WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.125 --> 00:00:01.500 Welcome to the Color Timer 2 00:00:01.500 --> 00:00:03.333 podcast. I'm your host, Vincent Taylor. 3 00:00:03.666 --> 00:00:05.083 This is the podcast where we speak 4 00:00:05.083 --> 00:00:06.916 to professionals who work with color. 5 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:09.208 Today, I'm speaking to Mr. Jason Bowdach 6 00:00:09.208 --> 00:00:11.583 Jason is a freelance colorist. 7 00:00:11.583 --> 00:00:13.958 He comes from a color 8 00:00:13.958 --> 00:00:15.583 science and workflow background. 9 00:00:16.541 --> 00:00:17.500 He also has a very 10 00:00:17.500 --> 00:00:19.166 interesting company called Pixel Tools, 11 00:00:20.166 --> 00:00:22.583 which is what I'm going to focus on today. So I 12 00:00:22.583 --> 00:00:23.416 hope you enjoy it. Let's go. 13 00:00:25.250 --> 00:00:26.916 Take your seats because the 14 00:00:26.916 --> 00:00:29.125 hourglass is about to turn. 15 00:00:29.958 --> 00:00:33.500 We are entering the world of the micro podcast. 16 00:00:34.291 --> 00:00:36.583 Explore the craft, creativity, 17 00:00:37.250 --> 00:00:38.875 and science of professionals 18 00:00:38.875 --> 00:00:41.791 who use color to tell stories. 19 00:00:42.541 --> 00:00:46.625 Welcome to the Color Timer with Vincent Taylor. 20 00:00:54.750 --> 00:00:57.625 Jason Bowdach, welcome. 21 00:00:58.000 --> 00:00:59.250 Welcome to the Color Timer podcast. 22 00:01:00.750 --> 00:01:02.291 Thank you so much for having me on. 23 00:01:02.500 --> 00:01:03.750 I'm really glad that we were 24 00:01:03.750 --> 00:01:06.125 able to get on each other's podcast. 25 00:01:06.333 --> 00:01:07.708 It's so much fun that there is a 26 00:01:07.708 --> 00:01:10.666 lot more color grading information 27 00:01:10.666 --> 00:01:12.833 and stuff for people to listen to. 28 00:01:12.833 --> 00:01:14.375 So thank you so much for having me on. 29 00:01:14.833 --> 00:01:15.375 It's true. I did. 30 00:01:15.375 --> 00:01:16.625 I did kind of consider through 31 00:01:16.625 --> 00:01:17.625 my little brain this morning. 32 00:01:17.625 --> 00:01:19.375 Is this a version of nepotism? 33 00:01:19.375 --> 00:01:21.250 Because I'm on your podcast, you're on my podcast. 34 00:01:21.458 --> 00:01:24.083 And, you know, is it kind of, you know, I don't 35 00:01:24.083 --> 00:01:25.750 think so because, you know, 36 00:01:25.750 --> 00:01:28.916 I don't think so. I've I've 37 00:01:28.916 --> 00:01:30.333 I just started my first podcast. 38 00:01:30.333 --> 00:01:31.458 I have one season down. 39 00:01:31.458 --> 00:01:33.041 So I consider myself very much 40 00:01:33.041 --> 00:01:34.750 a beginner in creating podcasts. 41 00:01:34.750 --> 00:01:36.416 But one of the first things that I was told was 42 00:01:36.416 --> 00:01:38.291 work with other podcasters 43 00:01:38.500 --> 00:01:40.750 to spread the word about that podcast. 44 00:01:41.250 --> 00:01:42.875 And that's how you discover new podcasts. 45 00:01:43.083 --> 00:01:44.583 I enjoy podcasts in a 46 00:01:44.583 --> 00:01:45.750 variety of different subjects. 47 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:48.166 And I'm constantly looking for new ones. 48 00:01:48.166 --> 00:01:49.833 And so the fact that we're 49 00:01:49.833 --> 00:01:51.000 on each other's podcasts, 50 00:01:51.125 --> 00:01:53.708 we're spreading the word to people about that. 51 00:01:53.708 --> 00:01:55.541 Enjoy color grading that, by the way, if you're 52 00:01:55.541 --> 00:01:56.666 interested in this topic, 53 00:01:56.916 --> 00:01:58.541 here's something else you can watch. 54 00:01:58.791 --> 00:02:01.250 It's yeah. Yeah, it's it seems to. 55 00:02:01.250 --> 00:02:03.208 And you think back to I'm 56 00:02:03.208 --> 00:02:04.000 going to say the old days, 57 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:06.375 but you think back to years ago and it was just so 58 00:02:06.375 --> 00:02:07.708 hard to get any information. 59 00:02:08.625 --> 00:02:10.541 You know, so it's it's kind of nice. 60 00:02:10.541 --> 00:02:12.708 I feel I feel so you kids are spoiled. 61 00:02:12.916 --> 00:02:14.875 You kids are spoiled by all these, you know. 62 00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:17.416 But listen, I'm going to jump straight in. 63 00:02:17.666 --> 00:02:19.833 I do have my my little note here 64 00:02:19.833 --> 00:02:22.458 to remember to start the timer. 65 00:02:23.458 --> 00:02:25.000 So I've I've I'm kind of 66 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:27.083 already so so let let's go. 67 00:02:27.083 --> 00:02:27.291 Let's let's I'm going to turn it over officially. 68 00:02:27.291 --> 00:02:29.208 Let's let's I'm going to turn it over officially. 69 00:02:29.666 --> 00:02:30.916 Yeah, flip that timer, man. 70 00:02:31.208 --> 00:02:33.583 And in a way and a way and your time starts now. 71 00:02:35.125 --> 00:02:37.500 Now, you are a colorist, 72 00:02:37.500 --> 00:02:38.500 you're a freelance colorist, 73 00:02:38.500 --> 00:02:40.500 but I am not going to talk to you about that. 74 00:02:40.750 --> 00:02:42.208 I'm not going to speak to you about that because 75 00:02:42.208 --> 00:02:43.500 I'm going to talk to you about 76 00:02:44.041 --> 00:02:48.875 your company, Pixel Tools, and about what? 77 00:02:49.083 --> 00:02:50.416 What is it? What is this company? 