CinePrint16 V2 User Guide Created by Tom Bolles tombolles.net rev_050822_Q Introduction CinePrint16 is a PowerGrade for Davinci Resolve that mimics the aesthetic qualities of analog film. The PowerGrade format makes CinePrint16 a versatile, customizable, and camera agnostic tool for cinematic look creation. It is important to note that CinePrint16 is not a technical transform or a one-to-one recreation of any existing film stock. Rather, it is a look creation tool that was developed to taste with the goal of being both filmic and customizable so that users have the ability to create their own unique film emulations. In summary, the CinePrint16 node tree is a great resource for colorists looking to design and explore custom celluloid film looks. 2 Installation The download is a compressed .zip file containing the User Guide .pdf, the .drx PowerGrades, the thumbnail images, and the film border .PNG files. The download includes the original CinePrint16 and the new and improved CinePrint16 V2. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Open the .zip file Move the files to wherever you want them stored. Open Davinci Resolve and go to the Color page In the Gallery tab select the sidebar icon below to show the Still Albums sidebar. Select the PowerGrade 1 stills album. Right click in the gallery window background and select Import. Navigate to where you stored the .dpx and .drx files and import them. a. If the files are greyed out, click the options button at the bottom of the import window, select .dpx or .drx from the list, and try again. Once imported, the PowerGrade can be applied to the selected shot by middle mouse button clicking on the thumbnail, or right click -> Apply Grade. 3 Node Tree Overview The CinePrint16 node tree can be conceptually divided into three sections: - The top section is for footage preparation and correction. The footage is denoised, standardized into Arri LogC, white balanced, and exposure corrected. - The middle section is empty space allocated for the user to do corrections and creative grading prior to the footage being input into the film emulation. - The bottom section is where the footage is finally brought into a celluloid film look. Texture, subtractive color, Lab adjustments, highlight rolloff and print options are all implemented here. The order of operations within the pipeline is important, as changing what adjustments are made upstream or downstream of others affects the final look; however, while this guide contains suggestions for working within this pipeline, it is useful to remember that there are no hard rules in color grading. Ultimately, you can do whatever you want with the grade and the only thing that matters is that you’re happy with the look and it fits the needs of your project. Customization: Visual characteristics are organized into compound nodes and can be enabled and disabled with Command + D (Mac) or Control + D (Windows). The contents inside each compound node can be accessed with Right-Click -> Show Compound Node. 4 Node Tree Overview (cont.) Node Color Legend: Specific nodes are colored for organizational and technical purposes. GREEN Highlights the Color Space Transform node as a reminder to adjust this when first applying the PowerGrade ORANGE Indicates nodes that are recommended to be used as Shared Nodes. For more info, see the Working with Shared Nodes page in the Workflow section. PINK Indicates output nodes. Directly prior to the output nodes, the image has approximated Cineon film log and Rec. 709 color space. The output nodes prepare the log footage for viewing Only one output node should be enabled at a time. 5 Node info 6 Footage from It’s Complicated // Dir. Emma Bartels, DP & Colorist Tom Bolles Denoise Denoising is applied first so that all downstream adjustments are working with clean footage. Different cameras have different noise patterns, so settings may differ and denoising should ultimately be set by eye. - Spatial Threshold Set Mode to Enhanced Unlink Luma and Chroma Leave Luma at 0 Increase Chroma until color noise disappears. Be aware that very high values begin to blend colors and detailed color fidelity is lost. It’s important to note that real film grain has color noise (noise patterns within each layer/dye) so having subtle color noise can sometimes be desirable. Spatial chroma denoising is enough for most footage. However, for some low light scenes you may need temporal noise reduction: - Temporal NR Set to 5 frames so the denoising has the most temporal data to work with. Temporal Threshold Set Luma and Chroma in the 8 - 12 range. PLAYBACK PERFORMANCE: Denoising (especially temporal denoising) is the most