Grading newsletter.

Comments are open. Feel free to let us know what you think of the Element or if you have any other questions you’d like answered.

Related Posts (automatically generated)

FTC Disclosure
Tao of Color is part of the DaVinci Resolve Beta team but purchased Resolve at full retail price and has not received compensation, goods, or services from any 3rd Party mentioned in this post. We hope, one day, this might change. Affiliate links are used throughout this website, sometimes resulting in a commission on sales (which helps support TaoOfColor.com) but without raising the price you pay by one cent.

What is Cinegrain?

Product Website: www.CineGrain.com

If you want to add film grain or mimik certain types of film looks (Super 8mm, Silent Film, film flashes, lens flares) then the Cinegrain package of film footage may be right up your alley. It’s not a plug-in – but actual scanned film. Since it’s not a plug-in it’s very easy on the CPU. But – it is a little heavy on your wallet… which is why I dig in so deep and show several different ways of customizing the footage for your projects.

The Cinegrain package includes 1080p and 2k ProRes video clips ranging in length from a few frames (film splices) up to 45 seconds (film grain). Packages range from 50 clips to 400 clips clearly organized by category:

• Film Grain: 35mm, 35mm Dirt Fixed, 16mm, 8mm
• Dirt Scratches: Heavy dirt, light dirt, heavy scratches, light scratches
• Heads & Tails: Leader, Tails, Countdowns, Title Cards
• Optical Filters: Straw, Sunset, Grads, etc
• Looks: Wookstock, Silent Film, Roswell, Full Gate with Keycode, etc
• Flash Frames: Flash Frames, Light Leaks, Strobes, etc
• Specialty Lens Flares: Telephoto, Wide Lens, Vintage, Rotating Lens, etc

A Plug-In In Your Pocket?

Yup. These are ProRes movies on a hard drive… a small hard drive that fits in your pocket.

And in the Tutorial section of this review I’ll be showing you how you can use this footage (in Final Cut 10 and DaVinci Resolve) to gain as much flexibility with this footage as most plug-ins… and with much quicker render times.

That’s why I call CineGrain, ‘A Plug-in In Your Pocket’; you can carry around with you, use it when you need and enjoy all the advantages of most film grain Plug-ins without the usual worrying if the plug-in is installed. Just hook up the drive, import your clips, and you’re good to go.

Using & Evaluating Cinegrain

I’ve recorded an extensive Video Review and Tutorial on Cinegrain. I’ll show you what they’re selling and then take you through how to use it in Final Cut 10 (using Overlay Modes and manipulating the Color Board to customize the ‘Look’ of the grain)… and then I’ll do the same thing in DaVinci Resolve (using the footage both with Composite Modes and as an External Key). At the end of the video I’ll let you know if I think this product is a good buy for the money.

Since this is a rather long Review / Tutorial, I’ve included a Chapter List (scroll down) in case you want to skip ahead to a specific section of this video.

If you enjoy this tutorial be sure to Sign Up for my free weekly color grading email newsletter, The Tao Colorist. I feature these types of tutorials plus tons of other color grading, industry and career news from all over the ‘Net. I curate the ‘best of the best’ and deliver it to your ‘virtual doorstep’ in time for your Sunday Morning Coffee.

Full Disclosure

The product I’m reviewing was sent to me – at no cost – by Cinegrain for the purposes of this review. Other than my original request for review I’ve had so subsequent contact with them and received no other renumeration or special considerations for creating this review. All opinions and mistakes are mine and mine alone.

Enjoy!

The Video Review

Update: At 5:17 I state that the Dirt-Fixed 35mm footage is only available in the Professional package. This is incorrect. Many Dirt-Fixed clips are available in several of their packages.

Update 2: I’ve updated the video, watermarking the CineGrain footage. I expect to do a more graceful job of it in the future – but for now, understand that the big ol’ cinegrain.com text and gray box behind it does NOT appear on the footage when you buy it!

Possibly Related Posts (automatically generated):

Table of Contents

Play along by downloading these elements:

• Alexa Footage Obtained from the blog of Local Hero Post:
  blog.localheropost.com/main/2010/10/6/arri-alexa-event-test-footage.html

• Sign Up to Receive free Cinegrain Footage:
  htpp://cinegrain.com

• Pomfort’s ‘Alexa Look2Video’ FCPx Plug-in & Free Demo Verison:
  pomfort.com/plugins/alexalook2video.html

Start: Cinegrain: What Is It?

3:41 Types of Footage Provided by Cinegrain

5:17 The Different Packages Cinegrain Is Selling (Note: the Dirt Fixed versions of their 35mm grain is available in several packages besides the Professional Package)

6:22 Full Disclosure: Cinegrain sent me their footage at my request for this review

7:14 Download the Footage I’m using and follow along!