78 00:02:50.416 --> 00:02:51.875 Tell me all about it. 79 00:02:52.541 --> 00:02:54.416 Well, I think I probably should 80 00:02:54.416 --> 00:02:57.083 start off saying that I'm a huge nerd. 81 00:02:57.083 --> 00:02:58.791 I love color grading. 82 00:02:58.791 --> 00:02:59.625 I love filmmaking. 83 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:01.208 Everything about it is 84 00:03:01.208 --> 00:03:03.500 something that, as my wife says, 85 00:03:03.833 --> 00:03:06.500 "I wish I loved my job as much as you do." 86 00:03:06.916 --> 00:03:09.916 So the fact that I spend my days working 87 00:03:10.541 --> 00:03:12.000 and making pretty pictures and 88 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:13.291 telling stories was something 89 00:03:13.291 --> 00:03:14.833 that I felt really lucky to do. 90 00:03:15.041 --> 00:03:17.250 But as a lot of artists, we 91 00:03:17.250 --> 00:03:19.750 have a set of tools that we're given 92 00:03:19.750 --> 00:03:20.833 or were taught to work with. 93 00:03:21.375 --> 00:03:22.666 And as I started to work in 94 00:03:22.666 --> 00:03:24.083 color grading, I found myself 95 00:03:24.916 --> 00:03:27.333 limited is not the right word, but I found myself 96 00:03:27.416 --> 00:03:28.625 wanting a couple of additional 97 00:03:28.625 --> 00:03:30.458 tools, especially working with Resolve. 98 00:03:30.875 --> 00:03:34.625 And as I expanded my knowledge of color grading 99 00:03:34.791 --> 00:03:35.958 and especially color science, 100 00:03:36.416 --> 00:03:38.333 I found myself more interested 101 00:03:38.333 --> 00:03:39.416 and I found myself hitting 102 00:03:39.416 --> 00:03:41.458 walls in terms of what traditional 103 00:03:41.458 --> 00:03:43.541 color grading tools could do built into Resolve. 104 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.875 And I decided to start to explore that area. 105 00:03:48.291 --> 00:03:50.333 And that's where I found that 106 00:03:50.333 --> 00:03:52.833 there's a huge variety of tools 107 00:03:52.833 --> 00:03:55.250 that we can build for Resolve, whether it's 108 00:03:55.250 --> 00:03:56.333 plug-ins or power grades, 109 00:03:56.333 --> 00:03:57.000 which are presets, 110 00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:59.625 essentially, that weren't being done. 111 00:04:00.166 --> 00:04:01.333 And for me, that was a 112 00:04:01.333 --> 00:04:02.875 complete missing opportunity. 113 00:04:03.583 --> 00:04:05.916 And I sort of waited. 114 00:04:06.791 --> 00:04:09.375 As a beginning colorist when I 115 00:04:09.375 --> 00:04:10.833 was considering starting Pixel Tools, 116 00:04:11.125 --> 00:04:12.250 I didn't really consider 117 00:04:12.250 --> 00:04:14.041 myself the right person to do that. 118 00:04:14.041 --> 00:04:16.000 I can I thought there is 119 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:17.625 somebody that has a lot more experience 120 00:04:17.625 --> 00:04:19.500 that should be building these, not mine. 121 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:21.291 So I waited about two years. 122 00:04:22.083 --> 00:04:23.041 Right. You always wait for 123 00:04:23.041 --> 00:04:25.125 somebody that knows better to build stuff. 124 00:04:25.458 --> 00:04:26.708 I'm still I'm still waiting and I'm 125 00:04:26.708 --> 00:04:27.833 glad people like you are doing it. 126 00:04:29.166 --> 00:04:30.583 But no, no, I hear you. 127 00:04:31.958 --> 00:04:33.458 So after about two years of 128 00:04:33.458 --> 00:04:35.833 waiting for for somebody that's a senior 129 00:04:35.833 --> 00:04:36.958 to step in and to build 130 00:04:36.958 --> 00:04:38.500 these tools, I decided, fine, 131 00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:39.875 I'll start building power grades 132 00:04:39.875 --> 00:04:41.541 for colors to make things easier. 133 00:04:41.541 --> 00:04:43.166 We don't all like to start from scratch. 134 00:04:43.791 --> 00:04:45.166 And so I started doing that at 135 00:04:45.166 --> 00:04:48.458 about four, wow, about four years ago. 136 00:04:48.833 --> 00:04:50.000 And I started offering these 137 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:51.500 power grades to other colorists. 138 00:04:51.875 --> 00:04:54.333 Now, I'm sure a lot of people build power grades, 139 00:04:54.333 --> 00:04:55.666 but these are specifically power 140 00:04:55.666 --> 00:04:57.833 grades designed for other people to use. 141 00:04:58.166 --> 00:04:59.750 They're labeled, they're documented. 142 00:05:00.250 --> 00:05:01.291 They're created in a way 143 00:05:01.291 --> 00:05:02.708 that other people can use them 144 00:05:02.708 --> 00:05:05.458 without having to know every single inch of it. 145 00:05:05.916 --> 00:05:06.833 And that's a little bit different 146 00:05:06.833 --> 00:05:08.375 than the current tools that are around. 147 00:05:08.541 --> 00:05:10.250 Maybe you work at a facility and 148 00:05:10.250 --> 00:05:11.583 someone shows you, oh, by the way, 149 00:05:11.583 --> 00:05:13.000 we created this internal tool. 150 00:05:13.541 --> 00:05:14.583 You touch here, here and 151 00:05:14.583 --> 00:05:15.958 here. Don't touch anywhere else. 152 00:05:16.666 --> 00:05:18.083 And I didn't really like that. 153 00:05:18.083 --> 00:05:18.833 If you didn't work at a 154 00:05:18.833 --> 00:05:20.833 facility, you didn't have the ability 155 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:22.750 to get into a facility, you were stuck. 