processing intensive node in the powergrade. If you need smoother playback, temporarily setting temporal NR back to 0, or disabling the entire denoise node will help. 7 Weave Gate weave is implemented using Resolve’s Camera Shake OFX. The scale is set to a miniscule value so that the image has the slightest jitter on the pixel level, mimicking the movement of the negative through the film gate. - - Motion Scale: 0.020 Speed Scale: 2.000 Motion Blur: 0.000 Shake Levels Pan Amplitude: 0.050 Tilt Amplitude: 0.200 Rotation Amplitude: 0.100 PTR Speed: 2.000 Zoom Amplitude: 0.000 Zoom Speed:0.000 Blanking Handling Zoom to Crop: 0.020 Gate weave is applied prior to the optional Film Border matte so that it only shakes the footage and not the border itself. 8 Film Border The Border node is a matte that applies a rough border around the edges of the image, mimicking an overscan of a film negative. The Border node is applied prior to halation so when halation is later applied, it bleeds over the border realistically. To use the Border node, first import the CinePrint16 Matte .png files. In the Media tab, right click on the .png and select “Add to Media Pool as a Matte.” Then enable the Border node, right click, go to “Add Matte” → “Timeline Mattes” → and select the appropriate matte for your project. A new Ext. Matte node will appear. Delete the old Ext. Matte node and replace it with the new one by connecting the green output of the new Ext. Matte node to the green input of the Border node. 9 Film Border (cont.) If your project is in a different aspect ratio than the default border sizes, you can change the X or Y scaling of the border so that it fits. To make adjustments to the border, go to the Sizing tab and the Node Sizing subtab. In this tab you can adjust the scaling and positioning of the border. If your project’s aspect ratio is different than the border’s ratio, use the Width and Height sliders to adjust the Border to your desired ratio. Make sure the Border node is selected when making adjustments in the Node Sizing tab. Otherwise it will not work, or node sizing changes will be applied to the wrong node. If your project has footage in different aspect ratios and you need to scale footage to fit, use the Output Sizing tab to the left of Node Sizing. ADJUST BORDER COLOR / EXPOSURE To change the color of the border, add a serial node directly after it (option + S) and connect blue key output of the border node to the blue key input of the new node in order to pass through only the keyed border. Make grading adjustments in this node. 10 CST Using the Color Space Transform (CST) OFX, footage is transformed from its original gamma and color space to Arri LogC and Alexa Wide Gamut. This is the first node that should be adjusted after applying the PowerGrade. The CST is set to Arri by default, which may look decent for some cameras, but it is always better to select the correct inputs for your camera to ensure accurate color space conversion. - - Set the appropriate input color space and gamma for your footage. Output Color Space and Gamma should be ARRI Tone Mapping Method: DaVinci Custom max input and output disabled Adaptation: 9 Gamut Mapping Method: none Use White Point Adaptation: enabled If using RAW footage, make sure the color space and gamma in the RAW tab matches the input color space and gamma in the CST. In some cases when working with RAW footage, some specular highlights may be clipping even after tone mapping, in which case you can bring them down with the highlight slider in the RAW tab. GamutLim The Gamut Limiter node takes an input gamut and limits it to a smaller output gamut. Enabling this node can be useful for fixing out-of-gamut artifacting or clipping from high saturation sources like neon lights or car tail lights. 11 Cam WB The Cam WB node uses the Chromatic Adaptation OFX for white balancing. Perceptually, white balancing with Chromatic Adaptation instead of the Offset wheel results in a more natural looking image, especially during heavy corrections and in images with lots of shadows. While Offset only makes simple linear changes to the RGB channels, the Chromatic Adaptation node accounts for the current color space and gamma, and converts to LMS color space (which models the cone response of the human eye) to make photometrically accurate white balance adjustments. This is the same color science and math used in the new HDR wheels in Resolve 17, which are also color space aware, but the Chromatic Adaptation OFX has slightly more detailed controls. - Method: CAT02 Source and Target Illuminant Type set to Color Temperature Make Kelvin and Tint adjustments under Source Illuminant first. If these are not enough, then incorporate Target Illuminant adjustments as well. Color Space and Gamma should be ARRI Alexa and ARRI LogC This is “Cam” white balance because it occurs prior to the film emulation section. “Grade” white balance happens after film emulation, and can be done with the Offset wheel as a more creative adjustment. Cam EXP Adjust general exposure using the Offset wheel. This is “Cam” exposure because it occurs prior to the film emulation section. “Grade” exposure happens after film emulation. You will notice that adjusting “Cam” exposure has a completely different result and feel compared to adjusting “Grade” exposure. 