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ColorGHear TOOLKIT- color grading SYSTEM for AE
  • 1015 Replies sorted by
  • duartixduartix

    Cheers @Shian!

    If you don't mind me asking another workflow question, here goes...

    Where do you do your technical pass? Do you do just WB on that? Do you also do some kind of basic auto levels? Or do you go creative immediately and straight into your gears?

    I'm asking this because I'm finding that Finesse was a pretty good start for a few videos I graded (mostly pedestal, levels, contrast and contrast center), before I drop the gears on them. The thing is that after that, the gears don't pop like they do on your tutorials...

  • shianshian

    @itimjim In the states, a gear head is somebody who is either really knowledgable about musical or video equipment, or really into fixing cars or motorcycles.

  • itimjimitimjim

    @shian LOL...in the UK a Gear Head is a rampant pot smoker....I like it! :-) The GHear that is!

  • shianshian

    BTW I just wanted you all to know, that from now on all you CGT users will be referred to as "GHearHeads".

    I might even get T-shirts made :)

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    Well I am proud to say that I joined the awesome CGT club last night. Been checking in here every so often, looking at the awesome videos and truly interesting discussion on grading / film production but haven't got around to dabbling in any of it yet. With the special portal popping up on my Facebook feed last night I just couldn't resist joining. Looking forward to allocating some time to watching the brilliant tutorials and beginning to learn how to use AE. I'll be using Sony Vegas as my NLE and then grading in AE via an import using Automatic Duck (as recommended by Shian previously). Thanks again Shian for producing this fantastic piece of work..

  • shianshian

    This is a special deals portal, which will change often, and without notice. Some days you will come here and find fantastic deals on ColorGHear products, and on other days you'll find no deals at all. We reserve the right to offer our products at our set price, and give discounts when we see fit. If you come here and see a price lower than what you paid for a product we will not offer any kind of rebate or refund. It's the beauty and wonder of chance at work.

    http://colorghear.com/specials/

  • No_SuRReNDeRNo_SuRReNDeR

    Oh...snap thx man -

  • mattherematthere

    Great.. very useful :)

  • shianshian

    @No_SuRReNDeR don't use embed link, just full youtube link from the share button> options roll out, and check "long link" and paste

  • shianshian

    try importing my output module settings downloadable from the "member download page". They will save you time. Tutorial #5

  • mattherematthere

    Thanks Hallvalla.. That will be the step that I'm missing :)

  • HallvallaHallvalla

    Are you selecting Quicktime and then DNxHD? You have to select QT first.

  • mattherematthere

    @anyone I am on PC and using ghears to grade, in the tutorial on the Colorghear site Shian talks about exporting graded footage using DnxHD, I have CS5.5 but can find DNxHD as an render option.. even after installing the codec from Avid, are there other steps I may have missed out?

    Thanks :)

  • No_SuRReNDeRNo_SuRReNDeR

    Hey guys, I didnt grade this myself, the director and producer did; I am not envolved in the editing/post process at the moment....but here is a clip from True Story graded in gears...again...I was ONLY Dp/DOP all I did was point them to color ghear and Shian's tutorials... This was all shot with Aquamotion V2... Nostalgic -2 all . This chunk was mostly shot on the 20mm pancake(steady cam stuff) and a few old m42 lenses

    I am not sure what settings he used to export from AE either.

    Fyi lots of Pottymouth ..

  • shianshian

    As for the workflow, there are really no rules, just guidelines, certain things work well in most situations. but basicly:

    finish editing

    move everything to AFX

    Then for GHear order, just keep this rule of thumb in mind: reduce noise (if necessary), then correct for the DSLR factor(DSLR Fixit), and then grade.

    I rarely key frame stuff when I'm grading, usually I don't have to. I think you're making it more complicated than it needs to be. Just dive in, you might make a few mistakes, but who cares, soon the whole thing will become familiar to you.

    I'll see about doing a quick workflow overview tut. As for the b-day gift... a course might help answer your questions, but then again, it might not.

  • duartixduartix

    Cheers @Shian!