156 00:05:23.125 --> 00:05:24.875 And I wanted to sort of open that up. 157 00:05:25.041 --> 00:05:26.083 And that's really what 158 00:05:26.083 --> 00:05:27.375 Pixel Tools got started with. 159 00:05:27.916 --> 00:05:30.750 Which I mean, you're talking about specific tools, 160 00:05:30.750 --> 00:05:31.833 which tool did you start with? 161 00:05:32.125 --> 00:05:33.083 What was the one thing? So 162 00:05:33.083 --> 00:05:34.083 you know what I really want? 163 00:05:34.833 --> 00:05:38.541 Really, it got started in a pretty pedestrian way. 164 00:05:38.750 --> 00:05:42.125 I loved. I liked third party LUTs, 165 00:05:42.458 --> 00:05:44.416 but I didn't like the black box that they were. 166 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.500 And so as I started to learn 167 00:05:47.500 --> 00:05:49.583 Resolve and as sort of a petty excuse 168 00:05:49.666 --> 00:05:51.166 to get better at color 169 00:05:51.166 --> 00:05:52.583 grading and reverse engineering, 170 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:54.500 I started to reverse engineer 171 00:05:54.500 --> 00:05:57.333 popular third party look up tables. 172 00:05:57.791 --> 00:06:01.125 And I said, well, look up tables are nice, but 173 00:06:01.125 --> 00:06:02.916 they're not very helpful. 174 00:06:02.916 --> 00:06:03.791 And when they don't work, 175 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:05.416 they don't work really hard. 176 00:06:05.708 --> 00:06:07.500 Yeah. And I can't really fix them. 177 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:09.000 It's not like a plug in or a 178 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:10.000 color grade where I can go in 179 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.583 and find where it's broken and essentially fix it 180 00:06:13.583 --> 00:06:14.916 and get the project out the door. 181 00:06:14.916 --> 00:06:16.291 If it doesn't work, the door 182 00:06:16.291 --> 00:06:17.750 is slammed and it's locked. 183 00:06:18.458 --> 00:06:20.083 And I really didn't like that. 184 00:06:20.500 --> 00:06:22.250 And so at least for me in my 185 00:06:22.250 --> 00:06:24.333 basic stage, I figured out, well, 186 00:06:24.458 --> 00:06:27.541 if we can recreate these LUTs inside Resolve with 187 00:06:27.541 --> 00:06:29.458 curves and lift gamma gain 188 00:06:29.666 --> 00:06:32.000 and secondaries as much as possible 189 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:33.708 using the color warper and hue curves. 190 00:06:34.333 --> 00:06:36.583 Well, we have a lot more control over these tools. 191 00:06:37.541 --> 00:06:39.333 And so really the first 192 00:06:39.333 --> 00:06:41.000 popular three look up tables 193 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:41.666 I started reverse 194 00:06:41.666 --> 00:06:44.041 engineering were just client LUTs. 195 00:06:44.291 --> 00:06:45.250 LUTs that they brought in that 196 00:06:45.250 --> 00:06:46.916 were like, hey, we shot with this. 197 00:06:47.125 --> 00:06:48.583 Can you grade with this? 198 00:06:49.041 --> 00:06:51.416 Or I bought this popular third party LUT. 199 00:06:51.500 --> 00:06:52.875 I want to use it on my film. 200 00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:55.583 And it just broke on three or four scenes. 201 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:58.250 And so the ability you've 202 00:06:58.250 --> 00:06:59.666 encountered that, I'm sure you have. 203 00:07:00.291 --> 00:07:01.666 And they love that LUT. 204 00:07:01.666 --> 00:07:03.250 They like something that it does, 205 00:07:03.250 --> 00:07:04.333 or they like the way that it 206 00:07:04.333 --> 00:07:06.500 makes the the scene or the movie feel. 207 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:08.500 And they're attached to it because 208 00:07:08.500 --> 00:07:10.250 of course they used offline with it. 209 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:13.083 And so for me, the first 210 00:07:13.083 --> 00:07:14.958 sort of entry into this pond 211 00:07:15.333 --> 00:07:18.041 was I need to make this into a tool that I 212 00:07:18.041 --> 00:07:19.625 professional colorists can use. 213 00:07:20.041 --> 00:07:22.416 And so the first product we created was the volume 214 00:07:22.416 --> 00:07:23.500 one power grades collection, 215 00:07:23.666 --> 00:07:25.708 which was essentially a hundred 216 00:07:25.708 --> 00:07:28.583 different LUTs or common corrections 217 00:07:28.583 --> 00:07:29.708 that I reverse engineered. 218 00:07:30.708 --> 00:07:31.708 That's a lot, man. 219 00:07:33.041 --> 00:07:35.375 It - you can ask my wife for a 220 00:07:35.375 --> 00:07:36.875 lot of time we were watching TV. 221 00:07:36.875 --> 00:07:38.875 I just had my laptop out sort 222 00:07:38.875 --> 00:07:40.083 of reverse engineering them. 223 00:07:40.083 --> 00:07:40.833 And then I would take them 224 00:07:40.833 --> 00:07:42.041 into the suite and really 225 00:07:44.125 --> 00:07:46.750 make sure that they were to to 226 00:07:46.750 --> 00:07:48.625 the proper level of precision 227 00:07:48.833 --> 00:07:50.000 because reverse engineering 228 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:51.541 LUTs, you're just doing it on charts. 