1. IntroductionWelcome| 00:00 | Hi, welcome to lynda.com's Apple Color
Essential Training. I'm Robbie Carman.
| | 00:05 | First thing's first. I'm so excited to
explore Color with you and I'm confident
| | 00:08 | that you'll fall in love with this
application, just like I have. Before we
| | 00:11 | jump into the course, I'd like to
spend a minute or two talking about a few
| | 00:14 | things. Who I am, why I love Color,
and what this course is all about.
| | 00:18 | So who am I? Well, first and foremost,
I'm a colorist. I'm also an online
| | 00:22 | editor, which means I'm basically the
last person to see a show before it goes
| | 00:25 | out the door. I'm an Apple Certified
Trainer. I'm certified in all levels of
| | 00:29 | Final Cut Pro, Color, Motion, and
probably a few others that I'm forgetting.
| | 00:32 | I'm an author. I published a couple of
books about Final Cut Pro, and I've also
| | 00:36 | been the Technical Editor for a few
books about color correction.
| | 00:39 | I'm a post-production consultant. I've
helped groups like Discovery Channel and
| | 00:42 | National Geographic integrate Final
Cut Studio Workflow into their own workflows.
| | 00:47 | So why do I love Color? I love Color,
because it's a mix of the technical and
| | 00:51 | the creative. It's technical because I
get to fix bad shots and its creative
| | 00:55 | because I get to apply my creativity
to make a shot look beautiful. I love
| | 00:58 | Color because I get to be the unsung
hero. If I do my job well as a colorist,
| | 01:02 | nobody ever really notices,
and I like that aspect.
| | 01:05 | I love Color because it's grading for
everyone. We finally have an application
| | 01:09 | that allows for professional color
correction and grading to anyone who can get
| | 01:12 | Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Studio, and
those people don't have to rely on very
| | 01:15 | expensive hardware for professional grading.
| | 01:18 | I love Color because its integrated
workflow. Color is very nicely integrated
| | 01:23 | with Final Cut Pro, and that's a cool
aspect of the package. And of course,
| | 01:27 | it's from Apple. Who
doesn't love a product from Apple?
| | 01:30 | So what's this course about? This
course is about learning the interface.
| | 01:34 | It's about learning how to identify footage
problems. It's about learning techniques
| | 01:38 | to correct your footage. It's about
learning techniques to give your footage a look.
| | 01:42 | It's about learning to integrate
Color into your workflow, and it's about
| | 01:48 | building for the future.
| | 01:49 | Now that we've met, let's get
started learning more about Color.
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| Understanding the technical requirements for Apple Color| 00:00 | Like any application, Color has some
technical requirements that we need to
| | 00:04 | meet so the application can run
smoothly. In this lesson, we'll take a quick
| | 00:07 | look at those requirements.
| | 00:09 | So what are the hardware requirements
that Color needs to meet to run? Well, we
| | 00:12 | need at least 1.25 Gigahertz or faster
G4, any G5, or any Intel Processor.
| | 00:19 | We need at least 1 gigabyte of RAM, but 2-
4 gigabytes is recommended, especially
| | 00:24 | if you're going to be working
with higher resolution media.
| | 00:27 | We need to have a non-integrated
graphics card, so a standard Mac book is out.
| | 00:31 | Apple recommends the ATI Radeon X1900XT
card. We need at least a single display
| | 00:37 | capable of running a resolution of
1680x1050, although two displays at
| | 00:41 | 1920x1080 are recommended.
| | 00:44 | This is a big one. We definitely,
definitely, definitely need a 3 button mouse.
| | 00:49 | For all you old school Apple users
out there, the single-button Apple mouse
| | 00:52 | won't cut it, get a 3 button mouse.
| | 00:55 | Additionally, hardware control surfaces
are recommended by a lot of folks.
| | 00:58 | So a couple of things about monitoring.
First of all, grading should take place on a
| | 01:02 | calibrated monitor, not a computer
monitor. A computer monitor cannot be
| | 01:07 | trusted for its accuracy in
contrast and color. Also, depending on your
| | 01:12 | computer monitor settings, grades may
look a little different on your monitor than mine.
| | 01:16 | Now that we've covered some technical
information, it's time to move on to talk
| | 01:19 | about Color terminology. But before we
do that, the next movie is all about how
| | 01:23 | to use the exercise files for this
course. If you have access to these files,
| | 01:27 | do not skip this next movie.
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| Important information about the exercise files| 00:00 | The exercise files used for this
title are slightly different than other
| | 00:04 | Lynda.com titles. If you're a Premium
member of the Lynda.com Online Training
| | 00:08 | Library or if you're watching this
tutorial on a disk, you have access to the
| | 00:12 | exercise files used throughout this title.
| | 00:14 | Let me go ahead and open up the
Exercise Files folder. This folder contains two
| | 00:19 | items: a text file about How To Use the
Exercise Files and a disk image called
| | 00:24 | exercise files. We're using the disk
image, because when I created the Color
| | 00:28 | projects on my computer, they
linked up to the media we're using, and
| | 00:31 | everything operated normally.
| | 00:33 | If I were to send you these projects
and you were to open them up on your
| | 00:36 | computer, all of the media would be
offline, because Color uses absolute file
| | 00:40 | pass, and would still be
looking for the media on My Computer.
| | 00:45 | By using a disk image and keeping
all the files in the disk image, things
| | 00:48 | should operate normally. If you want
to know more about the disk image, just
| | 00:52 | check out the text file,
How to Use the Exercise Files.
| | 00:55 | Let me go ahead and open up the disk
image. The disk image contains numbered
| | 01:03 | folders that correspond to the title.
Since chapters 1 through 3 are theory
| | 01:08 | based, there are no
exercise files for those chapters.
| | 01:10 | When you open up each folder you'll
see a Color project file, denoted by the
| | 01:15 | extension .colorproj. These are the
projects you can use to follow along with the movies.
| | 01:21 | Let me go ahead and open up one of
these project files. With the Color project
| | 01:28 | open, if you look at the top of the
Color interface, you'll see the name of the
| | 01:32 | project file. When watching a moving,
to follow along, make sure you have the
| | 01:37 | matching file open.
| | 01:38 | The footage that these Color
projects use is DVCPRO-HD footage at 24
| | 01:42 | frames/second, and the footage is an
assembly cut of a music video for the band
| | 01:48 | RC and The Magic One. But we'll
also be using some other clips.
| | 01:51 | Let me go back out to the Finder. Back
in my disk image, you'll also see two
| | 01:56 | additional folders. A folder called
FCP Master Project, and this contains a
| | 02:01 | Final Cut Pro project. Sequences in
this project were used to create the Color
| | 02:04 | projects, and we'll be using
this project throughout the title.
| | 02:07 | You'll also find a Media folder, which
contains all the media that the Color
| | 02:11 | projects use. You shouldn't have to
access this folder. If you're a monthly or
| | 02:19 | annual subscriber to Lynda.com, you
don't have access to the exercise files,
| | 02:23 | but you can follow along from scratch
with your own assets. So let's get started.
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2. Basics of Color CorrectionUnderstanding color correction| 00:00 | Before we get into Color, I want to use
this short movie to take a look at the
| | 00:03 | reasons why we Color Correct in
Grade footage. This might seem like a no
| | 00:06 | brainer, but I think it's a good idea
to get on the same page about what we're
| | 00:09 | trying to accomplish with the Color
Correction process. Of course, you may have
| | 00:13 | your own reasons for correcting footage,
like spiting a client and making the
| | 00:16 | footage look as bad as possible,
but I can't help you with that.
| | 00:19 | So the first thing the Color Correction
process is all about is correcting for
| | 00:22 | problems. These problems consist of
Contrast problems, Color Balance problems,
| | 00:27 | Saturation problems, and
Addressing Broadcast Legality.
| | 00:31 | What do we mean by Contrast corrections?
Well, most footage needs some degree
| | 00:35 | of contrast adjustment, and Contrast
corrections fix under or overexposed
| | 00:40 | footage. Contrast adjustments can be
used to create a look, and Contrast
| | 00:46 | adjustments generally
happen before Color adjustments.
| | 00:49 | If you're asking yourself, I thought
Color was a Color Correction application,
| | 00:52 | well, you're correct, but Contrast
corrections are a big part of that process.
| | 00:56 | So what are Color Balance corrections
all about? Color Balance corrections
| | 00:59 | range from primary corrections like
fixing improper White Balance, to secondary corrections like
adjusting the color of skin tone.
| | 01:06 | Saturation corrections fix under or
over saturated footage. I'm sure we've all
| | 01:10 | seen a person on television wearing a
bright red shirt that seems to glow.
| | 01:13 | Well, it glows probably because its
over saturated. I'm sure we've all seen
| | 01:17 | clips that look dull and flat, and
they probably look dull and flat because
| | 01:20 | they're under saturated.
| | 01:21 | Broadcast Legality. Most broadcasters
have rules about Contrast, Saturation,
| | 01:27 | and other technical aspects of the
video signal. Even if the footage is not
| | 01:31 | intended for broadcast, it's a good
idea to adhere to these rules, because
| | 01:35 | these rules were setup to help your
footage look the best that it can.
| | 01:38 | Another important aspect of the Color
Correction process is creating looks.
| | 01:41 | Creating looks is the sexy part of
Color Correction. It's a large reason modern
| | 01:46 | Color software is as complicated and
as feature rich as it is. Creating looks
| | 01:50 | is a combination of primary
and secondary corrections.
| | 01:53 | Now, I know that we haven't defined
primary and secondary corrections yet, but
| | 01:56 | we'll later on when we jump into Color.
But the important thing to know is that
| | 02:00 | a look is just a combination of
these two types of corrections.
| | 02:03 | Continuity. A large part of a color's
role is creating visual continuity.
| | 02:09 | The term scene-to-scene color
correction is typically used to describe this
| | 02:12 | process. Continuity applies corrections and
looks in a consistent and logical way across scenes.
| | 02:19 | Correction versus Grading. These terms
are often used interchangeably. Grading
| | 02:24 | can refer to applying looks while
correction can refer to merely fixing problems.
| | 02:29 | The important thing to understand is
that in Color, corrections refer to
| | 02:33 | adjustments made in a room, while a
Grade refers to the sum of adjustments from all rooms.
| | 02:37 | I know that we haven't defined rooms yet,
but just keep it in the back of your
| | 02:40 | mind that a correction happens in an
individual room, while a grade happens as
| | 02:44 | the sum of all those rooms.
| | 02:46 | Now that we understand some of the
goals of the Color Correction process, in
| | 02:49 | the next few movies we're going to take
a look at some of the technical aspects behind Color.
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| Understanding image basics| 00:00 | Okay, I admit it. I'm a geek. When my
wife asks me what's on TV tonight, I
| | 00:04 | sometimes respond with Chroma
subsampling ratios or lengthy responses about
| | 00:09 | video terminology. Real romantic, I know.
| | 00:11 | Seriously though, understanding basic
terms about Color will help you be a
| | 00:14 | better communicator about Color
correction and Grading, as well as help you
| | 00:18 | with your skill as a colorist.
| | 00:19 | What do we need to define? We need to
define what we mean by Luma, Chroma, Hue,
| | 00:25 | Saturation, Contrast Ratio, and lastly Gamma.
| | 00:29 | What's Luma all about? Well, Luma
should not be confused with luminance.
| | 00:33 | Luma is what video systems use, and
luminance refers to physical objects in the real
| | 00:37 | world. Luma is the black and white
part of the footage. It's the part of the
| | 00:42 | signal that we use to evaluate
contrast. In technical equations,
| | 00:47 | it's represented by Y-prime.
| | 00:48 | So what's Chroma? Well, Chroma is short
for chrominance. It's the color part of
| | 00:54 | the footage. It's made up of two parts
: Hue and Saturation. It is part of the
| | 00:58 | signal used to evaluate color. In
technical equations, it's represented by CbCr
| | 01:04 | in digital component video, or
PbPr in analog component video.
| | 01:08 | Hue. Hue refers to an actual color.
On a color wheel, it's the angle on the
| | 01:13 | wheel from the center out.
| | 01:14 | Well, what's Saturation then?
Saturation is the intensity of color. On a color
| | 01:19 | wheel, it's the distance from the
center. An image without saturation is grayscale.
| | 01:25 | So here I have Hue and Saturation
mapped on a color wheel. Hue is represented
| | 01:28 | by the angle around the wheel and
that's the actual color, while Saturation is
| | 01:32 | the distance out from center. The
closer I get to the center, the less
| | 01:35 | saturated I am. The further out
towards the edge, the more saturated I am.
| | 01:39 | What does Contrast Ratio mean? Contrast
Ratio is a phrase that we hear all the time.
| | 01:42 | Contrast Ratio describes the
difference between the lightest portion of
| | 01:46 | the image and the darkest. As a
general rule of thumb, footage with a high
| | 01:50 | Contrast Ratio is more pleasing, and
low contrast images tend to look dull and flat.
| | 01:56 | Here on the left hand side of the
screen I have a piece of footage that's low
| | 01:59 | contrast, and it kind of looks dull
and flat. On the right hand side of the
| | 02:01 | screen I have some high contrast
footage that looks nice and bold.
| | 02:05 | Gamma. Gamma can refer to a few
concepts. In Color Grading, Gamma generally
| | 02:10 | refers to the adjustment of midtones.
| | 02:12 | Now that we have some of the basics
done, we'll take a closer look at color
| | 02:15 | terminology in the next movie.
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| Understanding the Color Wheel| 00:00 | In the last movie we explored some
terms that really had much to do with the
| | 00:03 | video signal itself. In this movie
we'll take a closer look at more color
| | 00:07 | specific terms that will aid us in
aesthetic choices, as well as fixing
| | 00:10 | problems like color cast. So let's dive in.
| | 00:13 | What do we need to define? We need to
define what we mean by primary colors,
| | 00:17 | complementary colors, and color casts.
| | 00:20 | So what are primary colors? Well, in
the additive color model the three primary
| | 00:24 | colors are red, green, and blue. All
video systems use the additive color
| | 00:28 | model, meaning colors are created by
mixing red, green, or blue together.
| | 00:33 | On the color wheel, the primary
colors are equidistant from each other and
| | 00:36 | divide the wheel into thirds. Here I
have the primary colors mapped on a color
| | 00:40 | wheel. Up here I have red, green, and
then blue over here, and you can see that
| | 00:45 | they are all equidistant from each
other and they divide the color wheel into thirds.
| | 00:49 | What are complementary colors? Well,
in the additive color model the three
| | 00:52 | complementary colors are yellow, cyan,
and magenta. Complementary colors are
| | 00:57 | created by mixing equal parts of two of
the primary colors, either red, green, or blue.
| | 01:02 | So if I add red plus green, I get
yellow, blue plus green I get cyan, and red
| | 01:07 | plus blue, I get magenta. Here we
have the complementary colors mapped on a
| | 01:11 | color wheel. Over here I have yellow,
down here cyan, and up here magenta, and
| | 01:17 | just like primary colors, they divide
the color wheel into thirds and they are
| | 01:20 | equidistant from each other.
| | 01:21 | Here I have a graphic that shows the
primary and complementary colors all
| | 01:24 | mapped together on a wheel. So you
can see I have red, yellow, green, cyan,
| | 01:29 | blue, and magenta, and they
divide the wheel equally into six.
| | 01:33 | So what's a color cast? Well, by
understanding the color wheel, you can
| | 01:37 | identify color cast. A color cast is
neutralized by adding a color from the
| | 01:42 | opposite side of the color wheel. When
a color cast is neutralized completely,
| | 01:47 | white should be white and black should be black.
| | 01:50 | Here I have a yellow color cast
mapped on a color wheel. I neutralize that
| | 01:54 | yellow cast by adding blue, which
gets me closer to the center of the color
| | 01:58 | wheel, which is white. On the left-hand
side here I have some footage that has
| | 02:02 | an obvious yellow color cast. This
color cast was neutralized by the addition
| | 02:05 | of blue, and we can tell that
because now things that should be white are
| | 02:08 | white, like the clouds.
| | 02:10 | In the past two movies, we've taken a
look at some basic terms. In the next
| | 02:13 | movie, we'll take a quick look at some
geeky information that colors have to
| | 02:17 | deal with on a regular basis. Once
that's complete, we'll be armed with all the
| | 02:20 | right terms to really explore Color in depth.
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| Understanding digital color encoding| 00:00 | In this movie, we'll wrap up our
expirations of terms using color correction
| | 00:04 | and grading with some under the hood
technical information. We're not going to
| | 00:07 | cover everything, but we're going to
cover some of the basics of this technical nomenclature.
| | 00:11 | So what do we need to define? We need
to define RGB. We need to define Y'CbCr.
| | 00:16 | We need to discuss the differences
between RGB and Y'CbCr. We need to talk
| | 00:23 | about Chroma subsampling, and
we need to talk about Bit depth.
| | 00:27 | So what's RGB Color encoding all about?
RGB is an additive color model and it's
| | 00:32 | how we see the world.
| | 00:34 | In the RGB model, Luma or lightness and
Chroma are not separate. A manipulation
| | 00:39 | of one affects the other. Only recently
have some video systems been capable of
| | 00:44 | handling RGB video.
| | 00:46 | What's Y'CbCr encoding all about?
Well, it's the way that most component
| | 00:50 | digital video is encoded, and
sometimes the terms YUV is used as a generic,
| | 00:54 | even though technically this is
wrong. Y-prime represents Luma and CbCr
| | 00:59 | represents the Chroma difference
channels, the colored portion of the video signal.
| | 01:04 | This model allows for separate
manipulation of Luma and Chroma. This model
| | 01:09 | allows for greater compression of Chroma,
because Luma and Chroma are separate.
| | 01:13 | So let's compare RGB to Y'CbCr. In RGB
encoding, Chroma and Luma are linked.
| | 01:20 | In Y'CbCr encoding, Chroma and Luma are
separate. Neither color model is correct,
| | 01:27 | but RGB manipulations are how many
computer applications work, and different
| | 01:31 | ways of thinking are required for each
model, because in RGB, Luma and Chroma
| | 01:35 | are linked, and in Y'CbCr they are separate.
| | 01:39 | So what do I mean by Chroma
subsampling? This is a term that we hear quite
| | 01:42 | often. Basically Chroma subsampling
refers to the reduction of Chroma in the
| | 01:46 | overall video signal. Because our eyes
are more sensitive to Luma than color,
| | 01:51 | Chroma subsampling reduces
Chroma in a video signal.
| | 01:55 | Chroma subsampling ratios are often
represented by ratios like 4:2:2 or 4:1:1.
| | 02:01 | The first number represents Luma, the
second two numbers represent the Chroma
| | 02:05 | difference channels, or the
color portion of the signal.
| | 02:07 | The first number, Luma, is generally 4,
while the Chroma difference channels
| | 02:11 | are a half to even a
quarter of the first number.
| | 02:15 | Chroma subsampling can also serve as
compression, because we're reducing the
| | 02:19 | amount of Chroma in the signal, thus
the overall data rate of the video signal is less.
| | 02:23 | For color correction and grading
purposes, the more Chroma that you can get,
| | 02:27 | the better. Some newer formats like
Sony's HDCAM-SR can actually record 4:4:4,
| | 02:33 | so there is no Chroma subsampling
taking place, and this provides a pristine,
| | 02:37 | perfect image for color correction and grading.
| | 02:40 | Bit depth is another concept that we
hear about all the time. Bit depth refers
| | 02:44 | to the range of colors that are
available in any given color model. Video is
| | 02:49 | commonly 8 or 10 bit, although some
programs can process greater bit depths.
| | 02:53 | An 8-bit RGB image has 256 possible
values per pixel, while a 10-bit image has
| | 02:59 | 1,024. Due to the way that digital
video is encoded, most of the time we can
| | 03:05 | only access 220 Luma values for 8-
bit and 876 values for 10-bit video.
| | 03:11 | Some newer codecs can actually support
RGB encoding, so we get the full range
| | 03:16 | of values. 0-1,023 in 10-bit, counting the 0.
| | 03:21 | Basically, the more values the better
for color correction. Whenever possible,
| | 03:25 | work with 10-bit video.
| | 03:27 | Up next, we'll talk about another
very important concept in our discussion
| | 03:31 | about the basics of color correction,
physical setup of your grading environment.
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| Setting up your physical environment| 00:00 | So you want to be a colorist, or
simply integrate color into your workflow.
| | 00:04 | Either way, there are some important
physical setup considerations. Now that
| | 00:07 | doesn't mean you have to spend $50
billion on a suite. That would be some
| | 00:11 | suite, but what it does mean is armed
with a bit of knowledge you can make some
| | 00:14 | smart decisions about your color
correction and grading environment.
| | 00:17 | Another way of saying that is that
your environment directly influences your
| | 00:20 | efficiency and the
decisions that you make in color.
| | 00:23 | Physical setup is vital. Room setup
is in many ways more important than the
| | 00:28 | actual color correction and grading
software that we're using. A colorist's
| | 00:31 | greatest asset is his or her eyes and
not stressing them out or influencing
| | 00:36 | them in any way is of the most importance.
| | 00:38 | It's actually pretty easy to create an
environment that's friendly for color
| | 00:42 | correction and grading. The easiest
way to create an environment that's
| | 00:44 | friendly for color correction and
grading is by making good lighting choices.
| | 00:49 | We want to avoid external light
sources like windows. Ideally, we'd use
| | 00:54 | windowless rooms, or if we have to
color correct and grade in a windowed room,
| | 00:57 | invest in some blackout curtains. We
want to avoid standard household lighting,
| | 01:02 | and instead, we want to purchase
daylight balanced, or what's known as D65 lighting.
| | 01:07 | We also want to avoid direct lighting,
especially towards monitors, scopes, and
| | 01:11 | other reflective surfaces. On this slide,
you can see a suite that is daylight lit.
| | 01:14 | Also notice, the back lighting
behind the monitors. Walls are another
| | 01:18 | important consideration for your
color correction and grading environment.
| | 01:21 | We want to avoid saturated or bright
colors. Neutral grays are best, and the
| | 01:26 | actual color of the gray is debated,
but 50% gray is a good place to start.
| | 01:30 | We also want to create near the
colorist sightline what's known as a confident spot.
| | 01:33 | A confident spot is a spot
where we have true white, gray, and black
| | 01:37 | swatches. A colorist can use this
when color accuracy is in doubt.
| | 01:40 | Monitor Selection. Monitors are one
of the colorists' most valuable tools.
| | 01:45 | Don't compromise on a good monitor.
