aces_launch_heroThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made a rare appearance at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show promoting their ACES color workflow. ACES (Academy Color Encoding System), the recently released standard for digital color management, image interchange and archiving of motion pictures, was designed to provide a unified approach for working with color and image format throughout a project. It covers production, post, mastering and archiving.

For over a decade in the film industry, we’ve seen digital image formats come and go with little to no hope of a standard. Artist and companies choose image formats that they feel best support their workflows, but these formats typically interpret color differently often causing radical shifts in color and contrast when footage is sent back and forth between labs, editorial, VFX artists and colorists. When changing file formats, color shifts in dailies are also common. These shifts in color are to blame for many costly work delays.

The digital image formats used for archiving also vary between companies. Many companies change the format they use every few years. The situation has seemed so dire to many production professionals that they are convinced that in years to come, all of their work will be lost. This kind of thing has happened. Thousands of hours of television shows have been lost due to archived video tapes that can no longer be played back because the right format of video tape machines needed no longer exist.

With ACES, the industry now has a much needed standard for color workflow and image archiving. But it’s not just for feature films. ACES can be used by any image project from television to web video to still pictures. At its core, ACES uses a customized version of the OpenEXR file format (originally developed by Industrial Light and Magic) along with guidelines for the display of color as well as the conversion of footage from one color space to another. Metadata is supported by ACES as well.

A program has been created by the Academy where qualifying ACES products, ranging from cameras to media asset management systems, will carry the ACES logo. Many industry partners are already working with the program including ARRI, RED Digital Cinema, Sony, Autodesk, FotoKem and Deluxe. Many software packages also currently support ACES workflow.

 

Color Grading Chappie

Using ACES to color grade feature movies

Recently at NAB, colorist Andrea Chelbak explained her workflow on the sci-fi feature Chappie and how ACES helped streamline the process. Chappie was shot with RED Epic cameras. The raw r3d (REDcode) files were brought into the DCI-P3 color space to take advantage of the wide color gamut of digital cinema projection. ACES has a lut (color look up table) that takes the flat looking, raw footage from digital cinema cameras and adjusts the color to a pleasing baseline film-look. It was this ACES lut that was applied to all the footage before it was converted to EXR files and sent to editorial and from there on to the various VFX houses that worked on Chappie. Chelbak said that the shots she got back from the VFX artists needed minimal color correction which she felt was, in part, due to using the ACES lut and EXR file format. She was pleased that the workflow, simplified by a standard file type and lut, was faster than earlier projects she had done without the aid of ACES.

When converting from one color space to another, ACES can help. If you’re converting your finished film from the DCI-P3 color space to HDTV or Blu-ray files in Rec. 709 color space, ACES will automatically adjust the color for you. ACES will also allow you to fine tune the color as needed after the conversion. This can save a lot of time spent adjusting color for projects that require multiple delivery formats.

RED EPIC Frame - Raw

RED EPIC Frame – Raw

RED EPIC Frame DCI-P3

RED EPIC Frame DCI-P3

Regardless of saving time and money, the most important value of ACES is that it brings a standard for archiving. While this standard is beginning to be utilized in the creation of film and television projects, ACES will help insure that these creative works can be preserved for future generations.

Unfortunately, ACES currently lacks an archiving standard for audio; hopefully, the Academy will address that soon.

While the full version of ACES 1.0 should be available in software packages soon, some ACES features are already in existing software releases. Color correction software like DaVinci Resolve Lite (which is free from Blackmagic Design) makes the advantages of ACES workflow accessible for nearly any project. More information on ACES is available at www.oscars.org/aces.

Story and photos by Odin Lindblom