229 00:07:51.541 --> 00:07:53.750 You're you're it's a lot of boring work. 230 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.125 And I get it. Nobody really wants to do that. 231 00:07:56.208 --> 00:07:59.708 But the result of it is so, so important. 232 00:08:00.083 --> 00:08:01.750 The ability to have now 233 00:08:01.750 --> 00:08:03.000 three or four different nodes. 234 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:04.500 Here's the curves. Here's the hue changes. 235 00:08:04.750 --> 00:08:08.041 Here's the Luma changes is a really important task. 236 00:08:08.625 --> 00:08:10.041 And so for me, I just want to jump 237 00:08:10.041 --> 00:08:12.291 in for a sec, because you're talking 238 00:08:12.291 --> 00:08:13.250 about the reverse 239 00:08:13.250 --> 00:08:15.750 engineering and looking at charts. 240 00:08:16.166 --> 00:08:19.500 Is it possible to explain in layman's terms? 241 00:08:19.958 --> 00:08:21.166 What is it when you reverse engineer? 242 00:08:21.416 --> 00:08:22.541 What where do you start with 243 00:08:22.541 --> 00:08:23.666 that? I don't quite understand. 244 00:08:25.375 --> 00:08:29.375 So this continually gets more complicated as you 245 00:08:29.375 --> 00:08:30.666 start to reverse engineer, 246 00:08:30.666 --> 00:08:32.000 more complicated looks. 247 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:33.750 So obviously on the top end, you have film 248 00:08:33.750 --> 00:08:35.833 emulation, which is very nebulous. 249 00:08:35.833 --> 00:08:37.000 But let's start at the very beginning. 250 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:40.875 Let's just start at I have a a LUT that's changing 251 00:08:42.333 --> 00:08:43.708 blue skies to teal skies. 252 00:08:43.750 --> 00:08:46.833 And so you might be given this and the client's not 253 00:08:46.833 --> 00:08:47.958 going to tell you what it is. 254 00:08:47.958 --> 00:08:48.541 They're going to say, I really 255 00:08:48.541 --> 00:08:50.250 like what this is doing to my skies. 256 00:08:50.708 --> 00:08:52.583 Or this is what I like, the look of this. 257 00:08:53.250 --> 00:08:55.041 And you are in charge of saying, 258 00:08:55.041 --> 00:08:56.916 OK, what exactly is this doing? 259 00:08:57.583 --> 00:08:58.916 And so you might pull out a 260 00:08:58.916 --> 00:09:01.125 common couple of common shots, 261 00:09:01.125 --> 00:09:02.041 whether they're from Ari, a 262 00:09:02.041 --> 00:09:03.000 couple of synthetic shots, 263 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:03.916 and you're going to apply this 264 00:09:03.916 --> 00:09:05.166 and you're going to analyze it. 265 00:09:05.166 --> 00:09:06.958 You're going to go look at these color charts. 266 00:09:06.958 --> 00:09:08.708 You're going to say, what is it doing to red? 267 00:09:08.708 --> 00:09:09.541 What is it doing to yellow? 268 00:09:09.541 --> 00:09:11.125 What is it doing to different 269 00:09:11.125 --> 00:09:14.250 shades of hues, essentially, 270 00:09:14.250 --> 00:09:15.500 and trying to analyze it? 271 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:18.375 And one you can do that's the first step, which is 272 00:09:18.375 --> 00:09:20.000 just trying to understand, 273 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:21.500 OK, what is it touching 274 00:09:21.500 --> 00:09:22.541 and what is it not touching? 275 00:09:22.958 --> 00:09:24.041 And then you start to get in. 276 00:09:24.500 --> 00:09:27.000 OK, now I can start to put points on my curve. 277 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:29.333 Where are we starting to build our contrast curve? 278 00:09:29.333 --> 00:09:32.500 You can put it on a grayscale and start to see here 279 00:09:32.500 --> 00:09:34.041 is literally where it's expanding. 280 00:09:34.583 --> 00:09:36.291 I can see it on my waveform. 281 00:09:36.333 --> 00:09:37.833 I can see when I apply the LUT 282 00:09:37.833 --> 00:09:39.750 it pulls and stretches my image. 283 00:09:39.958 --> 00:09:41.500 And when I disable it does that. 284 00:09:41.708 --> 00:09:42.750 And then you can start to 285 00:09:42.750 --> 00:09:44.916 rebuild that with Resolve's own tools 286 00:09:44.916 --> 00:09:47.708 to the level that allow that. Right. Right. 287 00:09:48.041 --> 00:09:49.875 And and are you almost you 288 00:09:49.875 --> 00:09:51.458 know, you're rebuilding it 289 00:09:51.458 --> 00:09:52.916 and you're checking back to 290 00:09:52.916 --> 00:09:54.541 those curves and those scopes to go. 291 00:09:54.541 --> 00:09:56.125 There we go. It's the same 292 00:09:56.125 --> 00:09:58.833 kind of world. And yeah, exactly. 