7:56 Cinegrain System Requirements

8:27 Begin: Using Cinegrain in FCPx

9:43 Prepping the Alexa Footage with Pomfort’s ‘Alexa Look2Video’ FCPx Plug-in

10:52 Examing FCPx’s Built-In ’8mm’ Effect

11:55 Plug-Ins vs Cinegrain

12:47 Cinegrain: How to Use It in FCPx

13:53 How to Customize ‘The Look’ of Cinegrain

16:39 FCPx Example #2 – 16mm_500T

18:46 Tinting Cinegrain using the FCPx Color Board

19:28 FCPx Example #3 – Heavy Dirt & Scratch

20:29 More on Manipulating Contrast & Color

21:08 Using Transforms on ‘Heavy Dirt & Scratch’

21:58 FCPx Example #4 – Cinegrain’s ‘Looks’

23:25 FCPx Wrap Up

24:04 Using Cinegrain in DaVinci Resolve

24:18 Resolve: The Initial Grade

25:58 Begin Method 1: Using Resolve’s Timeline

26:20 Adding Cinegrain to a Video Track

27:08 Customizing the Cinegrain Footage

28:36 Example #2: Woodstock Look

29:22 Begin Method 2: Using Cinegrain As An External Key

29:42 Setting up External Keys

30:53 Adding an External Key in the Node Tree

31:15 Doing an Overlay inside a Layer Node

35:26 Example #3: 35mm Grain as an External Key

35:58 Manipulating the External Key

37:06 Adjusting the ‘Under Image’

37:50 Cinegrain In Resolve Wrap Up

38:04 How much is Cinegrain?

38:58 Sidebar: System Requirements

39:31 Cinegrain Licensing: The Not-So-Fine Print

40:43 Why Budget-Based Licensing Doesn’t Work for Me

41:30 The Missing License

42:24 Final Recommendation

43:07 Goodbye & Visit the TaoOfColor.com

Around here on the Tao, it goes without saying that BlackMagic DaVinci Resolve ‘dot’ updates are usually much bigger than they sound. Today DaVinci Resolve has been incrementally updated from 8.1 to 8.1.1. For most companies, this is the kind of update you might consider skipping.

And at first blush I thought the same about Resolve 8.1.1. Three new features are released but none seem critical. One is significant price drop. The second is something you might have seen coming. The third new feature? It’s a biggie but not ground-breaking.

Or is it? I’m about to argue that for a large part of the post-production industry – from hobbyists to indie filmmakers to those delivering for Broadcast – the third new feature is very VERY significant.

In fact, as a friend Tweeted to me today:

BlackMagic isn’t content with disrupting the Color Grading industry with a $999 ‘Hollywood Quality’ color grading package. They are now intent on disrupting themselves.

But first, the (first) significant price drop…

The $500 ‘Avid Tax’ Is Gone

Starting with DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1, DNxHD is now included with every install of DaVinci Resolve and DaVinci Resolve Lite.

Yesterday – if you wanted Resolve to play DNxHD files or render out to DNxHD – you had to buy a $500 add-on that enabled this feature. If you talked to the BlackMagic team about this ‘Avid tax’, they said they were passing on the cost of the licensing – but only to those people who wanted DNxHD rather than imposing that $500 ‘tax’ on all the other people who didn’t need it.

Here's the Avid DNxHD product listing from B&H Photo's website

No longer. DNxHD is now a part of every install of DaVinci Resolve – paid and free.

Normally a $500 price drop would be huge news amongst those of us who value integration with Avid products but here’s that innocuous little feature that has big-time implications:

Resolve Lite: Two Nodes, and BEYOND

DaVinci Resolve Lite has added by subtracting - the two color correction node limit has been lifted. DaVinci Resolve Lite now supports unlimited nodes.

If you’re not familiar with Resolve, they’ve just lifted a major restriction. Previously, the  two nodes limitation prevented Lite users from adding three powerful ‘specialty’ nodes. One of the things these Specialty Nodes share in common: They require a minimum of 3 nodes in the node tree.

For example, here’s a node tree from one of the new ‘Looks’ that ship with Resolve 8.1.1 (if you’re keeping track, pre-built Looks is the third new feature):

'Technicolor' Power Grade: This 5-Node Grade would have been impossible with DaVinci Resolve Lite 8.1

Do you see that Node labelled ‘Parallel’?

In Resolve Lite 8.1 this specialty node (and two others like it) were off-limits. And the above 5-node color grading tree would have been impossible.

Resolve Lite 8.1.1 now not only makes possible this node tree – it now ships with Resolve and Resolve Lite as a pre-built Look.

This is really big news.

