Red, Green, Blue color model — additive mixing for displays and digital sensors. Native workspace in DaVinci and After Effects.
In your daily digital workflow, you work in RGB without much thought – and that's precisely the problem. Not all RGB is the same. The color space your monitor displays isn't the one your camera shoots in, and that, in turn, isn't the one you deliver to. As a VFX Supervisor or Colorist, you need to understand that RGB is an additive color mixture: Red + Green + Blue = White. This works for anything that emits light – monitors, digital sensors, projectors. In practice, this means each pixel has three channels (8-bit: 0–255 per channel, 16-bit or 32-bit for HDR work), and you mix them to create a visible color.
On set: Your cinema camera (RED, ALEXA, Sony) records RAW or Log footage, but internally, you'll later work in an RGB working color space. In DaVinci Resolve, this is typically Rec.709 or DCI-P3 – both RGB-based. In After Effects, you access RGB channels directly, separate them, and manipulate them individually. The key mindset: RGB is linear when set up correctly, and that's not the same as the gamma curve you see on the monitor. Doubling the brightness in RGB means a true, mathematical doubling of light energy – not visible, but calculable. This is crucial for compositing, keying, and color grading.
Practical pitfalls: When combining footage from different sources – a UHD sensor here, a film scan there – you must convert everything to the same RGB primary system. Incorrect primary assignments lead to color casts that you'll only notice later in grading. Another point: RGB overhead. 8-bit RGB is insufficient for SDR and final delivery if you plan extensive grading. That's why professionals work with 10-bit or float RGB internally. And finally: While RGB is universal, it's not optimized for human perception – consider CMYK for print or YUV/YCbCr for broadcast. But for digital cinema, VFX, and monitoring, RGB is your standard. Know your color space pipelines.