Ravengrade Reviewed – Professional Grading Instruments for Resolve
They are saying in enterprise you need to at all times scratch your individual itch. Create services and products that resolve the issues you may have.
That’s what a bunch {of professional} colorists and color scientists have completed by creating Ravegrade.com and the plugins and instruments which have emerged from their collaboration.
What they’ve created is geared toward squarely at different skilled colorists, DITs and editors who care about fine-tuning their grade with exacting precision and gaining access to a technically wealthy function set of parameters to exactly alter each facet of their picture.
Newest Replace – December 2022
Since Ravengrade’s newest addition, a set of 9 meticulously crafted movie emulation Kharma LUTS, launched they have apparently turn into immediately widespread.
The 9 Kharma LUTs are generated with true movie spectral and colorimetry knowledge from particular movie shares and emulates:
Kodak Vision3 5203
Kodachrome 5268
Fuji Eterna
Ektachrome 7294
Fuji Eterna SR12
Kodak Vision3 2383
Eastman EXT Shade Print Movie 2386
and Fuji 3510.Created in shut interplay with the trade and famend picture scientists.
Ravengrade.com
Test them out for your self at Ravengrade.com
Replace – October 2022 – Ravengrade and LowePost have restructured to convey all the color grading masterclasses and professional coaching over to Ravengrade. Whereas LowePost will proceed to develop coaching on different elements of Publish Manufacturing.
Ravengrade’s pricing has additionally been simplified with two new subscription tiers, with Ravengrade full providing even higher worth than earlier than!
Here’s a TLDR model of all the things Ravengrade has to supply, earlier than I dive into the small print and share my ideas on working with the CineLook plugin.
After that Cullen Kelly will stroll you thru learn how to arrange the CineLook plugin and what every of the 20 particular person controls does, plus I additionally interviewed Stig Olsen from LowePost.com, the ringleader behind Ravengrade, for some insider insights!
What’s Ravengrade.com?
It’s a growth home for skilled grade color grading instruments and coaching for DaVinci Resolve created by a number of the hardest working and smartest color science minds within the enterprise, together with…
- Mitch Bogdanowicz – Oscar successful Color Scientist
- Juan I. Cabrera – Senior Colorist, Lightbender
- John Daro – Senior Colorist Warner Bros.
- Douglas Delaney – Senior Colorist, Image Store LA
- Florian Utsi Martin – Shade Scientist & Colorist, ARRI
- Mark Todd Osborne – Senior Colorist, MTO Hollywood
- Bianca Rudolph – Senior Colorist, ARRI
What do you get?
On this assessment I shall be specializing in the primary CineLook plugin however Ravengrade presently affords the next instruments, coaching and masterclasses:
Instruments
- CineLook – Plugin with 18 seems to be with 20 adjustable grading instruments, for Rec.709/ACES&RCM
- Daro Cinema Appears – Plugin with 14 seems to be for Rec.709/ACES& RCM
- MIRA – 20 PowerGrades for Resolve constructed on the CineLook Plugin (required)
- Grasp Tone – Plugin with particular tone curve changes
Masterclasses
- Function Movie Grading – Mark Todd Osbourne
- Grading the TV present Fits – Chris Jacobsen
- Grading Hollywood Trailers – Lynette Duensing
- Fundamental Look Creation – John Daro
- Business Look Growth – Derek Hansen
- Mounted Node Constructions – Walter Volpatto
- The Artwork and Craft of Grading – Douglas Delaney
Coaching
- Professional Grading in DaVinci Resolve – Kevin P. McAuliffe
- Look Growth in DaVinci Resolve – Jason Bowdach
- Shade Administration in DaVinci Resolve – Lee Lanier
- RED Color Science in DaVinci Resolve – Kevin P. McAuliffe
How a lot does it value?
Ravengrade now affords an annual subscription for simply the coaching (together with footage and challenge information) at $79/yr or entry to all the things, all of the instruments and all coaching for simply $199/yr.
This contains upcoming instruments such because the Gradelab subtractive color plugin.
That is truly actually nice worth, as it’s less expensive than when the location first launched and contains the knowledgeable masterclass collection from a number of the greatest colorists round!
Is it price it?
YES. If you wish to management your photographs with a stage of complexity, nuance and creative freedom that the CineLook plugin makes much more simply accessible for mere grading mortals like myself, than it in any other case can be.
It’s additionally price it if you wish to assist the event of this stage of toolset, designed by skilled colorists with different skilled colorists in thoughts. Whenever you signal as much as Ravengrade Full you’ll even have entry to imminent instruments added in the course of the course of your subscription.
In case you’re not spending numerous your time color grading, or don’t care about exerting whole dominion over each element of your photographs then CineLook may not be for you.
At $199 for entry to all the things, it’s nonetheless an inexpensive choice for normal ol’ editors like me, however for anybody who’s color grading day in and time out, Ravengrade’s instruments looks as if a straightforward win that may quickly repay the value of admission by impressing your purchasers together with your visible dexterity and finesse.
