As I wrap up this week's newsletter a massive, but typical, thunderstorm roils over the Tao HQ in Orlando. It can only mean one thing, summer is approaching.

I'm working on a summer'y rant to share in this space. But I want to get it right, so I'll hold onto it for another Sunday or two - until I'm happy with it.

Let's also welcome OWC as a sponsor to the Tao Colorist Newsletter!

You probably know them from MacSales.com or their recently acquired AKiTiO brand of storage and expansion chassis. When I mentioned to a DIT friend that OWC was coming on board the Newsletter he was genuinely excited, " I love those guys. I try to buy most of my gear through them and have been for a decade."

Of course, that made me feel good that OWC is indeed a good match for this audience.

While researching OWC a few weeks ago I also discovered their blog, Rocket Yard. I was pleasantly surprised to read articles relevant to this audience - and I've added it to my RSS feed. As always, if you see one of Rocket Yard's blog posts in this Newsletter it's not because they paid me - it's because I think a good number of you out there will find it relevant and interesting.

Without further ado, Godspeed to the Crew Dragon and humanity's mission to move beyond Earth orbit.

I'll see you next Sunday. Stay busy. Stay healthy.

Happy Grading!

(and remember - if you have a story that's a fit for this Newsletter, hit reply or email it to 'newsletter@taoofcolor.com'! 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 in 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!

Friend of the Tao, colorist Dario Biggi sent along this Streambox demo of Bonfire's remote color grading solution. This is a great example of how you might consider promoting this type of solution to your clients.

“At their brightest,” Stanley-Marbell says, “blue sub-pixels usually require more current and age faster than green or red ones.” You learn this, and much much more, on this profile of a color-matching app that's mapping the boundaries of human color perception. This is a great read. (via Martyn J Bull)

If you hadn't already heard, IBC 2020 is kaput. In this article, IBC chief executive Michael Crimp talks about the decision to cancel, and plans for going virtual.

"although the theatrical exhibition’s return to normalcy will likely span over several more months, two Texas-based cinemas were ready to welcome back visitors at 25% capacity: EVO Entertainment and Star Cinema Grill."

As the initial leader in quality subscription programming, I've been supremely disappointed in the poor quality of their OTT streams. I've secretly suspected this was on purpose, to keep from devaluing their cable pay tv income streams. Finally, HBO seems to be starting to pay attention to cord-cutting.

With the launch of Mistika 10 SGO is offering a 50% off all Mistika Boutique products. That sale ends today, 31 May 2020.

This is the registration page for an 'all things Baselight' webinar. You can add your questions into the comments section of the registration page. Or you can submit your questions on this page.

The headline feature for most readers of this Newsletter is the RED 7.3.1 SDK support. Personally, I'm a huge fan of now being able to mark Frame.io markers as 'complete'. I'm a little annoyed at the new Rec.709-A designation, as it implies this is part of the standard - which it clearly is not (but rather a fix for Apple's continued insistence on implementing it's own color space and gamma) and should never be used except for specific clients approving your renders using Retina displays.

(video) I just found this website (or more accurately, pointed to it). If you're looking to get started in Fusion (or take it to the next level) then this looks like a great place to start. In this tutorial, "Create interactive light effects in compositing with automated color matching. Use the match functions of the color corrector or the curves tool to get started or build an advanced solution with the probes modifier." Includes downloadable assets. (via Jason Jones)

"This latest update is a big one and it brings a host of new features and improvements. Kyno 1.8 adds DaVinci Resolve and Avid Media Composer integration." For my DIT friends. This article has a few video embeds if you've not seen this software in action.

The link takes you to the FCPx version history page of FilmConvert.

If you do finishing you may find yourself looking for new quality fonts for your clients, "Apple recently licensed a number of fonts from well-regarded type foundries and has made them available for free in macOS Catalina. Here's how to enable them."

This post also outlines other improvements in the most recent release of Adobe's creative apps.

Puget goes through their recommended steps for sorting out a bad Windows update.

On May 27 Adobe users couldn't sign in for the Creative Cloud subscription manager to confirm your subscription. If your machine had been offline for a few weeks then this could have been a problem. Oliver Peters takes a look at different subscription platforms in our industry and discusses the pros and cons.

(video) "Get a preview of the upcoming Boris FX Sapphire 2020.5 plugin release which adds Blackmagic Fusion support, new VFX tools to LensFlare Designer, and more."

Oops, "we're no longer able to use our own file copier to establish an initial bootable backup of a macOS Catalina System volume". The emphasis, the bug occurs when creating a NEW bootable backup. Click through to read the gory details. (via Seth Goldin)

(video) In this Mixing Light Webinar replay, join Mixing Light co-founder Robbie Carman as he explores HDR essentials, including vocabulary & workflow.

(video) In the first installment of a new series, colorist Cullen Kelly shares his strategies for quickly getting a grade on its feet by creating global contrast curves.

(video) Learn how to build a powerful fixed node structure in DaVinci Resolve to work within a valid ACES pipeline, without normal grading limitations.

(video) Get the scoop on project creation and starting your grade including, colour management, project management & Scene Detection in Baselight.

Very interesting reading how Sony is trying to automate SDR extractions of HDR content (but can't do it in a fully automated manner), "The key to creating the SDR signal in the HDRC-4000 unit is having the correct shader and gain values of every camera in the production. This is only possible if these values can be carried as metadata."

(video) This is the full presentation referenced in the Display Daily article on Sony's SDR extraction in live HDR productions.

Click through for read/write speeds, pricing, and release schedule.

When it comes to competing video display technologies, it's all about the blues.

Are you looking to maximize your mobile dollars with a new laptop? If you don't mind the smaller screen real estate, this combo could work for you.

Do you ever wonder how we can compress video or audio and then reconstruct those files with nearly perfect (or purposely imperfect) precision? Learn how by watching this 4-part series on the fundamental math (Fourier Transforms) and how it was done mechanically over a century ago. Once you've seen it with your eyes it's much easier to understand! Very fun. (via Joey D'Anna)

After you take a quick read of this article are you tempted to ask yourself: Why do we bother? The fact that I'm tempted to actually buy the darn thing is part of the problem!