293 00:09:59.416 --> 00:10:02.666 And it's it sounds like dull work because it is. 294 00:10:02.666 --> 00:10:03.958 And you're just trying to 295 00:10:03.958 --> 00:10:06.083 make your A/B'ing it to see, OK, 296 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:08.500 my work, the LUTs work. 297 00:10:09.083 --> 00:10:10.791 And there's times where you're like, you know what? 298 00:10:11.375 --> 00:10:12.666 I can see something that the 299 00:10:12.666 --> 00:10:14.208 LUT is doing that I don't like. 300 00:10:14.500 --> 00:10:16.791 So I'm going to rebuild everything except that. 301 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:19.250 Yeah, that's going to be a problem. Yeah. Yeah. 302 00:10:19.500 --> 00:10:20.958 And that and then I'm back to what you're saying 303 00:10:20.958 --> 00:10:23.000 about it breaking or something like that. 304 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:24.625 You're just kind of refining 305 00:10:24.625 --> 00:10:26.666 that and getting all those elements, 306 00:10:27.291 --> 00:10:28.708 but rebuilding in such a way that 307 00:10:28.708 --> 00:10:30.000 it's not going to break your image 308 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:30.958 and it's not going to do 309 00:10:30.958 --> 00:10:33.041 those nasty things. Exactly. 310 00:10:33.291 --> 00:10:35.875 A lot of the problem, at least now, a lot of us are 311 00:10:35.875 --> 00:10:37.583 working in scene referred workflows 312 00:10:37.916 --> 00:10:39.416 where we're not including the 313 00:10:39.416 --> 00:10:41.000 camera transform in our looks. 314 00:10:41.583 --> 00:10:42.916 A lot of the stuff provided by 315 00:10:42.916 --> 00:10:44.833 our clients has that baked in there. 316 00:10:45.416 --> 00:10:47.041 And so we have to figure out, well, 317 00:10:47.041 --> 00:10:49.250 how can I apply this creative transform 318 00:10:49.500 --> 00:10:51.541 without my technical camera transform? 319 00:10:52.416 --> 00:10:53.625 And so there's a lot of. 320 00:10:54.875 --> 00:10:56.166 I mean, it gets more complicated, 321 00:10:56.166 --> 00:10:57.416 but you are reverse engineering. 322 00:10:57.666 --> 00:10:59.291 So you might you might apply 323 00:10:59.291 --> 00:11:01.583 their their applied camera LUT 324 00:11:01.916 --> 00:11:03.791 on a different project, pull stills, and then 325 00:11:03.791 --> 00:11:04.416 you're going to have to go 326 00:11:04.416 --> 00:11:05.291 into your scene referred 327 00:11:05.291 --> 00:11:06.666 workflow and try and match that. 328 00:11:07.166 --> 00:11:10.333 So it can get pretty complicated, but the gist of 329 00:11:10.333 --> 00:11:11.875 it is you're essentially trying to 330 00:11:11.875 --> 00:11:15.125 A/B things with synthetic charts and real charts 331 00:11:15.125 --> 00:11:17.500 and at different exposure levels. 332 00:11:17.500 --> 00:11:19.708 Because remember, sometimes these things will react 333 00:11:19.708 --> 00:11:21.750 different at bright scenes 334 00:11:21.875 --> 00:11:23.625 and then at dark scenes. OK. 335 00:11:25.083 --> 00:11:27.833 Now, I know I kind of pulled you off track a little 336 00:11:27.833 --> 00:11:29.125 bit because you were talking about 337 00:11:29.166 --> 00:11:31.625 you started off by, you know, 338 00:11:31.625 --> 00:11:32.958 building all these power grades, right? 339 00:11:34.041 --> 00:11:36.500 And and and developing. Where'd you go from there? 340 00:11:38.250 --> 00:11:41.750 So power grades for me, once I discovered that 341 00:11:41.750 --> 00:11:43.416 Resolve had a form of color 342 00:11:43.416 --> 00:11:45.041 grading presets that they call power 343 00:11:45.041 --> 00:11:47.250 grades, which essentially allows me 344 00:11:47.250 --> 00:11:50.416 to build a preset of notes that I can continually 345 00:11:50.416 --> 00:11:51.750 use on a variety of different 346 00:11:51.791 --> 00:11:53.541 projects, but also document 347 00:11:53.541 --> 00:11:54.833 and give out to other people. 348 00:11:55.833 --> 00:11:59.958 My next step was, well, what can I do with the. 349 00:12:01.416 --> 00:12:02.583 Essentially, a tool that I 350 00:12:02.583 --> 00:12:04.000 want to go beyond Resolve. 351 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:05.916 So, for instance, a very popular 352 00:12:05.916 --> 00:12:08.083 request is I want subtractive saturation 353 00:12:08.500 --> 00:12:11.125 or saturation that gets darker as 354 00:12:11.125 --> 00:12:13.208 it gets more saturated, not brighter. 355 00:12:13.875 --> 00:12:15.708 Really, really common sort 356 00:12:15.708 --> 00:12:17.500 of filmic saturation vibe. 357 00:12:18.083 --> 00:12:20.875 You can do that theoretically in Resolve. 358 00:12:21.041 --> 00:12:22.666 It's going to require a a 359 00:12:22.666 --> 00:12:23.791 node sandwich kind of thing. 360 00:12:23.791 --> 00:12:25.708 You're going to have a bunch of different nodes. 361 00:12:25.708 --> 00:12:26.583 You might compound them. 362 00:12:27.125 --> 00:12:30.500 But for me, I was getting distracted with that. 363 00:12:31.250 --> 00:12:34.500 A big. Around that time, I decided 364 00:12:34.500 --> 00:12:36.166 that it was time for me to decide 365 00:12:36.541 --> 00:12:38.375 what I wanted to do with pixel tools. 366 00:12:38.791 --> 00:12:40.083 There's a lot of people that were starting to 367 00:12:40.083 --> 00:12:41.291 create color grading tools, 368 00:12:41.291 --> 00:12:44.208 and I really decided to define why 369 00:12:44.208 --> 00:12:45.625 am I creating color grading tools 370 00:12:45.750 --> 00:12:47.041 and what are going to make mine different? 