Color Grading in Resolve 12

Transcription

1 davinci resolve 12 Resolve is a professional grade color correction and grading suite that is widely considered as the go-to tool for image manipulation in post-production. It can be a powerful tool in your post workflow and attention to color can greatly improve the quality of your work. This guide will be a step-by-step guide for integrating Color Correction and Grading into your workflow, introduce you to the color correction tools in Resolve, and include some best practices. It is important to know that there are two main versions of Resolve: Resolve 12(Free Version) Has support for SD/HD & UHD projects up to a resolution of 3840 x 2160px Resolve Studio Supports SD/HD/UHD, DCI-4K, 5K, and greater(8k) projects Supports Stereoscopic/3D Media Has Real-Time Noise Reduction Utilizes CUDA GPU Support for faster rendering Page 1 of 21

2 important considerations calibrate your reference monitors Keep in mind that while it is possible to colorgrade from your laptop, or desktop computer it is far from ideal, understand that there are huge differences among displays, even between similiar models and manufacturers, and even the color & lights of a room you are in can influence your attention to color. It is best to know the intended way your project will be played back, either via Web, Installation, DCI-Projection, or Broadcast and have an understanding of what colorspace it will playback in, what standards(if any) you need to conform to, and if there is a gamma or color shift for that format. It would defeat the purpose of spending your time color correcting on your display if the color does not translate to any other place than your computer. There are some standards you can conform to: Rec.709 is the colorspace of HD Video, DCI-P3 is the colorspace for cinema theatre projection, so calibrating your reference monitor to the playback method will decrease the disparities between your reference monitor and how it will be played back. Color correct in a controlled environment The light your environment, the color temperature around you will certianly influence the way you look at your computer display. Keep in mind that your eyes are constantly adjusting to the light around you, not only in brightness but also to color temperature. Page 2 of 21

3 Starting a resolve project Project Manager Once you open Resolve, the first thing you should see is the Project Manager, this is an overview of all the projects on the host computer. There are two views a thumbnail and a list view, with the current open project highlighted in red. In the lower right hand corner are buttons for creating New Projects, New Folders, and to Delete. Select New Project to get started. Set project settings The project settings are directly linked to your Timeline settings. So it is important to set your project resolution to match your output or your footage. In this example and all following images, I will be using an HD Project with 1920 x 1080 resolution in framerate. Note that in the settings below, I am playing back in a 1080i60 to conform to allow it to work with refresh rate of my reference monitor. Generally, it is best to match your project settings to your output settings, if you are outputting to UHD, set your project to UHD, etc. Just like an NLE, Resolve will upres your footage to fit the sequence. Most importantly, make sure your timeline framerate matches your project. You will undoubtedly experience strange playback with incorrect settings. Page 3 of 21

4 Media Workspace overview Color correction can be applied either before or after your edit. just be aware that if you intend to use Resolve after your edit, effects used in your NLE(such as RGB Curves, Audio Effects) may not translate into Resolve. There are work arounds for Audio, which will be discussed later on Media Storage A browser to view media files stored on your computer or connected drives. Media Pool The Media Imported into the current Resolve Project, similar to PPro s Project Window. 3 4 Viewer A Video Monitor to review the currently selected clip Audio Meters Displays the Amplitude of the embedded audio in the selected clip. 5 Metadata Information about the selected clip, including resolution, framerate, codec, bit depth, etc. Importing Importing media clips Navigate to the Media Workspace. You can import media into the Media Pool from the Media Storage Window by dragging & dropping or right clicking on your media files and selecting Add into Media Pool. You can also import by dragging and dropping from Finder. You can organize your clips in the Media Pool by creating Bins which will then appear on the left hand side. Page 4 of 21