Contrast, color accuracy, and adjustability
| | 01:50 | are essential to act as
a good reference monitor.
| | 01:53 | CRT technology is still the gold
standard, however, some other display
| | 01:56 | technologies like LCD or DLP are
gaining acceptance. People don't watch TV on
| | 02:02 | $20,000 calibrated monitor, and
having a regular old TV set in the grading
| | 02:08 | suite can help you do a little
reality check, hence the sanity monitor.
| | 02:12 | Other display devices like projectors
can also be used, but really the point
| | 02:16 | is, at some point you want to view
your show on a device that your audience
| | 02:19 | will also be viewing it on.
| | 02:21 | Monitor placement is another
consideration. We want to pay attention to
| | 02:24 | ergonomics. Placing the monitor in a
centered, elevated position is very
| | 02:29 | common, and we want to be aware of
computer monitor light pollution on our
| | 02:33 | reference monitor. Some people
actually choose to use hoods on their computer
| | 02:37 | monitors, so light doesn't spill-
off onto their reference monitor.
| | 02:40 | Control surfaces. Control surfaces
provide tactile control over parameters and
| | 02:45 | controls in Color. Trust me, control
surfaces allow you to work much faster
| | 02:50 | than point and click.
| | 02:52 | Control surfaces are a large
investment. However, I think the increased
| | 02:56 | efficiency that you get may counter the cost.
| | 02:59 | JL Cooper and Tangent both make great
control surfaces for color. The cool
| | 03:04 | thing about control surfaces is
that they're often expandable for other controls.
| | 03:07 | Here we can see two control surfaces.
The JL Cooper Eclipse CX. That's the
| | 03:11 | control surface that I use and I love
it. We also have the Tangent Devices
| | 03:15 | CP200, which is another good control surface.
| | 03:18 | Every color correction and grading
environment has compromises. Not every room
| | 03:22 | is perfect, but please don't let
that discourage you from learning color.
| | 03:26 | Of course, different budgets allow for
different options, and good grading can
| | 03:31 | still happen with $500 calibrated
monitor. The thing is knowledge of physical
| | 03:36 | setup in color science is key to
make good decisions about your color
| | 03:39 | correction and grading environment.
| | 03:41 | In this chapter, we've covered a lot of
color correction basics, and hopefully
| | 03:45 | you're feeling more
comfortable with a lot of these terms.
| | 03:47 | In the next chapter, we'll
explore different workflows with color.
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3. Understanding Color WorkflowsHow Color fits into Final Cut Studio| 00:00 | Since its introduction at NAB 2007,
one of the questions that I get asked the
| | 00:04 | most is how does Color fit into Final
Cut Studio Workflow and post-production
| | 00:08 | in general? Well, it's beyond the
scope of this title to discuss Color's role
| | 00:11 | in the ever-changing world of post-
production, but what we can explore is
| | 00:14 | Color's role in Final Cut Studio
Workflow, and that's what we'll do in this lesson.
| | 00:18 | Before I begin I should stress that
with any workflow, adaptability and its
| | 00:22 | design is key, therefore the workflows
that we discuss here are not meant to be
| | 00:26 | the end-all, be-all of Color
workflows. Indeed, almost everyday I hear of
| | 00:30 | exciting new workflows, what I do
intend is that you walk away with a broad
| | 00:33 | strokes understanding of workflow
with Color inside Final Cut Studio.
| | 00:37 | So I like to think of Color as the
missing link in Final Cut Studio. I think of
| | 00:41 | it like that because it's an
application that allows us to do professional
| | 00:44 | correction and grading. Sure, we could
do color correction and grading inside
| | 00:47 | of Final Cut Pro, but we now have a
dedicated application specifically for those tasks.
| | 00:52 | It's integrated with Final Cut Pro.
There are some other applications out there
| | 00:55 | on the market that allow us to do color
correction and grading on the desktop,
| | 00:58 | but they're not really nicely
integrated with Final Cut Pro like Color is.
| | 01:03 | Super expensive hardware is not
required. All that's required to run Color is
| | 01:07 | Final Cut Studio and a Mac.
| | 01:09 | So here is the Final Cut Studio. At the
heart of the Final Cut Studio, we have
| | 01:12 | Final Cut Pro, where we
ingest, edit, and do outputs.
| | 01:15 | We have cinema tools, where we do film
workflows and frame rate conversions.
| | 01:19 | Motion 3 to do motion graphics.
LiveType for title design. Soundtrack Pro for
| | 01:23 | sound design and mix. We now have
Color for professional color correction and
| | 01:27 | grading. Compressor 3 for compression
and output, and then lastly, DVD Studio
| | 01:31 | Pro for DVD design and authoring.
| | 01:33 | Before I go on, I just want to say that
the workflows I'm about to present are
| | 01:36 | meant to just give you a broad
understanding of Color workflow inside Final Cut
| | 01:40 | Studio. If there are some steps that
you don't understand, that's okay. We just
| | 01:44 | want to get at the basics.
| | 01:45 | So the first workflow I want to talk
about is what we typically refer to as The
| | 01:48 | Roundtrip. The way that this works is
that we ingest and edit our show in Final
| | 01:52 | Cut Pro, and when we're done, we send
an XML file to Color, via the Send to
| | 01:57 | Color command in Final Cut Pro, and we
reference the original media on disk.
| | 02:01 | In Color, I grade and correct my program,
and when I'm done with that process,
| | 02:05 | I send an XML file back to Final Cut
Pro via the Send to Final Cut Pro command
| | 02:09 | inside Color, and I render out new
QuickTime files with the color corrected
| | 02:12 | media. That all comes back into
Final Cut Pro, where I do any last minute
| | 02:16 | tweaks and I output my project.
| | 02:18 | This next workflow is a little bit
more advanced. The way it works is that we
| | 02:21 | shoot on film, and when we shoot on
film we need a way of getting that film
| | 02:25 | into our computer, and we
do that by using a Datacine.
| | 02:27 | The Datacine creates high resolution
Cineon or DPX files, and all these files
| | 02:32 | are, are high resolution image
sequences. Once we have those image sequences,
| | 02:37 | we can't edit with them in Final Cut
Pro, instead, we need to create offline
| | 02:41 | QuickTime files from them to be able
to edit in Final Cut Pro, and we can do
| | 02:44 | that with tools like Glue Tools, or
AJA's DPX to QT translator. Don't worry.
| | 02:49 | We're saving the DPX and Cineon
files for later on in this workflow.
| | 02:52 | So once we have the offline files, we
import those offline files into Final Cut
| | 02:56 | Pro and then we perform our offline
edit. Once we're done with our edit in
| | 03:00 | Final Cut Pro, we create an EDL, and
an EDL just stands for an Edit Decision List.
| | 03:04 | We then take that EDL and we use it to
conform back or reconnect back to those
| | 03:09 | original DPX and Cineon files. We
then perform all of our color grading and
| | 03:14 | correction. Once we're done grading,
we render out from Color and we use the
| | 03:18 | Gather Rendered Media command inside of
Color to create new DPX or Cineon image
| | 03:22 | sequences. We then take those image
sequences and we do our film output.
| | 03:26 | This next workflow that we have is a
pretty common workflow, and the way it
| | 03:29 | works is that we have a QuickTime
master file. This QuickTime master file
| | 03:33 | typically comes off a videotape and
it's often accompanied with an EDL.
| | 03:37 | Remember an EDL stands for Edit
Decision List. In Color, we create a new Color
| | 03:42 | project using that EDL and we
link back to that master file.
| | 03:45 | The cool thing about using an EDL and
Color this way is that we can actually
| | 03:49 | use it to notch or cut up the master
file into its individual clips for color
| | 03:53 | grading. We grade the show in Color,
and then once we're done we send an XML
| | 03:58 | file via the Send to Final Cut Pro
command inside of Color and we render out
| | 04:02 | new color corrected media. That all
ends up back in Final Cut Pro, where we do
| | 04:05 | any last minute tweaks and we output our show.
| | 04:08 | The last workflow that we have is a
pretty simple one. The way that it works is
| | 04:11 | that we have an existing QuickTime
file on disk. Not a digitized master, not
| | 04:15 | any image sequences, nothing like
that, just a simple QuickTime file.
| | 04:19 | We import that QuickTime file directly
into Color. This time we're not using
| | 04:23 | any EDLs or XML or any send to commands,
just importing it directly into Color.
| | 04:28 | In Color, we perform our color grading,
and then when we're done with our color
| | 04:32 | grading, we render out new media from
Color, color corrected media, and then we
| | 04:35 | import directly into Final Cut Pro,
where we do any last minute tweaks and
| | 04:39 | output. Again, we don't use
EDLs or XML files at this stage.
| | 04:42 | Now that we understand the basics of
color workflow inside Final Cut Studio, in
| | 04:47 | the next movie we'll compare color
correction between Final Cut Pro and Color.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Deciding whether to color correct with Color or Final Cut Pro| 00:01 | Okay. So if you're like me, you might
be asking yourself, I've been doing just
| | 00:04 | fine correcting footage in Final Cut
Pro, who cares about Color? Well, I'd be
| | 00:09 | the first to tell you that initially I
thought much of the Color hype had to do
| | 00:12 | with marketing, but having worked with
Final Cut Pro extensively as an online
| | 00:15 | editor and colorist, as well as having
worked with other systems like the da
| | 00:18 | Vinci 2K, I would say Color is
where it's at if you can afford a slight
| | 00:22 | deprecation and real-time output
compared to million dollar hardware systems.
| | 00:26 | Almost every colorist I've talked to
in the past year has preferred Color's
| | 00:29 | toolset to that of other major color
correction tools. In this short movie
| | 00:33 | we'll look at comparing color
correction in Final Cut Pro to that of Color.
| | 00:36 | Let's take a look at color correction
in Final Cut Pro. One major advantage
| | 00:41 | that color correction in Final Cut Pro
has is that we never have to leave the
| | 00:43 | Final Cut Pro interface.
| | 00:45 | This begs a question, because
it's not a dedicated color correction
| | 00:48 | application, is it good enough?
Well, for most people it is.
| | 00:51 | It also begs the question, is the
Y'CbCr model that Final Cut Pro uses easier?
| | 00:57 | Some people think this is true because
we have separate manipulations of Luma and Chroma.
| | 01:02 | Another advantage of color correction
in Final Cut Pro is that Final Cut Pro is
| | 01:05 | a multi-task application, and because
it is, we can do lots more than just
| | 01:09 | color correction and grading. We can
ingest, output, do effects, transitions, and so on.
| | 01:15 | Another big advantage of color
correcting in Final Cut Pro is that because
| | 01:18 | Final Cut Pro is the heart and soul
of the Final Cut Studio, there's no
| | 01:21 | limitations for other files that it
can accept from within the studio.
| | 01:25 | Let's take a look at color correction
in Color. Color has a much broader range
| | 01:29 | of tools for a professional color
correction and grading. Its interface and
| | 01:33 | workflow are geared to a specific task,
that of professional color correction and grading.
| | 01:38 | Some people think that the RGB color
space that Color uses is more natural, but
| | 01:44 | currently it's limited in its
integration with the rest of Final Cut Studio.
| | 01:48 | But one big advantage that it does have
is that it has control surface support.
| | 01:53 | Control surfaces are vital for those
colorists who want to have tactile control
| | 01:56 | over features and parameters inside of Color.
| | 02:00 | Another advantage is that color
correction in Color does provide some
| | 02:02 | intangibles. What I mean by that is
if a client walks into your suite and
| | 02:06 | you're color correcting and grading in
Final Cut Pro, the client usually says,
| | 02:09 | oh, Final Cut Pro. But if a client
walks into your suite and they see Color on
| | 02:13 | your system and you're running a
hardware control surface, they go, hmm, this
| | 02:17 | seems well worth the price.
| | 02:18 | So let's talk about some limitations
in Final Cut Pro. The Final Cut Pro
| | 02:23 | interface is not geared specifically
for color correction. The Color Corrector
| | 02:27 | 3-way is the tool to provide
primary and secondary color corrections.
| | 02:31 | Now, I know that we haven't
completely defined primary and secondary
| | 02:34 | corrections, but the Color
Corrector 3-way is the tool to provide these corrections.
| | 02:39 | In Final Cut Pro, we sometimes have
to manually build effects, like film
| | 02:43 | effects. Tracking a correction can be
very cumbersome in Final Cut Pro, often
| | 02:47 | involving multiple keyframes. Final
Cut Pro has limited control surface
| | 02:51 | support, which is a big downer for
colorists who want tactile control over
| | 02:55 | color correction features of the interface.
| | 02:57 | Of course Color is not perfect.
Probably the biggest limitation in Color is
| | 03:02 | that text, motion files, LiveType files,
stills, and other generators do not
| | 03:07 | appear in Color. Although, in a later
movie we'll talk about how this can be overcome.
| | 03:12 | Because Color is geared specifically
for color correction and grading, there's
| | 03:15 | no real editing or digitizing or even
outputting. Filters, transitions, supers,
| | 03:21 | and other features of Final Cut Pro
are not previewed or rendered by Color.
| | 03:26 | A big limitation in Color currently is
that there is no FireWire output.
| | 03:30 | What this means is that if you have a
FireWire deck, camera, or even an AJAio box,
| | 03:35 | you can't use the FireWire connection
to get back out to an external monitor to
| | 03:39 | preview your video.
| | 03:41 | I like to think about Color as the
colorist's wish, and what I mean by that is
| | 03:45 | if you spend more than 40% of your time
correcting footage for exposure and/or
| | 03:49 | color balance issues, then
I would really chose Color.
| | 03:53 | Another reason to choose Color is that
you require an intuitive tactile control
| | 03:57 | surface. As I've mentioned before,
control surfaces allow a colorist to work
| | 04:00 | much, much faster than
simply pointing and clicking.
| | 04:04 | Color also allows you to expand your
horizons. Even if you don't consider
| | 04:08 | yourself a colorist, Color provides
the toolset for expanded color correction
| | 04:12 | versus Final Cut Pro.
| | 04:14 | Color for the most part is geared
towards on task color correction and grading,
| | 04:17 | and what I mean by this is that it is a
separate application specifically built
| | 04:21 | to do color correction and grading,
unlike Final Cut Pro, which is an
| | 04:25 | application that is meant to do a lot of things.
| | 04:27 | This is kind of an intangible, but
by becoming a master of Color, you can
| | 04:31 | provide expert services to your clients.
| | 04:34 | Next up, we'll jump into Final Cut Pro
and talk about prepping the sequence for
| | 04:37 | use in Color.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Realizing Final Cut Pro sequence limitations in Color| 00:00 | So chances are if you're wanting to
learn Color, you've been exposed to Final
| | 00:04 | Cut Pro, because after all Color comes
with Final Cut Pro in Final Cut Studio.
| | 00:08 | Maybe you are a seasoned FCP editor or
a beginner, either way that's fine.
| | 00:12 | The point is most Color workflows start in
Final Cut Pro. This makes sense if you
| | 00:16 | think about it, because Final Cut Pro
is the centerpiece of Final Cut Studio
| | 00:20 | and its where ingest, editing,
effects, transitions, and lastly, output happens.
| | 00:25 | In this movie, we'll work in FCP and
talk about prepping a sequence for Color
| | 00:29 | and some things to be aware of. If
you're not a FCP user, have no fear, the
| | 00:33 | steps that we'll do here are pretty
straightforward and pretty simple.
| | 00:36 | So the first thing I want to do is come
into my Exercise Files disk image, and
| | 00:40 | I'm going to sort it as List view.
There is a folder called FCP Master Project,
| | 00:47 | and inside of there, there is a Final
Cut Pro project called Color Essential
| | 00:50 | Training. I'm just going to
double click on that to open it up.
| | 00:55 | So when Final Cut Pro opens up, you'll
notice that there's no timeline window
| | 00:59 | or no canvas window. That's just
because I don't have a sequence open. Let's go
| | 01:02 | up into my Browser, and there is a
folder called 3 Overview of Workflows With
| | 01:06 | Color. Let's scroll down on the
disclosure triangle next to that folder, and
| | 01:09 | there is a sequence in there called 3_
3 prepfcpseq_limitationsofcolor.
| | 01:14 | Let's just double click on that one to
open it up. A sequence opens up in your
| | 01:19 | timeline window and your canvas now appears.
| | 01:21 | So let's talk a little bit about this
sequence. This sequence is a DVCPRO-HD
| | 01:25 | 720P24 sequence, and it's actually a
snippet of a music video from a band that I'm in.
| | 01:32 | Right off the bat, let's discuss a few
things about this sequence. The first
| | 01:37 | thing I want you to notice is that the
sequence uses two video tracks. I have
| | 01:41 | V1 and I have V2. Additionally, I have
some audio down here on audio tracks 1 and 2.
| | 01:49 | The next thing I want you to notice
is what's going on, on track 2. At the
| | 01:53 | beginning of the sequence I have
one of Final Cut Pro's standard title
| | 01:56 | generators, and it's just displaying
some music video text, the name of the
| | 02:01 | song, the name of the album, and so on,
at the beginning of the music video.
| | 02:05 | A little farther down in the sequence,
also on video track 2, I have some more
| | 02:09 | text, but this text is actually text
that was created by motion. It's a .motn
| | 02:14 | file, representing a motion clip.
| | 02:17 | Then down further on the timeline I
have sort of a push-in, sort of a Ken Burns
| | 02:23 | effect on a still photo. This is just
a JPEG here at the end of the sequence.
| | 02:29 | The next thing I want you to notice is
in the middle of the timeline, if I zoom
| | 02:33 | in a little bit with my Zoom tool,
which is just Z on the keyboard to zoom in,
| | 02:37 | I have a clip that has some variable
speed changes applied to it. I know that
| | 02:42 | this clip has had speed changes
applied to it because in parenthesis, next to
| | 02:46 | the name of the clip, it says variable.
| | 02:48 | There is another part of this
sequence that's kind of invisible to us right
| | 02:51 | now, but I want to take a look at. Down
here in the bottom left hand corner of
| | 02:55 | the Final Cut Pro timeline, there is
a little button that says Toggle Clip
| | 02:59 | Keyframes. That's the one that
looks like two parallel lines.
| | 03:03 | If I click on that, underneath each clip,
there is a gray area that's displayed
| | 03:07 | that shows me my clip keyframes. But
more basically than that, it shows me
| | 03:11 | whether I have filters or motion
changes applied to a clip. The green line
| | 03:15 | underneath a clip shows me the fact
that I have a filter applied to this clip.
| | 03:19 | I don't know what filter it is, but I
just have a filter applied. The blue line
| | 03:23 | shows me that I have changed the
motion of this clip in some way.
| | 03:26 | So let's take a look at a couple of
these clips that have filters on them.
| | 03:29 | Down here, there is a clip that has a
filter on it, and if I double click on the
| | 03:33 | clip, the one that says RC-012, and I
come into the Filters tab, you'll notice
| | 03:39 | that I have a Color Balance filter. I
can toggle that on and off, just to show
| | 03:43 | you the effect of it. Here is the
original clip, which is nice and blue, and
| | 03:48 | then the Color Balance filter,
attempted to color correct that shot.
| | 03:52 | If I come down to the beginning of the
timeline, there is a clip called RC-008,
| | 03:55 | and let me double click on that one to
load it into the viewer. If I look at
| | 04:01 | the Filters tab there, I have a Color
Corrector 3-way, and in fact, I have an
| | 04:04 | additional tab called Color Corrector 3-
way. This is just the principal tool to
| | 04:08 | provide color correction in Final Cut Pro.
| | 04:12 | So we know what our sequence looks
like now, let's actually go ahead and send
| | 04:15 | the sequence as is to Color. So the way
that I'm going to do this is I'm going
| | 04:20 | to go up to the File menu, and down
to Send To, and Color. Oh, oh, Color is
| | 04:26 | grayed out. This is an important thing.
Final Cut Pro can only send sequences
| | 04:31 | to Color. It cannot send individual
clips. So I need to make sure that the
| | 04:34 | sequence that I want to
Send To Color is selected.
| | 04:38 | So let me come back down to the
timeline window and select the sequence, and
| | 04:42 | come up to the File menu,
Send To, and choose Color.
| | 04:46 | I'm prompted with this dialog box
that lets me choose the name of the Color
| | 04:51 | project that I'm about to create. It
defaults to the same name as the sequence
| | 04:55 | that you're working on. I'll go ahead
and click OK, and Color will launch.
| | 05:00 | What's really happening when Color
launches like this is that Final Cut Pro is
| | 05:04 | sending Color an XML file and all an
XML file is, is a set of instructions
| | 05:09 | about the sequence.
| | 05:11 | Additionally, when I use the Send To
Color command from Final Cut Pro, the
| | 05:15 | project is automatically saved in the
default project directory in Color.
| | 05:19 | In another movie we'll take a look at
setting up the default project directory.
| | 05:23 | But for now the default is fine. If you
want to know, the default directory is
| | 05:26 | in your User folder,
Documents, and Color Documents.
| | 05:31 | Now let's take a look at the sequence
that we send from Final Cut Pro now in
| | 05:34 | Color. At the bottom of the Color
Interface is my Color timeline. In a later
| | 05:39 | movie we'll deconstruct how the
timeline works, but what I want you to know for
| | 05:42 | right now is just basically how
to zoom in and out on the timeline.
| | 05:46 | If I hold my right mouse button down
and drag left and right, I can zoom
| | 05:52 | horizontally in and out of the timeline.
