Color Grading — From Zero to Colorist

What this is

A documentation-style learning platform that takes one learner from zero to expert colorist, built entirely from free material — YouTube videos embedded, gaps filled with original written explainers — organized into levels with exercises, downloads, and completion tracking. Everything runs locally. No accounts, no backend. Your tool throughout is DaVinci Resolve (free).

Jargon is taught by usage: every term enters the course inside the lesson where you first need it, and the glossary is generated backwards from lessons — never a wall of definitions to memorize forward.

The three level gates

Each level ends with one honest, one-line test. Pass it and you move up.

Level 1 — Beginner

Balance one shot. Take any single shot to correct exposure, contrast, white balance and saturation, verified on scopes.

Level 2 — Intermediate

Match a scene and finish a short film, color-managed. Conform, balance, match a mixed-camera scene, build a look, and deliver to a written spec.

Level 3 — Expert

Design a pipeline and deliver HDR/SDR masters that pass QC. Author a show pipeline, grade in HDR, derive an SDR trim, and self-QC both against a streamer spec.

How to use this site

Go in order

Work top to bottom: Orientation → Foundations → Intermediate → Expert. Early lessons never lean on jargon a later lesson introduces.

Every lesson has the same shape

Why this lesson → Watch → Explainer → Do it → Terms introduced → Check → Go deeper. Watch the video, read our explainer, then do the hands-on exercise in Resolve.

Mark lessons complete

Each lesson has a completion toggle and a self-check quiz. Progress is saved in your browser and rolls up on the progress page.

Download what you need

Exercises ship their own footage, projects, reference stills and workbook PDFs. Grab them right inside the Do it section.

Ready? Start with 1.1 · Meet the image — the four controls every grade is built on.