Office Hours – ACES Color Management Using Nodes in DaVinci Resolve

February 5, 2022

Join colorist Joey D'Anna as he answers node-based color management strategies for ACES and RCM workflows (including groups and shared nodes).


Series

Note: This Livestream was recorded on January 27, 2022 with a live audience of Mixing Light members. The URL to participate in these Livestreams is posted in the Mixing Light Member Event Calendar. At the time of recording, our Livestreams are publicly available on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. Replays are only available to active members of the Insights Color Library.


Tips, tricks, and advice on node-based color management with Joey D’Anna

Are you confused about implementing node-based custom color management in DaVinci Resolve? Have you tried executing some of Joey’s ideas but got stuck? Do you have ACES-specific questions? In this live Q&A session for Mixing Light members Joey D’Anna took member questions to help them execute this workflow.

Are you new to ACES but want to follow along?

If this conversation with Joey is confusing to you, fear not! Mixing Light has many resources dedicated to teaching you about ACES. This is the perfect time to brush up or get started with the basics:

  • Flight Path: What Is ACES and how do you use it? – This Flight Path collects our primary ACES resources onto a single page, in logical order of progression. The 4-part Getting To Know ACES article series is totally free and in front of the paywall. This page also links out to primary non-Mixing Light resources to further your ACES knowledge.
  • Custom ACES video series – Parts 1-4 of this series by Joey D’Anna teaches you how to build an ACES pipeline in a node tree, featuring the Color Space Transform (CST) ResolveFX node within the default YRGB un-color managed project setting.

As you get more comfortable executing your own ACES color management in the node tree (instead of at the project level) Joey created a series about using this approach in an HDR/Dolby Vision workflow:

Table of Contents

Here are timestamps of the major questions and topics in this 60-minute Livestream.

Start – Introduction and Overview of Node-based ACES

02:59 – Can you deliver a Netflix-compliant ACES Archive Master using node-based color management?

04:09 – Joey shares his ACES fixed node structure

08:00 – When is the correct time to enable the ‘Forward/Inverse OOTF’?

10:06 – OOTF, OETF, EOTF – terminology review

14:38 – Doesn’t Netflix delivery require moving out of camera space in the first node of the node tree?

15:38 – How does ACES-compliant delivery change the node tree when working with multiple camera color spaces?

18:05 – Node-based color management using Group Pre-Clip and Post-Clip transforms

19:52 – Using Shared Nodes (instead of Groups) for color space transforms

22:56 – What is the advatage of Node-based color management over project-based color management?

29:54 – How do these techniques effect transitions (making sure they look correct)?

30:31 – Using Fusion Transitions for color space-aware transitions

32:00 – How do you work with your old handy-dandy LUTs in a color managed pipeline?

34:35 – Does Joey have a color space he likes grading in when not grading in ACES?

35:57 – Is the P3-D65 space the same as ACES D65 Simulation?

37:13 – What are those new ACES Gamut Compression options in ACES 1.3?

41:01 – Have you seen or solved the problem of using the Color Warper in ACES and getting artifacts?

42:41 – Demo: How color managed workflows enhance color grading with printer lights

46:26 – Node based color management, HDR, and Dolby Vision

48:49 – How does this color management approach work with Dolby Vision monitoring and trims?

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Comments

Homepage Forums Office Hours – ACES Color Management Using Nodes in DaVinci Resolve


  • Clement B
    Guest

    Thanks! It was really helpful!

  • Thank you Joey and Patrick!
    When you want to have maximum control using CST in node tree how do you set Color Management? Assume that in timeline there are mixed camera format like ARRI logC, Red RAW or others.
    How do you set TIMELINE COLOR SPACE and OUTPUT COLOR SPACE?
    It doesn’t seem to me to have been specified in the video

    Thank you.

     

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