Full ACES CG Pipeline Workflow (Nuke,Houdini,Resolve) TAKE2

Second revision from your awesome feedback from our first demonstation. Comments, suggestions? Drop them below. We need feedback.
VISIT US:
www.vfxforfilm.com/
Idiots Guide to ACES: (Good Stuff)
www.toadstorm.com/blog/?p=694
Original Video with comments by yourself:
• Full ACES CG Pipeline ...
GitHub for ACES Config Files: (You can also get config from your nuke)
github.com/imageworks/OpenCol...
Houdini Instructions for ACES install:
scivfx.artstation.com/pages/a...
Helpful Videos for Understanding ACES for VFX:
vimeo.com/408453333?fbclid=Iw...
Animal Logic's use of ACES on LEGO MOVIE:
• ACES in VFX - by Alex ...
DOLBY VISION Setup:
vimeo.com/user54050670
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[@JPegGT]

The mantra render you have is already premulted, so when you premult it again in Nuke your actually eroding into your drone! The better workflow is to remove the camera background before you render :)

[@Kuazzy]

Thank you! exactly what I was looking for

[@tranbertp]

nice introduction, very clear, practical and non pretentious. Thank you

[@VFXforfilm]

Thanks. Just curious, what does pretentious instruction sound like? 😉

[@chrysokerux]

Thanks for the insightful info! Is there any particular settings required for swatches to display correctly?

[@firnekburg4990]

This was helpful, thanks a lot !

[@ShariSolo]

If you have Aces installed in the env file, you can drop an OCIO Transform node in a copnet to convert hdr to aces (or any colour space) without leaving Houdini. Upon output just make sure to change the color space to Acescg instead of srgb.

[@VFXforfilm]

Thanks, been thinking of doing demo for this process too. I’ll Give you props ;)

[@workflowinmind]

16:12 Even better, if you set the OCIO environment variable, it picks up everything for you.

[@workflowinmind]

22:08 Those should be loaded using Utility Raw in your DCC by the way

[@workflowinmind]

22:45 It depends on the input it can also be Linear sRGB

[@shtaarjean8003]

hey matt does the exr coming from Houdini have aces ap1 color gamut?

[@Meteotrance]

One color profile to convert they all, thats why ACES was made, it filling the gap between cg, digital camera and also 35mm analog film transfert, acesCG was like it was name for CG render the other aces2065 was for all that was shot on real digital cinema camera shot.

[@jordi-rohtau]

I am confused about the ACES conversion of the HDRI, here is why; - From what I know, there is nothing to gain from converting the HDRI to ACES other than perhaps a unified set of images where everything is ACEScg. - Furthermore, when you convert it you are selecting ACES compliant you are in reality converting to ACES2061-1 (for archival/transfer purposes only) rather than ACEScg, which should your goal, right? IMHO, you should not use that option. Also, that makes the EXR file uncompressed so you are going to have quite a bit of impact when reading them at rendertime, where hundreds of boxes are trying to open at the same time more or less, a big file which will be around 10x bigger, this means extra bandwidth and time. My suggestion is to configure your HDR write inside PTGUI to be ACEScg directly, not only you save a few steps, you will get a more accurate representation of the environment you are capturing in color terms, especially on the greens and cyan area (trees anyone?) I hope it makes sense.

[@VFXforfilm]

Thanks Jordi, again a lot of this is new and unexplored (not explained) territory. Any Morsel of correction is a blessing. Thanks for info.

[@kuwaitartist1849]

How about when I render out my EXR footage with ACEScg ODT from resolve? And import it to houdini? Is it still a valid Aces workflow?

[@PhO3NiX96]

So to make it clear, you take linear textures, you convert them in ACES-CG, you render in mantra, it renders in ACES-CG then you load your .exr in Nuke, it picks it up without changing the OCIO and then you write these out without changing em either correct?? So what happens to what is non-textured, aka fx from houdini with just shaders like particles, do you need to convert them before rendering them , or do you just render em as they are then convert them in Nuke? It's so confusing

[@BoixAlbert]

thaaaankssss!!

[@VFXforfilm]

nooooo proooooooblem! ;)

[@estebanfregoso2144]

How does the RENDER PASS work with aces inside nuke?