    The money I spent on ColorGHear must have been female. It's breeding non-stop. :) Thanks!!!

    I don't know about others as they are probably much more experienced than me and I'm loving every bit of your tutorials, but do you know what I'm missing the most? A kick start! An end to end example for starters like me who are still lost on how to approach the full workflow...

    I've got plenty of doubt's floating around. What to tackle first? This one I know, 5DtoRGB but from then on I don't know if I should edit/mix the footage first and grade afterwards, how to get a quick preview at the results, when in the workflow to keyframe, in which layer order to apply the GHears when grading, some kind of high level orientation with little detail so I know how the BIG pieces fit.

    Thanks again!

    (edit) My birthday is coming in a few weeks, and I was thinking about asking the wife for the Samyang 7.5mm F/3.5 Fisheye as I don't own anything wider the the kit 14-42mm. Do you think I should ask for a short course on AE instead?

  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp

    You can tell you were having fun - those are absolutely beautiful images.

  • stoneystoney

    Thanks @shian and @Mark_the_Harp. Color grading is fun (^o^) <---super excited emoticon

  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp

    @stonebat That's TOTALLY fab!!! I absolutely love it.

  • shianshian

    New Tutorial is live - Tinkering with Toner, Spectral Enhancer, Steel Dirt, ColorFist, and secondary color correction with Color Finesse.

    @stonebat looks great! Very filmic. Looks almost like a commercial.

  • stoneystoney

    Nothing but candid. ColorGHear made a huge difference. Thanks @shian. A hacked GH2 took all shots at home. A hacked GF3 took the rest. No rig. Just GF3 on a neck strap. Yes ColorGHear Toolkit (CGT) works nice with GF3. Perhaps CGT gotta expand the customer base to GF2/GF3/GX1/G3?

  • stoneystoney

    @artiswar prolly you might be right. 32 bit magic :)

  • itimjimitimjim

    I made sure I gave you, Nick and Vitaley a mention in the comments of the post. But yes, I'm an evangelist and will be writing about your system on our blog in the near future.

  • shianshian

    @itimjim Thanks, mate. But as I've been saying, if it makes you happy, spread the good word throughout the 'verse (as a Joss Whedon character might say) post on msg boards, youtube, vimeo, creative cow... everywhere that might be relevant and useful to others.

    When I do it, it just seems like self-promotion, even if it might actually help someone, it just sounds like a sales pitch.

    In other words, thank you, and you're welcome. But don't tell me, tell the world. I know CGT is awesome, I've been using some form of it for 6 years. But there's thousands of indie shooters out there paying too much for too little. Clue them in to the "Big Wow".

    Go forth, my faithful GHearHeads, and let the world in on the secret: Awesome color grading doesn't have to be a big mystery, or cost a small fortune. ColorGHear will unleash the full potential of your footage.

  • itimjimitimjim

    My short that we wrote, shot, edited and delivered this past weekend. It's a bit rough in places (green screen matte, sound edit) due to being under the gun to get it all done in 48 hours as per the competition rules. I got 1 hour sleep all weekend.

    @shian even though I'm not using ColorGHear to its greatest extent, I can't begin to thank you enough for the knowledge that you have shared and provided.

    The short was graded using a mixture of your 3-way, levels, spectral enhancer and steel dirt. I decided not to use GHrain Killer as I was worried about render times with it being a 48 hour challenge.

    The green cast in the skin tones on the spaceship were meant by the way (simulating computer vdu incident light). I pulled most of the green out (using magenta on the 3-way GHear) except the reflections on the faces.

    Steel dirt worked brilliantly on the planet scene, where I was able to key frame the change from happy spectral enhancer to grim atmosphere destruction. Mixed with a bit of gamma in the levels, and I got my really dark feel but with detail look that I was after.

    All this was achievable in seconds using the GHears, and was completely controllable at the adjustment layer level. I can't recommend this approach any more highly. Compared to pre-canned settings that are really inflexible, ColorGHear gives you rapid flexibility and really high quality. So so pleased as you might be able to gather.

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