TIPS

1) LIBRARY - with a huge Library, hold down Spacebar+Click/Drag to pan across the timeline.

2) LIBRARY - lower right hand corner - Proxy info: Timecode. Shows the SourceTC of the current frame when dragging through the thumbnail.

3) LIBRARY - thumbnail details. There are 3 places to click on the thumbnail - top, middle, and bottom. Click+drag on the top and it scrubs through the clip. Click on the middle and it allows you to move/copy the clip. Click on bottom and it pulls up shot info.

4) Player - Shift+Home. Toggles between fullscreen playback and playback

w/GUI

5) Top toolbar - Color Picker. Swipe up. Click on the Grey patch in the middle of the top toolbar. That exposes the color picker. Now click on Numeric on the right side of the color picker. Now click on the "0.0 - 1.0" option, which will allow you to select different numerical scales for showing color depending on how you "think" about color. When these settings are set, that is also the setting that the "RGB" button follows.

6) Setting up an entire timeline for different resolution output. For instance, for scaling an entire Library to HD from 4K...

1) Set Project Format to "HD 1080"

2) In Shot - turn "All" toggle on.

3) Click "No Scaling" and select "Fit Width."

What these steps do is to establish an HD timeline, then scale "All" clips to "Fit Width" to 1080.

7) Color - to quickly reset any parameter, click on that parameter's numerical value and hit "R" for Reset.

8) Color - for fine adjustment, hold down "Shift" while dragging parameters

9) Image Formats - in the Settings directory for REDCINE (on XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\REDCINE\Settings) there is a file called ImageFormats.cfg. Open it in a text editor. That is the source for all the formats in the Project Format dropdown menu. If you are outputting to a non-standard resolution consistently, this is where you can add or subtract formats from the preset dropdown.

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In the "Library," there is a little-understood "Depth" setting. Let me try and explain what it does, as it is quite powerful.

Assume there is the following directory structure:

ROOT

-----Sc1

--------Tk1

-----------Alt1

-----------Alt2

--------Tk2

-----------Alt1

--------Tk3

-----Sc2

--------Tk1

-----------Alt1

--------Tk2

Set "Depth" to 1, and "Load Layer" at the ROOT.

Here is how clips will appear in the vertical slots:

Sc1/Tk3

Sc1/Tk2/Alt1

Sc1/Tk2

Sc1/Tk1/Alt2.......Sc2/Tk2

Sc1/Tk1/Alt1.......Sc2/Tk1/Alt1

Sc1/Tk1..............Sc2/Tk1

Set "Depth" to 2, and "Load Layer" at the ROOT.

Clips now appear as:

Sc1/Tk1/Alt2

Sc1/Tk1/Alt1.....Sc1/Tk2/Alt1..................Sc2/Tk1/Alt1

Sc1/Tk1...........Sc1/Tk2.........Sc1/Tk3.....Sc2/Tk1............Sc2/Tk2

The "DEPTH" setting controls *where* the bottom layer is assigned within a directory tree. Setting it to "1" says, "Step down 1 layer from the ROOT. That is the base layer. Anything under that base will be stacked vertically. When that first tree is exhausted, step to the next tree." Setting it to "2" says, "Step down 2 layers from ROOT, and stack from there."

Setting the DEPTH to something like 10 will result in every clip under ROOT going horizontal, as there is almost never 10 recursive layers under the ROOT.

If you're in VFX, then this concept will make sense immediately, because VFX people live and die by well-organized and methodical directory organization. For others, it may be harder to wrap your head around.

But just be aware that the "DEPTH" setting is not just a placeholder. It does stuff, and it can be very powerful across large projects. : )

Best,

Lucas Wilson

------------

ASSIMILATE, Inc.

LA, CA, USA

FAQs

Q: In PROJECT mode I can choose the Colorspace. Camera RGB, sRGB, Adobe 98, XYZ and Rec 709. What is the Camera RGB?

A: Camera RGB is a color space that looks nice with the camera footage. The rec 709 spec defines both a gamma curve (close to 2.2 but with a different toe) and a color space, hence you can pick both for either. Rec 709 color space is what the HD standards use. XYZ is more for DCI digital cinema output or output to another application.

