How do you all color grade from cs5.5?

[Steve Sherrick]

I managed to get a feature from PP CS5.5 into Color via Clipfinder. That was with R1 footage. Epic/Scarlet is a no go in Apple Color.

Render times in Color were insanely long. but for short form, should be okay.

[Michael Hastings]

That's not really the right card for 5.5 either. 5.5 is CUDA accelerated, and that means nVidia. I've got a GTX-580, and it performs well.

BTW - check out http://www.presynkt.com/blog/ for some color grading workflows with Resolve.

Along these line don't know if you saw this from macrumors about new mac pros and switch to Nvidia:
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Benchmarks are evidently still under embargo until next week, but the Xeon E5 chips will undoubtedly be a vast improvement over the chips found in the current Mac Pro, which hasn't been updated since mid-2010. Other companies such as Dell have already begun announcing new products based on the Xeon E5, meaning that Apple could be ready with Mac Pro updates in the relatively near future.


Apple is likely to take advantage of the E5-2600 series 6-core and 8-core chips for its dual-processor Mac Pro configurations, while focusing on the E5-1600 series quad-core and 6-core chips for its lower-end single-processor models.

Aside from the new processors, other pieces crucial for a blockbuster Mac Pro upgrade are also falling into place, although there have been few specific Mac Pro rumors in recent months. One recent report did claim, however, that Apple is planning to switch to NVIDIA graphics in the updated Mac Pro, moving away from current graphics partner AMD.
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As much as video pros seem to want to rag on Apple lately, this might be a sign that they haven't forgotten us.

[William Schultz]

Resolve for sure. They have a free version for the Mac.. I'd definitely get an nVidia card though, it's going to help a ton. Make sure it's CUDA accelerated though. I have a Quadro 4000 that does the trick in my Mac Pro. Love it.

[jake blackstone]

Popular tools today: Resolve, Scratch, Baselight, Magic Bullet Looks, After Effects, Colorista.

However all of the above only shows more of why the future release of Adobe Speedgrade is going to be so important to the Adobe Production Premium workflow and working with native R3D material.

That's funny world we're living in, when Baselight, Colorista and Magic Bullet are used in the same sentence:-)
I'm really curious what Avid has in store for color grading. When CS6 ships it will present a compelling finishing package in PPro, AE and SpeedGrade . Conforming can be time consuming and tricky. If Adobe manages one button "send to SpeedGrade"-type with all speed changes and sizes intact, Avid may have a problem on it's hands. AAF and AMA don't play well with each other. I'd like to see Adobe do something similar to Baselight plugin type of interface, where you can edit in PPro and with a push of a button you then could have SpeedGrade available right inside the PPro, without using any kind of dynamic links. Once finished, just render out the DCP. Ha, I can dream, can't I?:-)

[Les C.]

Along these line don't know if you saw this from macrumors about new mac pros and switch to Nvidia:
-----
Benchmarks are evidently still under embargo until next week, but the Xeon E5 chips will undoubtedly be a vast improvement over the chips found in the current Mac Pro, which hasn't been updated since mid-2010. Other companies such as Dell have already begun announcing new products based on the Xeon E5, meaning that Apple could be ready with Mac Pro updates in the relatively near future.


Apple is likely to take advantage of the E5-2600 series 6-core and 8-core chips for its dual-processor Mac Pro configurations, while focusing on the E5-1600 series quad-core and 6-core chips for its lower-end single-processor models.

Aside from the new processors, other pieces crucial for a blockbuster Mac Pro upgrade are also falling into place, although there have been few specific Mac Pro rumors in recent months. One recent report did claim, however, that Apple is planning to switch to NVIDIA graphics in the updated Mac Pro, moving away from current graphics partner AMD.
------------

As much as video pros seem to want to rag on Apple lately, this might be a sign that they haven't forgotten us.

With the Mac, you'll never be able to use whatever the latest video card is (you're at Apple's mercy on this), and if they keep that form factor, only 4 PCIe cards (without expanding to an external cage which slows things down a lot due to the single x16 PCIe interface. Thunderbolt is 1/4 the speed of PCIe).

Apple is an IOS company. That's where the money is for them. After taking forever, they put out exactly the software they wanted to with FCPX, totally ignoring the input from 'Pro' users in a market they totally owned.

I just can't trust Apple after this - and no one really should. Everything is cheaper and faster on Win7. I can have exactly what I want, build my own box.

I've still got a MacPro for Logic, but ... I doubt very much if I'll ever buy another, and they'll no doubt dumb down Logic Pro like they did with FCX 'Pro'.

Just my 2 or 3 cents. Good luck with Apple if you stay, but ... even on small things like Finder replacements (I use Path Finder on OS X and it just can't compare to Directory Opus on Windows).

Oh, if you do stay with the Mac, one thing they have I don't really have on the PC, can't figure out why - is this very cool nodal tool for HID's (mice and other controllers) http://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate/ Very, Very cool!!!

Cheers!

[Rob Ruffo]

Resolve is the best solution.

Period.

+1 We use that + some home-brew AE filters. Resolve is MUCH faster than Colorista if you add a control surface.

[Rob Ruffo]

That's funny world we're living in, when Baselight, Colorista and Magic Bullet are used in the same sentence:-)
I'm really curious what Avid has in store for color grading. When CS6 ships it will present a compelling finishing package in PPro, AE and SpeedGrade . Conforming can be time consuming and tricky. If Adobe manages one button "send to SpeedGrade"-type with all speed changes and sizes intact, Avid may have a problem on it's hands. AAF and AMA don't play well with each other. I'd like to see Adobe do something similar to Baselight plugin type of interface, where you can edit in PPro and with a push of a button you then could have SpeedGrade available right inside the PPro, without using any kind of dynamic links. Once finished, just render out the DCP. Ha, I can dream, can't I?:-)

But Dynamic links, in the end, do not play-out as all that different from what you describe. You can even preview-render the linked sections of the Premiere timeline so they continue to play in real-time

[jake blackstone]

With the Mac, you'll never be able to use whatever the latest video card is (you're at Apple's mercy on this)
Cheers!

That's yesterday news. Now you can run pretty much any nVidia card, including 580 and 590 with latest nVidia drivers without need for any modifications.

[jake blackstone]

But Dynamic links, in the end, do not play-out as all that different from what you describe. You can even preview-render the linked sections of the Premiere timeline so they continue to play in real-time

That's fine if it does. Obviously, devils' in the details, so we'll see the final implementation.
I'd like to point out one more advantage, that Speedgrade may have over Resolve. As far as i can remember, Speedgrade didn't need BM or AJA card to display full size image. If i remember it correctly, Speedgrade could display full video on the second monitor via DVI/HDMI. Obviously, for many this will not do, but for the many of potential users of free Resolve, this may be the tiebreaker. This will make Speedgrade a real "free" app. Well, you still would need a control panel...

[Rob Ruffo]

That's fine if it does. Obviously, devils' in the details, so we'll see the final implementation.
I'd like to point out one more advantage, that Speedgrade may have over Resolve. As far as i can remember, Speedgrade didn't need BM or AJA card to display full size image. If i remember it correctly, Speedgrade could display full video on the second monitor via DVI/HDMI. Obviously, for many this will not do, but for the many of potential users of free Resolve, this may be the tiebreaker. This will make Speedgrade a real "free" app. Well, you still would need a control panel...

Well there's that, but there's also Control Surface compatibility, and the quality of the tracker in Speedgrade, which last time I tried it was less than stellar - albeit that was some time ago. Any experience with this?