Red Workflow V.1.2

RED WORKFLOW (v.1.2; 08/19/2008) by: Brandon Kraemer

FORWARD This document is intended to be a work in progress, much like the RED camera system is. With the recent release of the Software Developers Kit for the RED camera and future 5k cameras in development, the post production pipeline for RED will continue to evolve quickly over the next coming months and years. Most of the software described within are in BETA release and are prone to bugs and frequent revisions. The RED camera itself has software builds that can be updated. BEFORE YOU BEGIN A SHOOT, CONFIRM WITH THE CAMERA RENTAL AGENT AND CINEMATOGRAPHER WHAT BUILD THE CAMERA IS ON AND IF THAT IS COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR WORKFLOW. Current documentation for the post production workflow is hard to come by and there is no centrally organized location to get a full workflow explanation. This document will hopefully bridge that gap for the time being. At the end of this document are links to useful resources, and a diagram of what the RED file names mean. The RED workflow is unique and will require some adjustment in the way it is approached. RED is more than just a camera, it is also a software telecine pipeline. It is an extremely flexible file format capable of working in virtually any sized format up to 4K resolution, any pixel aspect ratio, any frame rate and most any file type or codec. How the pipeline is approached is also flexible and will depend on factors that include the final medium and the amount of footage to be ingested. An important consideration is that anytime a RED camera is used, color correction must be a part of the workflow because of the color space that the RED camera captures in. More detailed information about this is explained within.

RED WORKFLOW BASICS RED media is created by the camera as a .R3D file. This is a proprietary RAW file format that has a tremendous exposure latitude sensitivity and a definable format size, up to 4K resolution. From a cinematography perspective, the RED camera is balanced to 5000 degrees Kelvin, or a little warmer than daylight balance and always exposes to the RAW files as 320 ISO. Currently any adjustment that might be made on set to change the appearance of the camera is simply for demonstration purposes. The raw files will always be 320 ISO and 5000K. Also important to note is that the RED camera shoots in a 2:1 aspect ratio. In a 4K workflow this would mean the .R3D files would be 4096 X 2048. The camera can also shoot in the 16:9 aspect ratio for a 4096 X 2304 frame size. This would not really matter unless the final output was 4K. 2:1 is the standard setup. The RED camera creates QT proxy files, which point to the RAW file and can be viewed with QuickTime 7.4.5 if the RED QuickTime Codec is installed. These proxy files need to be stored in the same directory as the .R3D files to work properly. The QuickTime proxy files can be used for viewing and editing, and they contain all the metadata of the .R3D files with in them. The RED camera automatically creates 4 proxy files for each .R3D file and labels them with the following nomenclature: _F for Full, _H for High, _M for Medium, and _P for proxy. High is equal to 1/2 the .R3D file frame size, Medium is 1/4 and Proxy is 1/8 the .R3D file frame size. For an example, a RED 4k file has a frame size of 4096 x 2048, so the _H file would be 2048 x 1152, _M = 1024 x 576, _P = 512 x 288. While these proxy files may be large enough for the finished format and have no compression, they are NOT suitable for final output. This is where the RED workflow is unique because of it's native .R3D file formats proprietary color space. The proxies are used to make edit decision lists in the form of XML, and these XML files will be used to navigate the process of transcoding the .R3D files using 1-light color correction into the final master clips. These transcoded and color graded clips are then re-linked into the edit system and shared with other work-flows.

FINAL CUT PRO WORK-FLOWS There are basically three ways to use .R3D media with FCP: FCP Crimson Redcine Workflow, FCP Redcine Workflow, and FCP Log and Transfer Workflow. Each has it's up and downside. These work-flows are sure to change as the software catches up, but currently these are the available options. I. FCP CRIMSON REDCINE WORKFLOW

