About the founder
Dado Valentic.
Two decades grading the films, series, and commercials you've already seen. Today, leading the AI revolution in color grading and building the institution that trains the next generation of colorists, the way the craft actually works in professional rooms.
Hollywood, Miami Beach, London.
Most color education teaches buttons. The work is teaching perception — what an image should feel like before you ever touch a wheel.
— DADO VALENTIC
The work
From engineer at Apple and Sony, to the colorist hired for the films you remember.
Before founding his own company, Dado worked as a technologist and engineer with Apple and Sony — building the imaging systems that other people would later use to make pictures. That foundation in color science and engineering shaped a career that bridges the technical and the cinematic.
He went on to build an award-winning color grading company, quickly recognized for high-end work across feature film, prestige television, and global commercial campaigns. Over time, the practice evolved past traditional grading into a deeper question: not how images are graded, but how they are perceived.
That shift — from process to perception — led to research in perceptual models, film emulation beyond LUTs, and ultimately AI-driven color workflows that now define how a generation of colorists work.
Selected credits
Films and series you've already seen.
Feature Films & Series
- Game of ThronesSeries
- Exodus: Gods and KingsFeature
- Total RecallFeature
- Sherlock HolmesFeature
- Marco PoloSeries
- Crazy Rich AsiansFeature
Selected Commercial Clients
Studios and Broadcasters
Collaborators
In the room with directors and DPs who shape modern cinema.
Continuity
Formerly Colour Training. Now Color Grading Academy.
Teaching philosophy
The shift from process to perception.
Most color education answers the wrong question. CGA is built around the right one.
Tutorials. Presets. Button-pushing. Software that becomes obsolete in 18 months.
Perception trained before technique. Visual intent before adjustment. Sequence-level consistency. A craft that survives every software change.
Industry position
Recognized where the standards are written.
Active membership and contributions to SMPTE, AMPAS, HPA, and the BSC — the bodies that define motion-picture color standards. Regular conference presenter at NAB and SMPTE, and SMPTE-certified for color management training.
Academic contributions
Teaching where the next generation is trained.
A note from Dado
Why I'm building this now.
After two decades grading other people's films, the most valuable thing I can pass on isn't a preset or a workflow. It's how to see — the perceptual training that separates a colorist from someone moving sliders.
CGA exists because the gap between tutorial culture and professional rooms has never been wider. The work I'm doing now is to close that gap, with curriculum built the way I wish I'd been taught — and the way the industry actually pays for.
If you're serious, I'd like to teach you.
Start the work
Train with the colorist behind the films.
No credit card required · 4 free courses to start