Hi Walter,
thank you very much for your input. And yes, all your points are 100% right.
My issue was “how do I make it easy for users” and how can I make them use ACES.
I am dealing with post facilities in Asia that told me that they don’t want to work in ACES. After a while I found out that they are scared of the size of uncompressed EXRs and not ACES.
Fact is, they didn’t really know in-deep what ACES is. And I am talking about companies with 200 and more people. I can tell you it was a fight to get them to use ACES.
So I started using BLGs which made it quite convenient for both sides.
Additional I invited the supervisors, told them about ACES and went through the process with them. Step by step, from grading to VFX. And the moment I tell them about ACES2065-1 they are looking at me like I am a big fat cow.
And I seem to become an even bigger fat cow when I talk to colorists about ACES. Sadly a lot of guys just want to know “the magic setting” which works for all projects.
The majority of colorists still works display referred, rather than scene referred. Sadly.
For the DRTs. You are 100% right again, of course.
I could call it ACES flavoured or “kind of ACES” or “based on the priciples of ACES”. Colorists (including me) have started mixing DRT’s to get different looks and be more flexible. Or some change the colorspace at the end of their process (before the ODT) to use their old REC.709 Luts.
That’s not ACES anymore and causes other problems like false colors or loosing range later when it comes to HDR. As a colorist I am quite happy that baselight gives me a few more possibilities and prevents me from shooting myself in the knee. Especially with TCAM and the use of look operators.
I think the issue of understanding ACES is more on the colorists side than the VFX/CG side. Especially if the colorist is not a technical guy at all. Which probably most of them are not.
Not every facility has engineers or workflow specialists.
My purpose for the video was to get people to use ACES, and make it easier for them with BLGs.
My issue was where do I start and stop or how complicated should it be? So I compromised a bit to make it easier. Sorry for that.
In fact I am very thankful that you gave me your feedback and corrections.
Thanks again.
Best
Andy