RCX "Film Look" in Resolve

[Ryan Chernin]

RCX's "Film Look" is such a good looking emulation. I haven't found anything that comes close with just one click. Resolve film grain doesn't look as good to my eye, and Dehancer is a bit heavy-handed.

I wish we could get the RCX Film Look as a plugin for Davinci, that way you wouldn't have to bake it in before bringing the footage into your NLE.

In the meantime, does anybody know of a better alternative?

 

[rand thompson]

Ryan,

I'm unfamiliar with REDCINE-X' "FILM LOOK", where is that located?

 

[M Harvey]

I believe he's referring to the film grain sliders found in Redcine-X Pro under Post: Image: Effects. That category of effects is called "Film Look."

 

[rand thompson]

I believe he's referring to the film grain sliders found in Redcine-X Pro under Post: Image: Effects. That category of effects is called "Film Look."

Thanks Matt! I never hardly ever use those so when he said Film Look I was looking for some type of Fuji, Kodak or Agfa film print emulation.

 

[Ryan Chernin]

Yeah, sorry, I should have been a little more clear. In hindsight, what I’m really talking about is the “one click” nature of it with the various accurate presets. I know Resolve has the same thing, but to my eye the grain just didn’t look or feel as natural. Maybe it’s a placebo effect.

 

[Phil Holland]

There's only one real grain And there are several semi-processing intensive ways of creating a deeper match if that's the goal.

 

[Ryan Chernin]

There's only one real grain And there are several semi-processing intensive ways of creating a deeper match if that's the goal.

Copy! Which are some of your favorites? Is Dehancer a decent go-to?

 

[Phil Holland]

Copy! Which are some of your favorites? Is Dehancer a decent go-to?

The ones I made that we've been using on features for 25 years.

 

[Ryan Chernin]

The ones I made that we've been using on features for 25 years.

Ahhh I see, some PHFX Magic.
Should have guessed you wouldn’t be using off the shelf plugins haha

 

[Marc Wielage]

I'm a big fan of Filmbox's OFX film emulation plug-in, and Dehancer is also quite good.

Here's a list of Film Emulation Resolve PowerGrades and plug-ins:

https://pixeltoolspost.com/
https://www.dehancer.com/
https://videovillage.co/filmbox/
https://www.filmconvert.com/nitrate
https://juanmelara.com.au/products/f...film-emulation
https://colourlab.ai/look-designer/
https://ravengrade.com
https://www.demystify-color.com/shop
https://www.reverator.com/
https://www.spectrafilm.co/

These are frequently discussed on LiftGammaGain.com and the various Resolve color groups on the net. I don't think any of them exactly look like what film really is (print or negative), but they're kind of in the ballpark of an idealized version of a film look. It's fair to say it's a controversial area on which there's a lot of different opinions.

BTW, Fotokem has a service where they'll take your finished digital file, record it out to film negative, strike a print, and then scan the print, so you actually have an image literally from film:

https://shiftai.fotokem.com/#/

 

[Phil Holland]

I've been asked to release mine a few times, I still provide the service to productions, but perhaps it's time to just bag them up and offer them. I've got a bit over 200 feature films thus far that have used them across a few studios. I guess that's a good marketing angle.

 

[rand thompson]

I use and love COLOURLAB.ai's Look Designer 2.4.2 and RAVENGRADE V1.5. I would also add FYLM.ai and PAUL DORE's FILMGRADE OFX to Marc's list above.

Here's some sample footage from one of Waqas Qazi videos of before and afters with FYLM.ai in Resolve in an ACEScct project.

FYLM.ai
fylm.ai - AI Powered Colour Grading and Collaboration in Cloud

IDT's

ODT's

LUT/LMT OUTPUT

 

[rand thompson]

RAVENGRADE V1.5

Ravengrade

I Had to use an excessive amount of Saturation in the sample image below due to it's almost log/ very low saturated colors. I trust everyone knows not to use that uh saturation in general

 

[rand thompson]

LOOK DESIGNER
Look Designer - Colourlab.ai

 

[rand thompson]

PAUL DORE'S -FILMGRADE
baldavenger (Paul Dore) · GitHub

 

[rand thompson]

PRINTER LIGHTS

Finally, you can simply achieve a Film Look with your PRINTER LIGHTS, a few corrections and a modified luminance curve.

