I do a lot of grading in ACES. Usually Arri footage. Export and viewing is always Rec709. We’ve got a client that wants to do Dolby Vision. What would it take to get up to speed for this. Output will be SDR but they want some future proofing.
This really needs a more detailed response than what can be given on a forum thread.
First question would be, do you have a HDR capable and calibrated monitor? Are you grading in Flame or in other software? You can choose to either render out your HDR pictures then apply the HDR to SDR in your finishing/online session or alternatively, save you grade project with some kind of ungraded submaster in case you need to do HDR later.
The most common workflow for HDR using ACES would be to set your output transform to match your HDR monitors calibration, usually P3D65/PQ(St.2084). If your monitor is only capable of 1000 nits then you would limit it to 1000 nits. I’d recommend a roll off at 1000 nits (or whatever your monitor can do) so you are not hard clipping. Finish your grade in HDR.
Once the HDR grade is complete then do a Dolby Vision Analysis of each and every shot. You need to switch your monitor to a Rec709 calibration but you would keep your output transform as P3D65PQ as the tone mapping will apply the transform to Rec709. Turn on your Dolby Vision tone mapping (with the output monitor set to Rec709 100 nits) and apply Dolby trims to get the SDR looking how you want.
Now you could either export your graded pictures and use a Dolby Vision XML to apply to your HDR master to create your SDR master. Or you could render out SDR pics and finish it in SDR.
I would personally recommend doing VFX on ungraded footage in the native camera colourspace or in ACES prior to grade. However, if you want to do them on graded pics then I would work on the HDR pics and definitely not on a SDR grade output. Reason being is if/when they want to create a SDR master down the track you would have to redo the VFX.
For graphics and mastering, it’s your choice. If they aren’t deriving the SDR directly from a HDR master then I’d treat graphics for a HDR & SDR master separately as you may change the intensity of the graphic depending on which dynamic range you are viewing it in. I did a Dolby seminar on Flame for HDR several years ago and not much has changed in that regard. You could just do HDR graphics and use the xml and tone mapping to create the SDR. Or you set up the graphics for SDR, archive out your setup and if HDR happens down the track do it then
Please reach out if you have any questions. This is a very simple response to a question which probably needs more detail though.
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it just sounds like you allready are future proofing yourself here by grading under some view transform that you can change to another output later
if you save a version without the view transform to rec709 as acesCCT or whatever you can later go in , change the odt to rec2020/PQ and boom you sort of have a hdr version.
so just conceptually you are allready using a flexible workflow in terms of color management.
as adam said welcome to the hdr/dolby rabbit hole, but its not very far for you 
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No, no HDR capable monitor. Would have to be a rental.
Grading in Flame.
Original source material would be wide gamut Arri or RED.
Shots would go through a VFX company, hopefully ungraded and then round tripped back to Flame, same color space.
Not sure graphics will be involved.
We would also need to purchase a Dolby Vision license if I’m not mistaken.
We’ll have to figure out if the internal, one use cost is worth it or if grading out of house is better.
If you are not going to be doing HDR at least semi-regularly then I would suggest getting it graded elsewhere. There would be an investment in both time and money to get HDR running so, IMHO, it would not be worth taking it on for a rare occurrence unless you were keen to get some experience.
I agree. Thanks for the video. You lay out everything down to the minutia very well.
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Just a tangent. Last HDR I did was colored by a color house, big one. To send overseas clients HDR quicktimes to QC, they sent them iPad Pros. If you’ve got the right metadata for P3D65PQ in a prores, it shows up HDR on the ipad.
Adam helped me A LOT on my learning curve. Wasn’t too hard once you had all the little technical gaffs settled.
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Just a followup question.When exporting to Netflix, do you have to create an IMF Distribution Package?
That’s usually what’s required, there might be exceptions but everything I’ve delivered is by imf
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For Netflix Originals, their deliverable is a Dolby Vision HDR IMF with Dolby Atmos. They may take another codec if it is not an original but I’m not sure how much they are doing that these days.
Their Partner Help Centre is an incredible resource. All the info you should need is in there.
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