Should the green screen material be composited first and then beautified or beautified first and then composited?
I tend to do beauty first.
what is beautified? maybe you mean grading?
If so id always say to match fg to bg then grade in the end
I always go with a paralell pipeline, depending on the time there is.
One flow from the raw or graded material is used for the key and the material stays, the graded material is used for the retouches and FG/BG is combined after the retouches last.
Grade should be separate for fg/bg so you can fine-tune and handle revisions. Make the matte based on the originals and propagate through the pipeline so grades can be separated for each.
That’s the ideal scenario. However, depending on budget you can certain take short-cute. Grade each and then composite.
Personally, I do beauty work after I Do GS comps. I like to see the married shot, and sometimes the slight softening of the image through the comp process fixes small skin problems for you!
Absolutely agree with @finnjaeger
It was a revelation when we started do this. No more fighting grade windows to comp.
I have been talking with other people about this.
I wonder if it was somewhat due to how expensive telecine was
If you were going to scan the neg you might as well grade at the same time. I think I did one job that had been given a best light (one light) with the intention being that they would finish the grade at the end of the post.
My take, work ungraded, but internally neutralized. Ungraded could mean segments being all over the place, which will make same-as shots difficult for VFX. Neutralizing for VFX work and then give back un-neutralized material, so grading doesn’t break. Neutralization should be done in a way that can be reversed, usually just gain/offset adjustment.
I guess I am describing a common practice in feature work… commercials is probably a different story.
Yeah a balance grade is rare but I agree it can be a real issue if shots are all over the place.
I have done it myself using the look node that you can invert (just check the pipeline first).
Unbalanced but wide dynamic range is still much better to work with than a graded plate. With or without terrible keys and sliding power windows.
Grade after comp and NEVER give mattes to grading. (they should treat it like it’s shot…)
Ok… but in reality… it really depends on the type of project… etc… back in the day I loved having a live grade on top of my timeline (using baselight’s blg’s) to see if the comp held up with the grade…
Yes. Simple DIT originated CDLs plus any creative timeline level Look can also be of use. Sandwich your work with those and neutral grades. Keep the bread at delivery.