If I hold my middle mouse button down
| | 05:58 | and drag left and right, I can pan the timeline.
| | 06:02 | The important thing is, when you zoom
in and out, or you pan the timeline, you
| | 06:06 | just want to make sure that you're
doing that on the time code ruler here above
| | 06:10 | the clips. So let me zoom in just a
little bit and pan the timeline towards the
| | 06:15 | center here, like this.
| | 06:16 | All right. Let's see what's going on
with this sequence now in Color. First of
| | 06:20 | all, you'll notice that my tracks were
maintained. I still have two tracks of
| | 06:26 | video: video track 1 and video track 2.
Notice however that I have no audio.
| | 06:32 | Color maintained my video track layout,
but audio does not come from Final Cut
| | 06:36 | Pro to Color. Don't worry though. Your
sequence will get married back up to its
| | 06:41 | respective audio when the
project goes back to Final Cut Pro.
| | 06:45 | The next thing to notice is about those
text generators that I had. At the very
| | 06:49 | beginning of the sequence you'll
notice that I have this red box that kind of
| | 06:53 | looks like an offline clip that I
might see in Final Cut Pro. In fact, that's
| | 06:57 | what this is. It's an offline clip.
Title generators or other generators like
| | 07:01 | LiveType files, Motion clips, and so on
are not displayed in Color. Color will
| | 07:07 | use this offline icon as a
placeholder, but it will not display the clip.
| | 07:12 | Further down in my timeline, remember
I had that Motion clip and likewise,
| | 07:17 | because this is a .motn file, it is
not displayed in the Color timeline.
| | 07:22 | Do you remember that still that I had
at the end of the sequence? Well, here it
| | 07:26 | is right at the end of the sequence and
I can see on the timeline that there is
| | 07:30 | an icon for it. But if I put my
playhead over that clip, you'll notice up here
| | 07:35 | in the preview area of Color that I
don't actually see anything. I just have a
| | 07:39 | black blank window. That's because
still frames, JPEGs, stills, or even stills
| | 07:45 | that you create in Final Cut
Pro are not supported by Color.
| | 07:49 | Well, the next thing I want you to
notice is the clip in the middle of the
| | 07:53 | timeline that was the speed adjusted
clip. That came over just fine from Final
| | 07:57 | Cut Pro, however some users have
reported problems with speed adjusted clips.
| | 08:02 | In the most recent version of Color,
there doesn't seem to be a lot of problems
| | 08:05 | with speed adjusted clips. However,
if you start having problems with speed
| | 08:08 | adjusted clips, you may want to follow
the procedure that we'll talk about in
| | 08:11 | just a few minutes.
| | 08:12 | Do you remember my clips that I had
filters on? Let's take a look at those.
| | 08:17 | Here is the clip that I had a Color
Balance Filter on. You'll notice that it
| | 08:20 | doesn't seem to be color corrected
anymore. It's defaulted back to the original
| | 08:24 | clip, which has that blue color cast.
| | 08:26 | The important thing to understand here
is that Filters do not come over from
| | 08:30 | Final Cut Pro to Color. However, if
you go back to Final Cut Pro as part of a
| | 08:35 | roundtrip, those filters will then
reconnect to those clips and we'll talk
| | 08:39 | about why that can be a
little dangerous in just a minute.
| | 08:41 | Now, I said that Filters do not come
over from Final Cut Pro to Color. However,
| | 08:46 | there is one exception. Here is the
clip that I had the Color Corrector 3-way
| | 08:51 | Filter applied to. Now, the Color
Corrector 3-way is the only filter that comes
| | 08:55 | over from Final Cut Pro to Color, and
it doesn't come over all that nicely,
| | 09:00 | instead what happens is that its
translated into a correction in my Primary In room.
| | 09:05 | In later movies we'll talk about
exactly how the Primary In room works.
| | 09:09 | But the important thing to know is that
the Color Corrector 3-way is translated
| | 09:12 | into a Primary In room correction.
| | 09:15 | Then the last thing to notice about
this sequence is my transitions. Now, I
| | 09:19 | didn't show you the transitions in the
Final Cut Pro timeline, but that's okay,
| | 09:22 | I can show you here. In the Color
timeline, Color keeps the transitions.
| | 09:26 | You can see that it says Cross Dissolve
down here. But if I scrub through by
| | 09:30 | dragging my playhead along those transitions,
you'll notice that the transition is not displayed.
| | 09:37 | Just like other things from Final Cut
Pro, Color will keep the Cross Dissolve
| | 09:41 | or keep transitions there as a
placeholder, but it will neither preview them nor render them.
| | 09:46 | So now that we've seen that the
sequence is not exactly perfect, let's go back
| | 09:51 | into Final Cut Pro and prep
our sequence a little bit better.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Preparing a Final Cut Pro sequence for Color| 00:00 | In the last movie, we took a look at
some of the limitations of sending a Final
| | 00:04 | Cut Pro sequence to Color. In this movie,
we'll take a look at better prepping
| | 00:08 | our Final Cut Pro sequence.
| | 00:11 | The first thing I want to do is just
come down to the bottom of the timeline
| | 00:14 | window in Final Cut Pro and click on
the Toggle Clip Keyframes button, just to
| | 00:17 | make the timeline a little easier to look at.
| | 00:20 | The next thing I want to do is just
use a quick keyboard shortcut, Shift+Z in
| | 00:25 | the timeline, and that will snap the
whole timeline back into the viewable area
| | 00:28 | of the timeline window.
| | 00:31 | Now, this is just a personal preference
thing, but before I do any changes on a
| | 00:35 | sequence, I like to backup the
original sequence. So let's go ahead and do that.
| | 00:39 | I want to come up to my
browser and find the sequence 3_3
| | 00:43 | prepfcpseq_limitationsofcolor and let's
right click on the actual sequence icon
| | 00:49 | and choose Duplicate. That
makes a copy of the sequence.
| | 00:55 | So next what I want to do is just click
on the actual name of the sequence and
| | 00:58 | let's just change its name. Just to
be consistent, let's change the name of
| | 01:02 | this sequence to be 3_4, and then at
the end of the sequence, let's just add
| | 01:08 | FOR COLOR. That way we can be very
clear about which sequence we're working on.
| | 01:12 | So to open up the sequence, I'm just
going to double click on the actual
| | 01:16 | sequence icon and that opens up the
new sequence. Let's start prepping the sequence.
| | 01:23 | If you remember correctly, at the
beginning of the sequence, I had a Title 3D
| | 01:27 | text generator, and this was just the
title generator that was giving me my
| | 01:31 | standard music video text. Also, in the
middle of the sequence, I have that 3D
| | 01:38 | text that was created in motion,
and this is my motion clip.
| | 01:42 | Now, I have a decision to make. I can
leave this text just as is and it will
| | 01:47 | show up as offline clips in Color,
just really as placeholders. I've got to
| | 01:52 | tell you that drives me crazy. So
actually what I want to do here is just
| | 01:56 | remove the Title 3D generator and
the motion clip from this sequence.
| | 02:01 | Don't worry. I'm not really deleting it,
because remember, I have the sequence
| | 02:04 | backed up. This one up here, 3_3
prepfcpseq. So when this project comes back to
| | 02:09 | Final Cut Pro, I can literally just
do a copy and paste of the Title 3D
| | 02:13 | generator and the motion clip back
onto the color corrected sequence.
| | 02:18 | So I'm just going to remove the text
and the motion clip. Again, this is
| | 02:22 | optional, you don't have to do this,
but I find it a good thing to do, because
| | 02:25 | it makes your Color timeline
a whole lot easier to look at.
| | 02:28 | So I'm just going to select both clips
and hit Delete. That leaves me with a
| | 02:32 | blank video track 2. We saw in the
previous movie that Color will maintain the
| | 02:37 | amount of video tracks that you have
from a Final Cut Pro sequence. Well,
| | 02:41 | there's no real need to have a blank
video track in Color, so I'm going to
| | 02:45 | delete this track. The way that I do
that is just to come over anywhere here
| | 02:49 | into the gray area on V2, right click
and say Delete track. So now I just have
| | 02:54 | a single track. We're getting there.
| | 02:58 | The next thing I want to address is
the photo at the end of this sequence.
| | 03:04 | Remember this was just a simple push-
in to a still photo, and we saw in the
| | 03:08 | previous movie that Color does not
support stills, JPEGs, TIFFs, or even stills
| | 03:12 | that we create as freeze
frames in Final Cut Pro.
| | 03:16 | So in order to get this still into
Color, I need to actually export this as a
| | 03:20 | Self-Contained QuickTime file. That's
the only way that I'll be able to get it
| | 03:23 | into Color for purposes of
color correction and grading.
| | 03:26 | So to do this, I'm going to go to the
very beginning of the photo and I'm going
| | 03:32 | to use the keyboard shortcut I to mark
an in-point. I'm then going to come to
| | 03:38 | the end of the photo. And just be
careful you don't go too far. So I'm going to
| | 03:43 | go back one frame so I have the very
last frame of the photo, and I'm going to
| | 03:47 | mark an out simply by
hitting the O key on the keyboard.
| | 03:50 | So now I've defined the photo, I've
marked an in and an out, I've marked that
| | 03:55 | area around the photo. Now what I'm
going to do is come up to the File menu,
| | 04:01 | down to Export, and choose QuickTime Movie.
| | 04:06 | So the dialog box that pops up just
gives me some options about how I want to
| | 04:09 | export this. First of all, let's
give it a new name. Let's call it
| | 04:13 | sunsetphotomovie. Let's save it out
to our Desktop. Then down here with the
| | 04:22 | Settings, let's use the Current
Settings. That will just make sure that the
| | 04:26 | settings that this movie uses will
match the sequence that I'm currently working with.
| | 04:31 | Under the Include pull down, let's just
choose Video Only, because it's just a
| | 04:34 | still, I don't need audio.
| | 04:36 | Then most importantly, let's just make
sure that the Make Movie Self-Contained
| | 04:40 | checkbox is checked. Then just hit
Save. It will take two seconds to render
| | 04:48 | out, and it's done.
| | 04:50 | Now what we want to do is come up to
my Final Cut Pro browser and anywhere in
| | 04:53 | the gray area here, right click
and choose Import, and then Files.
| | 04:59 | Let's navigate back out to my
Desktop and let's choose the file,
| | 05:04 | sunsetphotomovie. The file is loaded to
my browser and let's just double click
| | 05:10 | on it, and it loads it up into the
viewer, and if I scrub through that, you can
| | 05:14 | see it's still that push into the photo,
but now instead of a still image, it
| | 05:18 | is an actual movie file.
| | 05:21 | Because I still have my sequence marked
with in and out points, let's actually
| | 05:24 | go ahead and just edit this new movie
into the sequence. To do that, I'm simply
| | 05:28 | going to take the new movie, drag it
over to the canvas window, and choose
| | 05:32 | Overwrite. There we go.
sunsetphotomovie has been edited into the sequence and
| | 05:38 | now it's not a still image. It's
a self-contained QuickTime file.
| | 05:42 | The next thing I want to address is
the issue of filters. If you remember
| | 05:47 | correctly, this clip, RC-012, had a
color correction filter applied to it.
| | 05:53 | I'll double click on it, to load it up into
the viewer, and let's take a look at in
| | 05:55 | the Filters tab and there we
have a Color Balance Filter.
| | 05:59 | Now, I have two choices here. I could
simply just turn it off, so I get back to
| | 06:04 | the original. The important thing to
understand about this is that if I was to
| | 06:08 | leave this filter on this clip, when I
send it to Color, the filter would not
| | 06:13 | show up. It wouldn't be displayed. But
when I come back from Color to Final Cut
| | 06:18 | Pro, if this Filter was still on the
clip, it would be married back up to the
| | 06:22 | Color Corrector clip.
| | 06:23 | So think about it. You send this
sequence to Color, you color correct and grade
| | 06:28 | this clip, and it looks beautiful. Then
when it comes back from Color to Final
| | 06:33 | Cut Pro, it's married back up with
it's Color Balance Filter, and the
| | 06:36 | correction that you just did in Color
now looks weird, because this filter is
| | 06:41 | applied again to the clip.
| | 06:43 | So I think it's a safe bet just to
delete the Color Balance Filter. You don't
| | 06:46 | have to delete all filters. I like to
just delete filters that really have to
| | 06:50 | do with color correction. But the
choice is yours, if you want to remove all
| | 06:53 | filters from your Final Cut Pro sequence.
| | 06:55 | So I'm going to simply select the
Color Balance Filter and hit Delete.
| | 06:58 | That gets me back to the original clip.
If you remember correctly, the second clip
| | 07:04 | here in the timeline, the one called
RC-008 also had a filter applied to it.
| | 07:09 | It was the Color Corrector 3-way.
| | 07:10 | In the previous movie I mentioned that
the Color Corrector 3-way is translated
| | 07:14 | into a Primary In correction in Color.
Now, that might be okay, but you're
| | 07:19 | using Color because that's where you
want to perform your color correction.
| | 07:22 | Any translation that happens may be wonky,
because remember, Final Cut Pro uses the
| | 07:27 | Y'CbCr Color Encoding method, while
Color uses the RGB Encoding method.
| | 07:32 | So there has to be some translation there,
and you might get some shifts in Color.
| | 07:36 | So again, because this is a color correction filter,
I'm going to simply remove it from the clip.
| | 07:40 | Then the last thing that we want to
address is this variable speed change of
| | 07:46 | this clip. If you remember correctly,
this clip, RC-Broll-006, had a variable
| | 07:51 | speed change applied to it. Now, in the
most recent version of Color, Color has
| | 07:55 | been able to deal very well with speed
changes. However, if you still notice
| | 07:59 | that you're having problems with clips
going from Final Cut Pro to Color that
| | 08:02 | have speed changes on them, just
follow the same procedure that we did to
| | 08:06 | export the still photo, export it
as a Self-Contained QuickTime file.
| | 08:11 | The last thing about this sequence is
transitions. Now, it's just a personal
| | 08:14 | preference, but having the transitions
displayed on the Color timeline doesn't
| | 08:18 | really bother me. Just remember that
the transitions are neither displayed nor
| | 08:22 | rendered by Color, they're
just there as placeholders.
| | 08:27 | Now that we've prepped the sequence a
little bit, let's send it back to Color.
| | 08:31 | So to do this, I'm going to make sure
that the timeline is selected, because
| | 08:34 | remember, Color cannot send individual
clips, it can only send sequences.
| | 08:38 | So I've made sure that the timeline is
selected, and I'm going to come up to the
| | 08:41 | File menu, and down to
Send To, and choose Color.
| | 08:47 | Once again, I get this prompt to name
the Color project, and by default it
| | 08:51 | takes the name of the sequence that I
was working on. The name that's there by
| | 08:55 | default is just fine, so I'm going to
go ahead and click OK. Color opens back up.
| | 09:01 | Now, what you just saw happened there,
I should make note of, we previously had
| | 09:05 | a Color project opened, and when I
just sent this sequence from Final Cut Pro
| | 09:10 | to Color, the old Color project was
saved, then closed, and this new project
| | 09:14 | was opened in its place.
| | 09:18 | Let's go down and look at the Color
timeline now. Remember to zoom in on the
| | 09:21 | Color timeline, I can just simply
right click on the time code ruler here to
| | 09:26 | zoom in horizontally, and then I can
use my middle mouse button to click and
| | 09:31 | drag left and right to pan the sequence.
| | 09:35 | So right off the bat, you'll notice
that now with this sequence I only have a
| | 09:39 | single video track, because I deleted
video track two. Of course, because I
| | 09:44 | deleted video track two and removed
the text generator in the motion clip,
| | 09:48 | those are not displayed either.
| | 09:50 | If I come down and take a look at the
end of the sequence, you'll notice now
| | 09:54 | where I previously had a photo that
was not displayed in Color, I'm actually
| | 09:57 | seeing an image. This is because we
exported that photo from Final Cut Pro as a
| | 10:00 | Self-Contained QuickTime and edited it
back into the timeline. Because it's a
| | 10:05 | Self-Contained QuickTime, it's now
available for us to color correct and grade in Color.
| | 10:09 | If I take a look at the two clips that
I had filters on, this clip right here
| | 10:17 | is the original clip, and this looks
the same as it did before, but just
| | 10:21 | realize that now when I go back to
Final Cut Pro that I've removed that filter,
| | 10:25 | so I'm not going to get any funkiness
if I graded the clip in Color, and then
| | 10:28 | having a filter reapplied to
the clip back in Final Cut Pro.
| | 10:32 | I also removed that Color Corrector 3-
way, so there's no translation happening
| | 10:37 | from the Color Corrector 3-way into
the Primary In room here in Color.
| | 10:42 | Then lastly, the speed corrected clip
that I have is still intact. I should
| | 10:46 | just stress one last time that clips
that have speed adjustments should work
| | 10:50 | just fine, but if you start seeing
problems with speed adjusted clips,
| | 10:54 | remember, the procedure to follow is
just the same one that we did with the still photo.
| | 10:58 | In Final Cut Pro, export your
speed adjusted clip as a Self-Contained
| | 11:02 | QuickTime, edit it back into the
Final Cut Pro timeline, and then send the sequence to Color.
| | 11:07 | So maybe you're thinking to yourself,
wow, that seems like quite a bit of work.
| | 11:13 | Well, the first time or two you prep a
project, particularly on a long show, it
| | 11:16 | might seem that way, but quickly
this part of the workflow becomes rather
| | 11:20 | quick. In my opinion, this extra bit
of effort required to get a perfect
| | 11:24 | sequence to Color is worth it.
| | 11:27 | One thing is for sure, workflow issues
like the ones we've described here will
| | 11:30 | get improved by Apple as
the application matures.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding 2K and Digital Intermediate workflows| 00:01 | We touched on the idea of 2k workflows
in the first movie in this chapter when
| | 00:04 | we discussed how Color fits in Final
Cut Studio workflow. However, I thought it
| | 00:08 | would be a good idea to specifically
discuss working with these higher end
| | 00:11 | workflows very briefly before moving on.
| | 00:13 | 2k, 4k, DI, what do I mean? Well,
there is a world beyond high definition and
| | 00:22 | it's a very high resolution world. 2k
and 4k refer to resolution standards.
| | 00:29 | The digital cinema initiative defines 2k
as footage that has a resolution of
| | 00:33 | 2048x1080 pixels, and 4k, has
4096x2160. That's really high res.
| | 00:43 | So what do we mean by DI? DI stands
for Digital Intermediate. A good way to
| | 00:48 | think about the Digital Intermediate
process is this. When a project originates
| | 00:52 | on film, the Digital Intermediate
process is when it's on the computer, when
| | 00:56 | editing happens, color grading and
correction effects, and so on. The final
| | 01:01 | process is when we print
back to film or do a film out.
| | 01:04 | What I want you to understand is that
anytime we're working with any of these
| | 01:09 | higher end workflows, they can
potentially be complicated. Generally, as I
| | 01:16 | said, these workflows are used for film
based projects, but increasingly, they
| | 01:20 | can also be used with high resolution
video projects, such as footage required
| | 01:24 | on the RED ONE Camera and some
other newer cameras out there.
| | 01:27 | So let's talk about 2k in Color.
There's no true FCP roundtrip when working
| | 01:34 | with 2k footage. Currently, Color
only supports up to a 2k resolution,
| | 01:40 | it cannot work with 4k files.
| | 01:45 | Color works with high resolution DPX
or Cineon image sequences; it does not
| | 01:50 | work with QuickTime files for this type of work.
| | 01:55 | So let's discuss a typical 2k workflow.
In a typical 2k workflow, we shoot on
| | 02:00 | film and then we use a Datacine to
create Cineon or DPX image sequences.
| | 02:06 | These essentially are just high
resolution, uncompressed image sequences.
| | 02:12 | We need to find a way to edit with
those image sequences, so we need to convert
| | 02:16 | them to offline QuickTime
files for Final Cut Pro.
| | 02:20 | We ingest those offline QuickTime
files into Final Cut Pro and we edit our
| | 02:24 | program in Final Cut. When we're done
with our edit, we create an EDL. And
| | 02:29 | remember, an EDL is just an Edit Decision List.
| | 02:34 | We then use that EDL to reconnect or
to conform back to those original Cineon
| | 02:39 | or DPX files that we created in the
Datacine process. We color grade and
| | 02:44 | correct our show, and then after we're
done color correcting and grading, we
| | 02:50 | render out new DPX or Cineon image
sequences. We then take those image
| | 02:55 | sequences and use them to do our film output.
| | 03:00 | Higher resolution workflows are a
work in progress in Color. No doubt these
| | 03:06 | workflows are the future of post-
production, but the thing to understand is
| | 03:10 | this course focuses solely on video
workflows and roundtrips with Final Cut
| | 03:14 | Pro. The Color User Manual and some
sites on the web are good resources for
| | 03:19 | learning more about 2k workflows with Color.
| | 03:23 | In this chapter, we've taken a look at
various workflows. In the next chapter,
| | 03:28 | we'll dive into Color and learn how it thinks.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. How Color ThinksApproaching the eight rooms in Color in a logical fashion| 00:00 | So maybe you've had experience
correcting footage in Final Cut Pro or another
| | 00:03 | application, the thing is you're used
to how those apps think. Not that that
| | 00:07 | thinking is wrong, it's
just different than Color.
| | 00:09 | In this movie we'll learn how Color
thinks. That is, we'll learn what the
| | 00:12 | internal workflow is within Color and
the names of things. Color was designed
| | 00:16 | by artists who are really geeks at
heart, and therefore the approach it takes
| | 00:19 | to correcting the show is
logical. So let's decode this logic.
| | 00:22 | The first thing I want to look at
is the two main windows in the Color
| | 00:25 | interface. The window here on the
right is called my Composer Window.
| | 00:29 | The Composer window contains all of
Color's rooms. Each tab at the top of the
| | 00:33 | Composer Window is a room. So I have
the Setup room, the Primary In room, the
| | 00:37 | Secondaries room, and so on.
| | 00:39 | The other main window I have is
called the Viewer. The Viewer contains my
| | 00:42 | preview as well as my video scopes.
| | 00:45 | With the Window menu at the top of the
Color interface, I can choose between
| | 00:49 | the Composer and Viewer windows, and I
can also switch to Dual Display Mode.
| | 00:53 | Currently I'm looking at the Color
interface in Single Display Mode.
| | 00:56 | If I want to switch to Dual Display Mode,
there's one caveat, I have to choose
| | 00:59 | this option and then restart the
application for the change to take effect.
| | 01:04 | Let's take a look at the first room in
Color, the Setup room. The Setup room is
| | 01:07 | where I can see all the clips that I
have in a project. It's where I can see
| | 01:11 | saved Grades. It's where I can adjust
Project Settings. It's where I can view
| | 01:16 | Messages that Color will give me
about playback, and it's also where I can
| | 01:20 | adjust my User Preferences.
| | 01:22 | The first room that we have to do any
real color correction is the second tab
| | 01:26 | over called the Primary In room. The
Primary In room is where I perform primary
| | 01:30 | color correction. That is,
corrections that affect the entire image.
| | 01:33 | You'll notice that there's quite a
few controls in the Primary In room.
| | 01:36 | The Color Balance controls here at the top
of the room, the Primary Curves, as well
| | 01:40 | as a few parameters over here in the
Basic and Advanced tabs. We'll talk more
| | 01:44 | about all these controls in Chapter 6.