12 Halation Halation is added in linear space so it accurately responds according to the original light intensity levels of the scene. After converting from LogC to Linear, a monochromatic warm-tinted key of the specular highlights is blurred, and a sharp version of that same key is subtracted from the blurred version with a Layer Mixer set to Subtract, leaving just the blurred outline. This image is then gamut limited to avoid clipping. The blur and subtract edge detection process is repeated with a non-tinted white version, added to the tinted version, then this final highlight key is added over the base image with another layer mixer set to Add. The final composite image is then converted back to LogC. - - - The main nodes you may want to customize are labeled in pink. Adjust color using the Gain color wheel in the Gain Tint node. Adjust threshold using the curve in the Threshold nodes. The top Threshold node controls the tinted halation, and the bottom Threshold node controls the non-tinted white glow, which can help change saturation. Adjust halation size in the Blur tab on the +Blur nodes Tinted blur radius default: 0.65 Non-tinted blur radius default: 0.70 Having the non-tinted radius slightly higher than the tinted radius can help smooth the halation The -Blur nodes should have a Blur radius of zero. Make sure the chain icon is enabled so the RGB channels are ganged together when adjusting Blur radius. Adjust overall opacity by selecting the Halation compound node and changing Gain in the Keying tab. 13 Halation (cont.) The older version of halation is also available in a compound node labeled Old ver. - - - Adjust halation color and threshold using the RGB curves on the +Blur node The white luma curve affects the saturation of the halation. The RGB curves affect hue. To avoid undesired tinting: once color curve adjustments are made to the +Blur node, simply copy and paste it over the -NoBlur node, then change the Blur radius to zero. Adjust halation size under the Blur tab. Blur radius should be adjusted in the +Blur node. The -NoBlur node should have a Blur radius of zero. Make sure the chain icon is enabled so the RGB channels are ganged together when adjusting Blur radius. Adjust opacity by selecting the Halation compound node and changing Gain in the Keying tab. Overall Halation Note: If your footage aspect ratio is different from your timeline aspect ratio, halation will bleed over onto the black bars. When using the film border matte, this may be a desirable effect, but if you need a cleaner look, you can avoid this by drawing a rectangular power window around your footage on the Halation compound node. Old version node tree: 14 Pre Con Adjusts image contrast prior to film emulation. Has a different effect compared to post contrast since it occurs upstream from the film emulation, which has a lot of adjustments to saturation that depend on luminance (e.g. subtractive color). Making Pre Con a low value is great for getting flatter film looks with lots of shadow detail. Use the Pivot setting to adjust the midpoint of the contrast S-curve. Raising the pivot can help open up your shadows if they are too crushed. Sat Saturation is increased to prepare for film emulation, grading, and making keying easier with qualifiers. 15 Grading Space This empty space is for the user to add nodes. Any primary (wheels/curves) and secondary (qualifiers/masks) adjustments that you want to happen in “camera space” prior to film emulation should be done here. Since saturation has been increase upstream, there is a lot more color information to work with and qualifiers should work cleanly at this point. 