In this video, I'm going to show you the
only node structure you'll ever need. Okay, so we have this clip of a guy. It's going
to go for a swim. I just grabbed this off Artgrid, and I'm going to show you the only node structure
you will ever need. So just to show you, my color management is DaVinci. It's a Rec. 709
2.4. This output color space is there. If it's for broadcast, it all depends on where your
deliverable is. But let's say you are grading something for broadcast. Your output would be
2.4. I always work in the timeline color space, DaVinci Wide Gamut. First step, we're going to
add a color space transform. This footage is red. Where are you? There you go. Red and red.
I'm going to change it into DaVinci Wide Gamut. DaVinci Intermediate. So red is going in.
It converts it to DaVinci. Second step, create another CST. We're going to go DaVinci.
DaVinci. We want it to be Rec. 709. And then Gamma 2.4, because that's the deliverable. This
deliverable can change. This is just the standard if it's for broadcast. This CST, so it's red
DaVinci. We don't want it to change any of the tone mapping. So we say none. This tone mapping
you can play around, but I like DaVinci because it gives a good roll-off. The highs and the lows.
CST, CST. All our grading is going to happen here. When it is DaVinci Wide Gamut, this is the most
data. This is where the magic is going to happen. A normal project would look like this. You add the
CSTs. This is Rec. 709. This is actually how it was shot on the day. Now we add 1. I'm just going
to use my Stream Deck to add serials here. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3, 4. Then 1. And I'm going to add
parallels. 1, 2, 3. You can add parallel by right-clicking and just say add parallel. I'm
just using my Stream Deck. I'm going to label all of these. This one is Exposure. This one is
Balance. Contrast. Saturation. These four are your primaries. These are your secondaries. This
node structure is a basic node structure. I mean, you can add as many as you want, but this is a
very good spot to start from. Now your secondaries could be... I don't want to reset that. I want
to do Label. And I want to go Tim. Maybe this guy is Texture Pop for Skin. Your secondaries could
be anything you feel like the shot needs. How I start every project. This is the basis I work off.
After the CST, this is where we work on the look. So before we do anything here, you got to get the
look dialed in and then you start adjusting clip by clip. I'm going to stay inside of DaVinci for
this. You'll find a lot of plugins, the answer, phone box, anything like that. A lot of people
use to kind of create their look. You can also use the Curves, which I'll show you in a second.
Keep this very simple. And I'm going to go to the LUTs in DaVinci. The one that's super popular.
A lot of people use is Rec.709/CODAC_2383. Put that in there. And your footage looks terrible
because this LUT, it doesn't want 709 2.4. You have to do an extra step in here. We'll close
that. Close that guy. You got to be smaller, man. There you go. Going to add an extra node
and it's going to be another CST. Remember, this guy turns DaVinci in Rec.709 2.4. This
would be 709. It's coming from 709 2.4. We want to change it to 709. Sinyon film lock.
Look at that. I'm going to turn it on and off. That's 709. This is with the film lock. 709
film lock. Let's say we kind of like that. Maybe let's say we want to decrease the effect of
this film lock. We just want a bit of it, but not the entire thing. A normal way to do that would
be to go to the key and then reduce the gain. But you'll see a problem with this. If we reduce the
gain, reduce the effect of this node, it's going back to Sinyon film lock, which we don't want. If
you say zero, the image looks bad. It's because it's going back to Sinyon film lock. What we can
do here is if we reset this, we take these two. We create a compound node. We'll just turn
that on and off. This is with the film lock. Let me just label it. It's Kodak 2383. Now if
we reduce the gain, it's actually going back to 2.4. That's exactly what we want. If you
ever use this technique with the film locks, I definitely put it in a compound node and it
gives you more flexibility. So I'm going to park this around here. Turn on and off, on and
off, and I like the look. I like the feeling. I like the look. Now I go into the primaries on
a clip by clip basis. I'm looking at my parade. HDR. So exposure. Let's go into the HDR
tool. Let's put it here. Nice and bright. Nothing's clipping. It's a nice roll-off.
That roll-off is actually because of this, which is nice. Next one is balance. A lot of
people have a problem understanding what balance is. It just means we want this to kind of be in
the middle. And how we do that is look at the color wheels. You go to offset. I'm going to use
my panel and you'll see me move that there. I'm going to go. I'm going to make it a bit cooler
on and off. So this is warmer. I'm going to go a bit cooler. That's the look that I want.
Contrast. There's a few ways of doing contrast. It's totally up to you. I really like the offset
gain method where you just use offset and gain. So I'm pushing down with the offset now.
I'm pulling up with the gain on and off, on and off. Nice and blue and contrasty. And then
lastly, I go saturation. Different ways of doing saturation. It's up to you. I like the HDR one. It
gives me a bit more. It's a bit more refined. It's not as strong. And I'm going to leave it there.
So these are the primaries. On and off. Off, on. Off and on. Now, if I want to change anything
else, I can do temperature, texture. I mean, you can do whatever you really want. But this is the
structure. The only structure you'll need for any type of project. As I said, this is a good base.
If you want to add on new parallels, more nodes, it's up to you. The main thing to know is that
in this type of color management, where you have a CST at the start and at the end, it gives you
a lot of control over the input and the output and where you are grading. And you always want
to grade the majority of the time in the middle where the eventually wide gamut. This is the
information you're dealing with here. This is one way of doing it. Let's reset all of this. We're
going to start over and still use the structure. But I'm not going to use a film look. I am going
to delete that. And now we are back at Rec. 709, how the shot was originally shot on the day. It
was shot like this. And now what I'm going to do is increase the exposure. I feel like it
was shot pretty dark. It needs to be here. Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to
use this node as a look. And instead of using a film look or a plugin or anything
like that, I'm going to use the curves. So this is also another way of doing it. I'm
going to go on red. I'm going to add default anchors. I usually like adding subtle color
in the low end and the high end. I don't like adding color in the mids because that's where the
skin sits and it starts looking strange. That's a personal preference for me. Let me play
around with this a bit. Let's go down here. Go to the greens, add anchors. That looks bad. Let's go to the blue, add anchors.
And now this is totally up to you. Completely up to you what you like and what
your preference is. If I turn this on and off. Very subtle. Let's make it a bit
more exaggerated so you can see. Maybe do it like this. So you can definitely see
here in the highlights. Well, that's where the green and blue is. You'll see here. And now that's
off and that's on. So this is this look great. No, it's pretty bad. But it gives you an idea. This
is where you create that look and that feel. It doesn't have to be exactly what you want in the
shot because we're going to still do primaries here and secondaries. But this is like the DNA
that's going to be on your entire project. Once you are happy with this guy, we do exactly the
same. We go back like we did at the exposure. I don't want to put it there. Balance. Go to the
vectorscope. I'm going to play with the offset and the color wheels there. Play with contrast, play
with saturation until I'm happy. Let's go this balance. Maybe his skin looks a bit rough here.
So I'm going to balance for this skin. I want him to look like the Incredible Hulk. There we go.
Let's say I'm happy with that. That's going to be my hero shot. That's how I graded it. That's
how I created the look and then I'm going to go through all the clips. Once you understand
this process of the CST-CST inside of it, that's where you do most of the heavy
lifting and then you create the look after this conversion. You'll understand
completely. It's kind of like you have to work backwards in a way. So you
do the CST-CST, then you create the look feeling. Then you go back to the
primaries with the exposure, balance, contrast, saturation, primary adjustments,
secondary adjustments, and then you're on your way. If you understand this concept, you
can use it for every single project that you have.