5 Importing a project or timeline from an nle Prepare your Picture Locked Edit. Once your project is in picture lock, duplicate your edit sequence, and it is highly suggested to simplify your edit down to 1 video & 1 audio track. This reduces the amount of things that can go wrong when importing the project into Resolve. Export a Final Cut XML In Premiere Pro open your picture-locked timeline and go to: File > Export > Final Cut XML In Final Cut Pro X Go to: File > Export XML... Set your destination folder to your Project folder on your harddrive. Export an Offline Refrence Clip. Export your media as you would normally export a master file. In Premiere Pro Go to: File > Export > Media In Final Cut Pro X Go to: File > Share > Master File Exporting an XML from Premiere Pro The settings used in this example are as follows, but know that your project and sequence settings may differ: Format: Quicktime Video Codec: H.264 Resolution & Framerate: use Same as Source (1920x1080, fps) Continued on next Page Page 5 of 21

6 Importing a project or timeline from an nle (continued) Import.XML Go to File > Import AAF, EDF, XML and find your.xml file exported from FCPX/PPro. A Load XML dialogue will pop up. Make sure that Import Source Clips into Media Pool is checked. This is so that Resolve will ignore ProRes 422 LT footage and conform to the original CinemaDNG files. Secondly, make sure your timeline resolution and frame rate match your Edited Project. Select OK. Import Reference ProRes as Offline Reference File Go to the Media Workspace. In the Media Storage window locate the Offline Media / Master clip exported from your NLE. Right Click on the Reference file and select Add as Offline Reference Clip It will then be imported into the Media Pool with a checkered Icon. Next, Link the reference clip to the Timeline, by Right Clicking the Imported Timeline (in this case RoundTripEdit), and in the Context Menu, Go to Timelines > Link Offline Reference Clip and select the Clip Cross compare the Imported Timeline versus your Offline Reference In the Edit Workspace, Select your imported Timeline, and set Source Viewer(via the Icon in the lower left corner) to Offline. This will automatically gang/sync your Timeline Playback in the Canvas Monitor with the Offline Playback in the Source Monitor. The two monitors should play forward in sync. Note below the Source Monitor on the left is displaying a Reference File with a preliminary grade. Look for inconsistencies between Crossfades, Effects, and any Motion controls applied during playback, as this is usually where inconsistences are when they occur. Basic corrections can be made in the Timeline. Set to Offline Make sure this is CHECKED! Page 6 of 21

7 edit Workspace overview Media Pool & Effects The Media Pool provides access to all the imported footage for your project. The Effects Library includes Transitions, Titles and some basic Generators At the time of writing, we haven t found a good use for the Edit Index yet. 4 Edit Tools, Timeline Controls, Markers, & Zoom The Normal Edit Mode(Arrow) is similar to most other NLEs in that with it you can move a clip in the timeline, its In & Out Points, and if hovered over an edit point, move the edit forward or back in the timeline. 2 3 Timeline Source and Canvas Monitors Like most NLE s, Resolve utilizes a two-up monitors, with your Source Montior on the Left and a Timeline/Canvas/Project Monitor on the right The Trim Edit is a bit more complex, in that it works like a ripple edit tool, in addition to a slip/ slide tool. What the tool does is depends on the hover of the cursor: Hover near a clips in/out point will Ripple Edit the out point. Hovering over the top of a clip will Slip the clip within its position in the timeline. Hovering over the lower half of a clip will Slide its position on the timeline, changing the In and Out points of adjacent clips. The Blade tool creates a splice in a clip, splitting it into two parts. Page 7 of 21

8 Color Workspace overview Stills/Looks Gallery 2 Viewer 3 Think of this window as a repository for your colorgrades or Looks and Luts. If at any time you want to reuse a grade from a clip, it can be saved here by grabbing a still. You can also add pre-made Luts or Looks. The Viewer in the Color Workspace is much more interactive than in the Edit Workspace or compared to an NLE. Along the top are controls for Image Wiping Clips with Stills & Split Screening Multiple Clips 4 Timeline/Clips 5 Grading Tools 6 Video Scopes Nodes Resolve is a Node based color suite, where the image is controlled by nodes along a path from input to output. There are a number of number of Node types, and we will discuss using Serial, Parallel, Layer, and Outside Nodes Here you can navigate between clips on your time for grading. Your timeline can be viewed either by clip thumbnails(currently displayed) or by a compressed graphical timeline. Viewing by clips is easier for navigation and selecting multiple clips, where as the timeline display is ideal for projects with multiple video tracks. Here are the bulk of your color grading tools: Camera RAW controls, Color Wheels, Qualifier, etc. These tools will be discussed in the next section regarding colorgrading. The video scopes are graphical displays of thepixel values of your footage. The video scopes are the most accurate way to judge the color values of your footage, seconded by a calibrated reference monitor. It should be noted that the Color interface changes based on screen resolution. The example here was generated using a 15 Macbook Pro. Lab computers may have the lower panels destributed differently due to having wider screen resolution. Page 8 of 21

