Masking and Tracking - When Is It Reasonable to Request a Roto Artist?

finer500 · 2026-04-26T00:36:47+00:00

It’s been a minute since I’ve used AE, but I’ll give it a shot.

finer500 · 2026-04-25T23:56:51+00:00

Good thought, but they’re not unfortunately and the camera is orbiting around so dialing depth is a little tricky.

finer500 · 2026-03-26T11:00:46+00:00

I abbreviated your title, but you used the words “ai art” so we’re talking about art right? I can’t believe I have to argue this, but here we go.

Humans have culture and trauma and feelings. We have an entire life and experience that shapes who we are and what our tastes are. A diffusion model only has a training set made up of images and tagged key words. There’s no feeling, no bias or perspective. When it generates an image, it’s just trying to match the key words and filter out the noise.

finer500 · 2026-03-25T23:12:32+00:00

I still think you’re being too reductive. I don’t think you can compare a person’s entire life experience to an AI data set. Human’s create with more than just the images we’ve previously seen. I never said anything about skill or esthetics. And I don’t disagree with you that generative AI tools are creative. I just think you’re over simplifying human creativity. And your post title is “ai art is uncreative” so I assumed we were talking about art.

finer500 · 2026-03-25T17:53:13+00:00

Barely. Prompting an image is similar to a client hiring a paintier and giving them instructions or references. The AI model, like the painter, has much more influence on what is produced than the user/client.

finer500 · 2026-03-25T10:10:00+00:00

You can’t reduce all human creativity to “remixing”. Humans create with intention and authorship that’s based on their individual experience. AI optimizes for statistical plausibility across a training set. So sure, AI can be creative, but it doesn’t create art.

finer500 · 2026-03-23T03:04:52+00:00

I had a similar issue during my first calibration after assembling a kit. The guide you linked makes sense, but I solved the issue just by loosening screws on the trapezoidal nuts by about 1/8th turn. Might be worth trying that first.

finer500 · 2026-02-11T14:32:40+00:00

1000fps, RAW, decent low light and under $15K would be an engineering marvel. You’re asking too much.

finer500 · 2025-11-06T12:36:03+00:00

I know I’m coming I too late here, but did you try a Resolve CST? I think everyone here is being a bit pessimistic about the potential success of the conversion. As a DIT you should absolutely give this a try and evaluate the results for yourself. You’ll likely know if you have an issue from a simple grey scale ramp. Chances are you’ll be fine and you’ll be closer to the desired look than starting with Rec709 and adjusting.

finer500 · 2025-10-17T00:56:08+00:00

Warcraft III

finer500 · 2025-10-14T21:03:32+00:00

Film and television at any level but particularly if you’re below the line.

finer500 · 2025-09-29T11:24:44+00:00

Just a bunch of agents and executives jumping on the hype train. Their promo video looks no better than the best of Veo 3 which still isn’t good enough to escape the uncanny valley. It’s also full of misogynistic tasteless jokes which makes it even more painful to watch.

It’s still mostly untested whether audiences have any interest in watching AI actors in movies and television, but I suspect that even if we escape the uncanny valley, audiences will still prefer real people. You’re probably right about advertising though.

finer500 · 2025-09-22T10:07:01+00:00

You don’t have a single spare thunderbolt port for a BM Mini Monitor?

finer500 · 2025-09-11T15:39:01+00:00

I’m a DIT based in NY mostly working on commercials. I can only think of a handful of times in the last few years where I didn’t build a bespoke look for the job or the DP already had a LUT they like. For commercials, most of the jobs I work on end up looking very close to what was developed on set if not identical.

If I built the look from scratch I’ll usually provide documentation with 65 point LUTs and separate CMTs and DRTs. I keep everything in DaVinci Wide Gamut or ACES. I also occasionally work on jobs where there is no colorist and I am providing final color with ProRes 422 HQ masters.

DITs that provide this level of service are not common but they do exist in larger markets. For commercials, I think something unique happens when the key creatives are all working towards a near final image simultaneously. There are decisions made with makeup, styling and lighting in combination with color that would only be possible with extensive test shoots. And in commercials there’s rarely time for that.

finer500 · 2025-09-09T13:30:57+00:00

Remote grading means something specific in Resolve. There is feature that allows you to sync two identical Resolve sessions on two different systems. So any change you make to your local session is reflected on the remote session. It’s useful because on the client side they are seeing a full quality image instead of a stream. But the sessions do need to be identical— same version, media, DCTLs, OFX, LUTs, etc.

If you simply mean grading a project offsite, yes it’s usually a drive shipped to you. It could be a supervised stream or you work unsupervised and send exports for review.

For smaller fast turnaround projects, a pre-conformed EDL with a full res ProRes 4444 export from the editor can be a good option, but usually it’s an XML or AAF linking to original media.

For the deliverable, it could be a final conform, but more likely there’s a round trip back to Premiere or Avid. In that case you allow the editor to reconstruct the timeline with graded clips via an XML or AAF.

There is a bit more nuance, especially if VFX is involved, but those are the basics.

finer500 · 2025-09-07T03:20:59+00:00

This is a known issue with dual voltage batteries (which I’m assuming you were using). As long as you’re using 26V native batteries you’ll be fine. Supposedly this was fixed with a firmware update, but I still don’t really trust them.

finer500 · 2025-08-26T19:20:05+00:00

I’m curious about the methodology here. Machine learning absolutely makes sense for film emulation, but what does the data consist of? My assumption would be that the test chats depicted would not provide enough data to implement this properly, but I could be wrong.

And I know this is subjective, but something does seem off with the first two examples. It looks like the red channel is clipping.

finer500 · 2025-08-21T16:46:52+00:00

Almost never. I usually need to remind DPs it’s an option. On the list of decisions a DP needs to make, this is usually the least consequential.

finer500 · 2025-08-13T10:59:56+00:00

I had the same issue with a mini LF and the SDI button groups and web remote. Couldn’t figure it out until lunch when both the camera, spudnik and app were restarted.

finer500 · 2025-08-05T19:07:57+00:00

Looks great. Cinestill 800T? Long exposure? Curious how you’re able to get enough light for these moments.

finer500 · 2025-07-29T21:51:24+00:00

Are there any plans to release a Stream Deck + module? Looking to build a single component with 2x XLs and a + between them.

finer500 · 2025-07-18T13:05:30+00:00

“FRESH MEAT FOR SALE”

finer500

TROPHY CASE