Feature request - color grading before Fusion

If you have a better or different work flow, I would love to hear from you, but my request in a nutshell is the ability to move the Color tab before the Fusion tab.

I am moving over from After Effects after a few decades of Adobe and Final Cut, and Fusion was my last holdover until I got really comfortable with nodes over layers.

The only thing I think is missing is the ability to grade prior to compositing. I recently added Zoom meeting screens to monitors that were filmed with nothing on them, and one of the challenges involved matching the grade of the graphic image to look realistic on the monitors.

I ended up with the following workflow, but I am sure there has to be a better way to do this:

1. I graded my BRAW footage in color, then exported a LUT
2. I went in to Fusion, used the LUT to color the live footage and then composited the graphic image over the graded background and then used a color corrector node to adjust the overlay element.

I did not find a way to turn on the scopes inside Fusion, so the process had to be done in iterations of make an adjustment, exit Fusion, check the scopes, re-enter Fusion, adjust the color node, exit Fusion, check the scopes.....

I have been using Resolve for a very long time to grade and since 15 as a full editor, but I am still a newbie in Fusion, if you would be so kind, share your edit, grade, Fusion workflow so this becomes a lot less painful experience.

It seems to me that having two color tabs would be ideal - one to do primary corrections or pre-grade footage for Fusion, and one right after Fusion for an overall grade adjustment on the composited clips from Fusion... like I said, I know there is a logic in this layout, I just haven't meshed with it yet.

Thank you in advance for your time.

I'm not sure if this will work for you for sure, but in the Fusion tab, you can add another MediaOut node to pipe another node string out to the Color tab. When you switch to the Color tab, you right-click in the Node Editor and choose "Add Source". If you then add Corrector nodes after it, you can color correct that output from the Fusion tab separately from the other MediOut node. You can then grade them differently.

move the Color tab before the Fusion tab.

I would vote no. After is more appropriate, I think.

I would vote no. After is more appropriate, I think.

We could have both.

It seems to me that having two color tabs would be ideal - one to do primary corrections or pre-grade footage for Fusion, and one right after Fusion for an overall grade adjustment on the composited clips from Fusion... like I said, I know there is a logic in this layout, I just haven't meshed with it yet

I actually suggested something like a dual color page idea in my thread "Rethinking How Resolve's Pages Interact 2.0".

My thought was that having the ability to apply color processing on clips when they're in the Media Pool has the advantage of being able to not only separate and cache base grades and noise reduction while still applying the actual look after the Edit.

Where we differ is that I think the Fusion tab should still be in Resolve but work outside of the actual project so it wouldn't really help you apply the color grade before bringing it into the Fusion composition. It would have other advantages though like:

1. Allowing the editor to preview the composition, title, or transition in the Source Viewer just like any other footage.
2. Changes in the composition would ripple to instances of the comp in the timeline.
3. Gets rid of the possibility that the composition could be erased accidentally by the editor.
4. The Fusion page would be able to work 100% identically to Fusion Studio.

color the clip, make a compound clip and go to fusion...

We could have both.

I disagree. With two items placed linearly, only one can come before the other.

Mind blown! I knew I had things to learn in this arena, but I had no idea you could set up like xunile suggested and I honestly need to learn more about compound clips. I have been thinking like After Effects for so long that some of Fusion is like trying to work in advanced Italian when you were raised speaking only English. Thank you to all of you for pointing me in new directions.

Plus 1 to being able to do a pre-grade in the media pool, other than applying a LUT, prepping footage could be more useful this way.

I disagree. With two items placed linearly, only one can come before the other.

The page navigation already isn't representative of the order of processing though. Right now the page navigation looks like this:

Code: Select all

Media | Edit | Fusion | Color | Fairlight | Deliver

Yet the color and FX pipeline looks like this if the clip is a Fusion composition:

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Fusion Comp(Fusion) -> Edit Sizing (Edit + Color) -> Edit FX stack (Edit) -> Per-clip Color nodes (Color) -> Clip blending (Edit) -> Per-timeline Color Nodes(Color)

So that's

Code: Select all

Fusion | Edit/Color | Edit | Color | Edit | Color


But as waltervolpatto pointed out, you can also color a clip then put it into a compound clip then turn the compound clip into a Fusion composition so that's like:

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Edit/Color | Edit | Color | Edit | Color | Edit |  Fusion | Edit/Color | Edit | Color | Edit | Color |

... or something close to it. Then of course Fairlight is placed after Color but technically the audio pipeline would be completely parallel to Edit, Fusion, and Color so it should look like this

Code: Select all

Media | Edit | Fusion | Color | Deliver
      |         Fairlight     |


And this whole post ignores the Cut page which is parallel with the Edit page.

move the Color tab before the Fusion tab.

I would vote no. After is more appropriate, I think.

After 15 years of doing VFX I'm Finally starting to understand that there is no right answer to this one. So here is what I ask for, and preferably get these days.

Camera Raw / log of the shot or the highest un-altered quality.
Camera LUT and sensor info and any data logged on set for the shot.
Any LUT that the director/ editor maybe using in playback.
Colorgraded shot if there is enough info and context to be graded. (In most cases this answer is yes it can be graded, except for green screen removals because of green spill and Backgrounds giving context).

And then even with all of these I will end up creating several specific working version for VFX tasks and uses but they will never be seen. Stuff like blowing out the contrast and highlights so I can get a Luma key on a feature to use as an effects mask for something else.

to sum up: Pre-grade is great for manipulation, tracking, and other backend tasks but, graded is best for stuff like muzzle flashes, explosions, environmental effects that need to be blended, object/sign replaces, and etc.

my pipeline looks like this:

cam orig raw (usuly Arri or Sony, once in a while RED)->
DiT creates CDL ->
raw debayer per colorists settings, apply CDL in viewer port ->
play / create art ->
render ACEScg

maybe this is used for more in color correction when mixing with CG renders (i am searching for this kind of features), if this implemented, this workflow has lot protentional than anyone can imagine, I hope this will come true

I would vote for an editable list of tabs.
* I never use the cut page
* I would also prefer color grade to come before Fusion and Fairlight
* Having the ability to order and show/hide these buttons sounds like an easy thing to do, which would allow everyone to have a richer experience in adapting Resolve to their style of working

I would vote for an editable list of tabs.

Pedro: you can already hide certain tabs to your heart's content:

hide.png (52.33 KiB) Viewed 2606 times

True, now all that is left is the ability to reorder them