But for now let's make a simple primary color correction.
| | 01:49 | You'll notice that the clip that I
have in my preview here is rather blue.
| | 01:52 | We're going to neutralize this color
cast by adding yellow into the image.
| | 01:56 | To do this, I'm going to grab my Midtones
Color Balance control and drag a little
| | 02:00 | bit towards yellow. I'm also going to
grab by Highlights Color Balance control
| | 02:06 | and drag a little bit towards yellow as well.
| | 02:11 | A great keyboard shortcut to compare
corrections before and after is Ctrl+G.
| | 02:15 | Ctrl+G enables or disables a grade.
So if I hit Ctrl+G, here is before the
| | 02:20 | correction, the original clip,
and after the correction.
| | 02:26 | The next room in the Color pipeline
is the Secondaries room. The Primary In
| | 02:30 | room is where I make primary
corrections, corrections that affect the whole
| | 02:34 | image. The Secondaries room is
where I apply targeted corrections, or
| | 02:37 | corrections that affect only part of the image.
| | 02:40 | There are lot of controls here in the
Secondaries room and we'll talk more
| | 02:43 | about them in Chapter 7, but for now
let's make a simple secondary color correction.
| | 02:47 | If you look at the image over here
in the preview, you'll notice that the
| | 02:50 | subject's face is still kind of dark.
What I want to do is apply a secondary
| | 02:54 | color correction to brighten the face
up. So to do this, I want to make sure
| | 02:58 | that I check the Enabled checkbox here
at the top of the Secondaries room, and
| | 03:01 | then I'm going to come down to the
bottom of the Secondaries room, underneath
| | 03:04 | the Previews tab and check the
Vignette checkbox. This puts some on screen
| | 03:10 | controls for a vignette on the Previews tab.
| | 03:12 | I'm also going to make sure that over
here with these three buttons that I
| | 03:15 | click on the button that is red, green,
and blue. This will just show me my final image.
| | 03:20 | I'm then going to use the on screen
controls in the previous tab to position
| | 03:24 | the vignette over the subject's face.
So I don't have any hard edges in the
| | 03:29 | vignette, I'm going to use the softest
controls here to soften the vignette.
| | 03:33 | A little bit of a side note, to change
parameters very quickly, there's an easy
| | 03:36 | thing that we can do. We can use the
middle scroll wheel on a mouse to scroll
| | 03:40 | the values up and down. You'll notice
that if I scroll here, it goes pretty slow.
| | 03:45 | If I add the Option key and
scroll up and down, I can adjust the values
| | 03:49 | much faster. So I'm going to
soften this up quite a bit.
| | 03:53 | Next, I'm going to come up to the
Color Balance controls in the Secondaries
| | 03:56 | room, and in my Midtones Color Balance
control, I want to adjust the Contrast
| | 04:01 | slider. That's this little white to
black strip here. And drag up just a tad
| | 04:05 | bit to brighten up the face.
| | 04:09 | To see the before and after, I'm just
going to use this checkbox here to enable
| | 04:13 | and disable the Secondary Color
Correction. Here is before the correction and
| | 04:17 | here is after the correction. You'll
notice that the face is a little brighter.
| | 04:22 | The next stop in the Color pipeline is
the Color FX room. The Color FX room is
| | 04:26 | where I can apply looks to my clips,
and I do that by using Nodes. These guys
| | 04:30 | here on the left hand side of the
Color FX room. In Chapter 8 we'll talk all
| | 04:34 | about adding our own Nodes to create a
look, but for right now, let's use some
| | 04:38 | presets provided to us by Apple.
| | 04:40 | The way that I access those presets
is down here in the Color FX bin at the
| | 04:44 | bottom of the room. So I'm going to
click on the Color FX bin tab, and what the
| | 04:47 | Color FX bin shows me is all the
presets. I'm going to scroll all the way to
| | 04:51 | the bottom of this list, and I'm going
to chose the preset that's called Warm Glow.
| | 04:56 | To apply this preset, all I need to
do is simply double click on the icon
| | 04:59 | itself. When I double click on the icon
itself, here in the center of the room
| | 05:03 | called the Node View, I can see all
these Nodes. A good way to think about
| | 05:06 | Nodes is just individual effects. They
are all linked together to create the
| | 05:10 | overall effect. Again, we'll talk
more about Color effects in Chapter 8.
| | 05:15 | The next stop in the Color pipeline is
the Primary Out room. For those of you
| | 05:19 | who are astute, the Primary Out room
looks just like the Primary In room.
| | 05:23 | There are a couple of additional controls
over here in the basic tab, but for all
| | 05:26 | intents and purposes the controls that
I have here are exactly the same as the Primary In room.
| | 05:30 | But here's the cool thing about the
Primary Out room, it allows me to do global
| | 05:34 | changes to the rooms that happened
before it. What I mean by that is that if I
| | 05:38 | perform a correction in the Primary Out
room, I'm really working on the sum of
| | 05:42 | the Primary In, the Secondaries room,
and the Color FX room. We talk more about
| | 05:47 | the Primary Out room in Chapter 10,
but for right now I'm just going to do a
| | 05:50 | simple global adjustment.
| | 05:52 | I think that this clip is still a
little bit too bright. I'm going to use the
| | 05:54 | Midtones Contrast slider and drag
down just a bit to darken the clip up.
| | 06:00 | Again, the important thing to remember
about the Primary Out room is that it
| | 06:04 | works with the sum of corrections from
the Primary In, Secondaries room, and Color FX room.
| | 06:08 | The next room that we want to talk
about is the Geometry room. Before I go into
| | 06:12 | the Geometry room, I just want to
navigate to a different clip. An easy way to
| | 06:15 | do this is to come down to the current
frame box down here in the bottom of the
| | 06:19 | Color interface, next to the timeline,
and type a time code that I want to go to.
| | 06:22 | So I want to go to 4309, so I'm
just going to type in 43.09 and hit Enter.
| | 06:29 | My playhead navigates directly to that frame.
| | 06:33 | So the Geometry room allows me to do
geometric corrections in the Pan and Scan tab.
| | 06:37 | It allows me to apply custom
user shapes in the Shapes tab that I can
| | 06:42 | apply to Secondary Color Corrections.
We can use the Tracking tab to add a
| | 06:46 | tracker, so that corrections will
follow an object on screen over time.
| | 06:50 | Let's make a simple adjustment in the
Pan and Scan tab. We talk more about
| | 06:54 | these three tabs in Chapter 9. I want
to make a simple Pan and Scan adjustment
| | 06:59 | to this clip. You'll notice on the edge
of this clip, I can see a little bit of
| | 07:02 | the edge of the background screen
that was used in this clip. It's kind of
| | 07:05 | annoying, so I want to get it out of
there. So I'm going to zoom in quite a bit.
| | 07:07 | To zoom in or to do a Pan and Scan
adjustment, I'm just going to grab one
| | 07:11 | of these corners and drag in.
| | 07:18 | You notice over here in my preview
I've zoomed in quite a bit. I can also
| | 07:21 | rotate the image here as well. To
rotate the image, I'm just going to click on
| | 07:25 | one of the sides and drag left and
right. Again, we'll talk more about the
| | 07:30 | Geometry room in Chapter 9.
| | 07:32 | The next room that we have is the
Still Store room. The purpose of the Still
| | 07:36 | Store room is to save a still and
then use that still to compare against
| | 07:39 | another piece of footage later in my timeline.
This helps us in scene-to-scene color correction.
| | 07:44 | To save a still, I just need to
position my playhead on the frame that I want
| | 07:47 | to save, and then at the bottom of the
Still Store room I can simply hit Save,
| | 07:51 | and you'll notice that the still is
saved here in the Still Store room.
| | 07:55 | Then I just need to position my
playhead on a new clip. Then to compare the
| | 08:01 | saved frame to the one I'm currently
looking at, all I need to do is double
| | 08:05 | click on the saved frame, and make sure
that this Display Loaded Still checkbox
| | 08:10 | is checked. You can see over in my
preview, I can see the two images compared side by side.
| | 08:15 | There are some additional controls
here to let me change how the images are
| | 08:19 | compared against each other, but we'll
talk more about the Still Store room in
| | 08:22 | Chapter 11, when we discuss
scene-to-scene color correction.
| | 08:25 | The last room that I have in the Color
pipeline is the Render Queue. As we've
| | 08:29 | previously discussed, I need to
render out new Color corrected media to get
| | 08:33 | back to Final Cut Pro, and the
Render Queue is where I make that happen.
| | 08:36 | Using the controls at the bottom of the
room, I can add an individual clip or I
| | 08:40 | can add all clips. I'll click on Add
All, and all my clips are added to the
| | 08:43 | Render Queue. Now to simply render
these clips, I would hit start Render.
| | 08:47 | So that's been a whirlwind tour of the
rooms in Color. Let's recap. I start in
| | 08:52 | the Primary In room and perform
primary color correction. That is correction
| | 08:56 | that affects the entire picture.
| | 08:58 | I then move on to the Secondaries
room, where I can apply targeted color
| | 09:01 | correction or correction that
only affects part of the picture.
| | 09:04 | I can create looks in the Color FX room.
I can perform any global tweaks in the
| | 09:09 | Primary Out room. In the Geometry room
I can make Pan and Scan adjustments, as
| | 09:14 | well as add user shapes and track
objects. In the Still Store room I can save
| | 09:19 | stills for use in scene-to-scene
color correction, and then in the Render
| | 09:23 | Queue, I can add clips to be rendered.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting essential preferences| 00:00 | I'm guessing since you're on lynda.com,
you've probably used some software once
| | 00:03 | or twice. So you're using your
favorite piece of software and humming along
| | 00:07 | when you try to do something and the
application won't let you do it, or maybe
| | 00:10 | you're frustrated that the program
always does something. Well, my friend, it
| | 00:14 | sounds like you need to know about preferences.
| | 00:16 | In Color, preferences are pretty
straightforward. For the purposes of this
| | 00:20 | movie, you don't need to explore every
preference, but we do need to explore
| | 00:23 | some of the most essential ones. Those
of you who have access to the exercise
| | 00:27 | files, the Color project file that
I'm using is labeled 4_2_essentialprefs.
| | 00:33 | Using preferences can be
accessed in two different ways in Color.
| | 00:36 | The first is by going up to the Color
menu at the top of the Color interface
| | 00:40 | and choosing Preferences, or I can
choose the Setup room and then choose the
| | 00:45 | User Preferences tab at the bottom of
the Setup room. So we're going to cover
| | 00:49 | quite a few preferences here and we are
going to start up with the three at the
| | 00:52 | top of the Users Preferences tab, the
Default Project Directory, the Default
| | 00:56 | Media Directory, and the Default
Render Directory. Here's what they do.
| | 00:59 | The Default Project Directory is where
projects are saved by default, and this
| | 01:03 | is kind of important, because when you
send a project from Final Cut Pro, to
| | 01:06 | Color, this is the place that it gets
saved. So if you ever need to go back and
| | 01:10 | find a project that you sent from
Final Cut Pro, you need to look in your
| | 01:14 | Default Project Directory. The Default
Media Directory is a default directory
| | 01:17 | that the file browser, the area over
here on the left-hand side of the Setup
| | 01:21 | room is looking by default. The Default
Render Directory is where media goes by
| | 01:25 | default when I render it out of Color.
| | 01:28 | Let's go ahead real quick and change
the Default Project Directory and Media
| | 01:31 | Directory. To do this, I'm going to
click on the Browse button next to Default
| | 01:34 | Project Directory, and this opens up a
dialog box and here I can navigate to
| | 01:40 | various places on my computer. I can
use the controls here at the top to navigate.
| | 01:45 | The button with the up arrow lets me go
up one directory level. The button with
| | 01:48 | the little house on it brings me back
to my default directory and I can choose
| | 01:52 | to view this as icons or as a list. I
want to navigate all the way back up to
| | 01:57 | the root level of my computer and
an easy way to do this is to use this
| | 02:00 | Directory pull-down at the
bottom of the dialog box.
| | 02:03 | I'm going to select it and go all the
way back up until I see this little slash
| | 02:08 | that represents the root level of my computer.
| | 02:11 | Once there, I'm going to scroll down
and choose the directory called volumes
| | 02:16 | and then I want to choose the volume
called exercise files. This is the disk
| | 02:20 | image that we previously mounted.
Once there, I just want to hit the Choose
| | 02:24 | button in the bottom right-
hand corner of the dialog box.
| | 02:27 | Let's do the same thing for our Default
Media Directory. I'm going to click on
| | 02:30 | Browse and then I'm going to come down
to the Directory pull-down at the bottom
| | 02:34 | of the dialog box, go all the way to
get to the top to where I have that slash,
| | 02:38 | to get back up to the root level of my
computer and change this to list view
| | 02:43 | and in scroll down to volumes. Let's
choose the exercise files volume again,
| | 02:49 | let's choose Media and then let's
choose Color Essential Training. Lastly, just
| | 02:56 | select the Choose button in
the bottom right-hand corner.
| | 03:00 | Now by default, all my project files
will be saved in the exercise files volume
| | 03:04 | and Color will look to the exercise
files volume for Media. The next preference
| | 03:09 | I want to take a look at is UI
Saturation. Here is how UI Saturation works.
| | 03:13 | When I adjust this value by using my
scroll wheel on my mouse to go up and
| | 03:16 | down, I'm adjusting the saturation of
various elements in the UI, or the User
| | 03:22 | Interface and specifically the
elements that I'm adjusting are the scopes, as
| | 03:26 | well as some other controls in the
Primary In, and Secondaries, and Primary Out
| | 03:31 | rooms. Most notably, the Color Balance controls.
| | 03:34 | So let me completely desaturate the UI,
so you can see what I'm talking about.
| | 03:39 | If I go to the Primary In room, you
will notice now that my Color Balance
| | 03:43 | controls are completely desaturated.
The idea about UI Saturation is that we
| | 03:48 | don't want to have the interface so
saturated that it might skew our choices
| | 03:51 | that we make for Color correction and
grading. My personal preference is to
| | 03:55 | have the UI Saturation somewhere right
around .5. That's saturated enough so
| | 04:03 | that the Color Balance controls look
normal and the scopes look normal but it's
| | 04:07 | not over saturated to where I might
potentially skew my choices that I make for
| | 04:12 | Color correction and
gradient because of the saturation.
| | 04:16 | The next little group of preferences
that I have are these four checkboxes, and
| | 04:20 | these four checkboxes just change the
units used by my timecode ruler down on
| | 04:24 | my Timeline. Right now it's set to
Seconds, and that means that every little
| | 04:29 | notch down here on the Timeline
represents one second. If I change it to
| | 04:32 | Frames, every little notch is a frame,
and you can see that the Timeline zoomed in.
| | 04:36 | I change it to Minutes, you get the
idea, every notch is a minute and if I
| | 04:41 | change it to Hours every notch is in
hour, zooming very far out of my Color
| | 04:46 | Timeline. I'm going to
change it back to Seconds.
| | 04:48 | The next three preferences just have
to deal with how things are displayed on
| | 04:52 | the Color Timeline. I can show the Shot
Name, the Shot Number, or the Thumbnail
| | 04:56 | on the actual Color Timeline. Let me
just toggle these on and off. If I uncheck
| | 05:00 | Shot Name, you can see the name
disappears from the clip on the Color Timeline.
| | 05:05 | The Shot Number just shows the
chronological order of the Shot in the Color
| | 05:08 | Timeline. The Show Thumbnail
checkbox just toggles on and off a thumbnail
| | 05:13 | display in the Color Timeline.
| | 05:15 | The next two options have to do with
playback. The first option Loop Playback
| | 05:18 | is pretty straightforward. With this
check, playback will loop over and over
| | 05:22 | again. The next option for Maintain
Frame Rate is a pretty big deal.
| | 05:26 | With Maintain Frame Rate on, Color will
maintain the project frame rate, but it may
| | 05:30 | drop frames in doing so. With Maintain
Frame Rate off, every single frame of a
| | 05:35 | source clip is played back but playback
might be really, really slow depending on the footage.
| | 05:41 | The next option I have is to display
my scopes in Monochrome. With this box
| | 05:46 | checked, all of my video scopes are
displayed Monochrome. With it unchecked,
| | 05:52 | the scopes are displayed in Color,
like I can see down here with the Vector
| | 05:55 | Scope. The next option, I want to
take a look at is Video Output. As we've
| | 06:03 | previously mentioned, one big downer
about Color currently is that, it does not
| | 06:07 | support FireWire output. And you can
see my Video Output is Disabled because I
| | 06:11 | don't have a PCI Video Card either.
If you do have a PCI Video Card, one
| | 06:15 | important option is this one that's
grayed out right now called Force RGB.
| | 06:19 | The way that Force RGB works is that
this controls the conversion from RGB
| | 06:24 | color space to Y'CbCr color space that
most video devices use. When Force RGB
| | 06:29 | is off, this conversion is done by
Color, and this can slow performance.
| | 06:34 | When this checkbox is one, conversion is
done by the video card and playback
| | 06:38 | performance improves, but there is one
big caveat. Any illegal luma and chroma
| | 06:42 | values will not be viewed on your
external monitor. That includes any external
| | 06:46 | scopes that you may be using. That
might be a big deal because if you're not
| | 06:50 | paying attention to your scopes in
Color, which will always display illegal
| | 06:53 | values, you might miss something.
| | 06:57 | Auto-Save Projects lets me auto
save a project. The important thing to
| | 07:00 | understand about auto saving projects
in Color is that this does not work like
| | 07:04 | the Autosave Vault in Final Cut Pro.
This simply overwrites the existing
| | 07:08 | project at the time increment of your
choosing. And the last preference we want
| | 07:13 | to take a look at is Update UI During
Playback. With Update UI During Playback
| | 07:18 | unchecked, when I begin playback only
my preview window updates. The rest of
| | 07:28 | the Color interface including the
Timeline as well as the Scopes do not update,
| | 07:32 | in fact the Scopes don't even show up.
| | 07:33 | When I check Update UI During Playback,
I have an option to update just my
| | 07:41 | Primary Display, just my Secondary
Display or both. Right now I'm only using a
| | 07:46 | single display, so Update Secondary
Display doesn't matter. But let me playback
| | 07:51 | and with Update UI During Playback on,
you can see that my Color Timeline moves
| | 07:56 | and animates, the playhead moves
along during playback, and my video scopes
| | 08:00 | update as well along with the preview.
| | 08:02 | In this movie we learned about some
essential Color preferences. In the next
| | 08:06 | movie, we'll take a look at
project settings in Color.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding essential project settings| 00:00 | In the last movie we discussed setting
up User Preferences, in this movie we
| | 00:04 | want to take a look at project settings.
Project Settings can be accessed by
| | 00:08 | choosing the Setup Room and then
clicking on the Project Settings tab at the
| | 00:12 | bottom of the room.
| | 00:12 | Project Settings are settings that
affect this project alone while User
| | 00:18 | Preferences are settings that
affect all projects or are global.
| | 00:23 | In the Project Settings tab there are a
few things you want to take a look at.
| | 00:26 | At the top of the Project Settings tab,
I can choose my Render Directory.
| | 00:29 | This render directory is different than the
Default Render Directory that I find in
| | 00:33 | my User Preferences. The Default Render
Directory is just the default. While in
| | 00:37 | Project Settings I can choose a
directory specifically for this project.
| | 00:41 | That's useful if you want a save media or
render media out to different location other
| | 00:45 | than the Default Directory.
| | 00:46 | I can also choose to add information
like the name of the Colorist on the
| | 00:49 | project and the name of the Client.
The information here in the middle of the
| | 00:52 | Project Settings tab is auto generated,
if I'm doing a Final Cut Pro to Color
| | 00:56 | round trip. If I'm not doing a Final
Cut Pro to Color round trip, I can change
| | 01:00 | this information. Below that, I have a
couple of options for deinterlacing.
| | 01:04 | The Deinterlace Renders deinterlaces
everything about Color. It deinterlaces the
| | 01:08 | image in my preview, it deinterlaces
the monitored output, and it deinterlaces my renders.
| | 01:14 | If I check the Deinterlace Previews,
this deinterlaces only my preview and my
| | 01:18 | monitor output. These deinterlace
options are useful when you're working with
| | 01:22 | interlaced footage, but there are two
things to consider. One, Color was really
| | 01:25 | built from the ground up to work with
progressive images, not interlaced images
| | 01:29 | and the second thing to understand is
that the deinterlacing algorithm that
| | 01:32 | Color uses is very, very simple.
| | 01:35 | Below the deinterlace options, I
have a pulldown from a QuickTime Export
| | 01:38 | Codecs. When you're doing a Final Cut
Pro to Color round trip, this is set up
| | 01:42 | to Original Format. What this means
is when you render out newly Color
| | 01:45 | correcting media, these files will use
the same Codec as the regional Final Cut
| | 01:49 | Pro sequence. You can change this to
other Codecs like, Apple ProRes, or
| | 01:52 | Uncompressed 8 or 10-bit. But most of
the time in Final Cut Pro to Color round
| | 01:56 | trip, it's a good idea to
leave it as the Original Format.
| | 01:59 | The last area of control that I have in
the project settings tab is whether or
| | 02:03 | not I have Broadcast Safe on or off.
