EXR workflow is killing me

[Paul Bartok]

Hi Im working on a VFX project on a EPIC at 5K and need to finish at 4K or 5K (not sure yet) this is my first shoot with a RED Camers, It's about 2mins long(tops) and consists of minimum 90% VFX shots.
My problem atm is the workflow,
Please let me know how I can fix it the problem, which is stated below.

This what I have so far:

EDITING:
R3D > AVID AMC 5 (offline)
AVID > EDL

EXPORT:
EDL > REDCINE-X
REDCINE-X > EXR

VFX:
EXR > NUKEX
NUKEX > EXR

FINISHING
EXR > AE
AE > 4K DPX

It's not a usual workflow but so far it's all good till we get to the EXR
REDCINE-X renders out the Original look of the shoot but DPX and TIFF are fine when rendered out but I would prefer EXR for nuke if possible.

In theory its all good but my problem is lets say,
I do this I render out EXR to AE and one of the shots is the wrong Kelvin lets say 3200K instead of 5600K I would have to manually lift the colors in AE's Curve tool and get Posterization when If i had the R3D files I could change it with out any damage or even If I exported a DPX from REDCINE-X temperature corrected would be fine, but I would prefer to work in EXR as there will be multipass composting etc.

I'm sorry if this makes no sense,
I really need to find out. Any Ideas?

[Matthew Yaeger]

With EXR the Color temperature should not be changing, however all EXR exports are forced to Linear Light and this requires ignoring certain parameters on export.

The following post from Graeme should explain the differences between the EXR export and other formats.
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthr...l=1#post952637

[Paul Bartok]

I think I got some of what they were talkin about. Does that mean if you use exr there's just no way to get ur firstlight pass over to the exr. I mean what happens if some one accidently changes the ISO in camera does that mean once u fix it in redcinex and output exr it would go back to the original. My computer crapped its self so testing is even harder ATM. Sorry if this is all noob questions

[Paul Bartok]

Okay got my computer working issue seems to have gone away, I can export with my REDCINE-X CC to EXR, awesome!!! must of been a bug.
I gues it would be cooler if you could keep it RAW the whole way

[paulherrin]

I guess it would be cooler if you could keep it RAW the whole way

you can, and you can't.

Nuke and AE both handle r3d's natively. But I'd still recommend EXR's - those should process better. However, if you have a RedRocket you might do pretty well. There is no RAW the whole way. When the files get debayered they are no longer raw - that's a good thing, it means you can see images. What you lose is on the fly adjustments, but you can always re-export if there's a problem with the one-light. Any effect you apply to an EXR will be the same as if you applied it on the r3d. The difference would be changing something like exposure/color balance that you could have changed on the raw file - in which case I'd go back and do so if possible. In all honesty, it really doesn't matter when you've only got two minutes of material. So relax, and get on with it.

[Paul Bartok]

Thanks for the info Paul. Sounds good