FYI – You’ll want DaVinci Resolve Studio to run the CineLook and MIRA plugins.
Why I used Inventory Footage From ArtGrid.io
I downloaded some royalty free inventory footage to make use of whereas testing and reviewing the instruments.
Artgrid.io is my go-to inventory footage website and on this case one of many actually helpful issues is that you could obtain a LOG model of many of the pictures and see what digicam it was shot on, which makes establishing your grade appropriately far simpler than endlessly guessing!
Right here’s my assessment of The Finest Excessive-Finish Royalty Free Inventory Footage Websites which features a hyperlink to get two-extra months free with ArtGrid and low cost codes for different websites too!
Ravengrade CineLook Plugin Reviewed
The CineLook plugin from Ravengrade.com runs via the DCTL structure in Resolve. DCTL stands for DaVinci Customized Rework Language, which lets you successfully create customized instruments by permitting you to regulate your picture in any method you select to code.
Both method, the CineLook plugin is simple to put in in a few clicks.
It’s additionally very easy to make use of. After including the DCTL Impact to a node, you’ll be able to simply throw it on and begin adjusting issues to see what they do.
And since you may have 18 fascinating seems to be to start out working with, the vast majority of the heavy lifting has been completed for you, by way of delivering immediate outcomes.
However, given the depth and interoperability of the sliders, it’s properly price watching the tutorial under from Cullen Kelly on how all the things works and what it’s designed to do.
CineLook is a Swiss watch of color grading plugins for Resolve, as it’s designed for a better stage of technical competence and with a extra nuanced skilled function set in comparison with different plugins I’ve examined over time.
For instance, the Publicity slider works photometrically and is thus measured in digicam stops.
There are six separate sliders for shaping the saturation in your picture alone.
You may have the choice to incorporate a sub look in your grade with the choice to combine between the 2 seems to be and individually management the depth of every look in that mix.
The extent of management and finesse that the CineLook plugin empowers you with, and the way simple it’s to make use of, feels above and past different comparable instruments that I’ve encountered.
How does it deal with?
Even on my 2017 15″ MacBook Professional, working the DaVinci Resolve Studio 18 beta, the controls had been extraordinarily responsive and really fluid.
A number of the instruments are very focused by design, so if you happen to’re not clued up on what they’re designed to do (once more watch the tutorial under!) you then may not discover the subtly of their changes at first.
Having not graded with channel separation a lot earlier than, the RGB channel density sliders are properly price enjoying with to make numerous elements of your picture actually stand out. Take a look at the CineLook in Motion part under for a very good demo of this.
Low-cost LUTs can break your photographs
One of many considerations with shopping for random LUTs and Look packs from the web is that you just don’t actually know what they’re doing beneath the hood, or whether or not they’ve been designed in such a method as to not break your photographs.
Ravengrade’s FAQ web page addresses this downside head on:
Will I see artifacting or clipping with these seems to be?
No. Each technical part of the seems to be are formed by color scientists to make sure the picture doesn’t quantise, clip or clamp, and the seems to be are examined towards each legitimate attainable enter color. So long as the color area traits of your picture align with the color area you choose throughout the software, you’ll by no means see any breakage.
Ultimate Ideas on CineLook
If I had been knowledgeable colorist trying to seem extra competent than I’m, I might snap up CineLook a heartbeat.
The 18 pre-built seems to be are simply customisable and offer you a stable launchpad from which to dial within the particulars of how your picture seems to be; from the refined roll off of your highlights to including some quantity to your shadows and crafting the density of your colors in between – all with the straightforward drag of a slider.
I might additionally need to be getting in on the bottom ground of the event of thrilling new instruments like this as a result of that is absolutely simply the start of what Ravengrade has to supply.
Take a look at CineLook for your self at Ravengrade.com.
The best way to use the CineLook Plugin
This glorious 10 minute tutorial from freelance colorist and color scientist Cullen Kelly will information you thru learn how to use the CineLook plugin and discover a number of the technical nuances designed into it.
You can even learn via the official set up information right here and the official clarification of every slider right here too.
However listed here are the fundamental steps and a brief overview of what every slider does:
#1 – Set your Challenge Settings to DaVinci YRGB as CineLook will deal with the color administration.
- Cog at backside Proper > Color Administration > DaVinci YRGB
#2 – Add the DCTL Impact to a node. Choose the Color Administration model you want.
- Resolve Shade FX > DCTL > Cinelook 709|Cinelook ACES|Cinelook RCM
#3 – Soar all the way down to the underside settings of the plugin record and set your Enter Color Area:
#4 – Set your Essential Look
- 18 to select from with unique sounding names.
#5 – Set and allow a Sub look if you want
- The identical 18 to select from to endlessly mix seems to be
#6 – Tailor the mix between the 2 seems to be utilizing the Combine Appears slider.
- At 0 (Left) solely the primary look will present via. At 100 (Proper) solely the sub look shall be seen and at 50 there shall be a 50% mix of the 2.
