Posts tagged "SpeedGrade"

What’s coming in the next version of SpeedGrade?

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

It’s been a little less than a year since SpeedGrade joined the family of Adobe pro video applications with the launch of CS6 in May 2012. We are so gratified with the positive response and thrilled that so many of you have been making the move into the exciting world of color grading.

So what’s next? While we can’t yet tell you when the next launch will be, we do want to share some of the exciting things coming in the next version of Adobe SpeedGrade.

Redesigned interface
The next version of SpeedGrade gets a complete UI overhaul, which accomplishes three things:

  • provides a more familiar screen layout for Adobe Premiere Pro users
  • puts all the tools you need right at your fingertips
  • Makes better use of limited screen real estate, especially important for laptop users (and we know there are a lot of you out there!) Continue reading…

How to do cross-processing in SpeedGrade

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

In our last post we told you about Alexis Van Hurkman’s new book, Adobe SpeedGrade: Getting Started. For this post we wanted to share a bit of the book with you. In this exercise, Alexis explains how to apply digital cross-processing to your images, including use of the fxLegalize effect. Please note: this exercise refers to footage that you can access when you buy the book. See the bottom of this post for a special offer from Peachpit Press.

 Cross-Processing –  by Alexis Van Hurkman

Cross-processing refers to the deliberate use of the wrong chemistry to develop film. For example, color negative film developed in a reversal film bath, or reversal film developed in a color negative bath. Typically, this produces strange and unexpected nonlinear color interactions for creating bizarre and exciting looks that are appropriate for editorial magazine shoots and music videos. Continue reading…

Adobe SpeedGrade: Getting Started – by Alexis Van Hurkman

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

We’re big fans of Alexis Van Hurkman and his fantastic introduction to the art of color grading - The Color Correction Handbook - has a special place on our bookshelf. So we were thrilled when we heard that Alexis would be writing a new SpeedGrade book for our favorite publisher, Peachpit Press.

Adobe SpeedGrade - Getting Started - Alexis Van Hurkman

Continue reading…

Super-Easy EDL Workflow in SpeedGrade

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

We’ve written about how to get content into SpeedGrade, and have described the EDL Conform process in previous posts, but SpeedGrade has one more EDL trick up its sleeve that I think many of you will love. This one is about as easy as it gets.

Here’s how you do super-easy EDL export from Adobe Premiere Pro into SpeedGrade:

1. Render out your edited content in Premiere Pro as a single flat clip. You could use a format such as DNxHD in a QuickTime wrapper, or any another QuickTime format. Continue reading…

Using Look Presets in SpeedGrade

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

Happy New Year, everyone! Let’s start off 2013 by taking a look at Looks.

SpeedGrade CS6 ships with four collections of .Look file presets which you can use right out of the box (so to speak), or as a starting point for building your own looks. The four sets  are called Cinematic, Desaturation, Style, and Temperature. Each of the folders includes eight Looks, for a total of 32.

The SpeedGrade Look presets, along with any new Looks you create yourself, are displayed in the Look browser at the bottom of the Look panel. After loading content, close the Desktop (D) and click on the Look tab to open the Look panel. Continue reading…

Online Courses for SpeedGrade

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (2)

Adobe SpeedGrade CS6 has been on the market for a mere seven months and the big names have already created some great online training resources. In this post I will give you an overview of the courses offered by fxphd, Lynda.com, and Video2Brain. All are well done, and are reasonably priced – and we are big fans of all three presenters!

Continue reading…

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 Profiled at Adobe&Filmmakers Event

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

We had a special gathering on November 15 when a group of Soho filmmakers and postproduction pros gathered at the Covent Garden hotel in London to hear about the all-Adobe production workflow on Wayland’s Song, an independent feature which will premiere in the spring of 2013.

Director Richard Jobson gave a lively presentation on the project, and described in detail how the Adobe tools enable him to deliver high production value on modest budgets. He does it with vigorous storytelling, well-crafted scenes, and immersive soundtracks.  Those who know their music history will recognize the name: Richard was lead singer for The Skids, a popular punk rock band in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Continue reading…

Applying Creative Looks across Multiple Clips

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

The power of SpeedGrade lies in the way it allows you to build up color corrections and creative looks as grading layers. Because grading layers are non-destructively applied in SpeedGrade, you can play around to your heart’s content until you get your footage looking just right.

It gets even more interesting when you add grading tracks on the Timeline. Grading tracks allow you to add a new set of grades on top of your clip-based color corrections – and they allow you to do this across multiple clips, or a whole project.

In this post, I’m going to show you how to add a grading track. Continue reading…

SpeedGrade CS6 (6.0.4) Update

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

Today, the SpeedGrade CS6 (6.0.4) update was released.

The SpeedGrade 6.0.4 update includes the previous 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.03 patches. Please install this update, even if you have installed the earlier patches.

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…

Back to School with SpeedGrade

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

It’s back to school for lots of people today, and you can just as easily go “back to school” for SpeedGrade, thanks to a growing list of learning resources. The recording of of our recent “SpeedGrade for Aspiring Colorists” webinar just became available.

That webinar was aimed at editors who are interested in adding color grading to their workflow – and we know that there are a lot of you out there! Our presenter, editor and colorist Jeff August, started off by taking us through the color correction tools in Adobe Premiere Pro, and then moved on to see how much you can do with color and look design in 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…

Adding Atmosphere with Vignettes

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

Vignettes are a great tool for visual storytelling. They add a depth to shots and they help give digital content a more filmic feel – and Adobe SpeedGrade CS6 offers powerful tools for creating them.

Psychologically, vignettes allow you to focus the viewer’s attention on the subject and subtly mimic the human eye, where color perception drops off around the periphery of our field of vision.

You create vignettes for an individual shot, by adding a mask to a grading layer, within a clip, or by adding a separate grading track on the timeline, for example to go across multiple clips. Colorists sometimes combine vignettes, adding atmosphere and a greater sense of space to their shots. In this post we’re going to look at how to add a single vignette to a shot in SpeedGrade. 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…

Extending SpeedGrade with SpeedLooks

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (6)

SpeedGrade CS6 has been out for a few months now and we’re already seeing some great third-party additions. SpeedLooks, created by LookLabs, are a great example, and help to illustrate the power of color grading to dramatically transform your images.

I chatted with colorist Jeff August of LookLabs recently to learn more – quick plug: Jeff will be giving an online seminar on color grading for video editors on August 16

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…