Curve manipulation

[Justin Oakley]

Hello. I just recently signed up for these courses and I’m already having trouble following along. I’m on the first course (curve manipulation) and I’m at the part where he creates an S curve using contrast/pivot. When he demonstrates using contrast, the waveform displays a nice curve, but when I try this the waveform stays as a straight line and the blacks and whites are just pulled up or down (no curve)...like the line is being rotated on an axis.
 

I could sure use some help. The courses are really cool, but I’m not on the same page for some reason. And this is getting in the way of my learning. I’m trying here.

And I sure hope this forum is active enough where we can get good feedback. At a glance it doesn’t exactly look like a hub of activity. 

[Tom Evans]

First of all you should post questions related to specific courses in the comment field below the course. Or, at least let people know which course you are following. 

Second, the members and instructors in this community are doing their best to help out in any situation so insinuating lack of activity isn't exactly the most clever move to get help.

So, start again. Post a full frame of your UI (not easy to see the context in the image you have posted)  with a detailed description below the course you are following and you the community will help you solve the problems you have. 

[Nicolas Hanson]

Yeah, need to see the colour management settings and full UI. 

[Justin Oakley]

51 minutes ago, Nicolas Hanson said:

Yeah, need to see the colour management settings and full UI. 

Thanks. This type of response is more what I was looking for. My first thought wasn’t to post screen shots. Mainly because I wouldn’t even know what to screen shot...which you have provided some clarity on. 
 

anyway, this is what I’m dealing with. And hopefully my original question was easy to understand. I’m still not that great at articulating issues with this type of stuff. I just try to explain as best as I can with issue I’m dealing with. 
 

 

[Justin Oakley]

1 hour ago, Tom Evans said:

First of all you should post questions related to specific courses in the comment field below the course. Or, at least let people know which course you are following. 

Second, the members and instructors in this community are doing their best to help out in any situation so insinuating lack of activity isn't exactly the most clever move to get help.

So, start again. Post a full frame of your UI (not easy to see the context in the image you have posted)  with a detailed description below the course you are following and you the community will help you solve the problems you have. 

10-4. I’ll try again. But first, the comments appear to be from over a year ago, so I wasn’t sure if it was a bunch of dead air in there.  And I stated which course in my post. But I suppose I should have been more specific. So here it is—color grading—techniques and look creation—curve manipulation (Davinci Resolve). 
 

second, I understand that a lot of effort and time has been put into these courses. That hasn’t been lost on me. I’ve been signed up here for about a day and I was merely making a statement based on looking at the interaction here, at a glance. There’s really no need to get all wrapped around the axle about it. 
 

I just replied to another gentleman here. In short, I didn’t know what else to post a screenshot of. My issue is creating curves using the contrast and pivot controls...per the demonstration in the course. So I snapped a quick pic of that. 
 

so here it is. 
 

 

[Tom Evans]

Remove the calibration LUT and see what happens. You might need to remove it, and start a new project. 

[Justin Oakley]

2 minutes ago, Tom Evans said:

Remove the calibration LUT and see what happens. You might need to remove it, and start a new project. 

Damn. 
so this is a calibration LUT for my monitor. I calibrated it using DisplayCal through Davinci Resolve.  If I remove this, it pretty much renders my monitor useless, no?

[Tom Evans]

That's not a good solution because it can affect the internal scopes. You should get external scopes, use a monitor with internal LUT capabilities or buy a LUT box and connect it between your video card and monitor. 

[Justin Oakley]

14 minutes ago, Tom Evans said:

That's not a good solution because it can affect the internal scopes. You should get external scopes, use a monitor with internal LUT capabilities or buy a LUT box and connect it between your video card and monitor. 

Ok. As you can tell, I’m not the brightest bulb when it comes to this stuff. This is, and has been, one huge learning experience for me for about two years now. And I’m just staggering along, learning as I go. 
 
so I BELIEVE that my monitor does have internal LUT capabilities...if I think I understand what you’re talking about. 
It’s a BenQ sw270c. Yeah, it’s ‘lower end’ stuff, but it’s what I’ve got to work with. After buying that thing, people who know what they’re doing said I would need some sort of intermediary, like decking or something. I work off a MacBook Pro so I bought the UltraStudio Monitor 3G.

then I was told to use DisplayCal, and given some tutorial to watch. And here I am. 

So that was wrong? 

Oh, and I have no idea what a lut box is or how to use it. Care to enlighten me? 

Edited March 27, 2021 by Justin Oakley

[Tom Evans]

That's all good, but you should load the LUT into your monitor instead of loading it into the app because it can affect the signal sent to the scope. I suggest you read about how you load the LUT into your monitor (manual) and you should be fine. 

Or, you could buy Scopebox or Nobe scopes instead of using the internal scopes.

I have also watched the course and you don't need to replicate the exact same steps in your app. It's just examples and it's possible to understand the point he's making without doing the same thing yourself. 

Edited March 27, 2021 by Tom Evans

[Justin Oakley]

31 minutes ago, Tom Evans said:

That's all good, but you should load the LUT into your monitor instead of loading it into the app because it can affect the signal sent to the scope. I suggest you read about how you load the LUT into your monitor (manual) and you should be fine. 

Or, you could buy Scopebox or Nobe scopes instead of using the internal scopes.

