Tao Of Color Grading - Latest Comments

Re: Thanks For Joining Our Newsletter!

Ovadose — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:45:14 -0000

Hello everyone new to the site! Hope its great!

Re: DaVinci Resolve: The Free Version

Patrick Inhofer — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:38:17 -0000

Caitya,

On the download page for Resolve for Windows is also a very VERY extensive configuration guide. It was just updated last week.

You'll need to read through that to see which laptop configurations they support.

Re: DaVinci Resolve: The Free Version

Caitya — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:47:22 -0000

I have a dell laptop with smaller screen (not 1920x1080). Can I do something similar as one with Mac?

Re: DaVinci Resolve: The Free Version

Patrick Inhofer — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:36:31 -0000

Hi Marc,

DaVinci has a VERY extensive configuration guide on putting together a system to run Resolve. They cover workflows from a laptop through a desktop - as well as different GPU recommendations, hard drives, etc.

Much of this depends on the codecs and workflows you want to support and the Resolve Config Guide shows multiples of setups for varying configs.

Monitoring is a very tricky topic if you're looking to spend less than $5k. They're all trade-offs and it's best to not kid ourselves into thinking otherwise (and I've seen some pretty extensive self-justification taking place in this regard). It's best to understand that you'll need to rely heavily on your scopes to know what's really going on with your image. But shot-to-shot matching (80% of our work) can be done on practically any monitor. It's know what the image actually looks like that gets tricky.

Re: DaVinci Resolve: The Free Version

Marc Miller — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:31:08 -0000

Great find today your blogsite is. (I sound like Yoda). I'm a dp who is also an editor and having been around since the good old film days I've always believed good color graders and their grading skills were my best friends. Going all the way back to the old Hazeltine machines, through the many iterations of Rank Cintel apparati to Davinci systems. Now with digital cinema in full swing and my NLE editing I'm finding it necessary to upgrade my personal skills by bringing more than simple 3 way color grades to my projects. To that end I'm learning Resolve Lite on my new MBP i7. Here's my question to anyone who wants to answer: What hardware do I need to run the full Resolve but not the full blown tricked out system, just a way to get up and running and then build onto it if my business model warrants the full tricked out system. For example: What monitor to view real colors? What scopes? What video cards and computer? Does someone have a nice list I can use to price things out by? - Thanks a heap.PS, I'm a Mac not a PC, I cut on Avid not FCP and I shoot all digital anymore these days. Haven't seen a sprocket hole in 5 years. RIP Kodak.

Re: DaVinci Resolve: The Free Version

Patrick Inhofer — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:59:03 -0000

Oh, won't you be happy today?

There is a version for Win 7. They released it mid-January. It's a public beta (meaning your Milage May Vary).

Be sure to read the configuration guide. You'll find the info here:
http://www.blackmagic-design.c...

Re: DaVinci Resolve: The Free Version

Kenneth — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:19:29 -0000

Okay, don't throw anything at me...but when will a Win 7 version be available?!

Re: Newsletter

Patrick Inhofer — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:44:21 -0000

Thanks Karl,

I appreciate the feedback. And I look forward to delivering these Newsletters every week.

Re: Newsletter

Karl Lear - RedYeti Films — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 17:31:34 -0000

Excellent resource, and similarly to Andrew, actually look forward to a good read every Sunday.

Thanks Patrick, power to you.

Speak soon
Karl, RedYeti Films

Re: Thanks For Joining Our Newsletter!

Leo — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:51:44 -0000

Hello from Costa Rica, hoping to learn from you guys since in my country I'm almost the only one trying to develop de color grading passion and market ;)

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 Lite – NOT!

Patrick Inhofer — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:31:51 -0000

Jpo,

I'm struggling through the AAF Roundtrip myself as I type. Lots of gotcha's and potential pitfalls. But assuming proper upfront prep - it's pretty powerful. I'm working off the 30 day trial of MC - but see myself buying it in the next month as I'm getting more inquiries from Avid shops.

RE: Exiting Apple - I hear you. I'm now contemplating moving my professional rig to a PC. There's really nothing holding me back once Resolve is on Windows. And there's plenty pulling me in, including powerful relatively inexpensive graphics cards.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 Lite – NOT!

