I decided to repost this after attempting to put this video up on Vimeo and realizing that it didn't do it justice cuz I guess after conversion the resolution was super ropey. I am using the free version of JW PLAYER using the new flash encoder which uses H264 (.f4v instead .flv) and it looks friggin' dope. If you can't see it, it could be cuz you need to update to flash 10. The post went as follows:

I finally decided to give it a go in Color. It took a little while to get the hang of things but the amount of control you have is amazing, and to be honest the render is much higher quality then rendering graded material in FCP. I guess I always knew this but it was nice to find myself in a situation that finally forced me to try something new.

I still have to hit this again with a few more grades but I am happy the way it is heading. More tomorrow.

What you see below is a screen cap of the entire layout, and then a video of some of the grading. I had to speed it up so you could see the process but I know it runs a bit long! Don't worry no one is obligated to watch the whole thing! (Aprox. running time 4:20)

time-lapse color grading in color

Hi all. I just wanted to get a quick post in before bed time rolls around. Things are looking good with Lotaluv, the edit is pretty much locked down. I'd say about 2/3 of the edit is color graded. That god forsaken rotoscope hell is over as well. It's amazing how 5 days of work flies by in a matter of seconds. In all honesty I don't think anyone will even pick up on the pain in the ass process that I went through for that ending, which is a good sign :) It means I did it right!!

Ok so more to come soon I hope, I am planning on hitting this final color grade towards of the end of this week and if all goes well there will be a completed piece ready to watch by Monday of next week!

I had some time to hit the luva again this morning for about 6 hours. I almost go through the frying pan chick. Have spent just on her alone, about 8 hours already plus my 6 today and another 4 or 5 tomorrow. Hoping to have her and her lovely spatula wrapped by then. I have included a little movie for your viewing pleasure. This is about 35 minutes (a fraction of the real time) worth of assorted rotoscoping of just one character from a group of 5. It has been sped up 1972% into a flurry of rotoscopin'lovin'. I only wish I could roto that fast in real life.

I just wanted to post this quick thing I have been working on. I know it's not RED related but I think its a cool process to see. I actually quite enjoy doing it as it's a subtle of adding elements to existing scenes. This is one of two projects I am currently working on for Elissa Rosati.  This particular piece is called "Half A Girl".  What you see in the frames below is my attempt to insert some artwork onto a moving wall from an existing shot. The shot was not originally shot with this in mind and if it was, I would have insisted on have some sort of tracking marks or dots on the wall, but in this instance, I had to wing it.

The first thing I did was to try and find a point of high contrast that I could attach a motion tracker to so I could get a the basic up, down, left and right movements from the onset camera. Once I accomplished this, I then assigned that spatial X & Y info to my layer containing the artwork to be inserted. When that was done, I made my artwork layer a 3d layer and inserted a camera into the scene. The only purpose of the camera was that I could assign a depth of field and lighting to the artwork which would allow for a more convincing insertion. I didn't have the camera lens info nor measurements on its placement and focal points so I had to eye it. The second to last frame you can see the artwork lined up and place ontop of where it is supposed to go. The very last frame shows the final composite with lighting and shading applied. This is a simplified version of how one might do this sort of thing, it is in no way the perfect or ideal method, to see perfect execution one need only watch the opening of each episode of heroes. They obviously have a better set up than me :P

Ok I need to get back to work and finish this so I can get back to Maitreya, which btw, is so close to being finished I can taste it!!!

This is a snap shot representing about 1.5 seconds of rotoscoping fun. I am not even close to finishing and what you see took me about 7 hours of work. When I grow up I want to be a rotoscoper. Now I have to take a break from this fun stuff to go to work. Will be back at it tonight when I get home. Really I will be running my ass off back tonight cuz it breaks my heart to be torn away from so much fun. It should be illegal.

Had a day to chip away at the enormous color correcting task at hand. Started playing around with some of the greenscreen shots and came up with something that seems a bit funky. It's growing on me, the big trick I still need to figure out is how to work this into the bigger picture and have it work with the entire edit instead of sticking out like a bunch of red people on a black and white background.