Posts tagged "CS6"

How to Conform an EDL in SpeedGrade

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

The Send to SpeedGrade command in Adobe Premiere Pro provides a great DPX finishing workflow with SpeedGrade. We covered that in an earlier post called Four ways to load footage in SpeedGrade CS6. The DPX route is great for short projects, or if you have lots of horsepower (and lots of storage for all those DPX frames), but for some scenarios an EDL workflow will make more sense.

In this post we’re going to look at how to get an Edit Decision List (EDL) out of Premiere Pro and into SpeedGrade CS6. Rather than creating a whole new set of files, this approach allows you to load your cuts and “conform” your source material on the SpeedGrade timeline. This is often the fastest way to get a project into SpeedGrade. Continue reading…

SpeedGrade CS6 (6.0.3) Update

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (2)

Today, the SpeedGrade CS6 (6.0.3) update was released. Thank you everyone for your feedback!

If Adobe Application Manager hasn’t already told you about this, go ahead and check for new updates by choosing Help > Updates in Adobe Bridge. The best way to check for updates is by closing all Adobe applications other than Adobe Bridge, and choosing Help > Updates in Adobe Bridge; this ensures that all processes related to Adobe video applications have been quit and can be updated safely.

Ideally, you should install the updates automatically as described above, but you can also directly download the update packages from the download page for Windows or Mac OS. Continue reading…

Upcoming: SpeedGrade webinar for editors

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (23)

Please join us for SpeedGrade for Aspiring Colorists, a special webinar on August 16, starting at 10:00 am PST.

If you are an editor, and you want to learn about color grading, this course if for you. The session will start with a review of the color tools in  Adobe Premiere Pro and then move on to provide a primer in the powerful color correction and look design capabilities of Adobe SpeedGrade CS6. Continue reading…

Color Correction Basics – Working with the Waveform

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (3)

Most color grading workflows include two types of tasks: color correction and look design. Look design is what you do to give your story its individual character: it’s the visual style that communicates mood and place.

For example an action film might have a gritty, de-saturated look; a horror story might have a cold blue otherworldly look, a period piece might have vibrant colors, like a painting or an old color photograph. Different scenes within a film usually use slightly different palettes. In short, look design is a part of storytelling Look design is a very exciting aspect of the new digital filmmaking tools: we never had as much freedom as we do now to define how we want our productions to look.

Before you get to detailed look design, you will usually want to begin by color correcting your shots. Continue reading…

Move up to Creative Cloud

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (2)

Adobe is making it simpler to keep your software up-to-date. And a lot cheaper.

Adobe CS6 has been so well received by reviewers and production professionals around the world, and you now have several options for buying it. Along with boxed versions (or “shrink” as they call it here), and purchasing online, you can also subscribe. That last option is a great model. I encourage you to take a good look at Adobe’s Creative Cloud Membership.

Continue reading…

SpeedGrade – A Little Bit of History

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

The origin of SpeedGrade can be traced back to a playback application called FrameCycler, which was first release by IRIDAS in 2001. FrameCycler provided uncompressed playback of frame sequences and was widely adopted in the visual effects community where artists needed an easy way to check their work.

In a recent interview on Animotion (great site, by the way), Lin Kayser, the founder of IRIDAS tells the story. As Lin points out in that interview FrameCycler employed the pixel shader technology in GPUs to provide LUT support in FrameCycler. Pixel shader technology is widely used in gaming to provide really fast screen refresh rates, but is not commonly used professional color applications. Continue reading…

Four Ways to Load Footage in SpeedGrade

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (2)

Last time we looked at the SpeedGrade Desktop. This week, let’s look at how to get your content onto the Timeline where you can work on it.

Patrick Palmer, Product Manager for SpeedGrade has created a video which shows how this is done.

There are four ways to get your footage into SpeedGrade. The most automated way to do this is to use the Send to SpeedGrade command in Premiere Pro. The most flexible way is to load an Edit Decision List (EDL) and conform your clips. This allows you to update, or swap out, individual clips, for example. You can also load an existing SpeedGrade project ( an .ircp file). The most manual way, is to add individual clips to the Timeline one-by-one. Continue reading…

Meet the SpeedGrade CS6 Desktop

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

Over the next couple of months on this blog, we’re going to walk through the basic areas and features in Adobe SpeedGrade CS6. Today we’re taking a look at the Desktop.

Before we dive into the Desktop, I just want to mention a really cool story by DP and colorist Jerome Sabourin called Why I Use SpeedGrade. Jerome shares a bit of his own journey as a cinematographer, and describes how he uses SpeedGrade in his work. It’s a great read.

Now, back to the Desktop… Continue reading…

Write Your Own SpeedGrade Review

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (2)

Just a quick note to let you know that you can submit detailed feedback on your SpeedGrade experience now. Our Create your review for SpeedGrade CS6 page just went live. Continue reading…

Notes from a SpeedGrade Seminar

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (1)

Recently, our friendly Adobe SpeedGrade product manager Patrick Palmer hosted a seminar introducing Adobe SpeedGrade CS6, the professional color grading application which is now part of Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium, Master Collection, and Creative Cloud.

In case you missed it, we have posted a recording of the seminar.

Patrick covered a lot of ground in the seminar, both in the main presentation and in the question-and-answer segment at the end. Here’s a brief outline of what Patrick talked about, as well as some links to more information about each subject: Continue reading…

SpeedGrade CS6 (6.0.1) Update

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (19)

Today, the SpeedGrade CS6 (6.0.1) update was released. Thank you to everyone for your feedback since the launch of SpeedGrade CS6 last month!

If Adobe Application Manager hasn’t already told you about this, go ahead and check for new updates by choosing Help > Updates. The best way to check for updates is by closing all Adobe applications other than Adobe Bridge, and choosing Help > Updates in Adobe Bridge; this ensures that all processes related to Adobe video applications have been quit and can be updated safely.

Ideally, you should install the updates automatically as described above, but you can also directly download the update packages from the download page for Windows or Mac OS.

For information about updates for other Adobe professional video applications, see this page.

This blog post is for information purposes and not technical discussion. If you have questions or difficulties with this update, please come by the  SpeedGrade forum where we can help! Continue reading…

Introducing Adobe SpeedGrade CS6

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (9)

Welcome to Moving Colors, the new SpeedGrade blog! SpeedGrade CS6 is a new addition to Adobe CS6 Production Premium and Creative Cloud Membership and gives you professional color grading tools to take your visual storytelling to the next level.

Color grading used to be the domain of a select few, in part because of the high costs of the technology. But that has changed. Now you can do sophisticated color correction and look design on a laptop if you want to.

The purpose of this blog is to help you bring high-end color grading into your production workflow. SpeedGrade CS6 allows you to do that.

The SpeedGrade UI may seem unfamiliar at first glance: Welcome to the new world of color grading! Actually SpeedGrade CS6 is pretty easy and fun to use once you get comfortable with it.

UPDATED (October 19, 2012): This article has been updated with new links to more recent posts.

Continue reading…