Setting Up Your Workspace

[00:00:02] Before we get creative, let's first

[00:00:03] change a couple project settings. For

[00:00:06] this tutorial, we will be compositing in

[00:00:07] linear ASUS CG color. We'll switch to

[00:00:10] OCIO color management and use the latest

[00:00:12] configuration file. Let's make sure that

[00:00:14] the working color space is set to scene

[00:00:16] linear ASUS CG. Note that the default

[00:00:18] display color space is set to sRGB. Once

[00:00:21] we're in our comp, the display color

[00:00:23] space adjustment will help us easily

[00:00:25] view our linear ASUS CG work on our sRGB

[00:00:28] monitor and can easily be toggled on and

[00:00:30] off. Once we set up our show's specific

[00:00:33] color using adjustment layers in the

[00:00:35] comp, we'll be able to set the display

[00:00:38] correction to none and view our comp

[00:00:40] with the final show color instead. This

[00:00:42] will include shot specific creative

[00:00:44] color from a CDL and also the official

[00:00:47] lot for the show. For this tutorial, we

[00:00:49] will be working at 24 frames pers. So,

[00:00:51] it might be a good idea to change your

[00:00:53] After Effects preferences to interpret

[00:00:55] footage at 24 frames per second when

[00:00:57] imported. Let's go ahead and import the

[00:01:00] media for the tutorial. Don't forget to

[00:01:02] import all of the passes of the CG

[00:01:04] element.

[00:01:08] We'll make sure that we interpret

[00:01:09] footage with each element, specifying

[00:01:11] the color space that each footage or

[00:01:13] graphic is in. After Effects will

[00:01:15] automatically convert the media from

[00:01:16] that color space into linear ASUS CG,

[00:01:19] which is our working color space for

[00:01:20] this tutorial. It's important to find

[00:01:22] out from the production team or whoever

[00:01:24] generated the plates or elements what

[00:01:25] color space they're in. In our scenario,

[00:01:27] the plates from production are all in

[00:01:29] ASUS 2065 and the CG and graphics

[00:01:31] elements are already in ASUS CG. I'm

[00:01:34] going to quickly create a folder

[00:01:36] structure that I like to use to keep

[00:01:37] everything organized while I work.

[00:01:51] After making a new pre-MP using our

[00:01:53] master plate, we can double check that

[00:01:54] our comp frame numbers are matching the

[00:01:56] frame numbering of the plate. In the

[00:01:59] next step, we'll quickly create an

[00:02:00] adjustment layer that applies the

[00:02:02] official show color using a shot

[00:02:03] specific CDL and a show L provided by

[00:02:06] production.

[00:02:10] We'll import the QuickTime reference

[00:02:11] clip sent to us by editorial and we can

[00:02:14] use that to make sure that the color

[00:02:15] we're applying matches perfectly.

[00:02:22] For this step, we'll need to set the

[00:02:24] display color correction to none. The

[00:02:26] color will be controlled using our own

[00:02:27] adjustment layer. We'll be applying

[00:02:30] several OCIO effects to complete the

[00:02:32] conversion from ACCG into the final show

[00:02:34] color. First, we have a conversion from

[00:02:37] our working space of ASUS CG to ASUS

[00:02:40] 2065, the same color space the plate

[00:02:42] came in. Second, we'll do a conversion

[00:02:45] from ASUS 2065 into a log format that

[00:02:48] was specified by production. In our

[00:02:51] case, air log C4.

[00:02:53] From this color space, we'll be able to

[00:02:55] then safely apply the shot CDL, which

[00:02:58] was provided by production and has some

[00:03:00] creative color baked into it. And then

[00:03:02] finally the show let itself which

[00:03:04] converts the log looking image into a

[00:03:06] final colored work of art. With the show

[00:03:09] let turned on it's easier to see what

[00:03:10] the CDL is doing. And now if we toggle

[00:03:13] on and off the edit reference that we

[00:03:15] brought in to compare. If we did it

[00:03:17] right the color should look the same.