ACES Explained - 2022 Update

There have been some big changes to ACES since my ACES Explained series, so we're due for a video highlighting the biggest changes to know if you're using ACES or learning ACES and following along with my ACES explained series.
We'll go further into ACES 1.3 and answer all of your questions in this week's live Grade School: • Grade School: Learn AC...
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[@jseamans]

Hi Cullen, I think I’ve heard you say that using ACES or DWG was a choice based on project specifics and/or personal preferences. Can you say more about what specifically you consider when making the choice? Why not just pick one pipeline and go with it every time for consistency sake? I’ll miss today live but look forward to watching over the weekend.

[@FlyingLapMedia]

This ⬆️

[@Meteotrance]

I use ACES on every software i use for consistency of color accross, Blender, Substance Painter for the Texture and Davinci for most of the real shot i use, also for the compositing of all that source, it was made for that purpose, but if no compositing or CGI trick are involve, the davinci wide gamut is more appropriate, it's also possible to convert footage in open EXR aces 2065 with this color profile. A Raw footage is also recommanded if you want a better dynamic range, Log file have some problem with shot that use neon or spot light, thats why they build a LMT neon supress LUT to fit the linear color space of ACES.

[@chelseafernandez8047]

Hey Cullen! Thank you for this insight on the ACES update. I've been constantly keeping an eye on this issue and glad it's been addressed! Can't wait for grade school to chat about it.

[@joyoffilming9500]

Great hints. As an amateur I had jumped on ACES 2 years ago, but often ran in those banding issues - so gave it up in the end. But, seems worth to take another look at it right now, with V 2.0 already lurking round the next corner.

[@SuchetB]

Thank you for this Cullen - I am very new to ACES and I have been watching your videos and learning. I totally appreciate what you are sharing here.

[@antonioefisioscanu]

Yep, lost the first big color client years ago using Aces and wasting time trying to understand what the issue was and what was the solution. Too bad because otherwise I fell immediately in love with the transformation and with the tools response.

[@BarrettKaufman]

Thanks for this Cullen! I moved away from ACES as well, but 2.0 has me excited

[@FlyingLapMedia]

Hi Cullen. Appreciate the channel. Can you tell me what the advantage of using ACES is over just resolve color management? Seems they do much of the same, no?

[@jpyudhi_]

hi niw ive subscribed n like your channel - when i saw your solution about clipping colour in aces 1.3.. different with next door youtube colorist who did not wanna tell about this solution, instead tell us to buy his tutorial - yeah i dont mean his wrong or not kind.. but in this term i like your way to tell us about solution from using Aces 1.3 ..good job thanks

[@CullenKelly]

Glad to hear it, and welcome to the channel!

[@o.l.k.s.n]

I am still wondering, about how bright minds behind ACES were unable to develop it properly. If you are developing something that is pretending to be a standard for cinematography how it could end up with a smaller gamut than existing/popular cinema cameras? No doubt there are smart color scientists behind the ACES, but what impended them?

[@theapexpredator7711]

I hope you do a breakdown on how BBC Earth does their colorgrading. 🙏🏻

[@dawstory168]

Hi, cullen, I learned so much from you, and want to learn more.. waiting for your next color grading masterclass announcement.

[@anthonycampagna7732]

Hey Cullen, Always love your videos. I’d love to see a video on how to create Camera LUTs for DPs when you’re working in a scene referred workflow?

[@RavikantRai21490]

Cullen, what is "LMT ACES v0.1.1" that I see when I right click on a node and select LUT > ACES. Selecting that brings back better red tones for me.

[@Capeau]

Larger gamut than ACES?! Woah, I thought the ACES gamut was as big as it could get?

[@BestPlayedLoudLtd]

Brilliant vid as always, thanks!

[@accreation5673]

I like your tutorials Very much

[@MartyJWebb]

What's planned for the ACES 2.0 update? How will that be different from 1.3?

[@NimeshShresthaeditor]

Why it can't be the default option? Why does it have to be checked? "Apply ACES Reference gamut compress"

[@slangdoll]

It is the default option, so that’s good :) Cullen just unchecked it to show the problem with the previous version.