16 Blur and Grain The resolution of the footage is adjusted using a Gaussian blur as an optical low pass filter, then grain is added on top. Adding grain while the footage is in log mimics a log film scan and allows the grain to be affected by all further adjustments in the pipeline. Grain being dynamically affected by downstream adjustments makes it feel more realistic and embedded as opposed to overlayed. Blur and grain should be adjusted depending on both the footage resolution and the desired output format look (e.g. 8mm, 16mm, 35mm, 70mm). - - Gaussian Blur Blur value usually somewhere between 0.100 and 0.200 Border type set to replicate to avoid black borders Grain Composite type: Overlay Opacity: 0.479 Increase or decrease depending on how grainy of a look you want Texture: 0.704 This can be adjusted slightly, but be aware that much higher and lower numbers tend to create noticeable patterns. Grain Size: 0.558 - if you’re going for an 8mm look you could increase this Grain Aspect Ratio: 1 Grain Strength: 0.454 Behaves similar to opacity, so can be used in addition to opacity Offset: 0.492 Symmetry: 0.5 Softness: 0.205 Saturation: 0.428 Gives grain some slight color variance. In color film, grain is not monochromatic. It is present in all three dyed layers. If the color of your grain is looking strange, or is artifacting, try lowering this slider to desaturate your grain. 17 Dust The dust node adds dust to the image using Resolve’s Film Damage OFX. The included customized settings keep the dust minimal and realistic, but can be adjusted to taste. The dust algorithm tends to generate slightly more dust around the borders which can feel unbalanced, so a rectangular mask is added so dust is not applied to the edges of the frame. This mask needs to be readjusted depending on the aspect ratio of your footage. - Add Dirt Changing Dirt: enabled Dirt Density: 1 Dirt Size: 1 Dirt Blur: 0.245 Dirt Seed: 5 18 Den+Sub The Density + Subtractive node is a compound node that implements film-like density, saturation, and color using RGB matrix adjustments and curves. Subtractive color mixing is implemented using an HSL matrix. - - - - SAT curves Lowers saturation in highlights Compresses saturation range by desaturating high saturation colors SUB Emulates subtractive color mixing. Highly saturated colors become lower in luminance, giving them a deeper, richer appearance. Intensity can be adjusted with Key Output Gain in the Node Key panel. Inside, the Sub HSL node is set to HSL color space, so the Red, Green, and Blue channels instead behave as Hue, Saturation, and Luminance channels. In the RGB Mixer: Preserve Luminance is disabled Under Blue Output, the G Value is set to -0.65 This lowers luminance in relation to saturation Gain node: compensates for the decrease in luminance. Disabled by default. RGB tone Contrast, roll-off, and tints added with RGB curves RGB mix The RGB Mixer is used to enhance saturation in a more nuanced way, bringing out richer greens and more color variance in skin tones. Crv2 Contains Hue vs Hue and Hue vs Sat adjustments Hi Sat Fix Linear adjustment to Sat v Sat curve Skin1 and Skin2 Uses the Color Warper to correct for magenta areas in skin tones. 19 NS Matrix The neon suppression matrix is an optional matrix adjustment that can help fix out-of-gamut issues in highly saturated colors. This is typically used to remap the extra wide gamuts of some cameras, but it can also be used as a creative look adjustment. It pulls back saturated greens and shifts skin tones away from yellow to slightly more red. Neon Suppression is an ACES LMT (Look Modification Transform). Resolve displays the LUT icon on the node, but the referenced file is a actually a .xml not a .cube. The .xml script performs a matrix adjustment to ACES AP0 primaries, so it does not clip or clamp data in any way despite the LUT icon. The NS matrix works well in combination with the Vintage node (page 18), as it brings out more earthy tones. 20 LABmixH and LABmixL The Lab adjustment nodes implement matrix adjustments in CIELAB color space. Lab is a very useful color space, as it isolates luminance to its own channel, allowing color contrast to be manipulated without affecting luminance. - The L channel contains luminance The A channel contains the Blue vs Yellow Axis The B channel contains the Green vs Red Axis. Matrix adjustments are implemented using Resolve’s RGB Mixer. When set to Lab color, the Red, Green, and Blue channels of the RGB Mixer behave as the Luminance, A, and B channels of Lab. LABmixH Compresses and rotates Magenta/Blues and Yellow/Greens. Useful for correcting and desaturating excessive tints along these axes. It helps create less busy, more complimentary color palettes. Key Output Gain is set to 0.66 by default. - Inside: RGB Mixer, node set to Lab (CIE) color space Blue Output G value: 0.34 B value: 0.66 For a reasonably balanced image, these two values should add to approximately 1 Setting the G value to 1 and the B value to 0 results in a two-tone image. LABmixL