In chapter five, we'll talk in detail
| | 02:07 | about Broadcast Safe. Next up we'll
talk about navigating the timeline in detail.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Navigating the Timeline| 00:00 | So you may be used to timeline based
applications like Final Cut Pro or even
| | 00:04 | Motion. The timeline, however, in Color
operates just a little bit differently.
| | 00:08 | So let's spend the next couple of
minutes taking a look at the Color timeline.
| | 00:11 | For those of you who have access to the
exercise files, the Color projects that
| | 00:14 | I'm working with is 4_4 navigating
timeline. So previously we've mentioned two
| | 00:21 | ways to navigate my timeline. I can use
my right mouse button and drag left and
| | 00:25 | right on the time code ruler above the
clips to expand or contract my timeline horizontally.
| | 00:33 | I can also use my middle mouse button
to click and drag left and right to pan
| | 00:37 | my timeline. Now I've said it once, but
I'll say it again, for those of you who
| | 00:41 | might be still using a single button
mouse, throw it in the garbage. Go out and
| | 00:46 | get a three-button mouse. To have the
best experience in Color, you really want
| | 00:50 | to work with the three-button mouse.
| | 00:51 | If you're on a laptop, it might be a
good idea also to use a three-button
| | 00:55 | mouse, when you can. If you can't
use a three-button mouse with a laptop,
| | 00:58 | you'll be limited with your
interactivity with Color. Another way that we can
| | 01:02 | change the view of my timeline is by
expanding or contracting the vertical
| | 01:06 | heights of my clips. Underneath the
clips you'll notice that I have this thin
| | 01:10 | black line. If I click on, I can drag
up or down to change the vertical height of my clips.
| | 01:17 | This is kind of nice because if you
want to visually identify a clip, you get a
| | 01:20 | much bigger icon. Underneath the
Track Resize handle, I have another little
| | 01:29 | black line. I pull this one down.
This shows me my Grades track. Basically,
| | 01:34 | what the Grades track does is it shows
me grades and corrections they may have applied to a clip.
| | 01:38 | We'll talk in much more in detail
about the Grades track in lesson 11 when we
| | 01:41 | talk about grade management. I don't
need this Grades track right now, so I'm
| | 01:44 | just going to drag this bar back up.
| | 01:45 | Now that we've resized our timeline a
bit, the next thing we want to talk about
| | 01:50 | is playback on the Color timeline.
We've already discussed the simplest way to
| | 01:53 | start and stop playback, and that's
just by using the Spacebar. I hit the
| | 01:56 | Spacebar to begin playback and hit it
again to stop playback. I can also just
| | 02:01 | drag my playhead around on the
timeline to navigate from clip to clip.
| | 02:07 | If you're a Final Cut Pro user, you
might also be accustomed to using J, K, and
| | 02:10 | L. The way that J, K, and L work in
Color is different than that of Final Cut Pro.
| | 02:14 | You can still use L to play forward,
J to play backwards, and K to pause.
| | 02:19 | However, Color doesn't use a full
implementation of J, K, and L. Let me
| | 02:22 | explain. First, you can't tap J or L
multiple times to go faster in that
| | 02:28 | direction, either L to go
forward or J to go backwards.
| | 02:31 | Also, you can't do slow scrubs. So you
can't hold down K and then one of the
| | 02:35 | direction keys do a slow scrub through
your footage. Additionally, there is one
| | 02:39 | aggravating thing about using J, K, L
in the Color timeline. Let me show you.
| | 02:43 | With the Color timeline selected, if I
go ahead and hit L to play forward, and
| | 02:48 | then hit K to stop playback, you
would expect that if I wanted to play
| | 02:51 | backwards by hitting the J key or play
forward again by hitting the L key, that
| | 02:56 | those keys would work. Well, let me
try it. I'm tapping J a few times and I'm
| | 03:00 | tapping L a few times and nothing is
happening. This is kind of aggravating,
| | 03:03 | but here's what is happening. When I
use the J, K, and L keys and I stop
| | 03:07 | playback, the Viewer window
automatically becomes selected, and I can see that
| | 03:12 | because it's highlighted in the menu bar here.
| | 03:14 | If I want to begin playback again with
the J, K, and L keys, I have to select
| | 03:18 | the Composer window. So I've selected
the Composer window and now I can begin
| | 03:22 | playback again. Let me hit J to go
backwards and K to pause. So you can see
| | 03:27 | that using J, K, L in Color
can be a little aggravating.
| | 03:30 | Another way to navigate the Color
timeline is by using the Up and Down arrows
| | 03:34 | to navigate between clips. The Down
arrow to go to the next clip, and the Up
| | 03:38 | arrow to go to the previous clip. Just
like J, K, L I need to make sure that I
| | 03:42 | have my Composer window selected first.
So I can use the Down arrow to go to
| | 03:46 | the next clip in the Color timeline
and I can use the Up arrow to go to the previous clip.
| | 03:51 | If you're not a keyboard person, we can
also use some buttons down here next to
| | 03:55 | the timeline. These two buttons on the
outside do the same thing as the Up and
| | 03:58 | Down arrows. They go to the next and
previous clips. The two buttons in the
| | 04:03 | middle, let me play forward just like
the L key and backwards, just like the J key.
| | 04:07 | However, their
implementation is a little weird too.
| | 04:11 | If I click the Play button, you'd
think that I could click it again to stop
| | 04:15 | playback or I could at least hit the
Play backwards button to play the other way.
| | 04:22 | It doesn't work like this. To
stop playback, you need to do one of two
| | 04:29 | things, either hit the
Spacebar, or hit the Escape key.
| | 04:34 | So let's talk a little more
specifically about the clips that I'm playing back.
| | 04:43 | By default, when I navigate to a clip
with my playhead, you'll notice that
| | 04:47 | around the clip I have an in and an
out point. When I begin playback, if Loop
| | 04:55 | Playback is set up, Color will loop
around this clip between the in and out
| | 04:59 | point over and over again.
| | 05:03 | That's because the default Playback
mode is called Sharp Playback. Up in the
| | 05:07 | timeline menu I have an option called
Toggle Playback mode. Note the keyboard
| | 05:12 | shortcut Shift+Command+M. If I choose
this option, take a look at what happens.
| | 05:19 | The in and out points moved to the very
beginning of the Color timeline and the
| | 05:26 | very end of the Color timeline. This
is useful for when I want to playback
| | 05:31 | multiple clips at a time.
| | 05:32 | You'll notice when I begin playback
Color goes from clip to clip to clip.
| | 05:40 | If I want to manually define the portion of
the timeline I want to playback, say I
| | 05:43 | want to playback three or four clips in
a row because I'm trying to get them to
| | 05:47 | match up. I can do this pretty easily.
The way this works is that I can simply
| | 05:51 | come in to the Color timeline and hit I
on my keyboard to mark an in point, and
| | 05:55 | go to where I want to stop, and
hit O on my keyboard to mark an out.
| | 05:59 | When I begin playback now, Color will
go back and forth between this in and out
| | 06:08 | point that I've manually defined. If
you're more of a time code person, you can
| | 06:12 | also use the current frame entry box
here to type in a time code to go directly
| | 06:16 | to that particular frame.
| | 06:18 | And lastly, I want to show you one
miscellaneous thing about the Color
| | 06:20 | timeline. In the upper left-hand
corner here on the timeline, you'll notice
| | 06:23 | that there is a Lock icon. When I send
the project from Final Cut Pro to Color,
| | 06:27 | the timeline is automatically locked.
This prevents me from moving any clips
| | 06:30 | around and performing any edits.
| | 06:32 | Well, I'm feeling a little risky so let
me show you what happens if I choose to
| | 06:35 | unlock the Color timeline. I'm going
to right-click on the actual Lock icon
| | 06:40 | here and choose Unlock Track. Color
presents me with this rather verbose
| | 06:44 | warning message that basically says
if I unlock this track bad things with
| | 06:47 | Final Cut Pro interoperability may happen.
| | 06:49 | I am not feeling that daring, so I'm
going to go ahead and click the No button
| | 06:53 | and keep the track locked. It's a good
idea when you're doing a Final Cut Pro
| | 06:56 | to Color round trip to just leave the
tracks locked. That way you won't have
| | 06:59 | any problems when you go back to Final Cut Pro.
| | 07:01 | Now that we know our way around the
Color timeline a bit better, in the next
| | 07:05 | movie we'll take a look at importing
files directly onto the Color timeline and
| | 07:09 | opening and saving the projects.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Importing files and opening projects| 00:00 | I've mentioned several times that this
course will focus mainly on Final Cut
| | 00:03 | Studio Workflow. That is, sending
project from Final Cut Pro to Color to be
| | 00:07 | graded and then back to Final Cut
Pro for final tweaks and output.
| | 00:10 | However, there may be times when your
task with grading a program that didn't
| | 00:13 | start in Final Cut Pro, where you need
to marry in EDL to a digitized master
| | 00:17 | tape, or even more simply, you
only need to correct one or two shots.
| | 00:20 | In this movie, we'll explore importing
shots directly into the Color timeline
| | 00:24 | as well as saving in opening Color projects.
| | 00:26 | So I'm going to go down to my dock to
open up Color by clicking on the Color icon.
| | 00:31 | When Color opens, I'm presented
with this dialog box. This dialog box
| | 00:38 | serves double duty. The first way that
it works is that it lets me navigate to
| | 00:42 | a place on my system where I
can open up a Color project.
| | 00:45 | If you remember, we set up the default
project directory as the exercise_files
| | 00:48 | disk image, and that's what I'm looking
at right now. If I go into one of these
| | 00:52 | directories, say the directory for
GettingStartedHowColorThinks, I'm presented
| | 00:56 | with items that are saved in that
directory. In this case, I'm looking at Color
| | 01:00 | project files. In Color project
files are denoted with the extension
| | 01:03 | .colorproj. If I wanted to open up one
of these existing files, I could simply
| | 01:07 | click on it and then come down to the
bottom of the window and say Open.
| | 01:11 | But I'm not going to open up an existing
project right now. I want to show you the
| | 01:14 | second way that this window operates.
| | 01:16 | First, I want to navigate back to my
default directory and the easiest way to
| | 01:19 | do that is to click this little icon
with the house. The second way that this
| | 01:23 | dialog box operates is that it allows
me to save a new project and the way that
| | 01:28 | works is that I can come down here to
this file entry box and type a name of a
| | 01:32 | new project. But first, let's navigate
to the folder of that we want to save this project in.
| | 01:36 | So I'm going to choose the directory
that's 4_GettingStartedHowColorThinks.
| | 01:38 | Then I'm going to come down to the file
entry box and let's name the projects.
| | 01:44 | For consistency sake, let's call the
project 4_5_importingfiles. Then let's hit
| | 01:54 | the Save button at the bottom of the dialog box.
| | 01:56 | So the full Color interface opens
and you'll notice that it looks a lot
| | 01:59 | different than what I have previously
sent a project from Final Cut Pro to
| | 02:02 | Color. Over here in my viewer, my
preview window is dark, my scopes are not
| | 02:06 | displaying any information, and if I
take a look at the various rooms in Color,
| | 02:10 | you'll notice that all the controls are dark.
| | 02:12 | Furthermore, notice that my Timeline
has no footage on it. Everything is blank
| | 02:16 | like this right now because I don't
have any footage in my Color project.
| | 02:19 | So let's work on getting some clips
into the project. To do this, I'm going to
| | 02:22 | click on the Setup room. And on the
left-hand side of the Setup room, I'm
| | 02:26 | seeing where I previously set up my
preference for my default media directory.
| | 02:30 | If you remember, we set up our default
media directory to the exercise_files
| | 02:33 | disk image in the media folder.
| | 02:35 | This is the media files that are
contained within that directory. I can see
| | 02:39 | some information about the clips, as
well as see little icon preview for each clip.
| | 02:43 | So to import some clips into the
Color project, I'm going to select the Setup room.
| | 02:47 | Now on the left-hand side of the Setup
room here, I'm presented with my file
| | 02:50 | browser. And previously, when we setup
our User Preferences, we had set up a
| | 02:54 | default directory for our media, and
this is the place that Color is looking at now.
| | 02:58 | The file browser shows me a list
of clips in that directory and I can see
| | 03:02 | some basic information about these clips.
| | 03:04 | If I click on an actual clip, say this
clip Clouds-2-v, I'm presented with some
| | 03:09 | more information about the clip such
as its duration, the codec that it uses,
| | 03:14 | the resolution that it
uses and even its frame rate.
| | 03:16 | To get this clip into the Color
timeline, I have two choices. I can simply
| | 03:20 | double-click on the actual icon itself
or I can click on the Import button at
| | 03:24 | the bottom of the file browser. I'm
going to go ahead and just double-click on the icon.
| | 03:28 | Let's go ahead and import a couple more
clips. The actual clips that you choose
| | 03:31 | is not important, let's just add two
or three more. What I want you to notice
| | 03:36 | also is every time that I add a new
clip, it's added to the end of the Color timeline.
| | 03:41 | Unlike edit applications like Final
Cut Pro, where I can choose in and out
| | 03:44 | points before I put a clip in the
timeline, in Color I don't have that option.
| | 03:48 | The other thing I want you to notice
is down on the timeline, I do not have a
| | 03:50 | lock icon, this is because I'm not
doing a Final Cut Pro to Color round-trip.
| | 03:54 | And because there's no lock icon, I can
manipulate these clips however I want.
| | 03:58 | I can move them down the timeline
and reposition them however I see fit.
| | 04:02 | The other thing I want you to notice is
that the footage shows a very small in
| | 04:10 | my preview here. This is because by
default, Color is set up to work with
| | 04:15 | 1920x1080 media when I don't do a Final
Cut Pro to Color round-trip. But I can
| | 04:19 | easily change this option.
| | 04:22 | If I come into my Project Settings tab
in the Setup room, in the middle of the
| | 04:26 | room, I can change my resolution preset.
To do this, I'm just going to simply
| | 04:30 | pull down this menu and let's choose
1280x720 to match the DVC Pro HD footage
| | 04:36 | that I'm using for this project. And
there you go. The footage now fills the preview.
| | 04:41 | So you can see importing clips directly
into the Color timeline is pretty easy.
| | 04:45 | Next, I want to talk about saving
projects. Now you might be asking yourself,
| | 04:49 | what's the big deal about saving
projects. Well, let's take a look.
| | 04:52 | To save a project, all I need to do is
come up to the File menu and click Save,
| | 04:56 | and this works just like any other
application and the keyboard shortcut is the
| | 04:59 | exact same as it is in
most applications, Command+S.
| | 05:02 | So I'm just going to click Save here
and save the project. But what I really
| | 05:06 | wanted to show you up here is this
whole idea about saving archives. What an
| | 05:11 | archive is a small compressed version
of the actual project file itself.
| | 05:15 | To show you this, I'm going to jump out of
Color for one second and go back to the Finder.
| | 05:19 | To do this, I'm just going to hit Apple
+H to hide Color. Let me navigate over
| | 05:24 | to my exercise_files disk image and
in the 4_GettingStartedHowColorThinks
| | 05:30 | folder, let's click on the Color
project that's labeled 4_5_importing files.
| | 05:35 | This is the Color project that we just created.
| | 05:37 | Let me go ahead and right-click on
this Color project. When I right-click, I
| | 05:42 | have an option that says Show Package
Contents. Let me choose that. A Color
| | 05:47 | project file is like a mini folder in
disguise. Inside that folder, there are
| | 05:51 | several items that make up a Color
project file. And one of those items is an
| | 05:55 | Archives directory. Let me twirl
down the disclosure triangle next to the
| | 05:58 | Archives directory. Inside the Archives
directory I have a file that is titled
| | 06:03 | the same thing as the Color project,
but you will notice a couple of things about it.
| | 06:07 | First, it's time and date stamped and
its extension is .tgz. This is what is
| | 06:12 | called a Tarball file. It is just a
heavily compressed file but essentially, it
| | 06:16 | is just the Color project
file packaged in a small form.
| | 06:20 | Now, if you remember when we were
talking about our User Preferences, I
| | 06:23 | mentioned that Auto Save in Color
does not work like the Auto Save vault in
| | 06:27 | Final Cut Pro. Well, the
archive function sort it does.
| | 06:30 | Every time that I save a project, an
archive is automatically created for me.
| | 06:35 | However, I can manually create
archives if I want to. Manually creating
| | 06:39 | archives is a good idea, if you reach a
point in your project where you say to
| | 06:41 | yourself, I really, really, really,
really might need to come back to this
| | 06:45 | point in time, and to manually save
an archive, let's go back to Color.
| | 06:48 | If I go up to the File menu, I can
choose the option of Save Archive As and let
| | 06:55 | me select that. I get a little dialog
box here where I can enter my own name
| | 07:01 | for the archive. Let's go ahead and do
that and I'll say projectasoftuesday.
| | 07:08 | You, of course, can enter whatever you want.
| | 07:10 | I am then going to click the Archive
button. Let's jump back out of Color for
| | 07:15 | one second by hitting Apple+H one
more time. Now inside that project file,
| | 07:18 | inside the Archives directory, I have a
file called projectasoftuesday.tgz and
| | 07:23 | this is the archive that I just made.
| | 07:25 | To recall an archive, we just have to
follow a few easy steps. Let me go back
| | 07:29 | into Color, go back up to the File
menu, and choose Open Archive. And here,
| | 07:36 | Color presents me with a list of
archived files for this project. If I want to
| | 07:40 | go back in time, I can just choose one
of the saved archives and Color would
| | 07:44 | recall the state of the project at that time.
| | 07:46 | In this chapter, we have taken a look
at how Color thinks. In the next chapter,
| | 07:50 | we'll take a look at one of the
colorist's most essential tools, the video scripts.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. Using the ScopesUnderstanding scopes| 00:00 | To a large degree, color correction
and grading is about the Colorist making
| | 00:04 | decisions based on what they see.
The thing is our eyes can lie.
| | 00:08 | In this movie, we'll discuss the
basics of using the videoscopes and then in
| | 00:11 | the following two movies, we'll use the
videoscopes to evaluate our footage for
| | 00:15 | contrast and color. Let's take a look
at some background info. I like to think
| | 00:19 | about the scopes as a trusty sidekick.
The reason I say that is because they
| | 00:23 | are tools used to measure the
video signal, not just to look at it.
| | 00:27 | If setup properly, scopes don't lie.
And scopes are really the only true method
| | 00:32 | to adhere to broadcast standards. So
what type of scopes are available? We have
| | 00:37 | Hardware scopes and these hardware
scopes most commonly use CRT screens, but
| | 00:41 | they can also use LCD screens. We have
rasterizers. Rasterizers use a computer
| | 00:46 | and video card to present
data on the computer screen.
| | 00:49 | And we also have Software scopes.
Software scopes are part of software packages
| | 00:53 | like Final Cut Pro or Color. Companies
like Techtronic, Videotek, and OmniTek
| | 00:58 | are all great manufactures of scopes.
| | 01:00 | So what type of scopes do we use to
evaluate contrast? Well, in this title,
| | 01:04 | we are primarily going to be using the
waveform scope set to Luma. We're also
| | 01:08 | going to use the histogram also set to
Luma. In this title, when we talk about
| | 01:13 | evaluating color, primarily we are
going to be using the Vectorscope as well as
| | 01:17 | the waveform scope set to Parade.
That doesn't mean that there aren't other scopes available.
| | 01:22 | With the waveform scope, for example,
we can view it as an Overlay, Red, Green,
| | 01:26 | or Blue channels only, the Chroma
channel only, and we can view the signal as
| | 01:31 | Y'CbCr. With the histogram, I can view
the signal as Red, Green, or Blue, or a
| | 01:37 | combination of Red, Green, or Blue.