[@8KHDRVideoBySittipong]

Nice and clear information.

[@timovepsalainen4927]

Very well presented! 👍

[@NibuThomson]

Thanks for the update 👍👍👍

[@patrikmaryniak5617]

Hi Cullen. Great video. I am going to grade my Masters degree film in ACES because of different sources+CGI so I must ask. As I can see you work on mac. How do you deal with incorrect gamma tag on display output colorspace ? Normally, if I use ,,normal,, colorspaces like REC709 or P3, I just use REC709-A to fix this, but I was wondering what you do with it if you work in ACES. There is literally no option for ACES in project settings. Unfortunately I dont have reference monitor, so I feel like I can not really see what I am doing...

[@cody_t]

I have the same question. I edit on the go sometimes and have a 2021 MacBook Air and was wondering what is the best solution for this, especially for cross platform compatibility to KZbin, QuickTime, and Windows machines? Thanks always for your help, Cullen!

[@cody_t]

My hunch is to just tag the gamma to Rec709-A at the export?

[@ameetpawar4391]

Excellent cullen, Thanx man!

[@blueventi]

Thanx Cullen !!!

[@jannasc]

Hey Cullen! I got a EVA1 short to color and this video blown my mind! But I feel like some scenes the Panasonic v35 didn't worked as well as other scene, any food for thought?

[@thatcherfreeman]

Having watched I think every video where you've discussed ACES, I think I recall you making a comment about how you'd prefer an AP0/ACEScct space, but you understand the reasons behind why the AP1 primaries exist. What are those reasons? How were the AP1 primaries selected?

[@EditorialGuiasdelSur]

totally agree with u mate! im kind of a newbie to soft producing here, well tNice tutorials video helps a lot and gives mo motivation to create

[@DonBurroni]

Good video, thanks

[@mrfroopy]

Fascinating, but why would you use this instead of Davinci Wide Gamut? Are there a lot of places that specifically require delivery in ACES ? I will also try to be on tomorrow. Also does this make it so that somehow you can swap projects with Baselight?

[@cevxj]

Is DWG better in preserving the various camera gamuts?

[@cevxj]

the answer is yes since it's bigger, thanks me

[@renatozanardo9648]

Hey Cullen, Why Aces is so driping in red and blue colors?

[@PascalPayantfilms]

you prefer ACES or Davinci wide gamut?

[@NikHem343]

If ARRI LOG has a wider gamut than ACES, wouldn‘t it be desirable to use ARRI LOG instead of ACES as intermediate CS in the first place?

[@alex_rogan]

I think it really comes down to what you like to work in. If we can understand his they all work and there pros and cons then we can choose whichever meets our need

[@SoultyBoiBeats]

Love this

[@sawtom]

Where can I find a config.acio file for aces 1.3?

[@davidgoodwater7145]

When using ACES how do you put the output gamma at 2.4, 2.6, etc?

[@CullenKelly]

Hey David! That would mostly depend on your final delivery target. Something like a gamma of 2.6 is mostly reserved for theatrical. For web, I'd try 2.2. A gamma of 2.4 would typically be for broadcast.

[@davidgoodwater7145]

Hi Cullen, thanks for the reply. I’m referring the when one uses ACES color management via the project settings. When that is applied do I just use a timeline node with a CST applied to it then put a the output as gamma 2.4 for broadcast or Gamma 2.6 for theater?

[@cloquefff2677]

Hi Cullen thank you very much for your great videos i learned a lot, 1 question i have is if we the input is a shot from Sony camera and its not S-log what should i use as input? most of commercials in my town are not shot at Log at all :(.

[@cloquefff2677]

@@CullenKelly Ty sir, most of tutorials are shots that are in log , can we see some tutorial with non log footages in future maybe?

[@koushikbhattacharya832]

Thank u sir♥

[@Kodo91]

Hey Cullen. I hope you can help me with this.I recently started with DaVinci and tried working with the ACES workflow. I shoot on a Sony A6400 in HLG3, BT.2020. My problem now is that I do not know what to set my ACES Input Transform to. I read that HLG does not have an IDT. Is that true? if yes, what would you recommend doing?