Note: Supports RED ONE cameras up through Build 16. The best way of working in FCP with lots of media currently is the method known as FCP Crimson Redcine Workflow, which takes advantage of the QT proxy files for offline editing, then roundtrips the XML metadata via an application known as Crimson Workflow, and then uses Redcine software to transcode the .R3D files through a 1-light telecine process. Redcine outputs as any number of QT codec formats, file sequence formats, frame dimensions and frame rates. These transcoded renders are then re-linked in FCP, again via Crimson Workflow's XML translation software, and can be further color corrected or shared with compositing and animation artists. This method, while complicated, delivers the best quality and takes full advantage of the RED cameras latitude. It also affords the ability to begin editing immediately with out front end transcoding and speeder workflow by using lower res proxies. The following is a detailed description of how to approach this workflow. Step 1: FCP Import and XML Export Import the RED footage by opening the finder and finding the parent directory that contains all the folders from the shoot. Simply drag this folder into the FCP project. This folder becomes a bin. Each shot has its own folder and contains 4 proxy files in each of the proxy sizes (F, H, M, P). Determine which proxy size you want to use, Medium has the best system response. Edit as you normally would and export an XML file of the finished sequence using Apple XML Interchange Format, version 4, choose save the project with latest clip metadata option. The resulting file is named Sequence.xml. Step 2: Crimson Workflow XML Import and Export Launch the application Crimson Workflow. Choose the source sequence (Sequence.xml). Next, add to the Search Folders directory the parent directory that contains the .R3D media for this project. Then select MATCH. This finds the .R3D files and matches them to your XML metadata file. Next, tab over to the Intermediate menu and make sure Use "Cowboy" intermediate is selected. This pre-cuts your master clips so the following process in Redcine is based on your edit. Select the Add Prefix option as well. Next tab over to Redcine and chose Export Redcine XML. This creates a file called Sequence_telecine.xml. It also creates intermediate alias files to Crimson Workflow's working directory: Documents/Crimson Workflow Documents/ Intermediates/Project. You will use both the telecine.xml file and the intermediate alias in the next step. Step 3: Redcine Import Launch the application Redcine. Select Load All and navigate to the folder created by Crimson Workflow that contains the Intermediates. These files look like .R3D files, but are alias that have altered metadata. Select this directory and click load. You will now see the master .R3D files loaded into Redcine, but they are not yet matched to the edit. To do that go to project settings, select open project and open the Sequence_telecine.xml file. This conforms the clips in Redcine's library to your XML and now on the timeline you can see your shots in context as you make 1-light color correction decisions, do repositions, etc. Please see the Redcine Workflow section for more indepth information about this step. Step 4: Redcine Export Once the project settings, shot settings, color settings have been made to the clips in the timeline you will need to render these out to the appropriate file format. From the Output Settings select the file name specifications option from the field that contains the default file name, #S.mov. From this pop up window, select Separate Folders and Input File Name. This will create individual clips that match the originals when you render out that will be re-linked in FCP. If you do not select separate folders, it will render out as one movie, which is not what FCP needs. Next, choose your format. This can be any number of formats, but for FCP you will need to use QuickTime for the file format as FCP does not support image sequences. (DPX workflow would require Glue Tools as a conversion tool.) Next select the compression setting, Apple ProRes 422 HQ or Uncompressed 10 bit 422 are both good options. Set Quality to Lossless and the Process level to Full. Set the Output Path to the drives that you want the media to playback from and click the big red go button to begin the transcoding. Redcine will create an event folder for each shot to be rendered, with in that folder is the actual render.