#7 – You possibly can management the Depth of every look individually with the Essential Look Depth and Sub Look Depth sliders.
Now for what every slider does…
Publicity
- Movie Publicity – “Works Photometrically” measured in Stops
- Achieve – Similar as Resolve, management high finish distinction in broad method
- Elevate – Broadly manipulate the underside of the picture
Color Temperature
- Cool/Heat – “Preferential color temperature, sweetened to prioritise pores and skin tones“
- Tint – Companion to Cool/Heat slider “Adjusting our inexperienced channel inside a linear tone curve.“
Saturation
- Saturation Excessive – “How a lot saturation launched into the higher luminance ranges.“
- Vibrance – “How a lot saturation within the backside portion of our tone scale.“
- Saturation Density – “How darkish or brilliant colors are as we saturate them. Permitting me to offer my increased saturations a extra subtractive or filmic high quality as i transfer from left to proper.”
- Pink Channel Density – Similar as Saturation Density however per color channel.
- Inexperienced Channel Density – Similar as Saturation Density however per color channel.
- Blue Channel Density – Similar as Saturation Density however per color channel.
Shadow and Spotlight Controls
- Spotlight Trim – Pull in or stretch out simply the height highlights
- Spotlight Quantity – Lower distinction in highlights. “Create a sense of quantity or thickness in that space.“
- Spotlight Quantity Ratio – How a lot of that distinction comes from Elevate (Left) vs Achieve (Proper).
- Shadow Trim – Black level comes up in focused method.
- Shadow Quantity – Mirror of the identical Spotlight settings above.
- Shadow Quantity Ratio – Mirror of the identical Spotlight settings above.
See CineLook in Motion
Filmic Colors with Channel Density – This one minute promo video demonstrates fairly properly how the channel density sliders can be utilized to govern your picture to “convey no matter you need to prioritise to the forefront.“
Spotlight Trim and Quantity Controls
Cullen describes a number of the advantages of those advantageous grain controls:
Combining these controls can cut back sharp edges within the spotlight area and provides the picture a extra painterly really feel, on this instance we use the spotlight trim to scale back the dynamic vary and bend the highlights. This immediately decreases the sharpness and provides a softer transition from the mid-tones to the highlights.
Cullen Kelly, Colorist
Inside Ravengrade.com – Professional Colorists Creating for Professional Colorists
Stig Olsen, co-founder of LowePost.com and mastermind behind Ravengrade.com was variety sufficient to reply a number of of my questions over e-mail.
What was your aim with Ravengrade?
Our aim with Ravengrade was to not create a single software. Ravengrade is the house of a number of plugins and instruments that brings superior color science expertise, precisely emulated movie print shares and distinctive grading instruments to the worldwide colorist neighborhood.
Why are the seems to be in Ravengrades’ Cinelook Plugin and Daro Cinema Appears technically higher than LUTs?
Each part of the seems to be are formed by color scientists to make sure the picture doesn’t clip, clamp or quantise.
The seems to be assist floating level values which incorporates negatives and values over zero, and is examined towards each legitimate attainable enter color. Moreover, the Ravengrade plugins have built-in color administration that aligns the area traits of your picture with every of the seems to be.
Have these instruments been used on any huge price range productions?
Kchrome is a non-empirical Kodachrome emulation that John Daro created for a Netflix present at Warner Bros.
Niran has been utilized by Mark Todd Osborne on a number of function movies and currently as a Present LUT on a Hollywood manufacturing starring Mel Gibson.
Onyx is a Kodak print emulation created by Mitch Bogdanowicz that has been used on numerous high-end productions the previous couple of years, and now we have an empirical 80’s Fuji emulation, printed to Imaginative and prescient 3 that’s the base of a big manufacturing beginning later this month.
There’s just about a search for each kind of challenge included within the assortment, and every look works as a place to begin that may be adjusted to style.
Is it attainable to dial in these seems to be manually in Resolve?
A lot of the seems to be are based mostly on true movie colorimetry knowledge with complicated coloration distortions that may’t be matched manually with easy coloration manipulation in a coloration grading software program reminiscent of DaVinci Resolve.
Moreover, the built-in coloration administration makes the seems to be work correctly with all trade commonplace cameras, working areas and show areas.
What’s MIRA from Ravengrade?
MIRA PowerGrades is a set of PowerGrades for DaVinci Resolve customers, designed to make photographs really feel extra cinematic.
They embrace node bushes with customized corrections created by a wide range of famend colorists and all the things is constructed beneath color area transforms and movie prints from Ravengrade’s Cinelook Plugin, which is utilized on the finish of every node tree.
Usually, a colorist have an output remodel on the finish of the node stack. It might be certainly one of Resolve’s movie emulation LUTs, the Arri LUT, Sony LUT, a pure movie print emulation or a special output remodel.
So, you’re employed on the primary nodes, and run all the things via the CineLook remodel on the final node.
