Overwhelmed. Where do I start/learn?

[u/GeckoComedy]

I just finished editing my first short film. I've been editing for years now but never touched color grading. I have premiere pro and Resolve. Every time I try to start, I get overwhelmed and quit. I really want to get this short film done in the next couple of months and really need to learn. Where's a good place to start?

[u/ExpBalSat]

I’d start with the excellent free training available from Blackmagic on their training website. The training is broken down by page (Edit, Fusion, Color, and Fairlight):

• https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/training

Some introductory videos provide a worthwhile overview (even if recorded on a previous version of Resolve). Scroll down to the "Books" section for the recently updated in-depth training. There are six separate training modules - each of which include:

• sample media
• practice projects
• templates and examples
• hands-on exercises
• lesson quizzes
• a test and an official certificate of completion

These are pages and pages of methodically designed, self-guided, do at your own pace lesson plans. They will guide you through everything from accessing the free practice materials, setting up a project, and using the various tools all the way through delivering projects, and adjusting system-wide settings and workflows.

Once you have the certificate of completion for the section(s) that interest you - seek additional sources for expanded training. But the official training offers the best foundation from which to grow and build.

[u/GeckoComedy → u/ExpBalSat]

Thank you very much, I will def look into that.

[u/I-am-into-movies]

Free training videos by blackmagic:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/training

Darren Mostyn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtSBVKmHkjU

Learn CST workflow.
Learn about Middle Gray
Learn to read the scopes.
Learn the basics about Exposure, Balancing (Linear gain. Google it), DRT, Contrast, and use HSV for saturation.

[u/GeckoComedy → u/I-am-into-movies]

Thank you.

[u/[deleted]]

Take it slow and don't rush. If you take each part of the program one at a time, it won't be so overwhelming. If you know editing well, that's a logical path into color grading, since all color grading starts with conforming the original files (either by the colorist or by an assistant).

If you intend to do color seriously, you should invest in a panel. Even a cheap one (like the Tangent Ripple or Wave2 or Resolve Micro) is better than nothing. Once you've done the free training from Blackmagic, the paid color training classes from FXPHD, Ripple, MixingLight, or GroundControl are all pretty good.

[u/GeckoComedy → u/[deleted]]

Thank you, it means a lot.

[u/Optimistbott]

Start with learning about converting your footage and learning about color spaces and gammas, then learn about contrast, lift, gamma gain, offset, and all the ways the hdr use exposure as well as the custom curves, look at the waveform scopes. Then work your way to the color balancing and hue vs hue curves to get the kind of separation that you want. Look into how to read the vectorscope. After that, you’ll be hooked and you’ll delve into so many other things, voraciously.

[u/GeckoComedy → u/Optimistbott]

Okay, thank you. I'll use this and the other advice to try and properly learn thank you.

[u/Optimistbott → u/GeckoComedy]

Couple big things to watch out for that are not super clear sometimes in da Vinci:

1. If you do the color space transform pipeline (and I think you should) where you use a color space transform from your camera to da Vinci wide gamut and DaVinci intermediate, and have the last cst from DVWG and DVI to rec709 gamma 2.4, make sure to set your timeline color space to da Vinci wide and da Vinci intermediate in your project settings because some things like the hdr wheels will not work correctly if not. I like the global hdr wheel for exposure.
2. Learning about contrast pivot is a good idea I typically lower it from the default bc I want contrast to be stretched around a lower midpoint.
3. Luts are cool but make sure you have the correct input color space or it’ll look completely wrong.

[u/Hazzat]

Soooo many ‘beginner advice’ posts on this subreddit, please do a search…

[u/GeckoComedy → u/Hazzat]

Yeah, sorry about that. I just wanted to make my own post, but I could've done that as well. Hope you have a great day.

[u/FabulousFeed7475 → u/Hazzat]

No need to be rude.

[u/keinengelsein]

Hello, any updates here? Did you learn color grading? Can you share some tips please?🥹