Alexrocks1253 wrote:Color space transform I see as a good, quick way to do things, but I don't know how accurate it is.
Using RCM is virtually the same thing if you apply the same pipeline manually with CSTs. One just runs in the background at various stages.
The idea behind proper color management for grading is not only to get all your individual material from the captured space to display space. It gives you a singular working space where you can grade in with consistent behaviour regardless of what source media it is applied on. In RCM or ACES this is project wide set up for you but as Jamie mentions these only have conversion options for the 'typical' scene referred gamut and gamma combinations. So your approach with CSTs in YRGB is totally the way to go as there's no alternative.
I don't know if you do this already but setting up the project properly matters even for manual management.
I would suggest choosing a scene referred grading space like DaVinci Wide Gamut/Intermediate or ARRI Wide Gamut/LogC3. Set your timeline working space to that and set your output space to whatever it is you're delivering, I assume Rec.709. This will ensure that the scopes read properly, you get the right tags on export and your color space aware grading tools function as they should.
Then the way you do this is up to you but I'd say group all your clips per camera and use the group pre-clip to convert from camera space to your working space. Then use the clip node tree to do grading and use the timeline node tree to convert from your working space to display. Prior to the display conversion on the timeline you can add any global look you'd want for the entire project. If you're also running titles and other elements that shouldn't receive grading this is a bit more cumbersome but I'd use the group post-clip for that part then. Only less ideal because it means the look needs to be replicated by the amount of groups you use.
Some things to note about CST:
- For your raw material pick something scene referred to decode to with the raw settings otherwise you lose dynamic range. REDWideGamutRGB / REDLog3G10 is probably the best choice there for RED.
- For all scene referred (log) spaces make sure forward or inverse OOTF is unchecked and tone mapping is off.
- For display referred conversions to the working space inverse OOTF needs to be checked. You'd use this for the clips that for example were recorded in Rec.709 with a curve that isn't available in the CST and will be graded manually to compensate.
- On the way out to Rec.709/Gamma 2.4 forward OOTF is on and you can use DaVinci tone mapping.
Hope that helps.