Looking for a way into an ACES workflow? Trying to bone up on concepts like IDTs, ODTs, and the ASC CDL? Just want to be ready to speak intelligently when a client asks you about the technology formally known as the Academy Color Encoding System? 

Da Vinci Resolve ACES workflow

Pro colorist (and Mixing Light co-founder) Robbie Carman offers some perspective on all that and more in Getting to Know ACES, a nicely detailed article at colorist training and tutorials site Mixing Light.

Full of specific info (including a summary video) about implementing an ACES workflow in Da Vinci Resolve — inviting VFX and compositing to the party as well — the three-parter was previously posted only for paid members of the website. But now, concurrent with an industry-wide push to raise awareness of ACES — including the establishment of the official ACES Central website as an information clearinghouse — the series is available to all readers for free.

Here's how Carman summarizes ACES for beginners:

“One of the main benefits of an ACES workflow for colorists is that it takes captured referred data that is specific to the design of each camera system's signal and reverse engineers that back into the pure linear unadulterated light information that was in the actual scene in front of the camera, theoretically, without any camera bias. That’s why ACES is often discussed as being scene referred or with the more technical phrase scene linear. Technically ACES seems intimidating, but once you get to know it, you realize its power. Our three-part tutorial on the essentials of ACES is geared toward the DaVinci Resolve colorist looking to quickly get up to speed with its terminology, setup, and workflow. I think our series does a good job translating the technical aspects of ACES to a language a wider audience of colorists, editors, directors, and DPs can understand.”

Get it while it's hot! Or, for more background, check out our piece from this summer, 7 Reasons Why ACES Color Science Is Changing the Grade, to help put the technology in perspective.