[@alifpentavisualimaji161]

Hi Sir..! First i would like to thank you for all your information about ACES. Here i have question for you...i have DPX render from Davinci which had no Colorspace, according to Colorist it's a normal (sRGB) so when i loaded the footage inside Nuke, the color that i saw was different from what he gave me as a still frame (as color guide-look). What should i changed inside Nuke ? I switched my Color into OCIO instead of Nuke default. My Monitor i setup as sRGB-DELL Monitor U3014 series. And what the output colorspace when i render it out ? should i add OCIOdatatransform ? Thank you for your time Sir ! It's really nice to watch your channel.

[@VFXforfilm]

DPX is cineon Log, Id try a transform, otherwise use EXR’s.

[@devankpimparkar7595]

shouldn't we using Utility-Raw for Roughness, metalness, Normal maps instead of Utility-sRGB-texture??

[@chasenielsen3137]

Very useful, thanks! About the emission brightness - I learned from chrisbrejon.com (strongly recommend checking this out) that you should raise the brightness of the emission, this way you get realistic bokeh and glow effects, especially on a scene like this. A question - I’m coming from Arnold in Maya where you don’t necessarily need to make the color space conversions beforehand, for example you can do the Utility-sRGB-Texture conversion on an unconverted texture and it creates a .tx file for rendering. Is anything like that possible in Houdini or is the method you demonstrated here necessary?

[@VFXforfilm]

Seems necessary for now ;)

[@chasenielsen3137]

Thanks for the answer, but actually I found exactly what I was looking for, it’s the OCIO Transform node in a material network. That will save me a lot of work from needing to convert textures. Again though, thanks for the video!

[@monocore]

shouldn't utility passes be set to raw?! like in 3d packages nvm youre not using them in nuke

[@kingeastiphan438]

Sir roto or rotoscoping done on undistorted plate and redistort back with lens distortion node

[@VFXforfilm]

I'll take redistort.

[@MONEYVAL9]

Which black magic are you currently using Matt?

[@VFXforfilm]

It’s the 4K pocket.

[@np-iv2gb]

Hi, great tutorial. Question: I am using an sRGB monitor, do you think I can still set the output of davinci in rec709? I have to make a rec709 product, but I don't have a monitor that can see it. I was thinking of setting rec709 output and relying on rec709 Parade settings! Do you think it can work? Thank you!!!

[@VFXforfilm]

tachipirina joe You could but your guessing a bit, I’d jump back to Srgb in Resolve once and I while and make a best judgement call. Most HDTV’s are rec709 (cheap) Best not to guess.

[@np-iv2gb]

@@VFXforfilm Thanks a lot for the answer!! Very kind So you advise me to work in sRGB and eventually export with Output Rec709 the end?

[@VFXforfilm]

tachipirina joe Best bet, id invest in Rec709 monitor as well. And for future sake check out Ben Q affordable monitors (with 32 bit card needed) to do all formats (rec 709, Rec2020, Srgb, etc) Hugo’s desk youtube channel just reviewed a good one.

[@np-iv2gb]

@@VFXforfilm Thanks a lot for the answers !! : )

[@juanmartinvillafane426]

Hi, if I need to manage red footage or Sony f55 footage in raw, aces workspace is scene Aces cg? read file color space? and write exr as compositing aces cg? thanks

[@VFXforfilm]

Juan Martin Villafañe Sounds right. You usually have DI/colorist export DPX or EXR sequences per frame as importing media to Nuke.

[@juanmartinvillafane426]

@@VFXforfilm the issue is with the raw data of Sony or Red footage, I test with Alexa and it looks ok. Resolve see diference in the image and I don't know why. I know I can fix it with a Dit/colorist but if I need to start a vfx in the pipeline I need to work with the raw and then convert to aces for the colorist.

[@VFXforfilm]

@@juanmartinvillafane426 I do apologize but I'm having a hard time understanding your pipeline and problem. Send me a video screengrab of your issue and then I can probably help. [e-mail]

[@pavinivfx]

Great tutorial. I just wanted to know if it is possible to import tracking points from DaVinci to Houdini. (if you answer me, please like the comment because I see the notification) Thank you!

[@vusicproductions4495]

what about Specular - GI - Reflection - Refraction passes? do they need to be converted as well?

[@VFXforfilm]

If the color information is visible in the RGB render then yes. Is the information binary (black and white) then most likely it wont need conversion (driving displacement, normal). Specular maps I believe will need the conversion.