I have also watched the course and you don't need to replicate the exact same steps in your app. It's just examples and it's possible to understand the point he's making without doing the same thing yourself. 

Ok, so I get the calibrated LUT on my monitor. Any idea how I actually hook into the monitor via the UltraStudio and get a good signal from Resolve? Without using this display LUT thing? 
 

I understand that simply hooking them up and using the “clean feed” option doesn’t send an accurate signal to the monitor. That’s what I did before and people were saying that was all wrong, and not accurate and whatnot. Hence the display LUT. 
 

what a maddening rabbit hole...

[Tom Evans]

Connecting your laptop to the monitor through the UltraStudio gives a clean signal. 

[Justin Oakley]

7 minutes ago, Tom Evans said:

Connecting your laptop to the monitor through the UltraStudio gives a clean signal. 

Simply connecting works though? If I remember correctly, I wasn’t able to actually see what I was grading unless I selected clean feed (which, again, was wrong apparently). 

[Tom Evans]

Just connect and you're good. 

[Justin Oakley]

9 minutes ago, Tom Evans said:

Just connect and you're good. 

Well damn. 
thanks 

[Justin Oakley]

Hey guys. I removed the calibration LUT.  But when I use the contrast and pivot controls it still doesn’t create a smooth curve. 

I understand that I don’t necessarily need to perfectly replicate what the instructor is demonstrating, but I guess it would still be kind of nice to see how the curves are supposed to behave...on my end

Brief clip attached. 

[RAMI ABOU FAKHER]

check this in project setting  under General option 

 

 Use S-curve for contrast: On by default, this checkbox sets the contrast control in the Color Wheels palette to apply an “S-curve” to the image, such that the shadows and highlights of a signal will not be clipped when you increase the value. If you would prefer for these contrast adjustments to be made linearly, and for the signal to be allowed to clip when you reach the upper and lower boundaries of the video signal, you can turn this checkbox off.

Davinci resolve 16 refrance manual page 165

[Justin Oakley]

26 minutes ago, RAMI ABOU FAKHER said:

check this in project setting  under General option 

 

 Use S-curve for contrast: On by default, this checkbox sets the contrast control in the Color Wheels palette to apply an “S-curve” to the image, such that the shadows and highlights of a signal will not be clipped when you increase the value. If you would prefer for these contrast adjustments to be made linearly, and for the signal to be allowed to clip when you reach the upper and lower boundaries of the video signal, you can turn this checkbox off.

Davinci resolve 16 refrance manual page 165

Oh man, that’s the ticket. Thank you!

I had this disabled. And as soon as I saw your comment I remembered an old YouTube video… I think it was from “learn color grading” Or something where he said to disable this. I forget exactly for what reason. But I did it in this particular project.Or something where he said to disable this. I forget exactly for what reason. But I did it in this particular project.

[RAMI ABOU FAKHER]

About the calibration Lut which is in the project setting it shouldn't effect your scope unless you check the 

Hide UI overlays in the playback setting.

but as @Tom Evanshe said it's better to load your calibration LUT to the monitor and use external scopes 

 

[Justin Oakley]

49 minutes ago, RAMI ABOU FAKHER said:

About the calibration Lut which is in the project setting it shouldn't effect your scope unless you check the 

Hide UI overlays in the playback setting.

but as @Tom Evanshe said it's better to load your calibration LUT to the monitor and use external scopes 

 

I’m sorry, I guess I don’t really understand what you mean by “external scopes”.  I still use my laptop for using all of the controls and reading scopes. But I use my external monitor for color grading. 

[RAMI ABOU FAKHER]

https://timeinpixels.com/nobe-omniscope/

or

https://www.divergentmedia.com/scopebox

 

[Justin Oakley]

5 hours ago, RAMI ABOU FAKHER said:

https://timeinpixels.com/nobe-omniscope/

or

https://www.divergentmedia.com/scopebox

 

Ahhhh, I see. Thanks. These both look like they have some cool features. But I’m assuming this would require another monitor dedicated solely for monitoring these apps? And when it comes to paying $100-$200 for “annual renewal” it’s hard for a guy like me to justify. 
 

There are no one-time purchase solutions that you’re aware of? 

[Sam Howells]

Those two are both one-time purchase solutions. The additional annual fee is just for upgrades/support. So when you buy it you get the software and 1 year of updates. Past that you would have to pay for another year of "support". But if you are happy with the feature set they currently offer, your license will still be valid and the software will still work beyond that 1 included year, you just wouldn't get the additional support or any updates for free. Hope that makes sense.

[RAMI ABOU FAKHER]

https://lowepost.com/insider/discounts/popular-post-production-tools-r39/

check this link above for discounts 

[Justin Oakley]

48 minutes ago, Sam Howells said:

Those two are both one-time purchase solutions. The additional annual fee is just for upgrades/support. So when you buy it you get the software and 1 year of updates. Past that you would have to pay for another year of "support". But if you are happy with the feature set they currently offer, your license will still be valid and the software will still work beyond that 1 included year, you just wouldn't get the additional support or any updates for free. Hope that makes sense.

Cool, thanks! And yes, on getting an additional monitor to view the scopes interface? Not much real estate as it is on my MacBook. 
Or does it somehow integrate with the UI in Resolve?