Be sure to save the Redcine project by overwriting the telecine.xml file with the Redcine project file. This re-links your work in Redcine with Crimson. Step 5: Crimson Workflow Roundtrip XML Back in Crimson Workflow, select the Frame tab and select the output frame size to match the frame size you rendered to in Redcine, such as HD 1080. Then click the Roundtrip tab and click Generate Roundtrip XML tab. This will save an XML file called Sequence_roundtrip.xml. Step 6: FCP Import Roundtrip XML Back in FCP, go File, Import XML and select the roundtrip XML file. This creates a sequence that re-links the transcoded media to this new timeline. From this point, you can further color correct, exchange media with graphics workflow and other wise finish the project with in FCP. II. FCP/GRAPHICS REDCINE WORKFLOW Note: Supports RED ONE cameras up through Build 16. An option for ingesting media into FCP for editing or ingesting plates directly into graphics workflow would be to first transcode all the necessary footage first using Redcine and then import the files it creates directly into FCP. This would be an appropriate workflow if there was a minimal amount of original source footage to work with. A 17 second 4K source clip takes about 8 minutes to transcode to SD 720 x 486, almost a 1:40 ratio of realtime. This workflow would also be appropriate if specific .R3D files were to be ingested directly to a graphics workflow. Various file sequence formats are available including .tiff and .dpx (cineon + metadata) formats. For more detailed information, please see the Redcine Workflow section. III. FCP LOG AND TRANSFER WORKFLOW Note: Supports RED ONE cameras up through Build 15 v2.2.5. The other process for working with RED footage in FCP is known as the Log and Transfer process. This uses a plugin that allows the Log and Transfer interface to transcode the .R3D files into Apple Pro-Res 422 HQ compression files at 1/2 the native size. If the native size is 4k, the shots will be ingested as 2k. There are drawbacks to this method in that there is no manual 1-light color correction to covert the color space of the RED camera to the REC 709 HD color space, this is arbitrarily done by the ingestion tool. This negates a lot of the latitude that the RED format affords, and creates 2k master clips that are VERY difficult for FCP to work with for the editing process with out powerful hardware setups. 2K clips do not play easily in real time. Expect this process to be improved as the software continues to develop, currently it is not a good option. To use this method, you would select the folders that contain the .R3D files with in the Log and Transfer tool and add the selection to the queue. Be sure that the preferences are set to Native and that remove advanced pulldown and duplicate frames is left unchecked. Transcoding the clips is slow, 20 seconds of media takes over 3 minutes, so the ratio is almost 1:10 what is real time. There is a known bug using this method. Currently audio is only available from channels 1 and 2. This workflow does not support channel 3 and 4 audio. Also, when setting the in point for ingest, the clip may not load into the queue properly. Changing this point by a frame or two will usually correct this.

REDCINE WORKFLOW Note: Supports RED ONE cameras up through Build 16. Redcine is a very powerful tool with the ability to transcode .R3D files into almost any sized file format, at most any sized pixel aspect ratio and virtually any frame rate. It is the current tool of choice for changing the color space and gamma curve from RED-space to 709 HD color space, adjusting white balance and manipulating RGB balance and luminance curves for advanced 1-light color correction. It also allows for scaling and reposition of the 4K elements with in the project settings format and other useful options. The following is a very general overview of how the workflow with in Redcine is used for transcoding clips. Before you use Redcine, make sure your monitors color space is set to Adobe 1998 or SMPTE-C with a gamma curve of 2.2. This is the standard monitor setup for working with video.

LIBRARY The library is where you load clips into Redcine and you can organize them in order or stack them for version management. PROJECT SETTINGS The project settings is where you can save, load or create a new Redcine project file. You can also load clips from this tool. Here you select the Format Settings of your project, this is independent of the 4K source resolution. If you were going to finish in 1080, you would select that preset here. There are no standard definition presets but you can manually enter any specific frame size like 720 x 486 and you can manually change the pixel aspect ratio to 0.9 for D1 SD NTSC workflow. There are also display and guide settings in the project tool. These allow you to put up a guide that represents any certain frame size as reference. You can choose to show the borders or crop the image to this guide. This does not affect your output, it is a reference tool alone. SHOT SETTINGS The shot settings allow you to trim shots and adjust the shots framing. This can be applied globally using the ALL option and then apply to change all your shots, or you can scale and reposition shots independently, with in your project settings format. COLOR SETTINGS The color setting allows you to do a wide range of telecine style exposure and color balance grading to the shots including sampling WB, changing the color temperature, adjusting ISO, exposure curves and RGB exposure values independently. These settings can be saved, recalled, copied and pasted at will. There is no apply all feature here, but there is a Reset All feature in this tool. OUTPUT SETTINGS As previously discussed in the FCP workflow section, the output tool can create image sequences or QT movies in a wide variety of formats for most any work flow. It also has the ability to Burn-in data into the image like time-code, keycode, shot name, etc. There are video tutorials on Data/Library/Tutorials & Manuals/RED WORKFLOW that give a visual overview of Redcine.

RESOURCE LINKS RED http://www.red.com/ http://www.red.com/support (for software downloads and some documentation) http://www.reduser.net/ (a forum for the RED camera and its post-production workflow) REDCINE http://www.red.com/support/release_history/6 (includes links to tutorial videos) CRIMSON http://www.redhax.net/wiki/Crimson_Workflow (the manual) http://www.crimsonworkflow.com/videos/CrimsonDemo-H.264.mov (an outdated but decent tutorial) http://www.crimsonworkflow.com/home.htm http://www.crimsonworkflow.com/forum/

APPENDIX Under development.