Re: [Avid-L2] Aces and other color managed workflow Production Side to Post?

This is what I know, which isn't expert level but might be helpful.

First - it's ACES, not Aces. ACES stands for Academy Color Encoding System, which is comprised of a colorspace (larger than even Rec2020, and closer to the perceptual limit of the human eye) and a system to transform various inputs to that colorspace and transform out of that colorspace to the real world (displays, projection, etc.).

No cameras can "shoot in ACES". So whoever said that isn't quite understanding what ACES is or how cameras work. But that's not far off, and pretty much useful to you, since you would safely assume when someone says this, they really mean we "shot in RAW" or "LOG" or "camera sensor native". You know that it was shot in Panasonic V-Log. And you got some on-set CDLs that might help in the Input Transform to get that media into the ACES colorspace.

Going into the world of wider gamut than 709, LUTs are way less useful than before. Rather, you should be using the Color Management System of whatever software you use (Resolve) to handle the transforms. The reason is (allow me to quote the Academy) "ACES transforms are capable of handling colors that fall outside the expected color spaces. They generally provide a smoother and more accurate translation to the target colors." So abandon ye LUTs, which you seem to allude to knowing. Or just know that if you use them in a creative way, you are subsequently limiting the gamut.

I like the idea of ACES but it's a large commitment of a post pipeline. As you probably have seen, Netflix's delivery spec requires graded and ungraded masters, and working the ACES workflow in Resolve can make that easier to handle come delivery time.

On Thu, Mar 10, 2022 at 4:00 PM John Moore <bigfish@pacbell.net> wrote:

I've never integrated Aces in my workflows but I'm trying to understand the elements of the workflow better.  I get confused when I'm told production used Aces but I'm given Panny Vlog/Vgamma media.  I think this means that they shot normal Vlog but then took it to an on set Resolve etc... and reviewed the footage in Aces mode to generate CDLs to pass on. 

Does shooting in "Aces" mean the video tap off the camera used an Aces transform to be displayed on the video village monitor? 

If I receive Panny Vlog/Vgamma is there anything inherently Aces about the media?

Is there a way to shoot directly to Aces instead of Vlog or Sony Slog 3 etc...?

I recently found in Resolve the Vlog/Vgamma that I received with CDL works properly in an Aces mode in Resolve.  This seems to deal with the conversion more appropriately than my standard approach which has been the Lut for Vlog to Rec 709.  For a long time I've been asking why there aren't Luts to take Vlog to HDR P3D65/2084 but have never found such a Lut.  It seems either Aces or Resolve's Color Managed workflow allow for input color space and input gamma to achieve a proper conversion to the timeline color space and gamma. 

Not sure I've wrapped my head around the various steps and proper approaches in Post.  Anybody got some suggestions?

John Moore Barking Trout Productions Studio City, CA bigfish@pacbell.net

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