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Masterclass in Color Grading with Mark Todd Osborne

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Mark Todd Osborne is one of the most successful colorists in Hollywood, with hundreds of feature films and TV shows on his credit list. In this masterclass you are invited into his color suite to watch how he creates great looking images and discusses workflow, techniques and strategies that will help you become a better colorist.

The course is about the art and craft of color grading and is not designed to teach the operations of a specific software.

The masterclass is 90 minutes, and includes download access to his fixed node tree.

Mark often uses print emulation in his CST node and it's available for Ravengrade users under the name "Niran". Simply add Ravengrade to the CST node and choose Niran from the drop-down menu. It's been used in several of his feature film projects, but the placement of the node can vary.

For early bird access to the Pro version of Ravengrade, send a request to support@lowepost.com.

About the instructor

Mark Todd Osborne is a world-renowned colorist based in Hollywood, with hundreds of top level movies on his credit list including Need for Speed, Satanic Panic, It Follows, The Act and Lowriders to name a few. He began his career working 12 years at Company 3, and after working closely with many of the high-end facilities in Los Angeles over the years, he founded MTO Color inc, where he works today.

Who is this course designed for?

  • Colorists
     

COURSE OVERVIEW

 

LESSON 01: PROJECT SETUP AND COLOR MANAGEMENT

Mark structures a feature film project, and demonstrates ways to set up several color management systems, settings and timeline structures. He talks about remote grading methodology, useful features and the important of knowing the box.

LESSON 02: STRUCTURING NODES

Walks through and discusses the benefits of his fixed node structure.

LESSON 03: SUMMARY BEFORE GRADING

Sums of what we have learned so far.

LESSON 04: CONTRAST MANAGEMENT AND TECHNIQUES

A deep dive into contrast management, and several ways to get the image in shape. Mark does a first pass on a scene and teaches the "if you don't go, you won't know" principle.

LESSON 05: CLIENT RELATIONSHIP

Talks about how to prepare for color grading sessions, and about establishing strong relationships with clients both in the color room and in remote sessions.

LESSON 06: BALANCING AND MATCHING

Mark balances and matches shots in a feature film sequence and discusses various techniques to keep consistency. 

LESSON 07: CHALLENGES WITH EXTERIOR SCENES

In this lesson, Mark grades and talks about challenges with exterior scenes.

LESSON 08: LOOK CREATION

Going through ways to improve the image and create looks. Discusses how to set up and organize nodes and groups in the look development process. Then, sharing his thoughts about how to treat skin.

LESSON 09: MUSCLE MEMORY AND INSTINCTUAL GRADING

Mark discusses muscle memory and instinctual grading. Grades a full scene as you watch, and discusses all the decisions that has to be made and why he does what we does.

LESSON 10: MASTER ADVICES

Mark gives tons of valuable advices to colorists about how to master the craft and stay on top of the color game.


 

The masterclass is created together with Ravengrade.com, a Plugin for DaVinci Resolve, with powerful grading tools and cinematic looks designed by some of the most successful colorists and color scientists in the industry.
 

 

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William Dowling

It's always made sense to me to do a majority of grading after the CST/LUT node, but in RED's pipeline diagram they say to do everything before their Rec709 LUT node. It gets awfully frustrating getting so much mixed info. I guess you have to do what's best for you. I know the Hue vs Lum curve doesn't hardly do anything unless applied after the Rec709 node.

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Abby Bader
On 3/24/2022 at 5:57 PM, William Dowling said:

It's always made sense to me to do a majority of grading after the CST/LUT node, but in RED's pipeline diagram they say to do everything before their Rec709 LUT node.

I think it's safe to say that the transform is happening at the end of the node stack in most professional workflows. Most of the grading controls are designed to be applied in camera space and the results of their corrections are designed to go through a transform.  That said, there are no rules in creativity.

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William Dowling
4 hours ago, Abby Bader said:

I think it's safe to say that the transform is happening at the end of the node stack in most professional workflows. Most of the grading controls are designed to be applied in camera space and the results of their corrections are designed to go through a transform.  That said, there are no rules in creativity.

I'm working on a 10,000th  pass on a project as I try to practice trial and error. Once everything is near where you want it before the transform node, it seems like you can make fine tuned adjustments more easily after the transform node. At least with RED Gemini footage. When I compare the results of other LUTs it seems easier to create those looks as well post transform node. There is also a good chance I'm doing everything wrong for the 10,000th time.

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Abby Bader
8 minutes ago, William Dowling said:

Once everything is near where you want it before the transform node, it seems like you can make fine tuned adjustments more easily after the transform node.

Might be, but the point is that the curve of the transform should be the main component to decide where your corrections should fall on the tonal range.

Applying corrections after the curve will have no component to decide where your colors will fall, how your highlights will bend etc.

I can't stress enough to set up a good workflow. You will get better continuity between shots and scenes, and professional looking result.

Watch the professional color grading training with Kevin to understand this concept better.

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Abby Bader
1 hour ago, William Dowling said:

I've watched everyone. It's tough without someone right there with you to say you are doing it all wrong.

People have different ways of working, I think it's about finding a workflow that you feel comfortable with. Personally I prefer to start with global exposure and balance prior to the transform and build from there if needed. Also, look into what color management (RCM/ACES) can do for you. It can take you to a nice place pretty quick.

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William Dowling
13 minutes ago, Abby Bader said:

People have different ways of working, I think it's about finding a workflow that you feel comfortable with. Personally I prefer to start with global exposure and balance prior to the transform and build from there if needed. Also, look into what color management (RCM/ACES) can do for you. It can take you to a nice place pretty quick.

I'm guessing you work with RAW files. RED has a set of LUTs with different contrast and rolloff that have been my best starting point. If I adjusted exposure and balance then applied the transform, any work done before the transformation would be for nothing.

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Abby Bader
On 3/27/2022 at 6:00 PM, William Dowling said:

If I adjusted exposure and balance then applied the transform, any work done before the transformation would be for nothing.

Apply the transform first, then adjust exposure and balance in a prior node. 

Again, watch the pro training with Kevin to understand how to set up this workflow. If you already have, watch it again.

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