I have graded on every high end system. The verdict... use the right tool for the job. For most jobs that tool is Mistika. If your job is color and color only, not finishing; use Baselight.
Good point John - how many projects today ever require 'Just' Grading? I can't remember the last time I saw that... Steve
True! Resolve is very good in grading but conform part is terrible. We had eQ with QColor before but dumped that and moved to Resolve with Element panels & FCP/Avid/Premiere for quick grading and online HD jobs in same machine. We can do much more with this flexible solution. Using mainly Pablo 4K with Neo in our main theater but I am getting tired of developmental from Q side. Anyone using another system which have previously worked on Pablo? For me both conform/grading/finishing is important in same machine.
Honestly, Mistika... Nothing else comes close - it's all that Pablo should have been, with far more capabilities and power, and a lot more cost effective. And development for the SGO boys is just amazing - them most responsive and fast turn-around that I have ever seen! And yep, I was obviously a Pablo user, and am now using Mistika.
Thanks Steve! I tried to dump Pablo last year but our post producers didn't got much attractive price from SGO at that moment. So we upgraded Pablo to V5.0 with new support contract and have paid recently for another year to give Q more chance. Have been on Q platform from V2 and never been a fan of Q systems. 10 more months to go with Q, but in mean time I want to test another system on true jobs. (Not enough to see demo videos) My Question: Is there 2K / HD kind of option with Mistika to enter and later upgrade to 4K if needed. Will that system still handle 4K/5K srouce files and but final master timeline will be 2K mainly for DCP/HD SR masters? Can we also take advantage of our RED Rocket card and use same one with Mistika?
Hi Fateh, Give Goeff at SGO a call/e-mail.... But, yes, you can indeed start at any level with Mistika and upgrade to any higher level of capability. And the lower resolution systems will also work with higher resolution footage - you can even get a 'render' option, to work at say 2K, and then render the final at 5K, with the whole workflow being re-rendered to the final resolution, not an up-scale. And you don't need any Red Rocket cards - Mistika is real-time RED capable without them. (But you can install them should you really, really want to!) Remember that Mistika is real-time, non-destructive, without rendering for normal creative operation. The 'rendering' is just when exporting a format that is not within that particular system's capabilities - 5K on a 2K system... Steve
i still hope that some color correction videos will show up about mistika ( conform etc ..) i want to know i better ( in case resolve ""dies""...) , otherwise at the moment baselight is my next favorite , and price now is pretty aggressive too ( 85K for baselight 1 including new panel...) ps: about conforming : it is true that resolve conforming tools are just minimal , BUT as far as i know is the onely system that actually perfectly reads opacity layer from FCP XML , i had plenty of jobs that has been edited as over 10 layers of video all faded with crazy opacity animations (literally almost each shot : ramp opacity from 0 to 100 , than fade down to 30 , ramp up to 75 ...stay at 75 for a while ...ramp down etc... ) SCRATCH , Flame SMoke as fas as i have see does not automatically apply such opacity layer information (off course no problem with dissolves , speed changes etc..., but no opacity layer ) How about Mistika about this ? Baseligth ? Pablo ? honestly 80% of the commercial work i get , dissolves are based on manual opacity layer adjustments , and and having resolve reading them is a huge plus thanks g
Gabirele, you can actually subscribe SGO Mistika forum and there they have plenty of tutorials covering mistika workflow from interface to advance stereo finishing tools. I did that and got access without having Mistika system. Noticed that they have added new color grading FX tutorials, which is included in V7. Nice, will take a look my self on that.
It can take some time to get approved. I think I had to send an email to support. It's worth it though, as once you're registered, there is an entire series of videos they've posted created by David Cox, that will take you through the basics of the Mistika interface.
Yeah, I remember too that it took few days for me to get the approval. So have some patience or as Jason said send email to support.
Oh - and the new V7 upgrade has some amazing new colour tools. The on-line video from David is great at showing the new capabilities Steve
Conform, grading, finishing on the same machine.... That's exactly the workflow I'm used to with Pablo. Now I'm back out in the freelance world again I'm faced with quite a choice when it comes to knowing what systems to learn to use next. Is the 'round trip' approach with Baselight /Avid /and Resolve /FCP a better idea? Or is there a move towards getting all the tools into a single system?
When it comes to control surfaces I find it hard to better the Valhall. I took delivery of a new one the other day and it really is the best I've used. I have used the Resolve, CP100, CP200, Blackboard, JLCooper, Eucon, Wave and had a quick play with the precision, but the Valhall always comes up trumps. The build and ergonomics just work, it's functional and has a certain wow factor that I can't better. Just my 50p
Have you ever used a Neo panel on Pablo? It's great to use and it looks the business. I've been using the CP200s on a Mistika and I think I could get quite fast on that - but they don't look quite as cool as a Neo.
I found the Neo clunky to use - it suffers lag, which the CP200 and the newer Element panels don't. To be honest I now realise that look is one thing, operation another. And it is operation that help generate the better end results. IMHO
That's true, the Neo could get laggy at times. Some days it didn't seem so bad, I never figured out why. One good feature on the Neo is the buttons to temporarily bypass nearly every every possible adjustment. I think that's more of a software feature than a panel feature. I think the Avid Artist panel has a similar feature - press to bypass, hold to reset. I'm sure I've only scratched the surface, so to speak, using the CP200. It feels nice but the benefits come with practice and speed.