Adjusts the CIELAB luminance channel in response to changes in the a and b channels. Luminance is affected without significantly affecting hue angle or saturation. - RGB Mixer, node set to Lab (CIE) color space Red Output G value: -0.39 B value: 0.39 For a reasonably balanced image, these two values should add to approximately 0 21 Lab Sat The Lab saturation node is a compound node that performs channel-specific color separation and saturation in CIELAB color space. First a gamut limiter helps prevent out-of-gamut artifacts. The footage is then split into L, A, and B channels. Contrast is increased on the A channel to increase Green vs Red separation, and on the B channel to increase Blue vs Yellow separation. Adjusting pivot changes the balance of colors and works well for emphasizing complementary palettes. The channels are then combined and converted back to Arri LogC. - - - A channel (G-R) node Contrast: 1.200 Pivot: 0.5 B channel (B-Y) node Contrast: 1.200 Pivot: 0.5 Adjust contrast to change the amount of color separation on that color axis. Adjust pivot to change the point of color separation on that color axis Note: Adjusting pivot in the Lab Sat node while under a print film output LUT is a great way to quickly achieve dramatic “warm vs cool” or “teal and orange” looks, and it does so in a very pleasing way. 22 Vintage The Vintage compound node imitates 1960’s era film stock through secondary adjustments to the greens, and RGB matrix adjustments to the red and green channels. Enabling the neon suppression and subtractive color nodes can further add to the look. - - GreenSat Desaturates the greens using the Color Warper Matrix RG Intensity can be adjusted with Key Output Gain RGB Mixer Preserve Luminance disabled Red Output: G Value: -0.44 B Value: 0.47 Magenta and blue are added to colors that use the Red channel (red, yellow, magenta) Green Output: R Value: -0.08 G Value: 1.06 Cyan and green are added to colors that use the Green channel (yellow, green, cyan) Offset Slight correction to remove magenta cast from image Desat Overall saturation is decreased Gain Slight gain increase to compensate for some of the other adjustments which have perceptual darkening effects 23 Highlights The Highlights compound node adds a shoulder to the tone curve for more nuanced highlight roll-off and adds a green tint to highlights. Grade WB/Pri/Sat/Exp, Post Con, HiSoft At this point in the pipeline, the image mimics a Cineon film log scan in Rec. 709 gamut, so grading can be done here similar to grading a film scan. Grade WB - White Balance with Offset node Grade Pri - Primary wheels Grade Sat - Saturation adjustment Grade Exp - Exposure adjustment Post Con - Contrast adjustment. Set to 1.3 by default. If you add a lot of contrast here, it can start to make the grain more intense, so you may have to go back and lower grain opacity. HiSoft - Adds more rolloff to upper highlights. Useful when Cineon output has clipping. 24 PrintFilm The PrintFilm node is an output option that converts from log to Rec. 709 using print film emulation LUTs. These recreate the color and density response of positive print film. The node tree contains the Kodak 2383 and Fujifilm 3513 LUTs at different white points. Only one should be enabled at a time. Kodak 2383 is the only print film that Kodak still produces. If you watch a movie in theaters today that is being projected on film, it is a 2383 print. 25 Cineon The Cineon node is an output option that uses a Color Space Transform to convert the image from Cineon log to Rec. 709. The final look mimics a scan of negative film that has been gamma corrected for viewing. Settings: - - Input Color Space: Rec. 709 Input Gamma: Cineon Film Log Output Color Space: Rec. 709 Output Gamma: Rec. 709 Tone Mapping: Davinci Max input and output disabled Adaptation: 9 Gamut Mapping: None Use White Point Adaptation enabled Slight gain is added afterwards to bring back some of the highlight presence that is lost in tone mapping. Increasing gain to achieve a higher IRE ceiling and use more upper dynamic range can help a lot with achieving punchier looks. 