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Q: In OUTPUT mode I can choose a Filter. Linear, Mitchell, Cubic. What are the differences between them?

A: Whenever you scale, move, or rotate images you need to choose a filter that does the geometric transformation. Each filter has different characteristics. The Mitchell filter is a good balance between sharpness and ringing, and is often the best choice when scaling an image to a larger resolution. Gaussian filter is virtually free of aliasing or ringing artifacts but tend to produce noticeable softness. Sinc filter does a very good job of keeping small details without introducing much aliasing. It is probably the best filter to use when scaling down.

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Q: On left side of the top line where the histogram button is, are the buttons R,G,B,M,L. What is the functionality of the M and L? When do you use them?

A: L is luminance. You see the luminance level of the image in B/W.

M is for monotone (or Monochrome). When you use the R,G,B viewing modes by default you see the channels in color, if you enable the M button you see the single channels in B/W instead. Makes it easier to judge the intensity of the different channels.

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Q: In PROJECT mode, if you use the yellow button, there appears another line here you have the buttons. samples: 16, 9, 4, 1. For what and when do you use each of these options? RGB, HSV, YUV, RGB LOG.

A: These are options for the color picker. When you press the color well (The yellow button in your example) you engage the color picker.

Samples are the averaging for the pipette. 1 is sampling a single pixel. The other options are averaging additional surrounding pixels.

The RGB, HSV, YUV, RGB LOG choses what the numeric readout shows. Try sampling a value and change the option - you will see that the readout changes. You can also set the readout units with the button just left to the readout type, to either 8, 10, 16 bit or floats. 8 bit gives that well-known 0-255 scale.

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Q: Is there a way to see playback rate in fps in RedCine?

A: Yes. Ctrl+F1.

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Q: Can I zoom using the scroll wheel?

A: Yes. Hold down "Alt" at the same time.

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Q: Can I switch between R/G/B channels in the viewport?

A: Hold down "Ctrl" while pressing R,G,B.

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Q: C*/FFI style pan/zoom buttons for tablet users would be nice. (For those who don't know what that is: A "Pan" Button and a "Zoom" Button. Which when pushed act like the middle mouse button and Alt+middle mouse button for tablet users.

A: Click+Drag anywhere on the image for a Pan. Alt+Click+Drag for zoom.

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Q: Is the OUTPUT > FORMAT setting best left to what the Project settings are in RedCine?

A: If you don't change any settings, and just use the dropdown in Output to select a different resolution, scaling will be done on output. But, this also uses Quicktime for the scaling, which is much, much slower than doing the scaling first in the GPU in REDCINE.

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Q: What is the best way to downsample from 2K to 1080 in RedCine?

A: In general you do NOT want to downsample 2K (2048 x 1152) to 1080 (1920 x 1080). It's such a small down sample that it probably will not look very good. It is better to crop the 128 x 72 difference.

Note: Click the "All" button before selecting a shot framing/scaling mode, that will apply the selection to all clips.

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Q: How do I export log dpx?

A: Project -> Gamma Setttings -> Either PDLog or REDLog

Note by Graeme Nattress: REDLog is designed to preserve the full range of RED with as much precision as we can. Just adjust the "exposure" to ensure nothing is clipping. That's the only control to adjust.

PDLog is similar, but scales the range to the range expected by a film scan. It has less precision than REDLog, but is perhaps a curve closer to what some might expect.

So, if you can use REDLog, the quality is a little better, but if you can't PDLog will work for you.

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Q: Can I save specific Format Settings in REDCINE, such as 480p and be able to load those back into the Format as a drop down selection just like 1080p, REDONE 2K, 4K 2:1 etc.

A: Just edit the ImageFormats.cfg text file. On the Mac its located at:

/Library/Redcine/Settings/ImageFormats.cfg

Open it in TextEdit and add this line:

"SD 480",720,480,1.33,24.000000

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Q: Can I change the GUI fonts and colors?

A: Press "Ctrl-U" from anywhere in the GUI.

Look at the Widgets.tif file in Photoshop, and check out the Alpha Channel. All the borders/edges/etc. for the GUI in REDCINE come from that file. Experiment a bit and see what you come up with!

And if you come up with a cool widgets.tif, I'm sure Jarred will find a place for it on reduser.net.