Master Color Grading is TAC's first 3 Days (10+ Hours) training series dedicated for beginners and the only one you will ever need. But the class also covers various topics that will greatly help intermediates and even advanced colorists. 
 
We do believe there is need for a class that our young scholars can look upto for confidence and review from time to time – a class that is information dense, builds the right foundation and is priced low to facilitate participation! 
 
Meet your Instructor: Jason Bowdach is a senior colorist & trainer based in Los Angeles, California. He is also the founder & chief developer at PixelTools. 
 
Jason joined Disney in 2009, where he started within international mastering and QC, working on all matter of Disney branded content, every from a classic Mickey Mouse shorts to Pixar films. During his  tenure, he assisted the company migrate its massive content library of SD and HD tape-based assets over to the new Apple ProRes format and worked to establish a massive metadata library around this relatively new file format.
 
In 2014, Jason left Disney-ABC to freelance as a colorist around Los Angeles and remotely, working for companies such as Adobe, Google, and FotoKem. In 2020, Jason joined Fox Studios as a colorist and finishing artist. He helped develop the in-house DaVinci Resolve workflow for grading and finishing all online commercials, which previously was finished entirely in Flame. 
 
Outside of his grading and development work, Jason writes and teaches about color and post production workflow for companies such as TAC, Mixing Light, Lowepost, and Frame.io. He’s a proud member of the Colorist Society, a professional organization representing colorists around the globe, and NABET Local 53.
 
Who should take this class?
 
Independent filmmakers, editors, cinematographers, and of course, aspiring colorists overwhelmed by YouTube! Basically, anyone who is just shifting from Adobe Premiere and/or starting out with Resolve and wants to get confident with the color tools, workflows & methodology!
 
Price: The session recordings are on-demand and we have priced the three-day Masterclass at $79! That’s still ~ $26/day! It’s a steal for anyone who is starting fresh or someone who wants to revisit the basics.
 
Session Overview
 
Day One ~3 Hours - Mar 10, 2023
 
Quick Walkthrough of DaVinci Resolve Pages
Multiple Applications in One, the entire Adobe Suite in one app!
UI & Feature Overwhelm are totally normal!
 
Introduction to Color Page and Discussion of tools
Why so many tools? Is there a “correct” tool for the job?
 
Discussion of Overall Color Grading Workflow
Exposure, Balance, Shot Matching, Secondary Grading, Creating a Look
Working in Multiple passes
 
Scopes
Waveform
Parade
Vectorscope
Skin Tone line
 
Nodes
Serial
Layer
Parallel
Node Key
 
Adjusting Exposure
Adjusting levels with LGG
Adjusting levels Contrast & Pivot (with a quick look at linear contrast in settings)
Adjusting levels with Curves
Intro to Giant Curves
Gang v Unganged (Y Only)
Adjusting levels with offset (for log footage only)
Adjusting exposure with HDR Panel
Adjusting exposure with PixelTools exposureTool DCTL
 
Questions
 
Day Two ~3 Hours - Mar 11, 2023
 
Adjusting Color Balance and White Balance
Adjusting via HDR Color Temp / Tint
Adjusting via Primary Panel Temp / Tint (plus tip when using control panels)
Adjusting via offset (for log footage)
Adjusting via Chromatic Adaptation FX (for specific corrections)
 
Adjusting Saturation
Many ways
Adjusting saturation of specific hues
 
Shot Matching
Introduction to comparing & matching shots
Split screen
Lightbox View
Stills
Flags & Groups
 
Secondary Corrections
Memory Colors - Skies, Skin, Grass, Stop Signs, Blood, etc
How we can utilize these
Adjusting skies with hue vs curves
Adjusting skin tone using hue vs curves
HSL Qualifiers and Power Windows (tracking)
 
Noise Reduction
Temporal NR
Spatial NR
Highlight Modes
Questions
 
Day Three ~3 Hours - Mar 12, 2023
 
Setting up Basic Color Management in Resolve
Set up RCM DWG project with raw media
 
Secondary Correction & Isolations (Continued)
Color Warper - highly precise
Magic Mask
How AI can help us isolate complex objects
 
Important ResolveFX
Skin Smoothing via Face Refinement
Vignette
 
Look Creation
Split Tone
Curves
PixelTools splitTone
Bleach Bypass
Y-Only Curves
Layer Mixer
Warm and Cool (Teal and Orange)
Printer Lights
Curves
Hue Shifting
Film Print Emulation
Grade your own via matching
Use the built-in 2383 LUT (Free PowerGrade available via PixelTools)
Plug-ins & DCTLs