371 00:12:47.916 --> 00:12:49.625 And what I decided to define at 372 00:12:49.625 --> 00:12:52.375 that time is a lot of plug ins, 373 00:12:52.416 --> 00:12:55.416 Resolve, the built in tools are highly complicated. 374 00:12:55.833 --> 00:12:58.041 They have more sliders and true. 375 00:12:58.708 --> 00:13:01.500 Yeah, different different adjustable features that 376 00:13:01.500 --> 00:13:02.541 you can throw a stick at. 377 00:13:03.166 --> 00:13:05.208 For me, I'm not going to 378 00:13:05.208 --> 00:13:06.708 create a new plug in or tool 379 00:13:06.833 --> 00:13:10.416 unless there's a really definable benefit to it. 380 00:13:10.666 --> 00:13:13.541 So for me, pixel tools outside of the power grades 381 00:13:13.541 --> 00:13:16.291 going into what are called DCTLs or 382 00:13:16.291 --> 00:13:17.625 essentially a programming language 383 00:13:17.625 --> 00:13:19.375 that we can use to create plug ins. 384 00:13:19.791 --> 00:13:20.833 I wanted to make sure that I 385 00:13:20.833 --> 00:13:22.541 created color grading tools 386 00:13:22.541 --> 00:13:24.000 that were simple and easy 387 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:25.333 for professional colorists. 388 00:13:25.708 --> 00:13:27.250 We are jamming through sessions, 389 00:13:28.166 --> 00:13:29.625 and I find that a lot of us use 390 00:13:29.625 --> 00:13:31.291 tools that we ignore things on. 391 00:13:31.916 --> 00:13:35.333 So for me, as a working professional, we're paid 392 00:13:35.333 --> 00:13:36.666 per hour most of the time. 393 00:13:37.583 --> 00:13:39.541 I wanted to simplify the workflow. 394 00:13:40.250 --> 00:13:41.791 So there's a lot of tools out 395 00:13:41.791 --> 00:13:43.416 there that makes things more complex. 396 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:45.250 I wanted to simplify them. 397 00:13:46.125 --> 00:13:47.541 So for me, it's all about 398 00:13:47.541 --> 00:13:49.583 making it so I can work on the panel. 399 00:13:50.083 --> 00:13:52.291 So that I can work quickly so that I don't have to 400 00:13:52.291 --> 00:13:54.083 leave my creative mindset. 401 00:13:54.333 --> 00:13:55.791 I don't want to go into working. 402 00:13:56.250 --> 00:13:58.250 OK, what color space do I need to go into? 403 00:13:58.541 --> 00:14:01.541 I go to HSB, I go to HSL, I change the gain. 404 00:14:02.166 --> 00:14:04.458 OK, now what was my what did my client want again? 405 00:14:04.916 --> 00:14:06.333 They wanted punchy colors. 406 00:14:06.916 --> 00:14:08.000 I don't want to switch between 407 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:09.500 technical and creative mindsets. 408 00:14:10.291 --> 00:14:12.791 And the requirement that resolve 409 00:14:12.791 --> 00:14:15.375 makes you do to do some of these creative 410 00:14:16.041 --> 00:14:18.416 solutions to me was a big problem. 411 00:14:19.416 --> 00:14:20.583 Certain colorists can do that. 412 00:14:21.125 --> 00:14:22.166 Not everybody can. 413 00:14:22.166 --> 00:14:24.291 And I don't think being highly technical is a 414 00:14:24.291 --> 00:14:25.958 requirement of being a good colorist. 415 00:14:26.250 --> 00:14:30.125 So for me at this time, it was to create highly 416 00:14:30.125 --> 00:14:32.083 precise color grading tools 417 00:14:32.541 --> 00:14:36.125 that even just the creative colorists could use. 418 00:14:36.291 --> 00:14:37.208 I really love that. 419 00:14:37.458 --> 00:14:39.666 I really love that because, you know, I'm not I'm 420 00:14:39.666 --> 00:14:41.291 not a technical colorist, you know, 421 00:14:41.291 --> 00:14:44.666 and and the things that the tools that you've 422 00:14:44.666 --> 00:14:46.791 developed are really useful. 423 00:14:47.041 --> 00:14:48.833 And they are simple to use, you 424 00:14:48.833 --> 00:14:50.625 know, which which is a delight. 425 00:14:53.083 --> 00:14:55.833 Do you have and I don't know if you can talk about 426 00:14:55.833 --> 00:14:56.750 this, but do you have some other 427 00:14:56.750 --> 00:14:58.750 tools coming up? I do. 428 00:14:59.708 --> 00:15:02.041 I'm - here's where I am right now. 429 00:15:02.041 --> 00:15:02.833 Right now, I'm in this 430 00:15:02.833 --> 00:15:06.333 interesting area of I'm examining the scene 431 00:15:06.833 --> 00:15:08.875 and I'm looking like it's easy 432 00:15:08.875 --> 00:15:09.958 for me to just go, you know what? 433 00:15:10.166 --> 00:15:11.666 We need a new contrast. Cool. 434 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:14.458 We need a new split toning tool. 435 00:15:14.833 --> 00:15:16.583 But it's really crucially important 436 00:15:16.583 --> 00:15:18.500 to me that I'm not recreating the wheel 437 00:15:18.500 --> 00:15:19.500 for something that is 438 00:15:19.500 --> 00:15:20.625 already well done in Resolve. 439 00:15:21.041 --> 00:15:23.958 It needs to be something that I'm having trouble 440 00:15:23.958 --> 00:15:25.750 with that is causing me slowdown 441 00:15:26.208 --> 00:15:29.000 because. There are a lot of 442 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:31.750 people now that I think are are more - 443 00:15:33.250 --> 00:15:34.250 What's the right way to put this? 444 00:15:34.458 --> 00:15:37.958 I think are just trying to make money off plugins. 