Tip: Managing Grades in Color
Feb/08/2008 17:53 Filed under:
Color | Tips & Tricks
Quick refresh: In Color you can save
your color corrections in two manners. First, you can save your
Primary In, Secondary, ColorFX tree, and Primary Out settings
individually. Color calls these "corrections". I tend not to save
out my corrections. No reason, other than it gets to be a lot to
manage. The exception is ColorFX trees. I tend to save those
corrections.
Second, you can save everything you've done to a shot - Primaries, Secodaries, ColorFX, and Geometry Room - collectively as a single file. Color calls those "Grades". I use grades extensively. Organizing grades tends to be fairly straight forward. Park on the shot whose grade you want to save, go into the Setup Room (under the Grades tab) and type in the name of your grade. Typically you'd name it something meaningful, "attorney_v001" for instance.
When you're finished with your show you might have a list of saved grades that looks something like this:
You'll notice I have all my grades grouped together by names. eric_ruddy_couch has several variations followed by eric_2shot, also with several variations. And so on... resulting in all my Eric grades staying grouped together - and then sub-grouped by scene, angle, etc. No rocket science here. Pretty basic stuff.
But what happens when the number of grades you want to save for retrieval quickly expands beyond your ability to come up with meaningful descriptive names?
This happened to me recently on doc that had 3 main subjects - but also a few dozen repeating interviews . There was no way I was going to individually name each and every setup. But at the same time, I needed a way to quickly find a saved grade for each subject.
I started by (1) switching the Grade bin to Icon view and (2) allowing Color to Autoname my grades.
Color's auto-naming system is less than useful. As you'll see in the following image Color uses a Date/Timestamp to generate names (thus the need to work in Thumbnail View):
And yet, in the midst of its generic naming style how did I keep my grades organized by location and sub-grouped by person?
The answer: I used the Unix-style file name quick-fill feature that can be accessed in most Save dialog boxes on OS X.
Here's how it works in this context:
1. After switching into the Grade bin, decide where you want the Grade to show up inside your bin. If you want it at the end of the bin, then simply accept the auto-generated name from Color. It'll be placed at the end of the line.
2. If you want to place a Grade specifically next to another thumbnail simply highlight - DON'T double-click - just highlight / single-click the Grade. The name of that grade will automatically fill the File Name box.
3. Move your cursor to just before the .colorgrade extension and append it with a number. I usually start with the number 2 (applause, applause), from there I'll increment upwards.
If I want to sub-group I'll append my numbers with letters so that datetimestamp2a falls between datetimestamp2 and datetimestamp3.
The other side-benefit of this naming style - it's fast.
I'm not sure, but if this post reads confusing post a comment and I'll try to clear it up.
- pi
Subscribe in a reader
Second, you can save everything you've done to a shot - Primaries, Secodaries, ColorFX, and Geometry Room - collectively as a single file. Color calls those "Grades". I use grades extensively. Organizing grades tends to be fairly straight forward. Park on the shot whose grade you want to save, go into the Setup Room (under the Grades tab) and type in the name of your grade. Typically you'd name it something meaningful, "attorney_v001" for instance.
When you're finished with your show you might have a list of saved grades that looks something like this:
You'll notice I have all my grades grouped together by names. eric_ruddy_couch has several variations followed by eric_2shot, also with several variations. And so on... resulting in all my Eric grades staying grouped together - and then sub-grouped by scene, angle, etc. No rocket science here. Pretty basic stuff.
But what happens when the number of grades you want to save for retrieval quickly expands beyond your ability to come up with meaningful descriptive names?
This happened to me recently on doc that had 3 main subjects - but also a few dozen repeating interviews . There was no way I was going to individually name each and every setup. But at the same time, I needed a way to quickly find a saved grade for each subject.
I started by (1) switching the Grade bin to Icon view and (2) allowing Color to Autoname my grades.
Color's auto-naming system is less than useful. As you'll see in the following image Color uses a Date/Timestamp to generate names (thus the need to work in Thumbnail View):
And yet, in the midst of its generic naming style how did I keep my grades organized by location and sub-grouped by person?
The answer: I used the Unix-style file name quick-fill feature that can be accessed in most Save dialog boxes on OS X.
Here's how it works in this context:
1. After switching into the Grade bin, decide where you want the Grade to show up inside your bin. If you want it at the end of the bin, then simply accept the auto-generated name from Color. It'll be placed at the end of the line.
2. If you want to place a Grade specifically next to another thumbnail simply highlight - DON'T double-click - just highlight / single-click the Grade. The name of that grade will automatically fill the File Name box.
3. Move your cursor to just before the .colorgrade extension and append it with a number. I usually start with the number 2 (applause, applause), from there I'll increment upwards.
If I want to sub-group I'll append my numbers with letters so that datetimestamp2a falls between datetimestamp2 and datetimestamp3.
The other side-benefit of this naming style - it's fast.
I'm not sure, but if this post reads confusing post a comment and I'll try to clear it up.
- pi
Subscribe in a reader