 

[Les Hillis]

I've been asked to release mine a few times, I still provide the service to productions, but perhaps it's time to just bag them up and offer them. I've got a bit over 200 feature films thus far that have used them across a few studios. I guess that's a good marketing angle.

I'd say there's a market for them.

Can you say which stocks you've got scanned?

Based on what I've seen others selling, I'd suggest marketing them based on the 'authenticity' and accuracy of what they actually are.

On a similar note, what I haven't seen yet are overlays based on the noise of digital sensors. I think it'd be interesting for example to shoot clean on one sensor and add the noise type of another. Or shoot clean on one sensor and add noise from the same sensor, without having to deal with changing the resolution to zoom in on and enhance the noise or introducing colour shifts if actually underexposing to get the noise in-camera.

 

[Phil Holland]

I'd say there's a market for them.

Can you say which stocks you've got scanned?

Based on what I've seen others selling, I'd suggest marketing them based on the 'authenticity' and accuracy of what they actually are.

On a similar note, what I haven't seen yet are overlays based on the noise of digital sensors. I think it'd be interesting for example to shoot clean on one sensor and add the noise type of another. Or shoot clean on one sensor and add noise from the same sensor, without having to deal with changing the resolution to zoom in on and enhance the noise or introducing colour shifts if actually underexposing to get the noise in-camera.

From about 99 onwards I have made profiles for
- All Kodak Vision Camera Films
- All Kodak Vision2 Camera Films
- All Kodak Vision3 Camera Films
- Kodak Double-X
- Kodak Tri-X
- A few older stocks, that nobody would use in modern times
- 2 unreleased Kodak Stocks
- Most Fujifilm Eterna Camera Films
- All Kodak Intermediate Films (likely too fine to even be meaningful)
- All Fujinon Intermedia Films (same as above)

Oddly haven't been asked ever to do Ektachrome. Hasn't been used on anything I've worked on, it's also fairly low grain.

I very literally scanned the film myself, profiled it, generated it, etc.

Digital Noise, yep, I've done a bunch of that. Every modern camera that's used on major film productions. A little bit of minutiae tied to this depending on a production's needs, moderately why I've been offering that more as as service rather than releasing anything.

 

[rand thompson]

PAUL DORE's ACES 1.3 OFX-(Node based ACEScct Workflow)

 

[Les Hillis]

From about 99 onwards I have made profiles for
- All Kodak Vision Camera Films
- All Kodak Vision2 Camera Films
- All Kodak Vision3 Camera Films
- Kodak Double-X
- Kodak Tri-X
- A few older stocks, that nobody would use in modern times
- 2 unreleased Kodak Stocks
- Most Fujifilm Eterna Camera Films
- All Kodak Intermediate Films (likely too fine to even be meaningful)
- All Fujinon Intermedia Films (same as above)

Oddly haven't been asked ever to do Ektachrome. Hasn't been used on anything I've worked on, it's also fairly low grain.

I very literally scanned the film myself, profiled it, generated it, etc.

Digital Noise, yep, I've done a bunch of that. Every modern camera that's used on major film productions. A little bit of minutiae tied to this depending on a production's needs, moderately why I've been offering that more as as service rather than releasing anything.

Far out, that's a freaking treasure-trove of noise!

Curious if any of the 'older stocks that nobody would use' are the Kodak EXR ones? I liked the grain they had, even if the T-Grain/Vision emulsions were 'better'.

I think if you were to offer some genuine high quality Kodak and Fuji 'grain' you'd find some buyers.

These are the latest ones I've looked at - https://www.filmcomposite.com/film-products

I've also played around with these - https://www.rgrain.com/complete-bundle

They're both pretty good imo, but having something else, possibly of higher quality and from closer to the source as it were, would be good.