9 Colorgrading Tools ColorWheels The Color Wheels are the Primary tool in colorgrading. Here you seen 4 color wheels, Lift, vgamma, Gain, and Offset. This translates directly to: Lift = Shadows Gamma = Midtones Gain = Highlights Offset = Entire image Making any adjustments to the Color Wheels will shift the hue of its respective area of focus. This image on the left shows the difference between shifting the hue towards Red on the Lift versus the Gain. Modes If you look closely at the top of the Color wheels. you ll see it has 3 modes: Primaries Wheels, Primaries Bars, and Log. There are two ways to switch between the modes, selecting between the 3 dots in the center of the header, or using the drop down. Primaries Wheels and Primaries Bars both functionally work the same, but have different usabilities, in my opinion Primaries Bars are more accurate between changing RGB Values, but for most intents, Primaries Wheels are much Faster. It should be noted that making changes to either Primaries Wheels or Bars will affect the other, meaning that they both affect the same values but with a different way to making those inputs. Primaries vs Log Log however is much different, they appear visually similar to Primaries Wheels, but are much more specific to the zone of affect. It should also be noted that you can make hue changes to a primary, then change the Log values on top of it. PRIMARIES LOG Page 9 of 21

10 Color Keyer/Qualifier The Qualifier is a way to control where in the frame the affects from the Color Wheels are applied. It works like an eye dropper where a color range selected on the frame will specify where the affects of the color wheels are applied. The picture on the left shows a simple colorgrade applied to the footage: I selected the Offset Primary, and pushed in into the Purple causing an overall color shift. The image on the right shows how the grade is controlled using the qualifier. Here the eyedropper was applied to the floor of the skatepark, where the cursor is located. You can see that the purple adjustment is only applied to the color values selected(hue, Saturation, Luma). The three bars of the qualifier denote what the color values will be affected and can be adjusted using the values beneath each bar. In this example you can see that some of the color adjustment is being applied to the character s white t-shirt on the right. To fix this the colorist could make fine adjustments to the qualifier to clean up the grading. Note that there are multiple types of Qualififers: HSL(Hue, Saturation, Luma), RGB, LUM, and 3D. Change between the qualifiers by using the drop down list from the upper right hand corner of the qualifier window. The 3D Qualifier 3D qualifiers are inherently useful, where you give it inputs of pixels and it will generate a color key from the color values of that or those selected pixel. I have experience producing very good results from 2-3 inputs, and in many ways it can be easier than the HSL Qualifier. You can select points or draw a line with the qualifier tool In the example to the right, you can see that I drew a line(in blue) along the concrete. Resolve then sampled the pixels underneath the line and automatically created color values in the qualifier. With the eyedropper you can continue to add values to the qualifier, or to delete color values, use the trashcan on the right. Page 10 of 21

11 Power windows A power window is another way to control where a color correction applies. It is essentially a tweakable mask/matte track. Select this icon to reveal the power window controls. This button turns on the Power Window of that respective shape. This button inverts the power window. This button makes the power window transparent. Left: An Inverted Power Window. Altering the Power Window (Left) You can alter the shape, size, and softness of the power window directly with your mouse. The White handles alter the vector shapes of the window, where the Red handles change the softness of the power window. There are also transform controls in the power window controls. PROTIP: Power Windows work side by side with Qualifiers You can use a power window to help controle where the effects of a qualifier is applied. Page 11 of 21