[@thatcherfreeman]

Well because HLG3 is a display referred color space, you've already gone wrong. ACES is designed in such a way that you're expected to feed it an image shot with some sort of log curve, such as SLog2, which I'll admit isn't exactly ideal in an 8-bit camera, but will give you workable rec709 results if you have a good exposure.

[@thatcherfreeman]

Strictly speaking, ACES wants a scene referred input, so there should exist some published transformation from your file's code values to scene linear values. Shooting in HLG is Display Referred in the same way that shooting in Rec709 is problematic if you want to make accurate exposure adjustments in a color managed pipeline.

[@Kodo91]

@@thatcherfreeman Thank you for your response. So what would a workflow with HLG3 be then? Do I just normalize the picture with a LUT?

[@thatcherfreeman]

@@Kodo91 You could try using a CST to make the conversion from HLG/2020 to ACEScct/AP1 (probably check the Inverse OOTF box), and handle the rest of ACES manually with nodes. It won't be really accurate, but it might give you a reasonable starting point.

[@pDiegoz]

Hi Cullen, I work on Drone footage regularly and recently started editing more in ACES to combine with CG animation renders, the problem I am having is that ACES or DJI does not have a compatible IDT , Have you encounter this issue before? any possible solution?. so far I am using Blackmagic design 4k film gen 3 as the color space, seems to do the best but it does not work always.

[@the_real_liam_wallace]

I am also curious about this ^

[@SwissplWatches]

Perhaps I'm missing something, why not use Davinci Wide Gamut which seems to cover a much larger space than ACES? I'm new to DR, thanks for the info.

[@SwissplWatches]

@@CullenKelly What an awesome guy to offer so much knowledge to us. Thank you!

[@user-vs2ui1tg1s]

It’s proprietary and specific to davinci so you might run into trouble if you need a consistent color pipeline that involves vfx vendors.

[@dammitderrick]

Hi Cullen, Quick question. When I set up my timeline for aces 1.3 in a new project following your steps, it just destroys my footage. Everything is extremely over exposed/completely blown out, deep bad contrast, and blue. I can’t not for the life of me understand stand why.

[@dammitderrick]

@@CullenKelly yep on a Mac.. I'll try this right now thank you!

[@DeadReckoner]

Are there any benefits to using Aces on lower-tier footage, such as from a DJI Osmo Action? My work often combines action cams with the likes of Sony A7III footage. I know there are limitations to what can be achieved with that, but what would you suggest, please?

[@MylonasFilms]

Aces would work fine, but putting in Titles or GfX can be tricky with ACES

[@DeadReckoner]

@@MylonasFilms I hadn't thought of that part... I guess I'll do node transforms for all clips apart from titles.

[@DeadReckoner]

@@CullenKelly I've only watched one GradeSchool episode, so far; I'd only watched the shortform videos before that. I learned so much from that one episode - I'm about to work my way through the rest. Thanks!

[@gaarax0x]

👍

[@MaxMRasmussen]

Hi Cullen, your videos are very dark compared to everything else on KZbin. It is a shame since your content is good

[@Resolve_This]

Great vid as always. Here's more info from ACES about 2.0 if you haven't already seen it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZnbYnl5rbKYq7M I've never loved school until I went to Grading School. Now I'm happy about school.

[@jukkahillberg]

Great video. I've been working with ZCAM zlog2 footage and I was able to make IDT and ODT based on T Freeman's instructions (kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJCYf5qveLt2hpo). Works good. I have one question though about monitors and resolve settings. My monitor is HP Z27n and it doesn't have REC709 mode, only sRGB gamma 2.2. Should I use the sRGB gamma 2.2 setting when grading, I can see a difference when I change it to REC709. I know these color spaces are close, but there are still some differences? I know I should get better monitor, but in a meanwhile. Does this setting also affect the rendered output? I guess it will... or do I need to do a color transfer from sRGB gamma 2.2 to REC709 gamma 2.4 before rendering the final footage? Sorry about noobie question...