445 00:15:38.833 --> 00:15:40.208 And it's really easy to do that. 446 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:42.416 I think it's really important to 447 00:15:42.416 --> 00:15:46.083 remember how very good resolve is 448 00:15:46.083 --> 00:15:49.125 a lot of color grading operations and only go 449 00:15:49.125 --> 00:15:51.083 outside the box if you really need to. 450 00:15:51.500 --> 00:15:52.916 A lot can be done with power 451 00:15:52.916 --> 00:15:56.416 grades and creating an entire DCTL tool 452 00:15:56.791 --> 00:15:58.166 is not always necessary. 453 00:15:58.583 --> 00:15:59.750 So before I go, it's I'm sorry, 454 00:15:59.750 --> 00:16:01.166 but I'm just because you're speaking 455 00:16:01.375 --> 00:16:03.875 from a place of integrity and, you know, it's not 456 00:16:03.875 --> 00:16:05.125 you know, you've got to make a living 457 00:16:05.250 --> 00:16:06.708 and you've got to make money off these things. 458 00:16:06.708 --> 00:16:08.666 But it's really lovely that you're doing that. 459 00:16:11.125 --> 00:16:13.750 It's I've always been that guy that it took me a 460 00:16:13.750 --> 00:16:16.625 really long time to to to sell things. 461 00:16:17.166 --> 00:16:18.416 Even if it's a great product. 462 00:16:18.708 --> 00:16:19.750 But like my split tone 463 00:16:19.750 --> 00:16:21.458 tool is there for convenience. 464 00:16:21.750 --> 00:16:23.208 You can do everything you can with 465 00:16:23.208 --> 00:16:24.750 our split tone tool in the curves. 466 00:16:25.625 --> 00:16:27.291 But not everybody wants to do that. 467 00:16:28.583 --> 00:16:29.416 To answer your question, 468 00:16:29.416 --> 00:16:30.791 what do we have coming next? 469 00:16:30.833 --> 00:16:31.333 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 470 00:16:31.333 --> 00:16:31.583 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 471 00:16:31.750 --> 00:16:33.166 Yeah, I'm looking at. 472 00:16:35.125 --> 00:16:38.791 Filmic contrast and some of the restrictions that 473 00:16:38.791 --> 00:16:41.250 we have with the current curves tool in resolve. 474 00:16:41.750 --> 00:16:43.500 It is an amazing tool, especially 475 00:16:43.500 --> 00:16:45.291 now that they've given us our Gigantor 476 00:16:45.458 --> 00:16:46.791 Mode back or gigantic curves 477 00:16:46.791 --> 00:16:48.458 where you can pop out the curves mode. 478 00:16:49.208 --> 00:16:51.291 But I want to make it faster for you 479 00:16:51.291 --> 00:16:55.375 to make nice, soft, precise curves. 480 00:16:55.375 --> 00:16:56.583 I want to make you so you can make 481 00:16:56.583 --> 00:16:59.291 a nice soft S curve with sliders. 482 00:16:59.875 --> 00:17:01.583 And I haven't quite figured 483 00:17:01.583 --> 00:17:02.958 out how I want to do that yet. 484 00:17:03.416 --> 00:17:05.708 But that's really my next goal is so that you can 485 00:17:05.708 --> 00:17:08.291 create those really nice soft film 486 00:17:08.291 --> 00:17:10.250 at contrast curves without having to 487 00:17:10.250 --> 00:17:12.041 be so fiddly with the built in curve. 488 00:17:12.041 --> 00:17:12.416 That's great. 489 00:17:13.375 --> 00:17:16.291 And with included with that, because obviously not 490 00:17:16.291 --> 00:17:17.666 everybody knows what a good 491 00:17:17.666 --> 00:17:19.000 contrast curve looks like. 492 00:17:19.291 --> 00:17:23.375 I'm going to try and include some pre built filmic 493 00:17:23.375 --> 00:17:25.500 contrast curves based off some scanned 494 00:17:25.500 --> 00:17:26.583 film emulations, which I 495 00:17:26.583 --> 00:17:28.041 think is a really important thing. 496 00:17:29.166 --> 00:17:29.916 That is cool. 497 00:17:31.708 --> 00:17:34.291 Yeah, I think it's really important that we always 498 00:17:34.291 --> 00:17:35.916 have a basis to go off of. 499 00:17:35.916 --> 00:17:38.125 It's really easy to just like take a tool and go, 500 00:17:38.333 --> 00:17:40.125 OK, I'm going to make it look really cool. 501 00:17:40.583 --> 00:17:43.833 But for me, I enjoy working off 502 00:17:43.833 --> 00:17:45.666 something that has come from something. 503 00:17:45.666 --> 00:17:49.375 So for me, yeah, I enjoy making a contrasty image. 504 00:17:49.375 --> 00:17:52.291 But for me, the interest of now, once I have more 505 00:17:52.291 --> 00:17:53.875 precise controls, that gives 506 00:17:53.875 --> 00:17:55.875 me the ability to match stuff. 507 00:17:56.916 --> 00:18:00.250 I have our timer's run out. 508 00:18:01.125 --> 00:18:04.041 You know, I'm thinking I made this bed. 509 00:18:04.250 --> 00:18:06.000 I made this 15 minute sand timer bed. 510 00:18:06.541 --> 00:18:08.041 And I wish I had a 20 minute 511 00:18:08.041 --> 00:18:10.083 sand timer because so quick. 512 00:18:10.083 --> 00:18:11.458 I've got all these questions for you. 513 00:18:11.458 --> 00:18:14.791 And and and I'm my own worst enemy because I keep 514 00:18:14.791 --> 00:18:15.833 interrupting you and asking 515 00:18:15.833 --> 00:18:17.125 you other things on top of it. 516 00:18:17.416 --> 00:18:19.791 But but listen, just quickly before 517 00:18:19.791 --> 00:18:22.333 you go, I want to get your take on AI. 518 00:18:23.208 --> 00:18:25.291 About, you know, everyone's talking about AI this, 519 00:18:25.291 --> 00:18:29.166 AI that and how you think it is going to how it is 520 00:18:29.166 --> 00:18:31.625 impacting us as colorist or how you think it's 521 00:18:31.625 --> 00:18:33.250 going to impact us as colorists. 