[@vusicproductions4495]

@@VFXforfilm thank you so much , this is the best video about ACES i found

[@VFXforfilm]

Vusic Productions id check the comment section for final notes, someone mentioned Houdini settings set to RGB.

[@kingeastiphan438]

Man which footage good for silhouette fx and mocha acescg or normal sRGB please tell me what is industry standard

[@VFXforfilm]

Both.

[@Gyanevlogs]

Nice workflow can u upload the final render shot

[@VFXforfilm]

I’ll have it up for the upcoming PGBokeh P2 tutorial (with original EXRs). Stay tuned 😉

[@firnekburg4990]

@@VFXforfilm PGBokeh tut ? wow nice ;d I have weird edge artifacts when rendering z depth from Arnold. I'm new to nuke, have no idea how to remove those nasty aliased edges. Just love PGBokeh, it looks so natural.

[@VFXforfilm]

Firnekburg its nice ;)

[@firnekburg4990]

@@VFXforfilm This channel is gold ! Glad it was recommended. I'm gonna watch a lot :D Cheers !

[@VFXforfilm]

Firnekburg thanks ;)

[@Superfabo007]

Hi, I got a problem when opening a script from nuke v12 to v13. OCIO is not working(not found). Any idea how can I solve it? Cheers! Awsome/useful content.

[@VFXforfilm]

Not sure, might need to bring in an updated ocio or colorspace node and swap out, or check your nuke color management settings to update to/regress to older aces setup. Update aces drivers as well.

[@Superfabo007]

Thank you so much, nuke v12 was using a very old aces setup. Thanks for the heads up. 🙌 Have a good one.

[@SpaceshipYamato]

I think the people who are saying the emissive map needs to be brightened might be thinking about superwhite information that you need to influence post effects like blooms, flares and streaks. That kind of information is not preserved in the normal srgb 8bit space. So hitting them harder is a way to compensate for that and get more impact from those effects. That way the information is in the render and you don't have to force it with other techniques when trying to work with those kinds of effects. It would better impact GI and volumetric ligating effects. Now of course you are pushing that information that has already been clipped....so if you had more information in your map it might of been better to have it at a higher bit depth in the first place. Like the kind of details you have when people capture a studio light in a HDRI to use it as a light source. But in the case of your drone marker lights there was probably no fine info like that and just pushing them brighter works just fine.

[@MrMadanyt]

sir how to convert aACES to Arri in nuke please explain me

[@VFXforfilm]

Have you bought Evan a coffee? ;) www.buymeacoffee.com/VFXForFilmEvan

[@MrMadanyt]

@@VFXforfilm sure!!

[@VFXforfilm]

@@MrMadanyt .....

[@LeadAstray]

what about MARI?)))

[@VFXforfilm]

LEAD ASTRAY your welcome to demo ;)

[@kombinat-13b]

you'll have to set the roles inside the OCIO config for mari learn.foundry.com/mari/Content/user_guide/managing_colors/color_management.html

[@VFXforfilm]

20

[@oddvisionarystudio6116]

Hello, I'd recommend to use environment variable instead of the "old school" houdini.env file. Let’s say you have many softwares, you’ll have to manually set the path (and update it whenever you update your OCIO config file). it’s a waste of time. The global environment variable helps you set the path once and for all (softwares) automatically. Feel free to reach out to me here if you need some help: discord.gg/bFMU3CX

[@VFXforfilm]

ODDVISIONARY STUDIO Will do, I can see what a headache version updates can be.

[@leestripp7387]

Isn't the whole point of ACES that we no longer get colour and brightness shifts, somethings not right there.

[@VFXforfilm]

Lee Stripp I noticed that too, but I went by their rules. Many folks have commented the shift in production being an issue to meet clients trademark color schemes. I’m all ears for another revision of this. Problem is nobody’s talking so I figured I’d throw out a practical example with footage and await the critics for the fixes.

[@leestripp7387]

Unless the developers of Nuke and Resolve are making there own display transforms that change shit, BAD software developers BAD :D

[@leestripp7387]

@@VFXforfilm Yeah I'm running all my own tests too, I've talked to @troy_s he sits on the ACES group, but he just called me an idiot and was very abusive. oh well, I'll keep at it.

[@leestripp7387]

@@VFXforfilm I'll keep watching your progress with great intrest, thanks.

[@VFXforfilm]

Lee Stripp If you find anything give me a shout. This riddle must be answered.