Archive republication: This article was originally published on 16 December 2020. It has been translated into English and lightly updated for clarity while preserving the original reporting and context.
This article originally appeared in Digital Production 03/2019.
Apple dealt Denver Riddle of Color Grading Central a difficult hand. Soon after he released Color Finale, a capable grading tool for Final Cut Pro X, the update to version 10.4 made many of its functions redundant. The developer nevertheless continued and introduced Cinema Grade.
The plug-in supported Premiere Pro from CC 2018, Final Cut Pro X from 10.4 and DaVinci Resolve 15 on macOS. Its central aim was to make colour grading as simple as possible.
Application integration
In Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X, close integration provided a dynamic connection with the timeline. Colour changes made in the plug-in appeared immediately, and users could move directly between clips, match shots and create groups.
In DaVinci Resolve 15, the OFX plug-in exposed only the final-grading functions for individual clips. This was a consequence of Resolve’s general restrictions on this type of plug-in rather than a limitation chosen by Cinema Grade. Pure grading required only the full-screen interface, though some controls were available only as sliders rather than through direct image interaction.
At the time of review, Cinema Grade was unavailable for Windows and a Windows version was not expected in the near term. One licence permitted two installations. Three editions were offered: Basic at US$69; Pro at US$99, adding shot matching, grouping and ACES support; and Filmmaker at US$199, which mainly bundled additional training material from Color Grading Central. Resolve already supported grouping internally, while Cinema Grade’s group grading was a useful addition for Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X.
Grading directly in the image
In Resolve, clicking “Open Controls” sent only the current frame to the standalone Cinema Grade application. Consequently, masks, tracking and keyframing were unavailable within the plug-in, apart from applying changes to the entire node.
Cinema Grade required neither a control surface nor constant attention to separate controls: adjustments were made with the mouse directly on the finished image. The freely movable application window nevertheless needed to sit on a reasonably calibrated display. Waveform, vectorscope and histogram views could be enabled for guidance.
A small row of icons followed a conventional grading order. Under “Light”, users first adjusted global exposure and then contrast. Under “Color”, they controlled colour temperature or tint and saturation. These adjustments were made through vertical mouse movements directly over the picture.
Traditional sliders were also available on the right, although they ran somewhat against the direct-grading philosophy. They provided further functions including colour-vector adjustments and a convincing film-grain simulation. Two additional buttons controlled zoom and toggled between the source and graded image.
These were primarily global corrections, but secondary corrections were possible when a region could be isolated by image properties. Activating the final slider icon allowed users to click one or more objects in the image. Subsequent corrections then applied only to the selected brightness range or hue.
The software generated reasonably soft transitions around selected areas, though users had no direct control over the falloff. Short tooltips beneath the image made it largely unnecessary to consult menus or tutorials. A detailed introduction aimed at Premiere Pro users, who were likely to benefit most, was available from Premiere Bro.
LUTs and looks
A panel on the left offered numerous looks and LUTs. Their appeal was naturally subjective, but the collection included useful options. External LUTs in the .cube format were supported and appeared under “User”, while looks represented adjustment settings saved from Cinema Grade.
The distinction mattered: a LUT could not recover clipped highlights or crushed shadow detail, whereas even an extreme Cinema Grade look remained editable in those areas. The left panel also included Look Transfer. A pin icon kept side panels permanently visible; otherwise, they retracted after use.
Users could move repeatedly between the standalone interface and Resolve, but had to click “Apply” in both applications before closing Cinema Grade or risk losing their work. During testing, the side panels occasionally stopped responding in full-screen mode; restarting the plug-in resolved the problem. GPU acceleration through OpenCL delivered good performance, and these minor issues were understandable in the then-young version 1.0.25.
Comment
Cinema Grade was the radical opposite of 3D LUT Creator: it aimed to make colour grading as straightforward and intuitive as possible. It did not fundamentally offer capabilities beyond those already present in the free version of Resolve. For Premiere Pro on macOS, whose grading workflow was comparatively cumbersome, it could nevertheless be genuinely useful. Against Final Cut Pro X, its main advantages were minimalism and a small number of additional functions.
