First time handing off VFX to a VFX artist and trying to figure out the best workflow.

Shot 4K RED footage
Edited with pro res proxies in FCP

I initially wanted to send the R3D files for maximum flexibility but she told me she would just need the size of the final output, in prores 4444.

Is this the best route? Should I be adamant about using the R3D files? My concern is the grade hasn’t been done and we will lose the grading flexibility for those shots by going prores.

Also, I know lot of people go DPX, is there an advantage to this format?

2. There’s only about 10 vfx shots, so what is going to be the most painless way to link up to the R3Ds and export the section used in the edit? RED cine-x, Resolve?

Thank you

Usually you'll grade the shots first and then send them for vfx, so the Resolve or whatever grading machine will render out to DPX. And no, don't send her the ProRes Proxy unless she intends to work in low rez while waiting for the grade.

I woul advise sending her the R3Ds because you don't want to give her a smaller frame size than what you shot on.

But if you need to go ProRes 4444, you can use RedCine-X Pro to transcode just the section you used via XML.



www.strypesinpost.com

to grade or not prior to vfx work depends on the vex work to be done.

a simple comp of two similar elements, for instance, would not need prior grading, IMO.


DPX or no:
some apps prefer DPX files, or so i have been told.
the folks handling the vex work on one film i cut last year wanted DPX as they were using NUKE, i believe.
we had shot ProRes on the alexa, but they wanted DPX. that made things more complicated.
file sizes are a lot larger than PR4444

an advantage is every frame is a separate file, so simpler to fix frame drops, or single frame errors.

the team on the other film i cut, however, were happy with the ProRes.
(maybe they did the conversion to DPX themselves which was simpler for us if they did.)
i think they were using After Effects, among other things.

Frame Size.
don't know what these effects are, but i would think you'd want the most resolution you can get.
the team on the second film specifically asked for our grand finale to be shot ArriRAW,
and i think a larger frame size.

i'd imagine the grader & finishing team might have some thoughts about frame size.
i mean, what if they do all their work at the higher res? it'd be better if the vfx matched, surely?


nick

Reason why you may want higher rez is because the vfx guys may want to do a zoom in. So it depends I guess. I haven't done RED in FCP for a while, but I recall L&T transcoded to 2K off the 4K files back in the 4K days. So you may want to try using RedCine X Pro for the full debayer to either ProRes 4444 or DPX. Some guys prefer ProRes because the file sizes are smaller, but IMO, ProRes needs testing because of possible gamma shifts, chroma shifts, etc..



www.strypesinpost.com

Most of the colorists I've worked with want the VFX on the ungraded media so they're not constrained later on if regrades or tweaks are needed.

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Quote

Most of the colorists I've worked with want the VFX on the ungraded media so they're not constrained later on if regrades or tweaks are needed.

This is how I generally deliver VFX - I'll work with a LUT applied to an adjustment layer or on the output from the Video Card the LUT might even be from the grade so I can see roughly what the FX will look like with a grade applied but then deliver in the colourspace and size of the original media. I also provide mattes for VFX elements so the colourist can selectively grade parts without have to do so much masking themselves.



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