Thu May 25, 2017 8:39 pm
I’ve recently discovered the power of using groups to speed up my grading process, and make sweeping changes across shots and scenes so much more painless. I want more though! Which is why I’ve been thinking of something which I’ll call "Universal Nodes". I’m by no means a Resolve expert, so there may already be some functionality like this in the program that I’m not aware of - if so, let me know and I’ll happily shut up and use it all the time.
What I’m suggesting is a way to edit individual nodes across multiple shots sharing the same “Universal Node”. So, for instance, I tend to have a node or two in every shot dedicated to skin tones. I do my work to qualify and separate the skin tones, and then make my adjustments to taste. I can’t really do this work in group grades, because the process of qualifying varies wildly from shot to shot. So all that work goes into the clip grade, and I get it done.
But, for instance, what if I decide I’d like to make an adjustment to said skin tones across the board. For instance, I’d like to brighten the skin up and add a little warmth to the skin tones throughout a whole scene. As it stands, I have to go into each clip and mess with each node one-by-one. Or, a method I've been using recently is to do my qualifying work in one node sans any corrections, then use an inside/outside node into a serial node which contains the actual corrections. By splitting up the qualification and the correction, it’s a little easier for me to drag and drop nodes from a “master” node graph if I want to make sweeping changes. But it’s still a bit of a pain and ripe for human error.
But a “Universal Node” would make this super easy. I’d define it as a node that makes the same adjustments to all instances of the node through all grades. For identification purposes, they could be labeled with letters (“Corrector A” as opposed to “Corrector 1”). Or something like that.
So in my above example, I’d do my shot-specific qualifications in one node, inside/outside into the next serial node, which is a Universal Node. I make that node a little brighter and a little warmer (or whatever), and now all other grades that have Corrector A make the same adjustment. Since I’ve only applied Corrector A in specific places in all my node graphs, it affects just the skin tones throughout.
This could also be useful for stuff like cyc work. You did a ton of work in every shot to qualify, matte, etc to separate foreground from background, but you want the white cyc to be a littler brighter/darker/etc. Or with creative/artistic LUTs: put the LUT on a Universal Node, and if you want to change it, get rid of it, make it less/more aggressive, you make that adjustment just once. I’m sure there’s many other uses I haven’t yet thought of.
What do you guys think of this idea? It wouldn’t affect our current workflows or projects at all, it would just give us one more tool to work quickly and efficiently. It would also somewhat automate adjustments across multiple shots, eliminating the potential for error.
Thanks for hearing me out!
What I’m suggesting is a way to edit individual nodes across multiple shots sharing the same “Universal Node”. So, for instance, I tend to have a node or two in every shot dedicated to skin tones. I do my work to qualify and separate the skin tones, and then make my adjustments to taste. I can’t really do this work in group grades, because the process of qualifying varies wildly from shot to shot. So all that work goes into the clip grade, and I get it done.
But, for instance, what if I decide I’d like to make an adjustment to said skin tones across the board. For instance, I’d like to brighten the skin up and add a little warmth to the skin tones throughout a whole scene. As it stands, I have to go into each clip and mess with each node one-by-one. Or, a method I've been using recently is to do my qualifying work in one node sans any corrections, then use an inside/outside node into a serial node which contains the actual corrections. By splitting up the qualification and the correction, it’s a little easier for me to drag and drop nodes from a “master” node graph if I want to make sweeping changes. But it’s still a bit of a pain and ripe for human error.
But a “Universal Node” would make this super easy. I’d define it as a node that makes the same adjustments to all instances of the node through all grades. For identification purposes, they could be labeled with letters (“Corrector A” as opposed to “Corrector 1”). Or something like that.
So in my above example, I’d do my shot-specific qualifications in one node, inside/outside into the next serial node, which is a Universal Node. I make that node a little brighter and a little warmer (or whatever), and now all other grades that have Corrector A make the same adjustment. Since I’ve only applied Corrector A in specific places in all my node graphs, it affects just the skin tones throughout.
This could also be useful for stuff like cyc work. You did a ton of work in every shot to qualify, matte, etc to separate foreground from background, but you want the white cyc to be a littler brighter/darker/etc. Or with creative/artistic LUTs: put the LUT on a Universal Node, and if you want to change it, get rid of it, make it less/more aggressive, you make that adjustment just once. I’m sure there’s many other uses I haven’t yet thought of.
What do you guys think of this idea? It wouldn’t affect our current workflows or projects at all, it would just give us one more tool to work quickly and efficiently. It would also somewhat automate adjustments across multiple shots, eliminating the potential for error.
Thanks for hearing me out!
