| Issue CDLXIV: The Ferrari Edition |
| The Tao of Color Grading Newsletter |
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Curated links of news, reviews, thoughts, career advice, and humor for professional Video / Film Colorists & Finishers. Delivered Sundays.
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I take one week off and it seems everyone is posting color-related content! As usual, I've got a bit of a backlog that will be cleared up before the Christmas / New Year break.
Programming note: I'm hosting a webinar on Wednesday.
I'm getting together with the co-founders of Endcrawl.com (also a Newsletter sponsor) to talk shop about end credits. What can go wrong? How can you take the pain and stress out of creating them? And how can you, as a creative artist, show your clients a better method for creating edit credits for film and television?
The webinar is free to attend. Join us by first registering at this link!
Mixing Light continues to offer Tao Newsletter readers a very special Merry holiday offer!
As a Newsletter reader, Team Mixing Light is offering you a re-run of our Spring 2020 Back To Work Premium membership sale. It doesn't matter if you're a new, returning, or existing member - you can take advantage of our continuing education website for colorists, finishers, and
their assistants.
Feel free to spread the word and share the cheer!
Okay. Let's get to it! I'll see you next Sunday.
Happy Grading!
(and remember - if you have a story that's a fit for this Newsletter, hit reply or email it to '[email protected]'! Include a quick reason for the suggested link.)
- Patrick Inhofer
Colorist | Publisher | Coach
Join the 'Color Cartel' Protein Folding Team - Rosetta@home allows you to donate the spare CPU cycles of your rig to the scientific fight against corona viruses and cancers! The Tao Newsletter's Color Cartel is a Top 5% team and climbing. Join Rosetta@home, set up an account, start
'folding', and connect to The Color Cartel team.
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Featuring the work of creative craftsmen, the theory of color, and industry news. Learn practical workflows, useful theories, and actionable insights from existing (and emerging) leaders and teachers in our industry.
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(video) CCO and Colorist Tom Poole (Company 3) joins several cinematographers talking about how to shoot for great flexibility in post. This is sponsored by Sony and features the Sony Venice, FYI. (via Dan Moran)
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(webinar) "In this exclusive discussion, FilmLight interviews the colourists behind some of the biggest hits of the 2020 Camerimage International Film Festival. We’ll introduce you to five films graded on Baselight in this year’s festival line-up..." Click through for the list of colorists featured in this live event this coming Thursday @ 1 PM ET.
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The Senior Colorist opens up about the overall image pipeline, the hardware used, and general approach to the color grade on a terrific film. At the end are terrific stills from the movie, if you like building your own Look Library for later reference.
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This photography article delves into the reasons why your camera-original sources need some sharpening love (and what to look for).
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A lengthy, informative write-up on the CBS Now production. Although, I can't let it go unremarked that I really do despise this Star Trek's show open - I feel like I'm watching a storyboard that never got fully realized! (but when it comes to Trek, I get a bit emotional/judgemental)
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Our craft keeps changing. And growing. Learn about updates to your favorite software. Discover new tools to help you work faster or more creatively. Build your tool chest with new techniques and approaches.Â
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This app is cool, from Avical: "‎PQ Calc offers a quick and easy way to convert values along the SMPTE ST 2084 (PQ) electro-optical transfer function (EOTF). The app is bi-directional and will convert the luminance level (nit) to the digital level in Full, SMPTE, or SDI-Full range and vice versa."
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"Colourlab Ai advances colour grading by removing the manual process of matching shots." It's an interesting workflow with lots of hyped messaging. But if you scroll down to the bottom of the page there's a list of features, a roadmap of upcoming feature releases, and embedded video tutorials. My distaste for the hype aside - it's a very interesting workflow.
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(video) "Here are some general tips and thoughts about when it’s time to upgrade to a new version of DaVinci Resolve, whether or not to work with Beta releases, and what precautions you can take."
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"It's that time of year again! We're offering customers 40% off now through Dec 7th. Simply use the coupon code "zeroIREfriday" at checkout."
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"This beginner-friendly tutorial gives a roundtrip through different Fusion concepts and ideas on how to combine them. Starting from the edit page we build a surveillance camera effect step by step."
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I recently got an email stating: "Existing LightSpace user discount pricing for ColourSpace will reduce progressively after ColourSpace is released." It stated that the beta program is coming to a close. If you own a license of the LightSpace calibration software, now is probably the time to start moving on this.
