FilmLight, a developer of color management and grading technologies, has announced the introduction of Baselight 5.0, the new version of its high-performance flagship color finishing system. Baselight 5.0 introduces a radical step change in the way that professional colorists and other creative artists across the production process can add value and quality to productions–all boosted with over 50 new features.
“Colorists today need a good understanding of colour science to make the most out of the technology,” said Wolfgang Lempp, CEO of FilmLight. “With Baselight 5.0, we have developed the most sophisticated yet intuitive grading tool. We have pushed our expertise in the science behind color to the point where our customers’ creativity and productivity is not held back by technical limitations.”
Baselight 5.0 introduces a host of new high-tech features and creative tools to the color grading application. The most notable new concept to improve color grading techniques is Base Grade. To give colorists natural, instinctual access to subtle grading, this creative tool moves away from the traditional lift/gamma/gain approach, to a set of controls which accurately mimic the way the eye appreciates color: via exposure, temperature and balance. It gives the grading controls a more natural feel and results in smooth, consistent changes.
Base Grade isn’t the only step taken to make modern grading workflows more comprehensive and assured. Baselight 5.0 also provides added HDR capabilities through color space “families”–which hugely simplify the deliverables process for distinct viewing environments such as television, 4k projection and handheld devices–and gamut optimisation to provide natural gamut mapping deliverables and avoid clipping when captured colors can’t be displayed on a cinema or television screen.
Baselight 5.0 boasts several tools that are specifically tailored to give colorists more creative control and reduce the time and energy spent out of the grading suite for round tripping with other effects and finishing systems:
–Perspective operator to allow easy screen replacement and re-projection
–Perspective tracking of images, shapes, paint strokes and grid warps using either 4 1-point trackers or new perspective-capable area tracker.
–Grid warper
–Dedicated keyer for production quality blue and green screen keying
–Paint tool for retouching, such as logo removal
–Relight tool to add virtual lights to a scene
–Matchbox shader including support for Flame Matchbox shaders
FilmLight pioneered the concept of metadata-driven grading, in which the raw footage remains untouched and real-time viewing uses color metadata to render the grade. Baselight 5.0 streamlines workflows even further by introducing a completely new approach to remote grading, whereby Baselight workstations in different locations can collaborate. Facilities and freelancers in remote sites can now browse any scene on their own or be locked to the master suite and follow a grading session live. The remote colorist can take over and suggest changes, instantly reflected on the other systems. Overall, a simple operation to pass the baton over, and to take it back again.
New software release Baselight 5.0 will be available for all BLG-enabled products from FilmLight, including the Daylight dailies and media management platform, as well as Baselight for Avid and Baselight for NUKE in the Baselight Editions range.
FilmLight is staging comprehensive demonstrations of its product range, and introducing its new approach to grading, at booth SL3829 at NAB 2016, April 18-21 in Las Vegas.
