The Perfect RED Workflow Setup…

[shashbugu]

The word post means a lot of things. edit cut, effects, color, score (audio edit, foley, efx) conform, quality and output.
If money is not an issue, then buy a
1.Quantel iQ
2. Mystika system.
3. Flame Advanced suite, Flame, Smoke, lustre, Flare, Maya etc
4. Smoke on a Mac/ Davinci Resolve on a Mac/ Adobe CS5 suite /C4D/Maya/ Clipfinder/Motu Digital performer/ Izotope RX (our current config)
4. Assimilate Scratch/maya/Nuke.
5. Avid DS/ MC5
6. FCP suite/ Redcine-x Clipfinder/ Adobe CS5 suite
7. Sony Vegas PRO
8. At the very base a Redrocket card with Rocketcine-X and good one light color training can enable transcode to a desirable format. After which you can edit with any NLE of your choice.

9. You can spend even less money and buy Nice Shoes R3D-form a plugin for FCP suite and transcode all your files faster than realtime, after which you can edit in FCP do your effects in Shake and cc in Apple color.

10. You can also wait for the release of the Foundry's Storm.

The configurations are endless and different systems work for different user skills and industry demands. All the above systems require time and dedication to learn all are great but none is entirely perfect for every situation.

[Chris Parker]

pablo. you said money was no object.

[M Most]

pablo. you said money was no object.

He also said Red-specific, and Pablo, at least as far as I know, doesn't read R3d files directly (it requires a transcode, which it does internally, but which doesn't give you direct access to Red SDK settings on a shot by shot basis while you're grading). Baselight, Scratch, Lustre (the 2011 version), and Resolve, on the other hand, do.

[shashbugu]

even though we have Smoke on the Mac and Davinci Mac in House for most of color grading we still out source since we don't yet own all the room equipment for serious grading. Honestly its fairly inexpensive to send any paid job to a post house these days. Quality is key in todays market. If you can only afford an NLE which can cut Raw files and Meta tag, partner with an outside post house and save the money you would use to buy an expensive Baselight or Linux Davinci suite. Don't be greedy, clients will keep coming back and referring others to you if you continuously put out quality work.
All artists aren't created equal be the best at what you can do and share the wealth with others. We have had other professionals and post houses we send work to, in-turn refer some their clients to us for production work.

[Sven Seynaeve]

Lately i'm leaning more and more towards a flame, lustre , smoke and flare combo??? Do you guys have heard off this offer? seems tempting for what it does... seems the most advanced system still up to today.

[shashbugu]

Uhm! we have a smoke on the mac system in house, but we also just partnered with my college buddy who is an all things Autodesk guru. He mortgaged his house a decade ago to acquire an expensive inferno system then later a flame system. He still does work for other companies on the flame system out of his garage. He has been taking about upgrading to the 2011 lustre/smoke advanced offer, he claims he can run circles around the Davinci with it. One thing I do know about him is even though he knows the system inside out he's no aesthetic colorist, he's pretty radical with his color choices, I'm a minimalist. i would never have gotten a smoke on Mac system if it were not for him. We are what you will call a low end enterprise.

To answer your question yes the Autodesk suite is by far one of the most complete out there but does rely heavily on expertise. It depends on your market, industry and post expertise. I would not advice any novice in the US market to buy an Autodesk suite. There are many other easier to use and very scaleable offerings. I am not implying you are a novice don't get me wrong.
Having the most advanced system wont bring you clients its your ability to leverage the systems creative capabilities. That said, YES the Autodesk suite is beyond awesome, i mean more awesomer than awesome. if you can imagine it you can find a way to recreate it With Autodesk products. its that simple.