12 Motion Tracking DaVinci Resolve has a very powerful and easy-to-use motion tracking system for Power Windows. This is useful for moving a power window along with an object that moves within the frame. Here we ve applied a elliptical power window over this background character, and shifted the Gain towards Blue. The problem is that the Power Window won t follow him as he moves across the frame. Begin Motion Tracking Controls Tracking Parameters Motion Tracker Window The Motion Tracking Window is the Target icon next to the Power Windows icon. You can turn on and off various parts of the tracking by unchecking either one of those parameters, but for this example let s leave everything on. Using the Motion Tracker The motion tracker will create its own tracking points and follow its movement. Keep in mind it will create the tracking points underneath the selected Power Window. Using the tracker is simple: 1. Move the Power Window over what you want to track 2. Push the Track Forward(or Backward) button in the tracker window. You can see that the tracker followed the character as he moves through the frame and moved the power window with him. Note that the power window is smaller than the character.this is so that the tracker will not attempt to motion track the background. Page 12 of 21

13 Camera RAW If you have shot in a Raw Format(Red r3d, CinemaDNG), DaVinci Resolve has tools that allow you to control how the Raw data feed is debayered into video. This means you can change the aspects like ISO, Image Sharpening, Hue/Tint, & Contrast after it has been shot. This can all be done without any loss to image quality, so it is a good place to start before doing any colorgrading. Keep in mind that RAW Footage is sensor data that is being converted into video frames in real-time. Working with RAW formats can be buggy, slow, and can often cause Resolve to crash. We have a guide called Optimizing your RAW Workflows to address these issues. Camera RAW Panel By default, debayering is locked to the camera metadata that was set during production To unlock RAW controls: set Decode Using: Clip Once RAW controls are available, you can change the footage metadata to your needs. Debayer for specific uses: It s a good idea to optimize the footage for a specific use, such as producing a decent quality image for Editing, while using a flat color profile which is better for Color Grading. Below are good Color Space and Gamma Curve Settings which will give you workable results for specific uses. Note that these are just base suggestions and you may find other settings more preferable for your workflow. Red Footage for Editing: Color Space: Rec.709 Gamma Curve: REDgamma4 Red Footage for ColorGrading: Color Space: REDcolor4 Gamma Curve: REDlog Film DNG Footage for Editing: Color Space: Rec.709 Gamma Curve: Rec.709 In this example we are using Red r3d footage from an older RED ONE. RAW Metadata is specific from Camera to Camera, so if you are using FVNMA s Red Scarlet-X or have shot in CinemaDNG, you will see different values available than what you see here. DNG Footage for ColorGrading: Color Space: BM Film Gamma Curve: BM Film / BM Film 4.6K Author s Note As a colorist, I find that using the Camera RAW panel will replace the Node I use for correcting White Balance, and matching between Cameras for multicamera shoots. Rec.709 BM Film / Film 4.6k Page 13 of 21

14 colorgrading in resolve Reading video scopes Waveform Plots the values of the image along an X Y axis. X values are directly related to the X position of the video frame; the values on the left side of the waveform represent the left side of the frame. You can see this effect in video when a subject moves horizontally along a frame. Y values are Red Green and Blue luminance values measured at each horizontal point in the frame, this is from a scale, where any values below 0 are clipped fully black and values above 1023 are clipped fully white.(dark areas will be read as dips, where bright areas are peaks). Areas where the RGB values equal are visibly shown as white. The waveform is displaying a slight brightness towards the middle of the frame with a yellow/ tan(red+green) hue. This is most likely the color of the concrete, which is also the brightest part of the frame. Parade The parade is a broken down waveform in that it shows each Red Green and Blue chart separately. From the writer s perspective, this is easier to read, and is my most commoly used scope. The X values still directly relate to the width of the frame, divided by each of the RGB values. the Red area represents the red color channel for the whole of the image, not just the left third of the image. Histogram The histogram s X axis(horizontal) displays luminance values from pure black(0 on left) to pure white(100 on right). The Y axis displays the relative quantity of light for each given value. So a large peak towards the left indicates more information in the shadows, while peaks toward the right indicates pixel information in the highlights. Page 14 of 21

