Meta's The Faceless Lady VR Series Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 11, 2024
0 Comments
Bicoastal post production workflow completed using Blackmagic Cloud.
Blackmagic Design today announced that Supervising Colorist Jeff Sousa of Brooklyn, NY based post studio Dungeon Beach used DaVinci Resolve Studio for color grading The Faceless Lady, Meta's first live action VR television series. With Los Angeles based post house Light Sail VR hosting the project, Sousa relied on Blackmagic Cloud to collaborate with the Light Sail VR team while grading six 22 minute episodes of 8K stereo content.
In the series, available in Meta Horizon Worlds, six contestants converge on an old Irish castle to compete in a series of games, with the winner inheriting the estate. However, they soon find themselves trapped on the grounds by a vengeful ghost, the Faceless Lady, and must unravel a centuries old mystery before they end up becoming the next permanent tenants.
During the grade, I wore a Meta Quest 3 headset and monitored in its native P3-D65 gamma 2.2 color space, often driving live sessions where the director, DP, and producers also watched in their own Quest headsets, explained Sousa. We wanted the show to have a creepy undertone without being too looky.' We added blue/green into the shadows using the primaries but with the node set to HDR mode to take advantage of the extended range for even more tonal separation. The gain was rolled warm, and the gamma pushed until skin tones sat back on the skin tone line. From there, we used the channel mixer luma keyed to the mid tones to skew the skin towards yellow.
Grading in DaVinci Resolve Studio, leveraging Blackmagic Cloud, and being part of a collaborative workflow increased Sousa's bandwidth as a colorist. Instead of wasting clicks reconforming to each new version of VFX shots as they came in, the online editor already had the latest version placed in the timeline for me, he said. I was honestly a bit spoiled. Whenever the VFX department created a luma matte to assist in targeted color correction, such as an alpha for a knife prop or a computer monitor in a moving shot, they would place the matte directly inside my node tree on Resolve's color page. I could easily find which shots had mattes by using the available matte node clip filter and hit any notes they had, such as deepening a blood stain, etc.
According to Sousa, one of biggest challenges when grading for stereo is duplicating Power Windows between eyes. If there is a difference in brightness as you dodge and burn, the result can look blurry and even induce motion sickness. I created a custom node tree on Resolve's color page where any shape I wanted on the left eye was automatically copied to the same position on the right eye. This worked fine for most shots, but depending on the depth, I manually adjusted the disparity at times, and I leveraged the node sizing pan parameter to horizontally offset the right eye's copy of the left's alpha matte, monitoring in headset until I watched the stereo mismatch disappear, he explained.
I took advantage of the compound clip functionality to house this node tree, which had eight preset node clusters to create stereo Power Windows, he added. This compound clip was itself the first node of my master tree. This was helpful because when copying the grade from another shot, I could enable preserve number of nodes: 1' which wouldn't overwrite its shot specific Power Windows. I could relight each shot on its own terms but still achieve shot balancing by copying over similar grades. For the times I wanted to replicate a specific Power Window I made on another shot, I'd open the source's compound clip with display node graph' and drag and drop the specific adjustments onto the target shot's compound clip nodes.
Another challenge when grading in VR is not being able to leverage split screen gallery stills to achieve matching. This is due to the way Nobe Display, a virtual display plugin, pipes out Resolve's signal to your headset, and not being able to see the side by side as you do in traditional grading makes it hard to match skin tones or skies, etc., noted Sousa. To work around this, I leveraged Resolve's multiple playheads. I'd often place one playhead at the hero shot of a scene, another playhead at the shot I was matching to, and another at the shot I was matching from. This allowed me to quickly flash to different shots and make a quick matching move before my eyes had time to adapt. It was also a way for me to navigate the timeline without needing to remove my Quest headset.
Sousa concluded, I've had the honor of serving as Light Sail VR's colorist on close to a dozen projects over the past three years, including its past two collaborations with CryptTV. The Faceless Lady' is exciting because it's the first longform VR narrative with the production value of a prestige television show. Additionally, working in the same Resolve project with other high caliber artists was my favorite part of the project. I've been grading for more than a decade in Resolve, alone. To see other users inside my very same project almost feels like discovering a single player game is actually a multiplayer game.
June 14, 2024Children's Digital Learning Facility REDEE Adopts Blackmagic Design Workflow for StreamingBlackmagic Design announced today that the digital learning facility for children, "REDEE," has
June 13, 2024Documentary Series Haunted Relies on a Camera to Post Workflow from Blackmagic DesignBlackmagic Design today announced that the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K digital film camera is
Enjoying the news? Sign up for the Creative COW Newsletter! Sign up for the Creative COW newsletter and get weekly updates on indu
North America Stories
04/06/2026
Sony Electronics is introducing the SRG-AS10, a 4K 60p-compatible PTZ auto-frami...
