color or effects first?

Rippie

Rippie

Veteran
Could use some opinions..
I currently have a project I'm working on
and it's at the visual effects and color grading stage.

The 2 people involved are in 2 different countries and
while obviously I'm getting their input on this question I would like some outside
opinions as well.

Question:
In what order should these 2 steps be taken?
All visual effects done on the RAW ungraded material and then that
footage sent to the colorist? (this is the way I would think)

Or, should the colorist do his thing and then the fx artist
take that footage and lay his fx on top?

Or?
 
i would think color last.. because if there's muzzle flashes or blood or explosions (for instance), the colorist will have everything to work with.
 
thanks for the input.
I'd still like to get more opinions if possible..
with semi-detailed reasons why to do it a certain way.

No colorists or fx guys in here?
I gotta think this situations is pretty common
2 separate companies doing these 2 jobs.
 
The basic pipeline is always VFX first, then coloring. Mainly because coloring throws out data, data the VFX may very well need. You crush the blacks, you adjust the contrast and that data is gone. But there are exceptions. For instance lightning, energy beams, lens flares. As a rule it's better to add those kinds of effects after the first color/grading pass. Or (more often) deliver them separately and have the colorist do both layers individually and then a final pass on the composited shot(which the colorist may assemble or more likely someone in compositing)

In fact out of a large number of shots it won't be uncommon for things to go better if the VFX team provides mattes and or separate layers to the colorist, depending on the shot. But the VFX team trying to work with a fully graded shot is going to have a very hard time.

But all this depends on the shot. Some shots are just straight through, editor->VFX->color. Other shots may require several loops between the VFX and color teams. The VFX team may very well need to know what the colorist is going to be doing. It's not uncommon for them to need to do some minor color/grading type of operations to make a shot work. If they know what the colorist is doing, they can do that with the end result in mind.

So the short answer is generally VFX first, then coloring/grading. The long answer is every shot is special and may need to be handled differently: so be flexible, expect things to go back and forth and in loops.
 
msorrels,
Great answer. I appreciate the help and I'll be
referencing your post when I talk with them next.

Thanks
 
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