15 using nodes and node types DaVinci Resolve is a Node based renderer. Meaning that changes are applied to a node, and the nodes can be arranged similarly to a circuit with an input and output. In a way you can compare Nodes to Adjustment Layers in Photoshop or After Effects, however Nodes take that idea a few steps forward. Adding Nodes By default, every clip has one blank node applied to it. To add additional Nodes, you can add nodes from the Node dropdown in the File menu or use the keyboard shortcut keys indicated on the right hand side of the dropdown menu Disabling Nodes Disabling a node is very useful, it is important to be able to make comparisons between before/after corrections, and is useful for isolating the effects of a single node. To disable a node, click on the Number of the node to turn it off and on or use Option + D Serial Nodes The most straightforward type of node and also the most commonly used. Every colorgrade will incorporate a serial node in some way. An easy way to think about Serial Nodes is as a pipeline. On the left is your source, and on the right is what is displayed. Here I have a frame, and have three nodes applied: a primary(where no changes were made), a Red Hue Shift, and a Green Hue Shift. Here you can see the progression of the image through the nodes from left to right: the image goes through the primary, recieves a red hue shift then a green hue shift. The green hue shift is acting on the image provided by the red hue, so the red is not seen. By disabling the green hue shift, we can reveal the changes made with using the second node. The icons below each node display what tools were used for that specific node. Node 1 had no adjustments applied, Node 2 had a Color Wheels/Primaries adjustment applied, and Node 3 had both a Color Wheels and a Curves adjustment applied. Page 15 of 21

16 Serial Nodes(Continued) Because Serial Nodes work linearly via this input-output pipline, changes made to earlier nodes can adversely affect nodes further down the pipeline. This is particularly noticeable with using a qualifier after a colorgrade. From the previous example, a qualifier was applied to Node 3 with the Green Hue. If you look closely at the Green Node it is only being applied to a specific section of the frame. Looking at the qualifier, we can see that it is applying the grade to specific values of Hue, Saturation, and Luminance. If we change the image going into this node, the values that the qualifier is looking for may not appear and the node will be nullified. In this example we have done exactly that, you can see that the qualifier for the 3rd Node hasn t changed at all but we have altered the color grade on the 2nd Node. Here you can see that the qualifier is looking for values that are not visible in the frame and thus the Green Color grade is nullified as it does not have those color values to apply them to. To avoid this you can change the order of the nodes or use Parallel Nodes. Page 16 of 21

17 Parallel Nodes As we saw with Serial Nodes, sometimes the order of nodes can adversely affect your grade. One of the best ways to get around that issue is to use a Parallel Node. How it differs from a Serial Node is that a Parallel node allows multiple nodes to work in tandem, side by side, rather than sequentially. Let s look at this grade in detail: Footage as shot: Canon XA-10 w/ Wide Angle Lens (AVCHD / H.264) 1 Color Grade (Node 1): I brought up some of the shadows, and shifted the Midtones and Shadows to be a little warmer. (as shot, the image was too cold) 2 Blue Hue shift with Qualifier (Node 2): I used a 3D Qualifier and isolated the trees. I then pushed the Offset Primary towards blue. 4 Red Shift (Node 4): Here I shifted the Offset Primary over towards the red to give it an overall Red Hue. 4 And here you can clearly see how Parallel Nodes are structured: Two outputs coming out of Node 01, to Nodes 02 and 04, which are then paired back together at the Parallel Node. This is useful because Node 02 and Node 04 are receiving the same image, and work side by side rather than affecting one another. We can make any changes we would like to the Red hue shift(node 04), and it will not directly affect the image being input into the Qualifier on Node 02. They work independently, while each output is then merged at the Parallel node. It is important to note that the order of Parallel nodes does not matter, Node 04 can be on top of Node 02 and you would get the same end result. Next we will use a Layer nodes, another style of node that combines multiple inputs. Page 17 of 21

