IBC 2017: FilmLight updates Baselight for Avid
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Michelle Clancy
| 27 August 2017

Colour science and grading specialist FilmLight is to showcase the latest release of Baselight for Avid at IBC 2017.


Baselight is a high-productivity plug-in that brings colour control and preview to editing workstations. Combined with FilmLight’s render-free, metadata-driven workflows, editors always see the latest grade, and can make their own adjustments to it without leaving the Avid environment.

The new release, while still providing professional colour grading within the familiar Avid environment, features a visual timeline that allows the user to see and move easily between shots. Combined with the new relational navigation tool, which allows users to narrow down material very quickly and move between shots with the same clip or tape name, navigation is both seamless and simple.

The popular Baselight workspaces tool is also available in Baselight for Avid 5.0, allowing users to customise their screen and arrange panels within the Baselight UI according to their individual needs and preferences.

Beyond navigation and layout, the addition of relational grading replicates Baselight’s powerful multi-shot grade application by allowing grades to be copied and imposed on shots defined by the same category, such as clip name, bin name, camera and so on.

The latest version also brings the new grading tools introduced in Baselight 5.0 into the Avid workspace. This includes the Base Grade concept from FilmLight, which gives the artist access to a set of controls that accurately mimic the way the eye appreciates colour, rather than the traditional lift/gamma/gain approach. Also featured is the texture equaliser, which can be used for skin tone fixes: giving the editor the ability to clean up skin issues without handing the shot off to a colourist is another huge productivity boost. Other new functionality includes perspective tracking for grading windows, gamut tools for moving between colour spaces, and de-noise.

Baselight for Avid is part of FilmLight’s unified approach to colour management. The raw images are retained throughout, with the grade captured in metadata in the FilmLight BLG format. Any device, from Prelight ON-SET or the Daylight dailies tool through Baselight for Avid to the full colourist suite, will interpret the BLG metadata and impose the latest version of the grade in real time.

“What our users have told us, very clearly, is that the FilmLight BLG workflow is hugely productive – and they want to use it more,” said Martin Tlaskal, lead developer, FilmLight. “They want editors and other users of Baselight plug-ins to have the same functionality that the colourist has, and see precisely the same grade, however rich and sophisticated. This new version of Baselight for Avid achieves just that. This is another huge step forward for collaborative workflows, helping facilities work more productively and achieve a better, more dynamic final result.”