Colour grading is the post-production process of altering and enhancing the colour, contrast, and tonal qualities of a moving image or rendered frame to establish a consistent look and convey mood. It builds on basic colour correction — which neutralises exposure and white-balance errors — by applying creative adjustments such as curves, lift-gamma-gain controls, and secondary qualifiers that isolate specific hues or regions. In real-time rendering and virtual production the grade is frequently applied as a post-processing pass using look-up tables and tone-mapping operators so interactive scenes match the intended cinematic aesthetic.
Overview
- Colour Grading sits within the broader category of Post Processing, which it specialises.
- It connects to a network of 13 related classes across the knowledge graph, anchoring edges that previously pointed to an undefined node.
Key aspects
- hasPart: Tone Mapping
- hasPart: Colour Correction
- uses: Shader
- uses: Texture Mapping
- requires: Rendering
- requires: GPU Rendering
Mechanisms
- Colour Grading operates through its constituent parts and dependencies, integrating with adjacent systems to deliver its function within spatial computing.
Applications
- Applied to advance Photorealism.
- Applied to advance Visual Effects.
- Applied to advance HDR.