Raw to ProRes Workflow

lxjordanxl

lxjordanxl

Active member
Hey guys,
Recently began shooting on the Red Epic. The plugins I have in After Effects CC aren't compatible with 4k footage, so here is what I want to do --- In RedCine X, I want to convert all my Red files to ProRes 422 LT, then edit my sequence. Then, I would like to take the sequence and send it from Premiere CC to Davinci Resolve Lite, do my raw color correction, then export them back into Premiere CC as ProRes. Does anyone have a good workflow or tutorial that would be able to help me do this? Thanks guys!
 
Just remember if you ever want a 4k out version you won't have those same effects you did on the HD version so my advise is to find a way to do your effects in 4k so once you battle this beast and put it to bed you will never have to go back to it.....

but that is not what you asked... basically you have your steps right. Create proxy or "light" versions of your RAW footage with a REDgamma that you can edit in your NLE (Premiere in your case) and when you're done pick export to XML from your menu.

You then import the XML file into Davinci Resolve from the IMPORT PANEL. File -> Import XML -> then browse to your XML. Make sure you UNCHECK the box "automatically import source clips" or you will import the proxy files which you don't want to do. You want to grade your originals. If you are lucky Davinci will relink to your originals but if not you will have to relink them yourself.

Once you're done grading in Davinci you can output the EDIT as it was cut in Premiere OR you can dump out all the individual files and only the ones that were used in your edit. I prefer the second option because that way it allows you to tweak your edit back in Premiere if you want. Also Davinci screws up some basic dissolves, titles or opacity settings so again I would bring my new graded files back into Premiere by relinking them.

For FX work however you will have to decide if you want to do effects on the pre-graded clips or graded clips. It really depends on the types of effects you are doing. The nice thing about Premiere is you can do dynamic link to AE composition and do your effects right on the clips from the premiere timeline and it saves you from having to render out another set of files with the FX and then have to import them back into premiere... but otherwise the other option for FX clips is to create DPX or EXR versions of them and work on this in After Effects, output them, then bring back in Davinci to apply your grade, then output to new files, then relink them back on your timeline in Premiere.

I'm publishing an article in more depth on my blog site in the next few days about this type of "round trip" work flow if you want to check it out my link is below.
 
Instead of doing all of that, just make a composition that is 1080p and scale your 4k footage down to it.

I do it all of the time.
 
Strictly speaking for any FX clips, yes bringing them directly into AE will work but you will still need to bring them back into Resolve for grading. And if you grade before you apply FX then outputting them from Resolve makes more sense to be consistent with your overall grading workflow.

When doing a complete grade out of Davinci with originals, editing with lower quality files and later relinking using the workflow described is accurate.
 
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