26 EndPoints Black and white point can be set with curves to add linear contrast and get a punchier look. Warmer Sets a warmer white point by lowering the gain of the blue and green channels. Sharp Subtle post sharpening is added to enhance grain. Radius is lowered to 0.48 in the blur tab 27 Workflow 28 Footage from It’s Complicated // Dir. Emma Bartels, DP & Colorist Tom Bolles Working with Groups Resolve’s Group functionality allows for a grade to be applied to many clips simultaneously. To make a new group, select the desired clips in the clip timeline, then right click and select “Add into New Group.” The Node Window will now have 4 tabs indicated by small white dots at the top of the window. Pre-Clip nodes Affect the whole Group. Applied first. Clip nodes Affect only the individual clip currently selected. Applied after Pre-Clip. Post-Clip nodes Affect the whole Group. Applied after Clip. Timeline nodes Affect the entire timeline. Applied after Post-Clip. 29 Working with Groups (cont.) When using CinePrint16 with Resolve’s Group functionality, the PowerGrade should be applied as follows: 1. Apply the powergrade to the Group Pre-Clip window. Then delete the bottom section of the grade, leaving only the top section. 2. Next, apply the powergrade to the Group Post-Clip window. Then delete the top section of the grade, leaving only the bottom section. 3. Now, any grading adjustments intended for the entire Group can be made at the group level, and adjustments intended for a single clip can be made in the Clip window. 30 Working with Shared Nodes A clip can only belong to a single Group, so for situations where you need an adjustment to apply to multiple Groups, Shared Nodes are very useful. All nodes labeled orange are recommended to be used as Shared Nodes. Unfortunately, shared nodes and their labeling do not save well in PowerGrades, so Shared Nodes must be implemented by the user. To convert the orange labeled nodes to Shared Nodes, simply right click and select “Save as Shared Node.” A blue Shared Node icon will then appear above the node, the node label will change, and a lock icon will appear, indicating that the node’s parameters cannot be changed without unlocking the node. To unlock a node and allow changes, right click and deselect “Lock Node.” To rename a node, right click and select “Node Label.” Setting a keybind (e.g. Tab) for Node Labeling is also very useful. You can set this in the menu under Keyboard Customization. USE CASE EXAMPLE: You’re grading a feature length film with many scenes. You have a Group for each scene, all with their own specific grades. The director decides they don’t want the textured grainy look you initially had, and instead wants a clean, sharp look. If your Blur and Grain nodes were not Shared Nodes, you would have to go through every single Group/Scene and disable them one by one. But if they are Shared Nodes, you can simply disable them in one Group and they will get disabled in all other Groups. 31 General Workflow After applying the PowerGrade: 1. Set the correct input gamma and gamut for your camera in the CST node 2. Adjust white balance with Chromatic Adaptation in the Cam WB node. 3. Adjust exposure with the Offset wheel in the Cam Exp node. 4. Adjust contrast in the Post Con node first, then Pre Con if necessary. 5. Adjust resolution + grain for the desired look. 6. Select Output Look (Cineon or print film) 7. If necessary, adjust halation threshold and blur radius. 8. Customize & grade! 32 Additional Tips and Tricks White Balance and Exposure If your end look is going through the Cineon node, it’s a good idea to check what your grade looks like in the Kodak 2383 print film node. 2383 has more exaggerated color and luminance contrast, so inaccuracies in your exposure and white balance will be more apparent under 2383. White balancing under 2383 and then going back to Cineon is a useful technique. The image will tend to have a slightly greener cast, but this tint difference is present within the two transforms and is how an uncorrected negative film scan would look without print film. If the subtle green is not desired then white balance can be further adjusted. Diffusion The same technique used in the Halation node can be used to mimic diffusion filters. Delete the -NoBlur node so nothing is being subtracted. Then in the +Blur node gang the curve endpoints together so there is no color cast. Adjust blur size in the Blur tab, and adjust opacity with the gain control in the Node Key tab. Dust Negative film scan dust is white because the negative is inverted, so dust blocking light in the scanner and creating dark pixels becomes white after inversion. In addition, you can have dust on the positive print, which would block light during projection and appear dark. To emulate this simply duplicate the Dust node and in the new node change the dust color to a dark grey. Make sure to change the seed value as well so the dark dust is not the same pattern applied directly on the bright dust. 33 Video Overviews https://www.youtube.com/c/TomBolles/videos 34 Happy Grading! Tom Bolles tombolles.net 35 Footage from Careful With That Axe Eugene // Dir. Joseph Sperber, DP Adam Linssen, Colorist Tom Bolles