Jpo — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:24:32 -0000

I have some reservations about this as well, but I also went through the Final Touch 2K debacle, which was a bigger jump, and thank heavens I never owned a big-iron daVinci. In reality, Final Touch/COLOR didn't change the value of my services, just what we pay, as you refer to it, as "taxes" -- more like a poker "ante", in my view. So maybe BM consider this a penny-slot, where you just need to supply the muscle to pull on the lever, and no penny.

BTW, there still is confusion about the DNxHD support. Likely not that many people (who actually might need it) will get tripped up on this, but it is pretty much strictly a Media Composer round trip as it is the MXF-wrapper ONLY that is supported, and not the DNxHD Quicktime codec.

Interesting times given the third-party hardware support that I'm currently enjoying with Avid MC6.
Once they get the ancillary data thing figured out for Decklink, I'm pretty much set to exit the Apple world. And its 100% Apple's own doing.

jPo

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8 Training – My Roadmap

Patrick Inhofer — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:01:44 -0000

YES!

It's just over 50% completed. Full details here:
http://masterclass.taoofcolor....

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8 Training – My Roadmap

YH — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:14:36 -0000

Are you still going to do this training?

Thanks.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 Lite – NOT!

Patrick Inhofer — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 10:23:32 -0000

If you take the 'long tail' view - it's just a matter of time before we're all delivering files at larger than 1080. But today, it's entirely dependent on your client base.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 Lite – NOT!

Robert Ruffo — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:38:31 -0000

This makes me very angry. I basically just wasted $1000 on software that is now essentially worthless. The management at Black Magic must be high on something. i will try and get my money back from B&H, or at least sell on ebay.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 Lite – NOT!

Patrick Inhofer — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:49:31 -0000

Exactly. External Monitoring.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 Lite – NOT!

Shawn Nelson — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:40:39 -0000

Great article, but your statement " Just pick up a Decklink card and away you go… " slightly confuses me. Why do I NEED a Decklink? Just for external monitoring? Or is there some other reason?

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 Lite – NOT!

Patrick Inhofer — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:21:19 -0000

Well - FCPx is a different beast. In an ideal world the two apps compliment each other. Neither is a replacement for the other.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 Lite – NOT!

Paul Abrahams — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:22:52 -0000

Thanks Patrick - My imac doesn't quite meet the processing requirements perhaps FCPX is the way for a prosumer like me.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 Lite – NOT!

Patrick Inhofer — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:45:24 -0000

Paul - Like I said in this article, there's no reason not to use Resolve. But it does have some beefy requirements to run. This article will give you an idea of the minimum hardware requirements: http://www.taoofcolor.com/570/...

For the current definitive list of compatible machines, download the Resolve Configuration Guide, skip to the section on iMacs, and see if yours matches. But basically, a 2011 iMac is required for a 'blessed' configuration. Here's the guide for Resolve Configuration for Mac OS X:
http://www.blackmagic-design.c...

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 Lite – NOT!

Patrick Inhofer — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:40:57 -0000

Thanks for the nice words about the Newsletter!

It'll be interesting to see if anyone ever comes out with a sub $1k control surface. I wouldn't hold my breath - but you never know.

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 Lite – NOT!

Paul Abrahams — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 07:50:19 -0000

I'm not a pro but I'm interested in learning color grading for my own videos shot on DSLR I have no grading programs. I have an imac 3.06 GHz i3 > 4GB Ram > Internal SATA 7200 500G >GPU is Radeon 4670. I do have audio set up with an Apogee Duet and some old Emes Monitors. Could I use this to learn color grading on? What program would be best to set up?

I was considering FCPX but if it has no color grading apps what do we do?

Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 Lite – NOT!

Bart Walczak — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 03:45:33 -0000

I agree wholeheartedly.

I'm also waiting for the announced Windows version to avoid Apple Tax, and I hope to see a cheap ($500-700) grading surface from BlackMagic on NAB 2012 or IBC 2012, compatible at first with Resolve only. THIS would be a total disruption, that would most likely earn BlackMagic tons of money.

I've written some thoughts of my own, but I don't know if it's OK to post links here.

BTW, I love your newsletter, Patrick!

Re: DaVinci Resolve: New 3-Way Color Correction Interface

Escaflowne_deadly_vision — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 08:44:50 -0000

how can I merge track layers on da vinci resolve?

I'm planning to render 4 layer into a one single file.