For existing Resolve user let me repeat: Not only is there no restriction on the number of nodes that Lite users can use, all the Specialty Nodes are enabled – resulting in a color-grading software package that is virtually identical to the paid version of the software.

Lite No More

Lest I put too fine a point on it:

For a large number of post-production professional there’s almost no reason to rush out and buy the fully paid version of DaVinci Resolve.

BlackMagic has disrupted itself.

Here’s my case why the free version of DaVinci Resolve should not be called ‘Lite’.

What Are DaVinci Resolve Lite’s Remaining Limitations?

• Render to SD – and HD- Only – Resolve Lite limits the frame size of your renders to 1080p or smaller. You can grade 2K and 4K material. You just can’t have either a project size at or render out to 2K or 4K. Nor is image processing hobbled in any way, so feel free to do a Premium De-Bayer for your RED HD deliverable. But if you want Cinema sized renders – this limitation means you need to buy the full version.

• Single GPU Card – Lite is still limited to using a single GPU card. If you’re going to buy an expansion chassis to run 2 or 3 instances of a graphics card (for more Real-Time functionality) – you need to buy the full version.

• Single Red Rocket Card – Same limitation as above. For RED stereoscopic projects where you’d want two Red Rocket cards – you need to buy the full version.

• No Stereo 3D features – If you need to grade a stereo project – you need to buy the full version

• No Noise Reduction – Resolve Lite won’t enable this CUDA-only feature – even if you have a CUDA card.

• No Multi-Resolve Features – Lite doesn’t support grading from a remote location or sharing a database on a server between multiple Resolves.

Lite? Says Who?

Looking at that list of limitations it strikes me that Resolve Lite isn’t Lite at all.

In fact – there isn’t a single restriction on Resolve Lite that would have kept me from working on a single job over the past two years. Let’s take another look, with commentary:

• SD- and HD- Only- SD jobs have pretty much disappeared for me. It’s 100% HD… even for jobs that shoot at 2K or 4K! Right off the bat that tells you something about me – I don’t do Hollywood features. For the rest of you who are in my boat, HDCamSR at 1080p is about as ‘big’ a frame size we need… even if the client shot RED at 4K – which, as I said, Resolve Lite fully supports as a source.
  Here’s the kicker: If you DO need  2K / 4K deliverables you can grade at 1080p on DaVinci Resolve Lite, take that project to your local post house and have them render out the 4K deliverables – since DaVinci Resolve Lite projects and DaVinci Resolve Paid projects are fully interchangeable.

• Single GPU Card – Multiple GPUs are essential for 2K and larger frame sizes. Especially if you need real-time playout at those frame sizes. But 1080p is well within the processing power of a single GPU. And if you’re working with RED material, grading with Proxies to overcome GPU deficiencies and maintain the frame rate is a well-worn workflow.

• Single RED Rocket Card – See above. Even among RED users, I’d bet only a small percentage are running two Rockets.

• Noise Reduction – At first blush you’d think this would be a necessary feature that you’d be willing to upgrade to the paid version. Except… most HD jobs have a much bigger problem than excessive noise – they need to eliminate macroblocking artifacts from compressed codecs. Noise Reduction doesn’t solve that problem at all (in fact, it often exaggerates macro-blocking). It turns out that those mostly likely to benefit from Resolve’s Noise Reduction are those who are working at 2k frames sizes with multiple GPUs running dual RED Rockets for Stereo workflows!

Do I need to take this any further?

DaVinci Resolve Lite Free

Are you’re starting to feel a tingle running up your leg? Do you see what I’m saying?

There is nothing Lite about DaVinci Resolve Lite 8.1.1.

It has the full color grading power of the paid version and it’s limitations are remarkably targeted and consistent as being important to a very specific subset of post-production professionals.

In fact (get ready for my completely self-serving plug) – if you were to download DaVinci Resolve Lite tonight and then sign up for the Tao of Color MasterClass training… there isn’t a single thing I’m doing in the training with paid version of DaVinci Resolve that you won’t be able to do with the DaVinci Resolve Free! And I’ve already recorded 15 hours of training on the Paid version having no idea this Free version was just around the corner.

One More Thing…

Apple Color’ists: No Excuses

I know a lot of my Apple Color brethren have been holding off on making the move to DaVinci Resolve. Now is the time to explore and Resolve Lite is the perfect vehicle. It’ll cost you nothing. And unless you need to render out beyond 1080p – you can use Resolve Free for paid gigs. No watermarks. No limitations. Just pick up a Decklink card and away you go… (conspiracy theorists: this just might explain why BlackMagic has released such a powerful tool at no cost)

Aspiring Colorists: No Excuses

Here it is. A nearly feature parity version of DaVinci Resolve that’s costs NOTHING to get started for HD projects. What are you waiting for? Start grading!

