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Iridas Releases SpeedGrade OnSet for Laptop-Based Color Correction

Iridas, which first introduced non-destructive color grading technology in 2003, announced the release of SpeedGrade OnSet, a look creation tool for cinematographers, which provides a means for communicating looks to all parts of the post-production and film finishing pipeline. The new application uses the same .look file format as SpeedGrade DI allowing for direct collaboration between cinematographer and colorist. SpeedGrade OnSet runs on both the Mac and Windows platforms.

SpeedGrade OnSet works with still images, either digital photos or frames grabbed from a sequence. It includes all of the same color grading tools as SpeedGrade DI. Users choose which tools they want to use and set up their own workflows according to their own requirements. SpeedGrade OnSet saves a reference JPEG with each .look file. Users can create an unlimited number of looks and the original image remains unaltered. Looks are easy to store and duplicate for re-use on new shots or projects.

Look files are typically around 20KB making them easy to email. Collaborating in the development of looks is simple: when a look from OnSet is opened in SpeedGrade DI, all of the same grading tools and settings are available to the colorist. Look files can also be loaded into any recent version of FrameCycler, Iridas' uncompressed playback application family for color-graded playback. Viewing digital dailies during production with preliminary grading applied is now a practical option.

"SpeedGrade OnSet puts the same tools into the hands of the cinematographer that the colorist is using," said Dave Stump, ASC, who did vfx camera work on FANTASTIC FOUR and is DP on PRIMAL SCREAM (currently in production). "That really matters. If you're a thousand miles away from your colorist it's hard to do much about the look of your images. Now you can talk about things like 'gain' and 'lift' meaningfully and show each other exactly what you mean."

"SpeedGrade was the missing link that gave us an end-to-end color pipeline," added Stephane Gravel, vp of research and development at In Extenso in Montreal. "We do two of the three top-rated television dramas here in Quebec so we need to be efficient. We have about 20 hours to finish the grading for each hour of finished material. Both programs are visually demanding and fairly complex in terms of their look and feel. The pipeline has to be very efficient. SpeedGrade gives us that."

"We wanted to create an application for cinematographers that was lightweight and easy to use, yet still integrated directly with the full power of SpeedGrade DI," said Patrick Palmer, Iridas coo. "We had the first build of SpeedGrade OnSet running on an off-the-shelf iBook. This technology puts the cinematographer and the colorist back on the same team."

SpeedGrade OnSet (standard edition) runs on Mac OS X (10.3 and above) and Windows XP laptops and workstations. The application is available for download at www.iridas.com and costs $199 per seat. IRIDAS will present SpeedGrade OnSet at SIGGRAPH 2005. Iridas will be located at the NVIDIA exhibit (booth 1714), Aug. 2 - 4 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Munich, Germany-based Iridas (www.iridas.com) first introduced uncompressed realtime playback in 2001. It continues to be the leading developer of resolution-independent playback and non-destructive color grading technologies for film, broadcast, entertainment and scientific research. Iridas' SpeedGrade, FrameCycler, DDS (Digital Daily System) and others applications are used by most major animation and post-production houses, including Warner Bros. Feature Animation, Industrial Light & Magic, The Moving Picture Co., ReelFX, Lowry Digital and many others.

Bill Desowitz's picture

Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.