| Issue #366: The Shenzhen Edition |
| The Tao of Color Grading Newsletter |
Curated links of news, reviews, thoughts, career advice, and humor for professional Video / Film Colorists & Finishers. Delivered Sunday.
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View in Browser | Web Archives |
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It's been a busy week at TaoHQ. I've been doing lots of writing and prep work for new upcoming trainings. Plural.
And it seems the rest of the industry was busy too - giving me plenty of content to sift through and share with you.
I also want to thank those of you who wrote in about Gmail clipping the end of this Newsletter. I hunted down the problem and have worked out a fix. Going forward this shouldn't happen again. Thanks!
Happy Grading!!!
See you next week.
- Pat Inhofer
Colorist | Publisher | Mentor
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Featuring the work of creative craftsmen and the theory of color. Learn practical workflows, useful theories, and actionable insights from existing (and emerging) leaders and teachers in our industry.
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It's important to understand how light effects shadows - to guide your masking when color grading and keeping your work naturalistic... and to help you know how to break the rules, too.
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Are you unsure the role and responsibilities of a DIT? This is a good primer for you.
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[video] From Colorist Marc Weilage: "Hey, Patrick. Here's a remarkable new 7-minute video from noted cinematographer Geoff Boyle that says (very specifically) 'F the numbers... it's the pictures that really matter.' He makes some very good points..."
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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 toolchest with new techniques and approaches.
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[forum] A few of the big changes in this release: Alpha Channel export for EXRs, OpenFX in Fusion, independent bypass of Fusion / Color effects. Plus a huge list of fixes / optimizations.
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From this page, learn the various pricing options and get a free 30-Day Trial.
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[video] Quick tutorial on corner pinning to a moving object using the Fusion toolset in DaVinci Resolve 15 Public Beta. Plus a nice tip on the Merge tool and creating a freeze frame in Fusion, for the uninitiated.
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[video] Essential watching that can be adapted to moving images.
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Color grading plug-ins for NLEs are getting more sophisticated - as they try to help their users stay within app. Chromatic is a good example. Even if you never use it, browse this feature rundown to get a sense of how the market is developing.
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A continuation about the fundamentals of these terms - with a comment on ProResRAW and what its designed to do.
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[video] This item does a good job demo'ing the new 'compare' features (think: live still store). But I rarely see a good color match in any of these demos (including at NAB). I can't figure out if demo artists don't want to admit the tool needs a little help? I'll be sitting down and answering this question sometime soon.
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I'm struck by the defensive tone of this piece (or maybe I'm reading into it). But it's a good recitation of recent updates to the app. If you haven't been paying attention, it's worth the 2 minute read to keep on top of its innovations.
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Smoked bacon! You've got to click through and scroll down to see a few extracts of this new book for learning FCPx. I'm at a loss of words... but it's impressive.
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[video] It's amazing how everyone expects their Colorists to teach their editors how to use proxies. When that happens to you... send them to this video. Which includes a nifty tip on batch renaming files in the Adobe suite.
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[video] Why do some people grade in After Effects? Yes, it's tedious. But if you stick with this tutorial you'll see some nice rotoscoping tools, in action. But this seems to me less like color grading and more like VFX (and I would suggest bidding it out that way).
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[forum] A thread on colorists bitching about Windows 10 auto-updates has some interesting observations (not all of which I agree with). If you need vent - or are curious how your peers are dealing with this - this is a good place to start. Plus, a post details how the Windows 10 Privacy is totally busted.
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[podcast] Flanders Scientific is shipping it's highly anticipated XM310K - a 31 inch DCI 4k 3000 NIT HDR mastering monitor with 12G connectivity. Robbie talks to FSI CEO Bram Desmet about HDR & the XM310K.
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[video] I could have also headlined this video review: "Testing Resolve's Sound Library: A Series of Unfortunate Events". Look away.
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| FilmConvert.com |
Professional film emulation and film grain for all of your projects
Speed up your grading and camera-matching tasks with the power of FilmConvert: 19 film stocks, 6K grain scans and dedicated camera profiles for the leading cameras on the market.
For fast turnaround and quick, cinematic results in just a few clicks. Plugin or Standalone.
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| Click to Save 10% off FilmConvert with promo code 'TAO' |
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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 camera odds-and-ends.
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An interesting new GPU benchmarking tool that can be used on desktops, mobile, and even your TV.
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[video] HA! Finally. A large format color chart. And X-Rite is serious, it's... L.A.R.G.E.
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This article is about Augmented Reality displays. But you're seeing it here because of the description about the difficulty of getting consistent grayscale reproduction with this tech.
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[video] Honestly, after flirting with the idea of Hacks in the pre-Windows 10 days - I just don't see the appeal, other than as an interesting exercise. But the reason this item is here? The comments. Fun to read if you've got 5 minutes to kill.
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This 'while supplies last' workstation is "a professionally overclocked Intel Core i7-8086K limited edition processor capable of reaching 5.0GHz across all six of its cores." Boxx is marketing this as an Autodesk-optimized solution.
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This card isn't shipping yet. The only reason I'm including the article is for this pull-quote: "If you ever wanted to crush an egg with a Buick, this is it."
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An SSD designed for media professionals moving large, sequentially written files.
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I have zero skill sets to evaluate the quality of this tutorial. But if Ubuntu is your cup of tea and you need help on this, check it out.
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| Endcrawl.com |
Now with full 4k support
Perfect end titles. Unlimited renders. A week of your life back.
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Join Best Pic winner Moonlight.
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| Learn more at EndCrawl.com |
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Random thoughts, tidbits, and fun(nies) 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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If completed, it will certainly raise the profile of the city of Shenzhen, home of Zunzheng - the engineer and manufacturer of Flanders Scientific displays -and my Chinese host (for teaching events) several times these past few years. I think of ShenZhen as a blue collar get-it-done city. Its residents are fiercely proud of their place in the Chinese economy and this HQ could become one of their trophies.
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It's interesting watching this space develop. If you live near a Dolby-enabled AMC then this is a great deal. As I read the article, I'm thinking it's unsustainable if there's wide adoption at these pricings and their payouts. They must see a coming brick wall with the tradtional pay-per-viewing model of the past 100 years.
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I won't go into my feelings on soccer (it would alienate half my readers, though amuse the other half). But I'm having a heck of time finding this on DirecTV. I'd like to get it running and see if the images are different enough that my mom would notice?
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| Th- th- th- that's all folks! See you next Sunday! |
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