522 00:18:35.458 --> 00:18:37.291 Absolutely, I certainly have been helping that 523 00:18:37.291 --> 00:18:39.291 timer rambling on and on. 524 00:18:39.291 --> 00:18:42.916 But I have a pretty strong opinion about AI, but 525 00:18:42.916 --> 00:18:45.208 it's not one that I think is very usual. 526 00:18:45.666 --> 00:18:48.916 I actually feel that AI is going to help us quite a 527 00:18:48.916 --> 00:18:51.541 bit in taking away a lot of those. 528 00:18:52.583 --> 00:18:54.750 Boring tasks that you don't really want to do. 529 00:18:54.958 --> 00:18:56.750 So for instance, the task that I talked about 530 00:18:56.750 --> 00:19:00.291 matching, we may be able to have AI help us do a 531 00:19:00.291 --> 00:19:01.875 match to a grayscale in the future 532 00:19:01.875 --> 00:19:06.166 or labeling clips or renaming stuff. 533 00:19:06.750 --> 00:19:09.916 Instead of being afraid of losing your job or 534 00:19:09.916 --> 00:19:13.083 having AI come in to replace you, reevaluate your 535 00:19:13.083 --> 00:19:15.041 job and say, what about my job 536 00:19:15.041 --> 00:19:17.750 do I hate doing or do I put on a podcast and listen 537 00:19:17.750 --> 00:19:20.083 to and just don't really pay attention to? 538 00:19:20.291 --> 00:19:23.625 And with that extra time, what could I do instead 539 00:19:23.625 --> 00:19:24.916 that I want to do or what 540 00:19:24.916 --> 00:19:26.416 could I learn to do instead? 541 00:19:26.916 --> 00:19:31.291 Because the fact is, a lot of our job is just busy 542 00:19:31.291 --> 00:19:34.916 work, prepping, transcoding, 543 00:19:35.375 --> 00:19:38.791 renaming, organizing, labeling, clip coloring. 544 00:19:39.291 --> 00:19:42.625 This stuff is perfect for AI and 545 00:19:42.625 --> 00:19:45.583 we can do so much more precise work. 546 00:19:46.541 --> 00:19:48.208 The fact is, we just don't give ourselves the 547 00:19:48.208 --> 00:19:49.583 opportunity to look and 548 00:19:49.583 --> 00:19:51.291 say, what could I do instead? 549 00:19:52.958 --> 00:19:55.458 So I feel that we shouldn't be afraid of AI just 550 00:19:55.458 --> 00:19:57.166 like every tool that's come before us. 551 00:19:57.583 --> 00:19:59.541 It's nowhere near the point where it's going to be 552 00:19:59.541 --> 00:20:01.166 getting rid of all of our jobs, 553 00:20:01.625 --> 00:20:03.083 but our jobs will be changing. 554 00:20:03.333 --> 00:20:05.208 And being open to that is the most important thing 555 00:20:05.208 --> 00:20:06.416 that I can recommend to people. 556 00:20:06.833 --> 00:20:09.625 Be open to your job changing and start to look at 557 00:20:09.625 --> 00:20:11.791 things that one, you enjoy 558 00:20:11.791 --> 00:20:14.000 doing and would like to do more of. 559 00:20:14.916 --> 00:20:17.250 Well, I'm I'm very glad that I'm not talking to an 560 00:20:17.250 --> 00:20:19.291 AI version of Jason Bowdach and 561 00:20:19.291 --> 00:20:20.708 that I'm talking to the real Jason Bowdach. 562 00:20:20.708 --> 00:20:23.916 Mate, thank you so darn much. 563 00:20:24.125 --> 00:20:27.500 That was good. And don't you dare say say anything 564 00:20:27.500 --> 00:20:29.791 about rambling because I could keep talking to you 565 00:20:29.791 --> 00:20:31.458 for so long about all of this. 566 00:20:31.458 --> 00:20:32.375 It's really, really cool and 567 00:20:32.375 --> 00:20:33.208 really, really interesting. 568 00:20:33.208 --> 00:20:34.583 And my hat goes off to you 569 00:20:34.583 --> 00:20:35.916 100 percent what you're doing. 570 00:20:38.500 --> 00:20:39.333 Well, thank you so much 571 00:20:39.333 --> 00:20:40.583 for having me on the podcast. 572 00:20:40.583 --> 00:20:41.625 It was truly a pleasure. 573 00:20:41.666 --> 00:20:43.750 And it went by way faster than I could have imagined. 574 00:20:44.041 --> 00:20:45.041 Thanks, mate. Cheers. 575 00:20:46.916 --> 00:20:48.708 Thank you so much. Have a good one. 576 00:20:49.750 --> 00:20:51.291 Jason, thank you so much for being 577 00:20:51.291 --> 00:20:53.041 my guest on the Color Timer podcast. 578 00:20:53.791 --> 00:20:56.791 That was amazing. It does go painfully fast, but 579 00:20:56.791 --> 00:20:58.166 that was it was really, really good. 580 00:20:59.791 --> 00:21:00.875 Thank you, everybody, for listening. 581 00:21:01.541 --> 00:21:03.291 Like, subscribe to all that kind of stuff, because 582 00:21:03.291 --> 00:21:04.750 it does actually really, really 583 00:21:04.750 --> 00:21:07.000 help and keep the comments coming. 584 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:07.458 They're really cool. 585 00:21:08.791 --> 00:21:11.416 Thank you to my executive producer, MixingLight.com. 586 00:21:12.416 --> 00:21:14.000 If you're watching this on the Mixing Light 587 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:15.500 website, you already know what they do. 588 00:21:15.500 --> 00:21:17.708 If you don't check them out, MixingLight.com, 589 00:21:17.708 --> 00:21:21.375 everything color and, anything else? 590 00:21:22.750 --> 00:21:25.791 No, that's it. See you on the next one. Bye. 591 00:21:26.625 --> 00:21:30.208 The Colour Timer, a micro podcast experience.