18 Layer Nodes Quite similar to Parallel nodes, but also noticeably different. An easy way to compare the two is that Parallel nodes apply multiple instructions to the same image, whereas a Layer node combines multiple images into a composite. Let s take the previous grade and convert it to a Layer node: Okay, so you might be wondering what happened to the trees. What Layer nodes do is super impose images one over another, thus layer order is much more important than Parallel nodes. The layer node works top down, so the top most layer is the base image, with nodes on top of it. So visually, Node 03(Red) is on top of Node 02(Trees). Let s correct the order of the layers and see the results. Here you can see that the Layer Node composites the grades much differently than Parallel. It is much more vibrant, because the Layer Nodes mixes the images together rather than the instructions. Page 18 of 21

19 Outside Nodes The last type of node we will cover in this guide is the Outside Node. It is simply, a reversal of a node with a power window or qualifier. It s easy to apply and it allows you to work on the areas unaffected by a node with a keyer. 1. Start with a basic Qualifier. I used the qualifier tool to create a key for the ground and pushed the Offset to Magenta. You can see that the white areas in the Key Panel are the areas affected by this colorgrade Add Outside Node. In the Nodes Panel, Right Click on the Qualifier Node(01), and in the context menu select Add Outside Node. 2 This will automatically create a new node with an inverted alpha matte. 3. Colorgrade on the New Node. On this new node, I pushed the Offset into the Green, as an example to show the affects of the outside node. You can also see that the Key Panel shows the opposite areas of the frame are highlighted white, indicating that the Node(02) is an inversion of the first Magenta correction(01). 3 Note: The Nodes are connected. Looking closely at the node graph, Nodes 01 and 02 are connected via the blue triangles. This link means that the alpha mattes are relational to each other. If you make any adjustments to the Qualifier in Node 01, it will also affect the Key in the Outside Node(02) accordingly. Page 19 of 21

20 Exporting Deliver Workspace Preview Monitor Export Settings Render Queue Timeline Viewer Exporting Individual Source Clips vs Single Clip Individual Source Clips will render the timeline and colorgrade, as separate clips. It is highly suggested to use the Timeline Name as the base when exporting an Edited Sequence, and using Source Clips in a new folder when exporting an Assembly before editing. It is best to Open + More Options in the File window for Custom Filenames and at minimum make sure that Render Unique Filenames is checked and specify a file prefix or suffix. Export Settings for finished Projects Keep in mind that your resolution and frame rates may differ from what is below. It is typically best to match your project settings. Archive / Master file Format: Quicktime Codec: Apple ProRes 444 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 HD(for fps 3840 x 2160 UltraHD(for Audio: Export Audio, Linear PCM Export for Web Format: Quicktime Codec: H.264 Resolution: Dependant on Video Platform; typically 1280 x works well for most platforms and is compressed enough for limited/ free accounts. Audio: Export Audio, Linear PCM Page 20 of 21

21 Exporting Export Settings for finished Projects Keep in mind that your resolution and frame rates may differ from what is below. It is typically best to match your project settings. Export a source for conversion to DCP, Computer Playback, or Blu-Ray Format: Quicktime Codec: Apple ProRes 422 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 HD(for fps 3840 x 2160 UltraHD(for Audio: Export Audio, Linear PCM for DCP it is imperative that your audio is exported at 24 bit resolution. Exporting for a return to Premiere Pro There are reasons why you may want to get your color corrected film back into Premiere Pro, typically to add Color Bars or a Countdown Leader or you need to re-do credits. Format: Quicktime Codec: Apple ProRes 4444 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 HD(for fps 3840 x 2160 UltraHD(for Audio: Do Not Export Audio Reopen your Premiere Pro Project, Duplicate your Final Cut Sequence, Delete all Video Tracks and Replace it with this ProRes File. Exporting an assembly for Editing Once your Assembly is complete, move onto the Deliver Workspace. This is where you will export individual clips. In the upper left hand side, the Format panel, follow these instructions: 1. Select Individual Clips 2. Set Video Format: Quicktime Set Codec: Apple ProRes422 LT 3. Select Render at Source Resolution 4. Make sure Export Audio is Selected Render Audio Channels to Same as Source 5. Make sure Filename is Use Source Filename Set Render to: Destination, create a Proxies folder in your Edit/Project Folder. This is where your footage will export to. Page 21 of 21