Color Grading Central has been an innovative developer in the color correction ecosystem for editors – first with LUTs and then later in 2018 when they launched the Cinema Grade plugin. That has now been replaced with the newly redesigned CineDream. Although similar in style to Cinema Grade, CineDream has been rebuilt from the ground up with new tools and features. It works with Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop, and Lightroom Classic. It also happens to work with Motion, but not with After Effects

Basic operation

Unlike a regular effects plugin, CineDream combines a separate companion application with plugins for the various hosts. When working with one of the supported editing applications the plugin will launch the CineDream application and take care of round-tripping the color correction data between the two. To use CineDream in Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, or Resolve, simply drop the CineDream effect onto one of more clips in the timeline and click “Open Controls” in the effects control panel. This will automatically launch the CineDream application.

All of the grading work is being done in the companion application. If you selected more than one clip, you can move from one clip to another without leaving the CineDream interface. Make your corrections and click “Apply” to transfer that grade to your clips inside Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, or Resolve. The grade is not baked into the clip. If you want to revise the look, just click “Open Controls” again and you’re back in CineDream with the existing grade, ready to be modified.

Some users are more comfortable twirling color wheels and moving sliders to adjust color; but, CineDream uses a completely different and possibly more intuitive way of grading an image. They call it “Click and Grade”, which is a method by which you use the mouse to perform a live grade by pointing directly on the image. Change exposure by hovering over the image and then drag the mouse up or down. Some functions, like curves are controlled by the area of the image you select. For example, if you hover over a dark section of the clip, then you are adjusting the lower part of the curve. Hover over a bright section to adjust the upper portion of the curve.

If you prefer a more traditional approach using sliders and color wheels, then CineDream also includes fly-out panels for scopes and color controls. Adjust the wheels and sliders in the color inspector panel instead of on the image itself. There’s also a filmstrip panel. If you are only working with one clip, then the filmstrip slider lets you update the live frame to work on (clips cannot be played in real-time within CineDream). If multiple clips were selected and opened, then you’ll see those in the filmstrip. Select the individual clip from the filmstrip view for color correction. Finish one, move on to the next and so on, all without exiting CineDream.

A filmic toolkit

The CineDream interface might look simplistic at first. Don’t let that fool you. There are three major working sections at the top of the interface: Base Correction, Shot Matching, and Final Grading. You don’t have to work with them consecutively. For instance, you might go straight to Final Grading.

Working left to right, let’s start with Base Correction, which is broken into four processes: 1) Develop (camera profiles for log footage, look presets, basic tonal adjustments), 2) Basic correction (exposure, contrast, temperature, saturation), 3) Advanced correction (color wheels, curves, HSL, vectors), and then 4) Effects (vignette and gradient).

Use Shot Matching to copy-and-paste grades from one clip to the next. There’s also a side-by-side view to compare a current and a hero clip and adjust accordingly.

Select from a series of preset looks, including various visual styles, film stocks, etc in the Final Grading section. “Accept” a look to apply it to the image and make your adjustment. All of the corrections, like exposure, contrast, or color wheels are still active, so you aren’t locked into any preset look. However, the Final Grading section also includes additional film tools, such as LUT adjustment sliders, Film Density, Halation, Bloom, and Grain. Those last three are often separate, optional effects in other color correction products.

Once you become familiar with the layout and workflow, the operation is fast and intuitive. Unlike other color correction approaches, you don’t need to stack multiple effects, layers, or nodes. Everything happens within a single interface. You can certainly use this in conjunction with an application’s built-in color tools, but that’s a matter of personal workflow and preference.

Why use CineDream in DaVinci Resolve?

Adding CineDream to Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro seems obvious. But, why would a Resolve user even want it? After all, Resolve is built upon a world-class color correction toolkit. However, there are many new users to Resolve who have only worked as editors and not as colorists. Moving from the Resolve edit page timeline to the color page with multiple nodes can be daunting for some.

Unlike most other NLEs, there is no separate color correction effect that can be applied to a clip in the Resolve timeline when you are working in the edit page. For instance, you can’t adjust color correction in the same way as you would in Premiere Pro using the Lumetri effect. CineDream adds that type of functionality to Resolve without ever needing to work in the color page. That’s appealing to editors considering a switch to Resolve as their preferred NLE.

The version of Resolve that you install must be the latest one from the Blackmagic Design website, not the one from Apple’s Mac App Store. That’s due to Apple’s sandbox restriction, which prevents the “Open Controls” command in Resolve from launching the external CineDream application. However, it works perfectly well with the standard version downloaded from Blackmagic Design. This restriction affects other developers and plugin products as well – not just Color Grading Central and CineDream.

CineDream and still photos

Throughout this review, I’ve been talking about CineDream in the context of a plugin within various video editing applications. However, you can also use CineDream with Photoshop and Lightroom Classic, as well as a standalone application to grade still image and photo files. Photoshop uses the “Send To” command to round-trip the image. Camera raw image formats (CR2, DNG, etc) require Photoshop as the first step in order to properly decode and “develop” the raw file before sending to CineDream.

The CineDream application by itself without an external host supports a range of flat image formats, such as TIFF, JPEG, and HEIC. Simply drag-and-drop the image into the CineDream window to start. Make the same adjustments as with video and then export the still as a JPEG, TIFF, or PNG image in the original or custom size.

CineDream supports Windows 10 or 11, and Mac (Silicon or Intel) running macOS 13.4 or later. A single license (perpetual or annual subscription) is good for all of these applications that you have installed on your computer.