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I immediately knew this email was about career advice. It’s a email from a 20-year veteran. He expresses the concern of many working professionals in our field of post-production.

My reply is the only about the only career advice I have. And I decided to share the exchange with all of you – in the hopes that someone else can learn from it as well:

Hi Patrick

When I started as an editor after graduating from NYU  in 1991 I was making $100 per hour and in the last few years I have seen that decline to zero.–and no jobs on top of that.

Entry level systems in 1992 were about $45k and because of fcp and cheap macs- and dramatically increasing processing power- entry level went down to ..$6,000. Simple economics.

Davinci systems were what, $200,000 eight  years ago and are now $10,000 for a basic set up and this brings up a serious question of hireability and hourly rate. I only see one maybe two colorist positions posted on Mandy.com-

Where do you think the jobs are?

I love being an artist and would learn and grow for that pleasure – however there is a larger world that’s pressing.  I need  to earn.

Thoughts?

The Color Correction MasterClass Has Re-Opened!

It’s here!

I’ve re-opened the MasterClass training with new pricing, new packages, and new training! In addition to what I call the “Final Cut Studio Ecosystem” training (Colorista II / Apple Color / Final Cut Pro) – I’ve launched Resolve 8 training.

A New Approach

Over the past few weeks I’ve interviewed Members of the MasterClass, probing for areas where I could improve on future training. One of more common comments was that since all the content is made immediately available – it was a bit overwhelming. Almost intimidating.

In designing the Resolve 8 MasterClass I knew I’d have much more training than I had for Apple Color – simply because I’d have to spend way more time explaining the interface and digging deep into the ‘Resolve Way’ of doing things. The intimidation factor could be even worse.

This time around, the training will be released in Weeks. Every 5 days, counting down from the first day you Register, a new Week becomes available to you. And hopefully, you’ll find the concepts build upon each other.

Behind the Pay Wall

To help you get a sense of what I’m doing with the training, a behind-the-scenes of what the website looks like, and some of the things you’ll be doing in Week 1… here’s the 17-minute Resolve 8 MasterClass Orientation Video. Check it out! If you dig what you see – visit the full-blown MasterClass Sales Page where I explain who this training is for and what you’ll get with it (as well as pricing).

Enjoy!

Follow @PatInhofer

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Resolve 8.0.1 just introduced this new mouse-driven 3-Way interface

If the lack of a 3-Way Color Correction interface has been holding you back from adopting DaVinci Resolve for Mac – BlackMagic has listened and given you what you’ve been asking for. Behold the new 3-Way Color Tab – released on July 22, 2011 for both Resolve and the free Resolve Lite (see my accompanying blog post about Resolve Lite).

This tab was designed specifically to free Resolve from needing a hardware colorist control surface (which cost between $1500US to $30,000US – depending on the model and manufacturer). It also frees BlackMagic from herding the hundreds of support calls they otherwise would have gotten if they released DaVinci Lite without this interface.

Frankly, I never recommended Resolve for mouse-based colorists – the enhancements offered by Resolve wouldn’t make up for being limited to RGB-only tweaks. And while the Curves interface could certainly fill the gap missing from the 3-Way Color Corrector – it’s a bit too ‘twitchy’ and not as refined as on the Avid Symphony to make curves your primary color balance control.

The Curves Interface in Resolve 8

Refined Controls for 3-Way Color Correction

Also added with this new interface are a bunch of modifier keys to make mouse-based grading more productive.

[UPDATE: Pages 247-248 of the Resolve User Guide that gets downloaded with the software explains all the modifier controls. As well as what the various controls actually do.]

New 3-way Primary tab

• Hold the Shift key and move the balance to the cursor position immediately

• Hold the Alt/Option key and drag horizontally to adjust the luminance while in the color wheel area

• Hold the Cmd key and drag horizontally to adjust the master control

• Double click on the color wheel area to reset the RGB balance

• Use the wheel to control the master levels

• Hold the option key and move the wheel to control the lum levels

• You can also use the mouse scroll wheel (or two finger gestures on the trackpad) to control the master control wheel

Updated sliders for better mouse operation

• Adjust using the middle mouse scroll for precision control

• Click and type a number to set a specific value

• Double click on the label to reset to default value

Follow @patInhofer

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FTC Disclosure
Tao of Color is part of the DaVinci Resolve Beta team but purchased Resolve at full retail price and has not received compensation, goods, or services from any 3rd Party mentioned in this post. We hope, one day, this might change. Affiliate links are used throughout this website, sometimes resulting in a commission on sales (which helps support TaoOfColor.com) but without raising the price you pay by one cent.