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video guide
A Sound Pro’s Guide To Video
Colour Grading: Part 15
KEVIN HILTON compares the
approaches of DaVinci and Linux
towards DI in the new century.
GLOSSARY
ALE
AvidLogExchange is the
application that converts film
to tape transfer logs as well as
24P down conversions. The .ALE
format is the format of the ASCII
(text file) that can be imported
into Avid editing systems. An
Avid log can be prepared on
any model of IBM-compatible
or Mac computer using a word
processing program or the text
editor. For this to work correctly
the document must follow a
specific order, consisting of
three sections: Global headings;
Standard and custom column
headings; and Data headings.
This must be followed order
precisely or the log will not be
recognised by the Avid system.
The current version of the ALE
specification covers all fields
for versions 10.x and 3.x of Avid
Xpress DV, Avid Xpress, Avid
Media Composer, Avid Film
Composer, Avid Symphony and
Avid Symphony Universal.
The shift towards digital intermediate (DI) in postproduction
has had a profound influence on how
images are transferred from film and their colours
manipulated. The change in approach is illustrated by one
of the two pioneering manufacturers of colour correction
systems, da Vinci, moving away from dedicated hardware
platforms to offer a more open, software-based form of
operation working on Mac, and Linux.
The evolution towards this current incarnation of da
Vinci systems began with the turn of the 20th century.
At the time the company’s main products were the 8:8:8
correction workstation with the DUI
(da Vinci User Interface) controller.
A 2k version for HD and data, as well
as SD, was introduced in 1998.
By 2000 a new Defocus Option
had been added, giving In or Out
Defocus and Sharpness effects, in
addition to Power Windows, In/
Out colour, and matte defocus.
That same year da Vinci bought the
Singaporean company Nirvana Digital,
which produced the Revival film
restoration package.
A year later PowerGrade and the
optional Gallery and Colourist Toolbox
were introduced. PowerGrade was
designed to create filter type grades
that could be used in 2k sessions of
any resolution, using material for
a variety of sources. Only 2k parameters, along with
Defocus, could be stored using this application.
The Gallery Option was an integrated reference store
that was standard on all 2k Plus systems. It offered a
Central Server and Palette paint program interface.
In 2002, HDTV and SDTV support had been added to
the 2k Plus through an IBM PC running Red Hat Linux
interface software, marking da Vinci‘s move towards more
open operating formats.
The DaVinci Resolve 2.
“…the pivotal moment
for da Vinci’s later
development came in
2003. That year saw the
launch of the Resolve
software-based colour
corrector. This is now
the core of da Vinci’s
product range…”
Paired with datacines and telecines including the
Grass Valley Spirit and Cintel C-Reality and Millennium
(ITK as was), the 2k was running 4:2:2, 4:4:4, or 8:4:4
inputs in NTSC or PAL, with a 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 input for HD.
This new version of the 2k also featured redesigned
Primaries, Secondaries, and Keys, with a Linux control
interface as standard.
Colourist Toolbox was a hardware upgrade option for
users whose operational requirements had outstripped
the Defocus feature. The package included four Power
Vectors, each having its own matte, Defocus, Power
Windows, In/Out Master Secondaries,
Filter Effects, and Textures.
New Technologies,
New Names
From the early part of the last decade
da Vinci consistently introduced new
grading features, including Toolbox
2 in 2005, along with networking
capability. In 2003 it launched
Nucleas server-to-server software
program, which enabled the 2k
system to connect to data drives and
storage networks.
The Impresario Control
Panel appeared in 2008 but the
pivotal moment for da Vinci’s
later development came in 2003.
That year saw the launch of the
Resolve software-based colour corrector. This is now
the core of da Vinci’s product range and has been the
focus since Australian video processor and monitoring
manufacturer Blackmagic Design bought the company
in 2009.
In 2010 the da Vinci colour correction range was
stripped down to a redesigned version of Resolve,
with the program running on either Mac OS X or Linux
computers. The branding was also changed, with the
original lower case ’d’ replaced by a capital and adding a
contraction, to give DaVinci.
The Resolve system still has a dedicated control
surface designed specifically for grading available,
but the whole package is now substantially less
expensive than previous proprietary platforms.
Priced at US$995 for just the software,
Resolve is pitched directly against
Apple’s Color system for Final
Cut Pro. A full system
with controller
comes in at
US$29,995.
The basis
of the ‘new’
DaVinci Resolve
is an array of high
performance GPU
cards, which process
all material in real time.
The core system features
dozens of primaries, secondaries,
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AUDIO MEDIA JUNE 2011