02 - Project Creation

2.1 - Basic settings

The Project Creation window includes all the necessary settings to create, adjust, and backup projects. The top section shows your projects and the bottom section contains project settings and general preferences. Here we can define settings like output formats, frame rates and color space (fig.07) 

fig.07 

On the bottom left side, select the Project tab. Let’s start by creating a project name and selecting settings for our project. The setup dropdown has several presets for common resolutions and frame rates. If you choose one of the presets, most of the options will be populated, but you can change settings to match your project (fig.08)

fig.08 

Next to Format, you can choose to use either RGB or RGBA and Bit Depth. Bit depth will have the biggest impact on your project, with the choices ranging from 8-bit, 10-bit, 16-bit, and Half Float. We recommend always using Half for newer projects; it gives much higher precision when using the color tools and prevents any clipping between grading layers.

If you decide to use a custom size, after entering the information of width and height, click on the aspect calculator button to correctly setup your aspect ratio. If you want to add more output resolutions, just click on the ”New” button first and then change the settings. 
 

2.2 - Resize options Filters and LUT 

A few important settings need to be manually checked to define the resize options and filters along with LUT/ ODT: 

• Convert: this setting defines how the image will be scaled if the resolution is different from the project settings.  

• None: keeps the original resolution of the file while positioning it on the bottom left side of the screen 

• Auto Fit: fits the image horizontally or vertically (whichever fits first) to the project resolution 

• Auto Crop: Crops the image horizontally or vertically to fit the project’s resolution 

• Centre: keeps the original size of the file, centering the image onscreen 

• Filters: Different types of scaling filters. These depend on the type of scaling you’re doing, but Lanczos and ZOM are the most common high-quality options  

• ACES/ LUT: Choose your ACES ODT (Output Device Transform) or LUT for your project. If you’re using ACES as your color management system, choose the correct ODT based on your delivery. If you turn on the Apply LUT button, the LUT will be automatically burned in when you render your export; if you deselect it, you can turn the LUT on and off while working and exporting. 

2.3 - Color Space, SDI Output and caching 

On the lower right side we have a few more options to be considered (fig.09): 

Fig.09

• Colour Space: This setting will control the behavior of the colour tools, levels range setup, and scopes.  

• Video Range: Standard video legal range signal. Used for Rec 709 projects, for example. Colour tools will pivot around 64-940.  

• Full Range: Full range signal covering values 0-1023. Colour tools will pivot around 0-1023 

• Cineon Log: Full range but uses logarithmic data. Colour tools will pivot around the LOG values of 95-685. 

• Video Log: Video SMPTE Range but has logarithmic data. Colour tools will pivot around 64-940. 

• ACES: Academy Color Encoding System. Please read our ACES Whitepaper for a complete workflow explanation. 

• SDI Output: This setting defines the signal range that will be sent to the external monitor. Options are Full Range (0-1023), Scale to SDI (4-1019), and Scale to Video (64-940). 

• Content Mapping: If you are going to work on a Dolby Vision project, you can select to use either 2.9 or 4.0 algorithms, depending on your delivery specifications.  

• Float Processing: If you decide to work on a project using a bit depth different from Half, this option lets you process only certain parts of the stack as Half Float. You can use the “Layers>Master” option, for example, to process your InputFX DVO Tools with the original bit depth but do your grades using half float processing to not clip values between layers. 

• Sources: Here you can setup different proxy formats for your files. 1:1 Source is the base setting and cannot be changed or deleted. If you click on the New button, several options for format and bit depth can be selected. This can help you save space by creating smaller cache files while you work and improve your performance. You can switch between these different sources in the Project at any time, but new proxies will be created for any new source format. 

• Cache per Project: You can separate your caches in specific project folders. This will help organize and delete cache files using the File Explorer. 

For this guide, let’s setup a project with 2 different resolutions using a Fit option, with the same aspect ratio and frame rate.

After you setup your project, just click on “New Project” on the bottom right side of the screen. The project will be added to the list on the top section of the interface. To open the project, you can double-click on the name or click on “Open Project” right below the “New Project” button.