Then finally, I have a scope that is
| | 01:40 | exclusive to Color. It is
called a 3D Color Space scope.
| | 01:44 | The 3D Color Space scope is a very
cool scope to look at. However, for the
| | 01:47 | purposes of this title, we won't be
using it. There are a couple of other scope
| | 01:51 | concepts that we're going to cover in
this chapter. We need to discuss what we
| | 01:54 | mean by the Tonal Range, and we also
need to discuss what we mean by the Trace.
| | 01:59 | So let's jump into Color and
take a look at videoscopes.
| | 02:03 | In this title, we'll focus mainly on
the waveform scope set to Luma and Parade.
| | 02:07 | Let's take a look at some of the
details about the scopes. First off, when we
| | 02:10 | are in single display mode, we can
only view two scopes at a time. In dual
| | 02:14 | display mode, we can view up to three
scopes at a time. I'm in single display mode.
| | 02:18 | Next, the scopes and colors scale the
video image for processing to 384x192
| | 02:23 | regardless of the resolution of your
source footage. It does this so that
| | 02:27 | scopes can perform in real time, and
still analyze every line in the video
| | 02:30 | signal. Again, this is just for
processing on the scopes. Your footage is not
| | 02:34 | actually scaled in the preview.
| | 02:36 | To activate a scope that's not
currently active, all you need to do is simply
| | 02:40 | right-click on a scope that is active
and choose the scope that you'd like to use.
| | 02:45 | In this title, we'll focus mainly on
the waveform scope set to Luma and Parade
| | 02:50 | and the Vectorscope. In a few times,
we'll also take a look at the histogram
| | 02:54 | scope set to Luma. Feel free to explore
the other waveform scope and histogram
| | 02:58 | options as well as the 3D Color
Space scope. Let me switch back to the Vectorscope.
| | 03:04 | The different scopes have different
options and to select the different
| | 03:07 | options, simply click on the option
that you'd like. For example, in the
| | 03:10 | waveform scope, we can switch between a
number of different views, like Parade,
| | 03:14 | Overlay. I can view the individual
color channels, Red, Green, and Blue, as
| | 03:18 | well as Chroma and Y'CbCr.
| | 03:21 | Let me switch back to Luma. Another
place were I can change options for my
| | 03:27 | scopes is in the User Preferences. The
User Preferences tab in the Setup room
| | 03:31 | contains two additional options that
affect the scopes. So let me go there.
| | 03:34 | I will choose the Setup room, and then
User Preferences. First is the checkbox
| | 03:39 | for Update UI During Playback. If
Update UI During Playback is not checked, the
| | 03:45 | scopes will not be displayed during
playback, let me show you what I mean.
| | 03:48 | I will uncheck this box and begin
playback. You will notice that the scopes
| | 03:53 | disappear and then I can't see them
during playback. If Update UI During
| | 03:58 | Playback is checked, when I begin to
playback, I'll be able to see the scopes
| | 04:02 | operating in real time.
| | 04:05 | The second option in User Preferences
that affects the scope is this checkbox
| | 04:09 | for Monochrome scopes. When this
box is checked, all the scopes will be
| | 04:14 | displayed in monochrome, and I can
choose a color for the scopes right below that check box.
| | 04:18 | If I flip to the scopes, you can see
that all the scopes are displayed as
| | 04:23 | monochrome. If I uncheck the Monochrome
Scopes box, my scopes can be displayed
| | 04:29 | in color depending on the scope. For
example, in the Parade scope, I can see
| | 04:33 | the individual Red, Green, and Blue
channels and they are colored red, green, and blue.
| | 04:38 | Next, let's take a look at what we
mean by Trace. I'm going to switch my
| | 04:43 | waveform scope back to Luma. Also, so
I'm not distracted by all this color
| | 04:47 | going on in the User Preferences, I'm
going to click back on the tab appear called Primary In.
| | 04:53 | The Trace is information that is
displayed on the scope. For example, if we
| | 04:58 | look at the waveform scope, we can see
the trace, this white stuff, displayed
| | 05:02 | against the scale. In the case of
all the Waveforms Scope options, the
| | 05:06 | important thing to understand is that
the Trace mimics the actual footage that
| | 05:09 | we are looking at in the preview.
| | 05:11 | Another way of saying that is on the
waveforms scopes, the Trace mirrors the
| | 05:14 | actual picture left to right. I'll
play this clip and show you what I mean.
| | 05:19 | I'll simply select the Color
timeline and hit the Spacebar. Notice as the
| | 05:24 | subject's head goes back and forth,
the Trace mimics that movement. I'll stop playback.
| | 05:31 | The other thing that's important about
this is that the subject's head is on
| | 05:34 | the left-hand side of the screen and
we have a large clump of trace on the
| | 05:38 | left-hand side of the scope. Let me hit
the Spacebar again and you can see this
| | 05:42 | feature clearly displayed on the scope.
| | 05:45 | Here's the subject's face, and here is
a large clump of trace on the left-hand
| | 05:49 | side of the scope mimicking the
actual picture. I'll stop playback again.
| | 05:55 | The trace on the Vectorscope does not
mimic the picture in the sense that it
| | 05:59 | mimics the position of objects on
screen. However, the Vectorscope mimics
| | 06:03 | colors displayed on screen and we'll
talk about the Vectorscope more in a later movie.
| | 06:07 | So now that we've gotten an overview
of the scopes, in the next two movies,
| | 06:11 | we'll discuss using the scopes to
evaluate our footage for contrast and color.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Evaluating contrast with scopes| 00:00 | As you start to do more and more
color grading, you find yourself doing a
| | 00:03 | couple of repetitive tasks,
especially as it relates to evaluating footage,
| | 00:07 | evaluating contrast and evaluating color.
| | 00:11 | In this movie, we'll talk about
evaluating contrast using the scopes, and then
| | 00:15 | in the next movie, we'll talk about
evaluating color using the scopes. The two
| | 00:20 | scopes that are used most often to
evaluate contrast are the waveform scope set
| | 00:24 | to Luma and the histogram scope set to Luma.
| | 00:29 | The first thing we need to
understand about evaluating contrast with the
| | 00:32 | videoscopes is what we mean by Tonal
Range. The first clip that I have here in
| | 00:37 | the Color timeline is just a black
and white gradient. The black and white
| | 00:41 | gradient represents the tonal range.
In other words, the tonal range could be
| | 00:45 | defined as black to white, or another
way of saying that is dark to light.
| | 00:52 | If I look at the trace of this gradient
displayed on the waveform, I can better
| | 00:55 | visualize the tonal range. The scale
that the waveform uses to display the
| | 01:00 | trace is pretty simple. The bottom of
the scale represents the bottom of the
| | 01:04 | tonal range, or another
way of saying that is black.
| | 01:08 | As we discussed in the last movie, the
trace on the waveform scope mimics the
| | 01:12 | footage displayed on my preview. So
looking at this part of the trace at the
| | 01:16 | bottom of the scale shows us the
darkest portions of the gradient, and I can
| | 01:19 | see that up here in the gradient.
Here is black, and the trace down here
| | 01:24 | represents that portion.
| | 01:27 | The top of the waveform scale
represents the top of the tonal range, or another
| | 01:31 | way of saying that is white. So once
again, if I look at the trace at the top
| | 01:35 | part of the scale, this shows us the
lightest portions of the gradient.
| | 01:38 | The scale that the waveform
scope uses is -20 to 110.
| | 01:43 | The units that the scale uses are
percentages because we are dealing with
| | 01:46 | digital video, and these units also
match the scale on the analog waveform
| | 01:50 | scope, which are called IRE units. But
simply, black is 0% and white is 100%.
| | 01:56 | Values above 100% are generally
considered illegal for broadcast and indicate
| | 02:03 | overexposure. These values are also
known as super white values. Values below
| | 02:10 | zero are too dark for broadcast.
| | 02:13 | Let's take a look at an actual clip
with the waveform scope set to Luma so we
| | 02:17 | can discuss the contrast of that clip.
I'm simply going to navigate to the next
| | 02:21 | clip in the Color timeline by selecting
the timeline and hitting the Down arrow on my keyboard.
| | 02:26 | The first thing you'll notice about
this clip is how much more messy the trace is.
| | 02:30 | But let's take a look at the trace
to describe its contrast. Remember that
| | 02:34 | the trace in the waveform scope
mimics the picture. So looking at this clip
| | 02:38 | from the left side to about the middle,
I can see that this clip appears to be
| | 02:42 | pretty overexposed and the trace verifies this.
| | 02:46 | From the left-hand side of the scope to
about the middle, we can see we have a
| | 02:50 | large clump of trace well above 100%.
The thing is the more concentrated the
| | 02:56 | trace is, at any point on the waveform
scope, the more pixels in the footage
| | 03:00 | are situated at that percentage.
| | 03:04 | The right side of the clip also
appears to be a little bit overexposed, but
| | 03:07 | just not as much. This is indicated
by the decreased concentration of trace
| | 03:12 | above 100% on the right side of the
scope. Overall, we can say that this clip
| | 03:16 | is overexposed, and because it is
overexposed, it appears to be washed out and
| | 03:21 | in a general way, has a dull look.
| | 03:24 | Let's navigate to the next clip on the
timeline. Again, I'll just simply select
| | 03:28 | the Color timeline and hit the Down
arrow on the keyboard. This clip appears to
| | 03:33 | be darker than the previous clip, but
let's verify that by taking a look at the waveform scope.
| | 03:39 | Looking at the trace for this clip,
we can see on the left-hand side of the
| | 03:41 | scope, I have a large area of trace
that goes from about 1 or 2% up through the
| | 03:46 | midtones to about 55 or 60%. On the
right side of the scope, I can see that the
| | 03:51 | trace is much lower indicating that
this portion of the clip is darker.
| | 03:56 | Remember as the trace approaches 0%,
the footage will be darker and closer to
| | 04:01 | 100% the footage will be lighter, as
the tonal range goes from black to white
| | 04:07 | or from 0% to 100%. Overall, we could
describe this clip as being moderately
| | 04:14 | dark as most of the trace is on
the lower part of the waveform scope.
| | 04:19 | I can also use the histogram to
evaluate the contrast of this clip.
| | 04:23 | The histogram is very different than the
waveform scope. It displays the tonal
| | 04:27 | range from left to right or dark to
light. The histogram does not mimic the
| | 04:34 | picture like the waveform scope does.
Instead, it presents the image in a
| | 04:38 | statistical analysis.
| | 04:40 | The spikes that we see on the
histogram represent the concentration of pixels
| | 04:44 | at that part of the tonal range. So
here, you can see that I have a large
| | 04:49 | amount of spikes towards the bottom of
the tonal range, and I can verify this
| | 04:53 | again on the waveform scope when it's
set to Luma as the trace right here on
| | 04:57 | the waveform scope also indicates that
most of the picture is on the bottom end
| | 05:01 | of the tonal range.
| | 05:03 | Let's go ahead and navigate to the last
clip in the timeline and take a look at
| | 05:06 | the waveform scope and histogram. Again,
to this, I'll just select the Color
| | 05:10 | timeline and hit the Down arrow. As
we've previously discussed, contrast ratio
| | 05:14 | refers to the difference between the
darkest and lightest portions of the image.
| | 05:19 | Using the waveform scope and the
histogram, I can easily evaluate contrast
| | 05:23 | ratio. This clip has a pretty good
contrast ratio as the trace is pretty evenly
| | 05:28 | distributed across the tonal range. I
can see the same thing on the histogram,
| | 05:33 | the spikes in the histogram are pretty
evenly distributed from left to right,
| | 05:37 | or dark to light with a little bit of
a spike right here. I can also see the
| | 05:42 | spike on the waveform by this clump of
trace that goes from right around 60,
| | 05:47 | maybe up to about 70%.
| | 05:50 | Let's go back one clip to take a look
at the contrast ratio of the previous clip.
| | 05:54 | So I'll hit the Up arrow on the
keyboard to navigate back. Knowing what I
| | 05:59 | know now, I can look at the waveform
scope and the histogram and tell that this
| | 06:03 | clip has a low contrast ratio.
| | 06:05 | First, on the waveform scope set to Luma,
I can tell that this clip has a lower
| | 06:08 | contrast ratio because there's not
much difference between the bottom end of
| | 06:12 | the trace and the top end of the
trace. Only about 20, maybe 30%.
| | 06:17 | As before, with the clip that had a
high contrast ratio, the trace extended
| | 06:21 | almost the entire tonal range from
about zero to 100%. If I look on the
| | 06:27 | histogram, I can tell that this clip
has a poor contrast ratio as well as most
| | 06:32 | of the spikes are concentrated on the
lower half of the histogram. In the upper
| | 06:36 | half of the histogram, I see no spikes at all.
| | 06:39 | Now that we have a better idea of
evaluating contrasts, up next we'll take a
| | 06:44 | look at evaluating the other
part of the picture, color.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Evaluating color with scopes| 00:00 | When most people think about color
correction and grading, it's the color part
| | 00:04 | that stands out. Although, this is a
bit of a misnomer, because probably the
| | 00:07 | majority of a colorist's time is
spent performing contrast corrections.
| | 00:10 | Of course, color corrections
are also very important.
| | 00:14 | In this movie, we'll talk about using
the scopes to evaluate color, so that you
| | 00:17 | can make informed decisions about your
corrections. The scopes that I use the
| | 00:21 | most to evaluate the color portion of
my footage are the vectorscope and the
| | 00:24 | waveform scope set to Parade. So let me
just make sure that I have those scopes active.
| | 00:28 | I will right-click on the histogram
here and choose Vectorscope to make the
| | 00:33 | Vectorscope active, and I already have
my waveform scope active. I just need to
| | 00:37 | change its option to Parade. The
Vectorscope, in a certain regard, mimics the
| | 00:42 | color wheel. Around the edges of the
Vectorscope, I have what are referred to
| | 00:45 | as targets. There are targets for the
primary colors, red, green, and blue, and
| | 00:50 | targets for the complementary
colors, cyan, magenta, and yellow.
| | 00:55 | The first clip I have in my timeline
and is being displayed in my preview is
| | 00:59 | just some standard color bars. With
these color bars displayed, if I look at
| | 01:02 | the Vectorscope, I can see small dots
in the trace. These small dots should
| | 01:07 | line up with the color targets, and
right now you can see that these dots don't
| | 01:11 | line up with the color targets.
That's because of my magnification on my Vectorscope.
| | 01:16 | See, these color bars are known as 75%
color bars and if I want the little dots
| | 01:21 | with the trace to line up with the
color targets, I need to change my
| | 01:25 | magnification to 75%. And there we go.
You can now see the dots of the trace
| | 01:31 | line up with each one of the color targets.
| | 01:34 | And remember, just like the color
wheel, the angle around the Vectorscope
| | 01:37 | represents hue. If I look at the
color bars, I can see a number of hues
| | 01:42 | displayed, yellow, green, red and so
on. That's why the trace lines up with
| | 01:48 | each one of these color targets. The
yellow bar hits the yellow target; the red
| | 01:53 | bar in the color bars hits the red
target. The magenta, blue, cyan, and green
| | 01:59 | bars all do the same thing.
| | 02:01 | Let's go to the next clip in the
timeline. To do that, I'll simply select the
| | 02:04 | timeline and hit the Down arrow to
navigate to the next clip. This clip is just
| | 02:09 | a gradient representing the color
spectrum. Again, notice that hue is
| | 02:13 | represented by the angle around the
Vectorscope. The other thing that this clip
| | 02:17 | helps us visualize is saturation and
legal chroma values. Legal for broadcast purposes anyway.
| | 02:23 | As a general rule of thumb, if we
made an imaginary line going around the
| | 02:27 | outside of the Vectorscope and
connecting all the targets, this imaginary line
| | 02:32 | would represent the boundary for legal
chroma values. You can see that by using
| | 02:36 | this clip, all my hues are
right at that imaginary line.
| | 02:40 | This clip also helps us visualize
saturation. Remember on a color wheel,
| | 02:45 | saturation is defined as the distance
out from the center of the wheel to the edge.
| | 02:49 | So I can see that each one of
the hues represented in this gradient is
| | 02:53 | pretty saturated, as they are all
pretty far from center, and again, right on
| | 02:58 | that imaginary line of legal chroma values.
| | 03:01 | Let's navigate to the next clip in the
Color timeline. Again, just hit the Down
| | 03:05 | arrow. Looking at this clip, it
appears to have a pretty strong color cast.
| | 03:10 | I can use the Vectorscope to verify
this. The trace on the Vectorscope is
| | 03:14 | positioned towards the blue and cyan
targets. Here is blue, and here is cyan.
| | 03:20 | Remember that the angle around the
Vectorscope represents hue. So, with the
| | 03:24 | trace mainly pointed towards the blue,
and cyan targets, I can tell that this
| | 03:28 | clip is pretty blue.
| | 03:30 | Also notice on the Vectorscope, a large
portion of the trace that extends quite
| | 03:33 | far out from center towards blue. This
is indicating that part of this clip is
| | 03:38 | very saturated blue. The
Vectorscope doesn't mimic the picture like the
| | 03:43 | waveform scope does, but I can still
infer some things about the picture from the scope.
| | 03:47 | Part of the trace that's extended way
out here towards the blue target, but
| | 03:50 | let's play the clip just to make sure.
So I'll select the Color timeline and
| | 03:54 | hit the Spacebar, and that's what it
appears to be, this blue part of the trace
| | 04:00 | is the jacket. Let me stop playback.
| | 04:03 | Remember that you will only get the
trace updating in real time if in your User
| | 04:07 | Preferences you have the option for
Update UI During Playback checked. At any
| | 04:12 | time, of course, I can simply just
scrub through a clip and have the scopes update.
| | 04:17 | I can also use the waveform scope set
to Parade to garner information about
| | 04:21 | this clip. Perhaps the best use of the
waveform scope set to Parade is to see
| | 04:25 | the relative balance between the color
channels, red, green, blue. When one of
| | 04:30 | the color channels is positioned much
higher or lower on the scale, this is a
| | 04:34 | good indication that there is a color
cast. Looking at this clip, I can see
| | 04:38 | that the blue channel trace
is much higher up on the scale.
| | 04:42 | The other useful thing about the
waveform scope when it's set to Parade is that
| | 04:46 | it lets me see where on the tonal
range the color cast is happening. Remember
| | 04:50 | on the waveform scope, the tonal
range is represented from dark to light or
| | 04:55 | from black to white as they go up the
scale. So looking at this clip, I can see
| | 05:00 | that most of the color cast appears in
the highlights between about 90 to 110%.
| | 05:06 | Color cast like this are usually
an indication of poor white balance.
| | 05:10 | Let's navigate down to the last clip
in the Color timeline. Once again, just
| | 05:14 | hit the Down arrow to do so. On the
last clip, let's combine using the
| | 05:18 | Vectorscope and the waveform scope set
to Parade to evaluate the clip. Looking
| | 05:23 | at the Vectorscope, I can see that
most of the trace on this clip pushes
| | 05:26 | towards red. Here is the red target. It
is saturated but not excessively so as
| | 05:32 | indicated by how far the trace extends
out from center. On the waveform scope,
| | 05:36 | when it is set to parade, I can see
that this clip has a stronger red cast due
| | 05:40 | to the red trace being elevated
over the other color channels.
| | 05:44 | Additionally, I can see that a great
deal of the trace happens in the top end
| | 05:47 | of the tonal range, here between about
80 to 90%. By evaluating my footage for
| | 05:53 | color as we did in this movie, as
well as for contrast as we did in the
| | 05:56 | previous movie, I can make informed
decisions about making corrections. In the
| | 06:01 | next movie, we'll discuss one last
feature that affects evaluating clips, Broadcast Safe.
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| Understanding Broadcast Safe and the scopes| 00:00 | In this movie, we'll take a look at
one more important topic that affects our
| | 00:04 | use of the scopes and that is
Broadcast Safe. The Broadcast Safe feature in
| | 00:08 | Color can be found in the Setup room
and then by choosing Project Settings, and
| | 00:12 | the Broadcast Safe controls are
in the upper right-hand corner.
| | 00:16 | Put simply, Broadcast Safe limits
Luma and Chroma levels. It does this by
| | 00:21 | clipping or cutting those values off.
You can change each one of these
| | 00:25 | parameters, but by default, the
settings are very good for most situations.
| | 00:30 | If you are working on a show for
broadcast, it's always a good idea to ask the
| | 00:33 | broadcaster for their specific requirements.
| | 00:36 | First, let's see the Broadcast Safe
feature in action, then we'll discuss
| | 00:40 | whether we want to have it enabled or
disabled. Additionally, let's do a couple
| | 00:44 | more things. Let's make sure that the
waveform scope is set to Luma and then,
| | 00:49 | let's make sure that my Vectorscope is
being displayed and that it's set to the
| | 00:52 | 75% magnification level.
| | 00:56 | Looking at this first clip, I can see
that it has an obvious blue color cast,
| | 01:00 | and this is indicated by the large
amounts of trace in the Vectorscope that are
| | 01:03 | pushed towards the blue target here.
Also, if I look at the waveform scope on
| | 01:07 | the right-hand side, I can see a large
clump of trace at the top of the scale.
| | 01:12 | Remember the tonal range is represented
by the scale on the waveform scope from
| | 01:16 | dark to light or black to white. So
this large clump of trace at the top
| | 01:22 | indicates that part of the picture is
very bright. Also, remember that the
| | 01:26 | waveform scope mimics the actual
picture. So if I look at the footage here in
| | 01:30 | my preview, I can see on the right-
hand side of the footage that this area
| | 01:33 | appears to be pretty washed out.
| | 01:35 | The other thing to notice about the
trace is that it is clumped right around
| | 01:38 | 100% and doesn't go any higher. Anytime
you see large amounts of trace clumped
| | 01:42 | together like this, at the very top of
the scale with the very bottom of the
| | 01:46 | scale, it's a good indication that the
signal is being clipped. What is doing
| | 01:50 | this clipping? Well, that's
the Broadcast Safe feature.
| | 01:53 | If I go back into the Setup room and
Project Settings, and toggle off Broadcast
| | 01:57 | Safe, notice what happens on the
waveform scope. You can see that the trace
| | 02:02 | jumps well above 100%. Remember trace
above 100% indicates illegal Luma values.
| | 02:09 | You can also see that the trace
is now, not as bunched together.
| | 02:11 | Let me play the clip first with
Broadcast Safe off and then with it on.
| | 02:16 | So to do this, I'll simply select the
Color timeline, and hit the Spacebar.
| | 02:21 | As it plays back, you can see large amounts
of trace that are over 100%. Let me stop
| | 02:27 | playback. I'll go back into the Setup
room, in Project Settings, and enable
| | 02:32 | Broadcast Safe. Let me begin playback
again, and now you will notice that no
| | 02:38 | portion of the trace goes above 100%.
| | 02:41 | In most situations, you can't really
see any noticeable difference just by
| | 02:45 | looking at the footage, but the
Broadcast Safe feature is clipping those
| | 02:49 | illegal levels. Let's go back and make
sure that Broadcast Safe feature is off,
| | 02:53 | and navigate to the second clip in
the Color timeline by hitting the Down arrow.
| | 02:58 | This clip is very well saturated,
especially when any of the yellow taxicabs
| | 03:02 | like this one are in frame. Notice
how this part of the trace on the
| | 03:05 | Vectorscope extends beyond the
imaginary boundary line connecting all the
| | 03:08 | targets. This indicates that this clip
has a legal chroma levels. Remember the
| | 03:13 | distance from the center of the
Vectorscope to the edge represents saturation.
| | 03:18 | If I go back into the Setup room>
Project Settings, and enable the Broadcast
| | 03:22 | Safe feature, take a look at what
happens to the trace on the vectors scope.
| | 03:26 | Part of the trace that extended too
far is now being clipped. I can see this
| | 03:31 | because the trace is being clumped
together right here at the end, which just
| | 03:34 | like in the waveform scope is a good
indication that the clip is being limited
| | 03:38 | by the Broadcast Safe feature.
| | 03:40 | So when do you use the Broadcast Safe
feature? Well, there are two schools of
| | 03:44 | thought. One, leave it on all the
time. That way any corrections that you
| | 03:48 | perform are automatically legal and
you don't have to worry about potentially
| | 03:52 | making your footage legal for broadcast,
or two, leave it off and correct your
| | 03:57 | footage to make your footage legal.
