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Introduction
This is the final result we'll create: bright city footage transformed into a cinematic movie look with green shadows, warm highlights, deep contrast, vignette, and letterbox. Let's get started. Hello, welcome back to the complete Adobe After Effects series from Cerdas Inovasi Digital. After color correction, the next step is grading, which is giving the image a mood and style. In this episode, we create a popular cinematic tint and orange look commonly used in movies.
Step 1: Adjustment layer for grading
Create a composition from the city footage. Add an adjustment layer named 'grading' on top of it. All our grading effects are placed here, so they can be turned on, off, or reused on other footage without touching the original layer.
Step 2: Curves shaped like $
Apply the curve effect to the grading layer. Drag the shadow point slightly downward and the highlight point slightly upward, forming an S-shaped curve. Contrast increases gently without ruining the colors, a hallmark of film imagery.
Step 3: Teal and orange
Add Lumetri Color to the grading layer. In the creative section, set the shadow tint to a greenish tint and the highlight tint to orange. The shadows of the buildings become cool, while the sky and walls have a warm feel. This color contrast is what makes the cinematic look.
Step 4: Saturation and Faded Film
Lower saturation to 85% so the colors don't look too artificial, and fill the film fade to 10 to lift the black slightly, like analog film. Good grading is usually more subtle than we think.
Step 5: Vignette
Still in Lumetri, set vignette amount to -1.2 and feather to 60. The image edges softly darken, directing the viewer's eye to the center of the road.
Step 6: Letterbox
For a wide screen ratio of 2.39:1, create two black solids 138 pixels high above and below the composition. Compare by turning off the grading layer. The image now looks like a movie clip.
Done!
Done. We've used a dedicated grading adjustment layer. S-shaped curve, green and orange shadow and highlight tints, saturation and film fade, vignette, and letterbox. In the next episode, we'll play with light using glow and lens flare. Need a promotional video, logo animation, motion graphics for social media, or visual effects for short films? Cerdas Inovasi Digital provides motion graphics and visual effects services, as well as opens After Effects courses from beginner to advanced. Want to master the entire series, 104 episodes from the interface to the final project? All episodes, complete with PDF step-by-step guides, source footage, and project scripts, are available for premium tutorial subscribers. Thank you for watching, see you in the next episode. Thank you for watching, see you in the next episode.
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Cerdas Inovasi Digital Team
Software developers, BIM & 3D engineers, and AI practitioners
52 video classes1,276 episodes
We build software, BIM models, games and AI automations for clients every day, and turn that hands-on work into step-by-step classes: every step is shown on screen and comes with a PDF guide you can keep.