04/06/2026
This recent grad from Spring, TX, led creative-video output for the Aggies' men's basketball team last season and has been producing video and creating ...
04/06/2026
For the first time at a women's golf major, every player in the field will r...
04/06/2026
Three Panasonic PT-RQ45 40,000-lumen 3-Chip DLP projectors made their first live...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin and Akamai have announced a collaboration with NRJ Group, a French mult...
04/06/2026
Telestream will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7952), demonstrating media work...
04/06/2026
Sony has announced the development of RIALTO 65, a 65mm format image sensor block for the VENICE 2 digital cinema camera, targeting release in the first half of...
04/06/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N8025, June ...
04/06/2026
Bell Media's TSN and RDS are the exclusive Canadian broadcasters of FIFA Wor...
04/06/2026
The Challenge: Receiving Heavy Media Files From Road Games Quickly and ReliablyT...
04/06/2026
MASV, a managed file transfer platform used in broadcast and live sports product...
04/06/2026
NESN has announced the appointment of Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering. Haider returns to NESN, where he previously served as Vice P...
04/06/2026
David J. Halberstam, who spent almost 50 years in sports as a broadcaster and an executive, died June 2 after a years-long battle with brain cancer.
Over his l...
04/06/2026
Although collegiate production programs are tasked with delivering high-quality ...
04/06/2026
California studio, two production trucks, global distribution system are combine...
04/06/2026
New global program empowers and supports storytellers through scriptwriting course and access to industry experts
TikTok and Sundance Institute today announce...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure, and Akamai, the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business onli...
04/06/2026
American Underground (AU), the Startup Hub of the South and a community of mor...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
NVIDIA and Microsoft Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
RTX Spark - a 1-Petaflop Superchip, the Full...
04/06/2026
Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Simone Grattarola discusses shaping the look in DaVinci Resolve...
04/06/2026
Cine Gear Expo Announces 2026 Awards of Excellence Recipients
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Ed Lachman ASC, Caleb Deschanel ASC, and M. David M...
04/06/2026
St. Vincents Live with Orchestra Tour to Feature Berklee Alum Ruby Plume Berklee alumni St. Vincent and Ruby Plume will appear on the same bill across seven d...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
All the Truth in My Lies Coming to Netflix on August 28
Entertainment
04 June 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Download the imag...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Larry Tanz, VP of Content, EMEA, Delivers a Keynote Speech at ...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Turn Your Living Room into a Stadium With the New FIFA World ...
04/06/2026
Keeping conversations real on LinkedIn Published on Jun 4, 2026 Categories: Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Share
LinkedIn
Facebook ...
04/06/2026
June's forecast with GeForce NOW: 100% chance of gaming.
GeForce NOW is lining up new adventures for the month, from big-name blockbusters to quirky indies...
03/06/2026
SES and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, have launched multi-orbit satellite inflight connectivity on Viva's Airbus aircraft. A total of 60 A320s ...
03/06/2026
The College Football Playoff, ESPN, and TNT Sports have announced kick times and...
03/06/2026
RED Digital Cinema will exhibit at Cine Gear Expo 2026 (Booth 33, June 5-6, Universal Studios Lot), hosting three panels and hands-on product demonstrations.
P...
03/06/2026
Roku has announced the Soccer Zone, a dedicated hub for FIFA World Cup 2026 content available across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argent...
03/06/2026
Liverpool FC and Wasabi Technologies have announced a multi-year extension of their partnership, with Wasabi continuing as the club's official cloud storage...
03/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced that Australian News Channel (ANC), operator of Sky News Australia, has deployed Grass Valley AMPP as part of the relocation of its n...
03/06/2026
The Riedel Group has announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel Networks. She succeeds Michael Martens, who has led Riedel Networks since 201...
03/06/2026
Clear-Com has announced the deployment of its intercom solutions at Itaka Arena ...
03/06/2026
Scott Coker has announced six senior executive appointments for his new global MMA promotion, which launched earlier this year with $60 million in financing. Ad...
03/06/2026
Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the FIFA World Cup 2026, has announced its digital and social media programming for the tournament, running Ju...
03/06/2026
The Bundesliga has announced the launch of Captain, an AI assistant built into t...
03/06/2026
Anthony James Partners (AJP) is serving as technology consultant for a moderniza...
03/06/2026
Audio-Technica has announced the recipients of its annual sales rep firm awards for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The awards were presented by Jim Schanz, Executive ...
Meta's The Faceless Lady VR Series Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio 