Then after you've performed all of your
| | 04:00 | corrections, turn it back on to catch
any straight pixels that may be illegal.
| | 04:05 | I prefer option number two. The problem
with leaving Broadcast Safe on all the
| | 04:09 | time is that sometimes when making
corrections, you can force Luma and Chroma
| | 04:13 | levels so high that when those levels
are clipped, the Broadcast Safe feature
| | 04:17 | can add some ugliness by
clipping your footage too much.
| | 04:20 | So now that we're comfortable with
the scopes, in the next chapter, we are
| | 04:24 | going to make our first
corrections using the Primary In room.
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|
|
6. Primary In CorrectionsUnderstanding the Primary In room| 00:01 | As we start our exploration into
corrections in Color, the one thing I want to
| | 00:04 | stress is that there's no true right
or wrong way to correct a project.
| | 00:09 | All choices that I make throughout these
movies are just that, my choices. You may
| | 00:13 | end up with different corrections or
even radically different ideas about a
| | 00:17 | correction and that's completely cool.
| | 00:19 | Every shot in Color starts off in the
Primary In room. The Primary In room is
| | 00:25 | the principal place to apply primary
Color correction. That is, corrections
| | 00:29 | that affect the entire picture. Over
the course of a project, you'll end up
| | 00:33 | spending quite a bit of time in the
Primary In room. So in this movie, we'll
| | 00:36 | get to know the controls available to
us in the Primary In room and then in
| | 00:40 | later movies in this chapter, we'll use
them to make all sorts of corrections.
| | 00:43 | If you have access to the exercise files,
the Color project file that I'm using
| | 00:48 | is 6_1_understandingprimaryroom. So I
have quite a few controls in the primary
| | 00:57 | room and most notably, I have the
color balance controls at the top of the room.
| | 01:02 | Let's break down the color
balance controls. First, you'll notice that I
| | 01:07 | actually have three color balance
controls, one for each distinct tonal range
| | 01:11 | that Color uses: Shadows, Midtones,
and Highlights. In the next movie, we'll
| | 01:17 | break down the tonal ranges into more
detail and understand how they overlap.
| | 01:22 | Each color balance control is made up
of a couple of parts. I have a color
| | 01:26 | wheel. Next to the color wheel, I have
three sliders. The first slider is my
| | 01:33 | hue slider, the middle slider is my
saturation slider, and the third slider is
| | 01:39 | my contrast slider. The easiest way to
make manipulations on the color balance
| | 01:44 | controls is to simply just drag the
target around here in the color wheel.
| | 01:48 | The angle at which I drag around the color
wheel represents my hue, just like it
| | 01:54 | does on a real color wheel. The
distance out from center represents my saturation.
| | 02:01 | Additionally, I can adjust the target
here in the color wheel by using the
| | 02:05 | first two sliders. By dragging the
hue slider up and down, I can change the
| | 02:10 | angle of the target around the color
wheel. And by dragging the saturation
| | 02:14 | slider up and down, I can change the
distance out from the center of the color
| | 02:18 | wheel. If I drag the contrast slider
up and down, I don't see any changes on
| | 02:26 | the actual color wheel. But I do see
changes in two other places: in my preview
| | 02:32 | and on my videoscopes.
| | 02:36 | Each color balance control can be
reset with the little blue dot in the lower
| | 02:39 | left-hand corner of each color
balance control. For those of you who create
| | 02:44 | geeky tech information, we can also
see the changes that I've made to hue,
| | 02:48 | saturation, and lightness, with these
numbers here at the bottom of each color
| | 02:51 | balance control. I have hue, saturation,
and then lightness. Most often when
| | 02:58 | correcting a project, it's the
combination of manipulations between the
| | 03:01 | Shadows, the Midtone, and the
Highlight color balance controls that actually
| | 03:06 | make up a correction. Let me reset
each one of the color balance controls.
| | 03:15 | The next method that I have to make
primary corrections in the Primary In room
| | 03:19 | is the primary curves. The primary
curves operate much differently than the
| | 03:23 | color balance controls. The way that
the primary curves work is that the entire
| | 03:27 | tonal range is mapped on a straight line.
In other words, on the left-hand side
| | 03:32 | I have black progressing up to white on
the right-hand side, and there are four
| | 03:37 | curves: a Red curve, a Green curve,
the Blue curve, and then finally the Luma curve.
| | 03:44 | Each curve allows for separate
manipulation for each channel: Red, Green, Blue,
| | 03:48 | and Luma. To actually make a
manipulation on the curve, all I have to do is
| | 03:52 | click on the actual line and this adds
a point. Once I've added a point, I can
| | 03:58 | drag up and down or left to right to
re-map values. Each curve can be reset
| | 04:05 | with this little blue dot in
the upper left-hand corner.
| | 04:09 | Later in this chapter, we'll explore
in depth making both Luma and Color
| | 04:13 | changes using the primary curves.
The next place that I have control over
| | 04:18 | making primary corrections is in the
Basic and Advanced tabs. In the Basic tab,
| | 04:24 | I can change Saturation as well as
three things called Lift, Gain, and Gamma.
| | 04:30 | Lift lets me make overall Luma changes
to the footage, Gain works exactly like
| | 04:36 | the highlights contrast slider, and
Master Gamma works just like the midtones contrast slider.
| | 04:41 | In the Advanced tab, I also have Lift,
Gain, and Gamma controls, but they are
| | 04:49 | broken out into the three Color
channels: Red, Green, and Blue. I also have
| | 04:53 | what are known as Printer Point controls.
The Printer Point controls here mimic
| | 04:58 | the controls a film timer has. Below
the Basic and Advanced tabs, I have a few
| | 05:05 | buttons. I have an Auto Balance button,
where I can apply automatic correction
| | 05:07 | to my footage, and I have some copy
buttons where I can apply Primary In room
| | 05:12 | corrections to other clips in the Color
timeline, and then lastly, I can reset
| | 05:17 | my entire Primary In room.
| | 05:20 | The next thing we need to do is take
a look at the three tonal ranges that
| | 05:23 | Color uses, and we'll do that in the next movie.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding Color Balance controls and the Tonal Range| 00:00 | As part of making corrections with the
color balance controls in the Primary In room,
[00:00:03.8]
we need to discuss a very
important subject, understanding how the color
| | 00:07 | balance controls influence different
parts of the tonal range. This will allow
| | 00:11 | us to make more efficient and
informed decisions when making primary
| | 00:14 | corrections with the color balance controls.
| | 00:17 | In Color, the color balance controls
are broken down into three distinct tonal
| | 00:20 | ranges: Shadows, Midtones, and
Highlights. But what does this really mean?
| | 00:27 | Well, I think to best explore this
subject we should take a look at a few graphics.
| | 00:31 | This first graphic shows each color
balance control's range of influence mapped
| | 00:35 | against the tonal range. What's the
tonal range? Well, the tonal range is from
| | 00:39 | black to white, or from to dark to
light. On this graphic, the influence that
| | 00:46 | each color balance control has is
represented by a line. So the Shadows color
| | 00:50 | balance control is represented by this
black line, the Highlights color balance
| | 00:54 | control is represented by this white
line, and the Midtones color balance
| | 00:58 | control is represented by this gray curve.
| | 00:59 | Let's take a look at the influence
that each color balance control has on the
| | 01:04 | tonal range. This graphic shows me the
influence that the Shadow color balance
| | 01:10 | control has on the tonal range. The
Shadows color balance control influences
| | 01:14 | the darkest portions of the tonal range
the most, and as I progress across the
| | 01:18 | tonal range its influence diminishes.
| | 01:23 | The Midtones color balance control
affects almost the entire tonal range except
| | 01:27 | for the very darkest and very
lightest portions of the tonal range.
| | 01:33 | The Highlights color balance control
influences the lightest portions of the
| | 01:36 | tonal range the most, and as I
progress across the tonal range getting darker
| | 01:40 | its influence diminishes.
| | 01:43 | Back in Color, I think the easiest
way to show you how each color balance
| | 01:46 | control influences the tonal range is
to introduce a color cast on a gradient.
| | 01:51 | The gradient that I'm using is a
black to white gradient and represents the
| | 01:54 | tonal range going from dark to light.
| | 01:59 | Let's start with the Shadow color
balance control. I'm going to add a red color
| | 02:03 | cast and when I do that, notice that
the darkest portions of the tonal range
| | 02:07 | were influenced the most. As I progress
across the tonal range, the color cast
| | 02:12 | diminishes. This is because the
Shadows color balance control influences the
| | 02:16 | darkest portions of the tonal range the
most. Let me go ahead and reset that by
| | 02:21 | clicking this little blue dot here in
the bottom of the Shadow color balance control.
| | 02:26 | Next, let's take a look at the
Highlight color balance control. I'm going to
| | 02:29 | add a blue color cast. Notice on the
gradient that the lightest portions of the
| | 02:35 | tonal range were influenced the most,
and as I progress across the gradient,
| | 02:39 | the color cast diminishes. This is
because the Highlight color balance control
| | 02:43 | influences the lightest portions of the
tonal range the most. Let me reset the
| | 02:48 | Highlight color balance control.
| | 02:51 | Next, I'm going to introduce a yellow
color cast on the Midtones color balance
| | 02:55 | control. Notice that almost the entire
gradient has a yellow color cast.
| | 03:02 | This is because the Midtones color balance
control influences almost the entire
| | 03:05 | tonal range except for the very darkest
and very lightest portions of the tonal
| | 03:09 | range. Let me go ahead and reset
the Midtone color balance control.
| | 03:13 | Of course, the color balance controls
influence more than just color. They also
| | 03:19 | influence or contrast. It's kind of
hard to show you this influence on a black
| | 03:23 | and white gradient. Instead I'm going
to switch to a real clip. In my Color
| | 03:28 | timeline, I'm going to use the Down
arrow to navigate to the next clip in the
| | 03:31 | timeline. I want to make sure that I
have my waveform scope set to Luma.
| | 03:37 | Okay, let's start out with the Shadow
Contrast slider. I'm going to drag the
| | 03:42 | Shadows Contrast slider up and what you
should notice on the waveform scope is
| | 03:46 | that the trace appears to be lifted
up by the bottom. This is because the
| | 03:50 | Shadow Contrast slider influences the
darkest portions of the tonal range the
| | 03:54 | most, and on the waveform scope the
darkest portions of the tonal range are
| | 03:59 | those areas nearest to 0. Let me go
ahead and reset the Shadow Contrast slider.
| | 04:05 | Next, let's take a look at the
Highlight Contrast slider. I'm going to take the
| | 04:08 | Highlight Contrast slider and drag down.
This time you should notice that the
| | 04:13 | trace seems to compress from the top.
This is because the Highlight Contrast
| | 04:18 | slider influences the lightest portions
of the tonal range, and on the waveform
| | 04:23 | scope the lightest portions of the
tonal range are represented as I get nearer
| | 04:27 | to 100. Let me reset the
Highlight Contrast slider.
| | 04:34 | Lastly, let's adjust the Midtone
Contrast slider. As I adjust the Midtone
| | 04:38 | Contrast slider up, notice on the
waveform scope that the trace appears to move
| | 04:42 | up altogether, and if I adjust the
Midtone Contrast slider down, the trace
| | 04:48 | appears to move down altogether.
That's because the Midtone Contrast slider
| | 04:52 | influences almost the entire tonal
range except for the very lightest and the
| | 04:56 | very darkest portions of the tonal range.
| | 04:59 | Now you should have a better
understanding about how Color thinks about tonal
| | 05:02 | ranges using the Color Balance controls.
In the movies that follow, we'll put
| | 05:06 | this knowledge into action in
correct footage in the Primary In room.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting underexposed clips with the Color Balance controls| 00:00 | Sometimes a videographer or a DP is so
worried about overexposing footage that
| | 00:04 | you end up with some pretty dark clips,
or perhaps a dark shot was intentional
| | 00:09 | but it's just a little too dark. Either
way, correcting underexposed clips is a
| | 00:13 | super common task that every colorist performs.
| | 00:16 | In this movie, we'll take a look at
correcting an underexposed clip using the
| | 00:19 | color balance controls of the
Primary In room. If you have access to the
| | 00:23 | exercise files, the Color
project that I'm using is labeled
| | 00:26 | 6_3_cbc_underexposed.
| | 00:30 | It's always a good idea before you
start applying corrections to your footage
| | 00:35 | to evaluate that footage first. And the
first step in that process is to simply
| | 00:38 | playback the clip. So I'm going to
select the Color timeline and hit the
| | 00:42 | Spacebar to begin playback. You can see
that this is a shot of a park bench on
| | 00:48 | what appears to be a cold, dark, rainy
day. Because the clip is dark, I know
| | 00:54 | that I'm probably going to be
performing a Contrast adjustment, and the best
| | 00:58 | scope to evaluate Contrast corrections
is the waveform scope when it's set to Luma.
| | 01:03 | If I take a look at the trace on the
waveform scope, I can tell that this clip
| | 01:07 | is pretty dark. The bottom of the
trace is around 1 or 2% and the top of the
| | 01:11 | trace is around 30-35%, with some
peaks a little higher around 50-60% when I
| | 01:17 | playback. But most of the trace is
centered right around 1 to 2% up to about
| | 01:26 | 30%, indicating that I have a pretty
dark clip. A little too dark for my taste.
| | 01:32 | So to fix this clip I'm going to use
the Contrast sliders in each one of the
| | 01:36 | primary color balance controls. So
let's start with the Shadow Contrast slider.
| | 01:42 | I'm going to drop the Shadow Contrast
slider down just a little bit. The idea
| | 01:47 | is that I want the bottom of the trace
to just touch the 0% line. This ensures
| | 01:52 | that any part of the footage that's
supposed to be black will be displayed as black.
| | 01:58 | Next, I'm going to come to the
Highlight Contrast slider and drag up. This will
| | 02:03 | lighten the clip quite a bit. Just be
careful that you don't drag up too far.
| | 02:07 | It's very easy with underexposed
footage to add excessive video noise by
| | 02:12 | dragging the Highlight
Contrast slider up too far.
| | 02:16 | And finally, I'm going to come into
the Midtone Contrast slider and drag up
| | 02:20 | just a little bit to lighten the
midtones in this footage. Now you may have
| | 02:27 | noticed when I made those last two
corrections on the Highlight Contrast slider
| | 02:31 | and the Midtone Contrast slider that
the bottom of the trace came up from the
| | 02:35 | 0% line. This is common when making
Contrast corrections with the Color Balance
| | 02:41 | controls in Color. This is due to the
overlapping nature of the Color Balance
| | 02:45 | controls and how they influence the tonal range.
| | 02:48 | So to fix this, I'm just going to come
back into the Shadow Contrast slider and
| | 02:52 | drop the Contrast down just a bit so
that the trace returns to just touching
| | 02:58 | the 0% line. Now let me playback this
clip. Let me select the Color timeline
| | 03:03 | and hit the Spacebar to begin playback.
| | 03:07 | Okay, I still get the feeling that this
clip is on a cold, dark, rainy day but
| | 03:11 | it's just not as dark as it was before.
If I stop playback, there's a nifty
| | 03:16 | keyboard command that I can use to
compare this clip to the original clip, and
| | 03:19 | that's Ctrl+G. So by pressing Ctrl+G,
I can see the original clip and then I
| | 03:26 | can see the corrected clip.
| | 03:27 | So you can see that it's pretty easy
to fix an underexposed clip using the
| | 03:32 | color balance controls in the Primary In room.
| | 03:35 | In the next movie, we'll take a look
at fixing an overexposed clip using the
| | 03:39 | color balance controls in the Primary In room.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting overexposed clips with the Color Balance controls| 00:00 | The overexposed clip is the bane of
every director, editor, and colorist.
| | 00:04 | Often you hear phrases like, how could that
happen, or what was he thinking. The big
| | 00:09 | problem with overexposed clips is that
if they're really overexposed, a lot of
| | 00:13 | image detail can be lost and in a
general way the clip looks ugly.
| | 00:17 | In this movie, we'll fix an
overexposed clip using the color balance controls
| | 00:21 | in the Primary In room. If you have
access to exercise files, the Color project
| | 00:26 | file that I'm using is labeled 6_4_cbc_
overexposed. Remember it's always a good
| | 00:33 | idea to evaluate your footage before
applying any corrections. And the first
| | 00:37 | part of that process is to
simply playback your clip.
| | 00:40 | So I'm going to select the Color
timeline and hit the Spacebar to begin
| | 00:43 | playback. Here I have a clip of a
person walking by what appears to be a river.
| | 00:49 | The thing to notice about this clip
is the left-hand side of it. Right over
| | 00:53 | here, the clip appears to be
overexposed. Because this clip appears to be
| | 00:58 | overexposed, I know that I'm going to
be performing a Contrast correction, and
| | 01:03 | the best scope to evaluate a Contrast
correction is the waveform scope when it's set to Luma.
| | 01:09 | If I take a look at the trace on the
waveform scope, I can see a large area on
| | 01:13 | the left-hand side of the waveform
scope that's right around 100% indicating
| | 01:17 | that this clip may be overexposed.
Well actually, it's a little more
| | 01:21 | complicated than that. When I send a
project from Final Cut Pro to Color,
| | 01:26 | Broadcast Safe is on by default, and
Broadcast Safe is actually masking the
| | 01:30 | true nature of this clip.
| | 01:33 | So I want to turn Broadcast Safe off.
To turn Broadcast Safe off, I'm going to
| | 01:38 | choose the Setup room, then choose
Project Settings, and then toggle off
| | 01:44 | Broadcast Safe. Aha! You should have
seen the trace on the waveform scope jump
| | 01:51 | up quite a bit well over 100%,
indicating the true nature of this clip. That is
| | 01:56 | actually pretty overexposed.
| | 02:00 | To fix this clip, let's jump back in
to the Primary In room and I'm going to
| | 02:04 | use the Contrast sliders in each one of
the color balance controls to fix this clip.
| | 02:08 | Let's start with the Highlight
Contrast slider. I'm going to drag the
| | 02:13 | Highlight Contrast slider down until
the top of the trace touches 100%, just like that.
| | 02:22 | Next, I'm going to use the Shadow
Contrast slider and drag down as well, just
| | 02:27 | until the trace touches the 0% line.
Again, remember the idea is that we want
| | 02:33 | the trace to touch 0% so the parts
of the footage that are black will be
| | 02:37 | displayed as black.
| | 02:39 | Next, I'm going to come into the
Midtone Contrast slider and drag down to
| | 02:43 | darken the midtones of this clip.
Let's see the results by playing back the clip.
| | 02:52 | I'll select the Color timeline
and hit the Spacebar to begin playback.
| | 02:58 | Okay, the clip looks much better.
| | 03:01 | Remember the handy keyboard shortcut,
Ctrl+G. Ctrl+G toggles a grade on and off.
| | 03:06 | So here I can see the original
clip and here is the corrected clip.
| | 03:13 | You can see that it's pretty easy to fix
an overexposed clip using the color
| | 03:17 | balance controls in the Primary In room.
| | 03:19 | So far we've dealt with two primary
corrections. In the next movie, we'll
| | 03:23 | combine the two techniques of the
last two movies so that we can widen the
| | 03:26 | contrast ratio of a clip that's not
over or underexposed but just needs some help.
| | 03:31 | And we'll also address a clip that has
parts that are over and parts that are underexposed.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Widening the contrast ratio of clips with the Color Balance controls| 00:00 | While over and underexposed clips are
common problems to deal with, overall
| | 00:04 | they really only represent a small
percentage of Contrast corrections that
| | 00:08 | you'll make in the Primary In room.
More often than not, the Contrast
| | 00:11 | corrections that you perform are simply
widening the contrast ratio of a clip.
| | 00:16 | As we've discussed previously, widening
the contrast ratio of a clip adds depth
| | 00:19 | to the clip. In this movie, we'll widen
the contrast of a clip that's otherwise
| | 00:23 | okay, meaning that it's neither
overexposed or underexposed but it just needs
| | 00:28 | some help. We'll also take a look at a
clip that has parts that are overexposed
| | 00:32 | and it has parts that are underexposed.
| | 00:36 | If you have access to the exercise files,
the Color project file that I'm using
| | 00:39 | is labeled 6_5_cbc_widening. Of course,
the first thing I always want to do is
| | 00:48 | evaluate my clip. I'm going to select
the Color timeline and hit the Spacebar
| | 00:52 | to begin playback. Here I have a clip
that's pretty cool. It's some raindrops
| | 00:57 | landing in a puddle. If I take a look
at the waveform scope set to Luma, I can
| | 01:05 | evaluate the contrast of this clip.
You'll notice that no portion of the trace
| | 01:10 | touches 0 and most of the trace is
peaking around 60%. However, if I begin
| | 01:16 | playback again, you'll notice that
there are a few pixels that go over 100%.
| | 01:20 | For right now, I'm not going to worry
about those pixels. I could always turn
| | 01:24 | Broadcast Safe back on to limit
those pixels going over 100%. This clip
| | 01:31 | represents a common issue that a
colorist deals with. In one regard, we need to
| | 01:35 | darken this clip. That is, have the
trace touch 0%. In another regard, I want
| | 01:42 | to lighten this clip up just a
little bit, so we're going to have to do
| | 01:46 | corrections that oppose each other,
one correction that darkens the clip and
| | 01:50 | another correction that lightens the clip.
| | 01:53 | To fix this clip we're going to use
the Contrast sliders in the color balance
| | 01:56 | controls in the Primary In room.