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"Hardware support has expanded to include the latest Samsung TVs (UHD QLED and 8K QLED models); BenQ SW271C; Dell UP3221Q monitors; LG projectors (HU810 and AU810); Avical Patterns, a macOS pattern generator application; Gamma Scientific GS-1160B spectroradiometers; and ASUS-branded i1Display Pro colorimeters."
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(video) "Calman 2020 R2 includes a new shadow detail control for 2020 LG OLED televisions." This video takes you through this new feature.
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This deal ends tonight, December 6 on Sapphire, Continuum, Mocha Pro, Silhouette, and Optics visual effects plugins.
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(video) I admit, at 30+ minutes I haven't had the time to watch through this. But the logline is good, so I'm sharing it here for you to click through if you're interested:
"Learn how to convert a sunny day into a rainy deluge using Blackmagic Fusion and our comprehensive recipe. In this video learn how to color correct the shot to look like it’s soaking wet. Then in the follow up videos you’ll learn how to add accurate reflections to the scene and create rain from Fusion’s particle system."
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Colorists and finishers are frequently pulled into the painful (and stressful) process of creating end credits. Join me this coming Wed. as I hold a webinar event with Tao Newsletter sponsor Endcrawl about their service, the craft of end credits, and the new UI they just released for their browser-based service.
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(video) "The HDR Palette represents a major advance in Resolve 17's color grading toolset. Learn about its core concept, Zones, and how they work."
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(video) "Sometimes, it's the small features making a huge difference! Learn new color page tools to speed up and improve your workflow in Resolve 17."Â
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If you're looking for a small monitor to put your scopes, colorist Robbie Carman has a great idea in here (and more): "With the holidays nearly upon us, discover several 'stocking stuffer' pieces of gear to add to your list!"
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Stay updated on the latest hardware that's shipping - because the craft of color grading isn't just about software. Plus, keep an eye on future equipment trends and hardware odds-and-ends.
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"Puget Systems launches PugetBench for DaVinci Resolve with testing for 4K and 8K media, GPU Effects and Fusion." Windows-only, for now.
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"It will be interesting to see if NVIDIA is able to maintain their sizable performance lead, or if the new Radeon RX 6800 and 6800 XT GPUs will allow AMD to match or beat NVIDIA in DaVinci Resolve."
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This is a well-written, interesting review: "I learned years ago that starting with an ISV-certified solution, based on a motherboard and chassis from a major system manufacturer, is usually well worth the added initial expense to get system reliability and support. And this system is currently the only one I am aware of that allows professional users to take advantage of AMD’s architecture in this way."
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Great question, answered: "Is there any benefit to running a PCIe 3.0 card in a 4.0 slot, or loss if using a 4.0 card in a 3.0 slot? . . . I thought it would be worth taking some time to test in order to better answer these queries."
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Here's my pull-quote: "It’s one thing to see HDR video on an HDR TV, where the entire image appears simply brighter and richer. It’s another thing to see this kind of imagery presented in the long-familiar context of a computer screen full of folder icons and file names." But I suspect that the point of this article is Stu coming out and saying he's starting to grok the point of HDR.
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A laptop to desktop comparison: "How much faster is the Apple M1 MacBook Pro than the 2013 Mac Pro 8-core?"
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(video) This is for anyone who wonders what it takes to send an image from Resolve to an external display, in addition to the computer display: "In under 3 minutes you'll learn how to install the hardware and software for the DeckLink Mini Monitor 4K and get full-screen output for Resolve."
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A friend of the Tao, Scott Simmons, offers his yearly round-up of gifts. Some of these are generic, some are definitely tailored for the digital creative artist.
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Random thoughts, tidbits, and fun stuff that caught my attention this week. Maybe it's color grading related. Maybe not. Ya got'ta read to the end of the Newsletter to find out.
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The perfect gift for your Hobbit-loving friends with home ATMOS systems.
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Gaming is fun. But setting this up properly? People, that's a deadly serious subject.
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This is very cool (in more ways than one): "Using a system of neural networks trained on different operating scenarios and parameters within our data centres, we created a more efficient and adaptive framework to understand data centre dynamics and optimize efficiency."
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| Th- th- th- that's all folks! I'll see you next Sunday. |
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