Let's start out with the Shadow Contrast
| | 02:00 | slider and drag down until the trace
touches 0, just like that. Remember when a
| | 02:07 | part of the trace touches 0, this just
ensures that parts of the footage that
| | 02:10 | are black will be displayed as black.
| | 02:15 | Next, I'm going to come in to the
Highlight Contrast slider and drag up to
| | 02:18 | lighten this clip a bit.
| | 02:22 | Next, let's come into the Midtone
Contrast slider and drag up to lighten the
| | 02:26 | midtones just a bit. Remember because
of the overlapping nature of the color
| | 02:31 | balance controls and their influence on
the tonal range, the trace came off the
| | 02:36 | 0% line. This is easy to fix.
| | 02:38 | I'll come back into the Shadow
Contrast slider and just drag down until the
| | 02:42 | trace once again touches the 0% line.
Let's see the results of our correction.
| | 02:49 | I'll select the Color timeline and hit
the Spacebar to begin playback. Okay,
| | 02:57 | you can still see parts of the trace
are going over 100%. Don't worry about
| | 03:01 | that right now. Like I said, we could
always turn Broadcast Safe back on to
| | 03:04 | limit these few pixels that are going
over 100%. But overall, the trace has
| | 03:10 | been expanded; it now goes from 0 well over 60%.
| | 03:13 | Let's use Ctrl+G to compare the
original clip to the corrected clip. Here's the
| | 03:21 | original clip and you can notice that
I have a relatively limited contrast
| | 03:25 | ratio. The trace goes from about 10%
to just about 60%. And here is the
| | 03:33 | corrected clip. The trace now goes from
0% well over 60%. Looking at the clip,
| | 03:40 | I can describe the difference as
the corrected clip seems to have more
| | 03:43 | definition compared to the original clip.
Let me toggle the clips again. Here's
| | 03:48 | the original clip, and here's the
corrected clip. One more time. The original
| | 03:53 | clip and the corrected clip.
| | 03:56 | Let's navigate to the next clip on my
Color timeline by selecting the Color
| | 04:00 | timeline and hitting the Down arrow.
Here I have a clip with a problem that a
| | 04:05 | colorist faces all the time. Let me
begin playback. If I take a look at the
| | 04:11 | trace, you'll notice that a large
part of the trace is over 100% indicating
| | 04:16 | overexposure. At the bottom of the
trace, I appear to have large clumps
| | 04:21 | somewhere between, I don't know, about
10% up to about 30, 40% indicating that
| | 04:27 | part of this clip is pretty
dark. Let me stop playback.
| | 04:32 | To fix this clip, I'm going to have
to make opposing corrections. The first
| | 04:36 | correction to bring the trace back
down under 100% and make this clip legal.
| | 04:39 | The second correction, to lighten this
clip a bit, bringing these large parts
| | 04:44 | of trace up a little bit,
effectively raising the midtones of this clip.
| | 04:49 | So to fix this clip, I'm going to use
the Contrast sliders in the color balance
| | 04:53 | controls in the Primary In room.
Let's start with the Highlight Contrast
| | 04:58 | slider. I'm going to drag down until
the trace is at or just under 100%, just like that.
| | 05:07 | Next, I'm going to use the Shadow
Contrast slider and drag down just a bit
| | 05:10 | until the trace touches 0%. Then I'm
going to use the Midtone Contrast slider
| | 05:17 | and drag up quite a bit, something like
that should work. Remember that due to
| | 05:24 | the overlapping nature of the color
balance controls and their influence on the
| | 05:28 | tonal range, I'm going to need to go
back and adjust the Shadow Contrast slider
| | 05:32 | and the Highlight Contrast slider again.
| | 05:33 | If you look at the waveform scope,
you'll notice that the trace came off 0% and
| | 05:39 | part of the trace is now peaking
back over 100%. This is easy to fix.
| | 05:44 | Let me come back into the Shadow
Contrast slider and drag down again until the
| | 05:49 | trace just touches 0%. Next, I'll use
the Highlight Contrast slider and drag
| | 05:55 | down just a touch until the trace
returns below 100%, just like that.
| | 06:00 | Let's look at our correction. I'm going to
select the Color timeline and hit the
| | 06:05 | Spacebar to begin playback.
Okay, the clip looks pretty good.
| | 06:12 | Now if I use Ctrl+G again to toggle the
correction on and off, here you can see
| | 06:18 | the original and the corrected clip,
the original and the corrected clip.
| | 06:25 | Up to this point in the Primary In room,
we've only made Contrast corrections. In the
| | 06:29 | next few movies, we'll shift gears
and in addition to making Contrast
| | 06:32 | corrections, we'll also take a look
at using the color balance controls to
| | 06:36 | adjust the color of our footage.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Removing color casts with the Color Balance controls| 00:00 | When most people think about color
correction and grading, they think about the
| | 00:03 | color balance controls in an
application like Color or Final Cut Pro, or maybe
| | 00:07 | even the Color joyballs (ph
) on the control surface.
| | 00:10 | Well, perhaps the most common task
that a colorist deals with in relation to
| | 00:13 | Color is adjusting color balance. This
could be everything from fixing improper
| | 00:18 | white balance to purposely
introducing a color cast. Before we get into the
| | 00:22 | creative, let's discuss fixing some problems.
| | 00:25 | In this movie, we'll take a look at
fixing the clip with an obvious color cast.
| | 00:28 | I should note that this clip has had
its contrast adjusted using the primary
| | 00:32 | color balance controls. It's a good
idea to apply contrast adjustments with the
| | 00:36 | color balance controls before you
apply color adjustments with the color
| | 00:39 | balance controls. Because as you make
contrast adjustments, you potentially
| | 00:43 | change the part of the tonal
range that a color cast occurs in.
| | 00:46 | As always, the first thing that I want
to do is evaluate my clip before I apply
| | 00:51 | any adjustments. So let's go down to
the Color timeline and begin playback by
| | 00:55 | hitting the Spacebar. It appears that
this clip has a blue color cast. Let me
| | 01:02 | stop playback by hitting the Spacebar
once again. To evaluate a color cast, I
| | 01:07 | need to change the scopes that I've
been using over the past few movies.
| | 01:11 | So let's go into the waveform scope and
change the waveform scope from Luma to
| | 01:14 | Parade. When the waveform scope is set
to Parade, I can see the relative color
| | 01:19 | balance between the three color
channels: red, green, and blue. If I look at
| | 01:24 | the trace of this image on the waveform
scope set to Parade, I can see that the
| | 01:28 | blue channel is elevated over the red
and green channels, and the red and green
| | 01:32 | channels are in relative balance.
| | 01:34 | Next, I want to come down to the
Vectorscope. Let's remember how the
| | 01:39 | vectorscope works. The angle around
the vectorscope represents hue, and the
| | 01:44 | distance from center represents
saturation. You'll notice that I have a lot of
| | 01:49 | the trace pushed towards the blue
target here. This is another indicator that I
| | 01:53 | have a blue color cast on this clip.
| | 01:56 | So to fix this blue color cast, I'm
going to use the primary color balance
| | 01:59 | controls. First, let's come into the
Highlight color balance control and I know
| | 02:05 | that to neutralize a blue color cast,
I need to add yellow to the footage.
| | 02:09 | So to do that I'm going to drag the
Highlight color balance control towards
| | 02:13 | yellow, right about there.
| | 02:18 | Next, let's come into the Midtone
color balance control. I also want to
| | 02:21 | neutralize the blue color cast in the
Midtones by adding yellow. So I'm going
| | 02:25 | to drag the Midtone color balance
control towards yellow. Just be careful as
| | 02:30 | you drag towards yellow that you don't
introduce an unwanted color cast on the
| | 02:33 | skin tone. Something like that works.
| | 02:38 | Let's go back to our waveform scope set
to Parade. You should see now that the
| | 02:43 | red, green, and blue channels are in
relative balance. If the blue channel is
| | 02:48 | still a little elevated, that's okay
because the subject has a blue jacket on.
| | 02:53 | Okay, the last adjustment that I want
to do is with the Shadow color balance
| | 02:56 | control. Because of the nature of the
overlapping tonal ranges that the color
| | 03:00 | balance controls use, oftentimes when I
make adjustments with the Midtones, or
| | 03:04 | Highlights, or any combination of two
color balance controls, I have to use the
| | 03:09 | third color balance control
to limit those adjustments.
| | 03:13 | In the case of the Shadow color balance
control, I'm going to add just a touch
| | 03:16 | of blue to limit the adjustments
that I've made by adding yellow in the
| | 03:19 | Highlight color balance control
and Midtone color balance control.
| | 03:23 | So I'm going to add just a touch of
blue in the Shadows. Okay, let's playback
| | 03:31 | our clip and look at the corrected
footage. Select the Color timeline and hit
| | 03:35 | the Spacebar to begin playback, and
you can see the corrected clip.
| | 03:41 | Let's compare this corrected clip to the
original. Remember a great keyboard command
| | 03:46 | to toggle a grade on and off is Ctrl+G.
So here is the original clip that had
| | 03:51 | the blue color cast and
here is the corrected clip.
| | 03:56 | Take a look at the waveform scope set
to Parade and the vectorscope, first with
| | 04:00 | the original clip. With the original
clip, on the waveform scope set to Parade,
| | 04:06 | the blue channel was elevated much
higher than the red and green channels.
| | 04:10 | Also, on the vectorscope, you'll
notice that I had a lot of trace pushed
| | 04:14 | towards the blue target.
| | 04:15 | On the corrected clip, when the
waveform scope is set to Parade, you can see
| | 04:20 | that the color channels are in relative
balance. There's a little bit more blue
| | 04:24 | but that's to be expected because the
subject has a blue jacket on. If I take a
| | 04:30 | look at the vectorscope, I can see that
the trace has been pushed a little bit
| | 04:34 | towards yellow and there's
not as much blue in the image.
| | 04:38 | Like most modern software, there's
usually three ways to do something. In the
| | 04:41 | next movie, we'll take a look at an
alternate approach to adjusting contrast
| | 04:45 | and color balance by using the Basic
and Advanced tabs in the Primary In room.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Basic and Advanced tabs| 00:00 | You might be under the impression
that all color grading requires fancy
| | 00:03 | controls, cool graphical interfaces,
and comfortable control surfaces. Well,
| | 00:08 | long before software color grading
solutions and back before some of the most
| | 00:12 | well-known hardware solutions were
available in the market, colorists or even
| | 00:16 | color timers working on film based
projects had just a few simple controls.
| | 00:20 | In this movie, we'll explore a couple
of those simple controls in the Basic and
| | 00:25 | Advanced tabs in the Primary In room.
In this first clip, we'll use the Master
| | 00:30 | Lift, Gain, and Gamma controls to
adjust the contrast of the clip. The Master
| | 00:35 | Lift, Gain, and Gamma controls can be
found in the Basic tab of the Primary In room.
| | 00:40 | They can also be found in the
Secondaries room right here and the Primary
| | 00:46 | Out room, right here. In all three
places all three controls do the exact same thing.
| | 00:52 | Let me switch back to the Primary
In room. So here's the deal with the
| | 00:57 | controls. Master Lift performs an
overall Luma adjustment to the footage.
| | 01:02 | So if I adjust the Master Lift parameter up,
notice on the waveform scope, the trace
| | 01:08 | went up the scale. If I adjust the
Master Lift parameter down, notice the trace
| | 01:14 | goes down the scale. Let me reset Master Lift.
| | 01:19 | Master Gain is the exact same thing as
the Contrast slider in Highlight primary
| | 01:24 | color balance control, this guy right
here. And Master Gamma is the exact same
| | 01:29 | thing as the Contrast slider in the
Midtone primary color balance control.
| | 01:34 | This slider right here.
So let's correct this clip.
| | 01:39 | First, notice that no part of the
trace touches 0. So let's go ahead and use
| | 01:43 | the Master Lift parameter to make an
overall Luma adjustment. I'll scroll down
| | 01:50 | until the trace touches 0%.
| | 01:53 | Next, let's use Master Gain to lighten
this clip quite a bit. I'll scroll up
| | 01:58 | with Master Gain but I don't want to
go too far like I just did or else I'll
| | 02:03 | make this portion of the trace illegal.
A value of around 1.15 works for Master Gain.
| | 02:12 | Then let's adjust the lightness of
the Midtones. I'll use the Master Gamma
| | 02:16 | parameter and go up just a touch.
Just like we did with the primary color
| | 02:24 | balance controls, we need to go back
and adjust the Master Lift parameter so
| | 02:28 | that the trace once again touches 0%.
Right now I can see that it's off 0%.
| | 02:35 | So I'll go back to Master Lift and
scroll down. Let me toggle the grade on and
| | 02:41 | off by using the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl
+G. Here you can see the original clip
| | 02:47 | and the corrected clip. The corrected
clip is a bit brighter. Let me select the
| | 02:51 | Color timeline and I'll play that clip
back. It's always a good idea to play
| | 02:55 | your clip back to see the correction
in action. Okay, that works for me.
| | 03:04 | Next, let's navigate to the second clip
in the Color timeline. I'll select the
| | 03:08 | Color timeline and hit the Down arrow.
Let me play back this clip. This clip
| | 03:17 | has an obvious blue color cast and
we're going to switch over to the Advanced
| | 03:22 | tab in the Primary In room. And here we
find Lift, Gain, and Gamma controls for
| | 03:28 | the red, green, and blue color channels.
We're going to use these separate RGB
| | 03:33 | Lift, Gain, and Gamma controls to
adjust the color balance on this clip.
| | 03:38 | So a good way to evaluate color balance
is to switch my waveform scope over to
| | 03:43 | the Parade option. And the waveform
scope, when set to Parade, shows me the
| | 03:48 | relative balance of the three color
channels: red, green, and blue. So I can
| | 03:53 | see right off the bat that the trace
of the blue color channel is elevated
| | 03:56 | pretty high on the waveform scope
when it's set to Parade. This indicates a
| | 04:00 | blue color cast. Let's find a slightly
better frame to use. There you go.
| | 04:10 | Now the eyes of the subject are open.
| | 04:12 | So let's come over into the Advanced
tab and start making our corrections.
| | 04:18 | First, let's go in and adjust the red,
green, and blue Gain. Remember Gain is
| | 04:23 | the exact same thing as the Contrast
slider in the Highlight color balance
| | 04:27 | control and therefore, any adjustments
that I make with the Gain controls will
| | 04:32 | adjust the top end of the tonal range
the most. That's what I want to do first
| | 04:37 | with the blue channel, because you can
see the top end of the trace here for
| | 04:41 | the blue channel is well over 100%.
| | 04:46 | So let me adjust blue Gain down quite
a bit. Again, to adjust this parameter,
| | 04:52 | I'm just scrolling down with the wheel
on my mouse. A value of around 0.80 is good.
| | 04:59 | When I made that adjustment,
you can see that the trace for the blue
| | 05:03 | channel now is about equal with the
green channel. Let's go into green Gain and
| | 05:08 | adjust it down just a touch, something
like that works as well. Remember what
| | 05:15 | I'm trying to do is get the red, green,
and blue channels in relative balance,
| | 05:21 | and I started out adjusting Gain so we
could adjust the top end of the trace first.
| | 05:27 | Let's go into the red Gain parameter
and nudge that up just a bit. This will
| | 05:31 | add some warmth back into the clip.
Now that we have adjusted Gain, let's go
| | 05:37 | ahead and adjust Gamma. Remember the
Gamma controls are the exact same thing as
| | 05:43 | the Contrast slider in the Midtone
color balance control. The idea behind
| | 05:48 | adjusting Gamma for red, green, and
blue is that I want the mid part of each
| | 05:52 | trace to be about equal. The feature
that I'm going to use in the trace to sort
| | 05:57 | of spot this is this little black
hole here in each one of the traces.
| | 06:01 | Of course, it's not really a black hole.
It represents an object on the screen.
| | 06:07 | So let's start with red Gamma and
I'm going to adjust this up just a bit,
| | 06:13 | something like 1.02 works. Let's
adjust the green Gamma down just a bit,
| | 06:20 | something like 0.96 works. Again, I
keep looking back to the waveform scope set
| | 06:24 | to Parade and what I'm looking at is
this black hole feature here in all three
| | 06:30 | traces. I'm trying to get that to line
up. You're never going to get it perfect
| | 06:35 | but the goal is to get it relatively equal.
| | 06:38 | Then finally, we'll adjust blue Gamma.
You can see that the blue trace in the
| | 06:42 | Midtones here is well elevated over the
red and green channels. To adjust this,
| | 06:47 | I'll use the blue Gamma parameter and
I'm going to drag down quite a bit.
| | 06:52 | A value of around 0.86, 0.85 works just fine.
| | 06:58 | Finally, let's come into the red, green,
and blue Lift parameters. I'm going to
| | 07:04 | adjust each down just a bit so the
bottom of each trace will touch 0%.
| | 07:11 | I'll start with red Lift. Next, green
Lift, and then finally, blue Lift.
| | 07:23 | Okay, I'm finished with the correction.
Let's play back the clip first.
| | 07:27 | I'll select the Color timeline and hit the
Spacebar to begin playback. Okay, the
| | 07:34 | clip looks pretty good. I'll stop
playback and let me toggle the grade on and off.
| | 07:39 | I'll toggle the grade on and off
by hitting Ctrl+G. Here's the original
| | 07:45 | clip with the blue color cast. Note
the traces in the waveform scope when set
| | 07:50 | to Parade. And here is the
corrected clip. Now note the traces, they're
| | 07:58 | relatively equal. Again, as I drag
through the clip, I can see that they're about equal.
| | 08:11 | The last thing that we'll do in this
movie is navigate to the last clip, and
| | 08:13 | we'll use the Auto Balance button,
which is underneath the Basic and Advanced
| | 08:19 | tabs to make a correction to this clip.
One note about the Auto Balance button.
| | 08:24 | The Auto Balance button doesn't always
give you the best results, and here's why.
| | 08:29 | Technically speaking, it takes
the darkest and lightest 5% of the image
| | 08:34 | and the most natural midtones to
apply a primary color correction.
| | 08:37 | Let me go ahead and hit the Auto
Balance button, and it made a correction.
| | 08:43 | What it's really doing is adjusting red,
green, and blue Lift, Gain, and Gamma in the Advanced tab.
| | 08:51 | So the controls in the Primary In Basic
and Advanced tabs are just another way
| | 08:55 | to perform a primary grade. There's no
requirement that you use these controls.
| | 09:00 | Well, I guess, furthermore, there's
really no requirement that you use the
| | 09:02 | color balance controls either, but I
think that you'll find the color balance
| | 09:06 | controls a little more useful and intuitive.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making saturation corrections| 00:00 | You've adjusted your contrast, you've
color balanced your clip, but something
| | 00:04 | is still missing from your shot. I've
trained myself for over the years that
| | 00:07 | when I have that thought that the
problem is probably saturation. In this
| | 00:11 | movie, we'll take a look at the
saturation controls in the Primary In room.
| | 00:15 | I should be clear before we begin that
I don't mean the saturation sliders as
| | 00:19 | part of the color balance controls.
Those controls are meant to saturate or
| | 00:23 | desaturate based on the tonal range.
If there has been a hue adjustment made,
| | 00:27 | it will increase or decrease
the saturation of that hue.
| | 00:31 | The controls that we'll use in this
movie are meant mainly for saturation
| | 00:34 | adjustments after primary contrast and
color balance has been performed.
| | 00:38 | Let's take a look at adjusting the
saturation of the first clip in this project.
| | 00:44 | The first clip in this project is an
okay shot of the Washington Monument in
| | 00:47 | the Potomac River in Washington DC.
But upon closer inspection, I think that
| | 00:52 | it's really pretty under-saturated.
I can confirm this by looking at my Vectorscope.
| | 00:59 | Remember on the Vectorscope, the
distance out from center represents saturation
| | 01:04 | and if I look at the trace on the
Vectorscope, I can see that the trace is
| | 01:07 | pretty much bunched up right around
the center, indicating that this clip has
| | 01:11 | pretty poor saturation.
| | 01:14 | So to adjust the saturation in this
clip, I'm going to come over to the Basic
| | 01:17 | tab in the Primary In room and up to
Saturation, and let's go ahead and adjust
| | 01:23 | this parameter. To adjust the
Saturation parameter, remember, an easy way to do
| | 01:27 | that is with my scroll wheel on my mouse.
| | 01:29 | If I scroll up, I'll be increasing
saturation, and if I scroll down, I'll be
| | 01:35 | reducing saturation. I can reset any
parameter here on the Basic or Advanced
| | 01:41 | tab for that matter, by
clicking this little blue dot.
| | 01:43 | Let me reset the saturation parameter.
Also remember, if you want to be able to
| | 01:49 | adjust these values in a much quicker
way, holding down the Option key and then
| | 01:53 | scrolling up or down will adjust the
parameter much faster. And again, I can
| | 01:59 | reset by clicking the blue dot.
Because this clip has pretty low saturation,
| | 02:04 | I'm going to increase the
saturation of this clip.
| | 02:06 | So I'm going to hold down the Option
key and scroll up until my saturation
| | 02:11 | reaches right around 1.5, 1.6. If I
look at the Viewer, the clip looks much
| | 02:19 | more pleasing now. The trees down here
by the river are saturated and the sky
| | 02:24 | has also had its saturation increased.
If I look down at the Vectorscope, I can
| | 02:30 | tell by looking at the trace on the
Vectorscope that the saturation of this
| | 02:33 | clip has been increased.
| | 02:34 | If you remember in the original clip,
the trace was bunched up right around the
| | 02:39 | center but after I adjusted the clip,
the trace has increased further out from
| | 02:45 | the center. Remember I can toggle the
grid on and off like I just did by using
| | 02:50 | the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+G. So
here's the original clip and here is the corrected clip.
| | 02:59 | The second clip that I have in my Color
project is a shot from Artbeats.com and
| | 03:03 | it's a beautiful shot of the Southwest.
Upon closer inspection, I think that
| | 03:09 | this clip is a little too saturated.
Not that technically the clip is
| | 03:12 | over-saturated because if I look at
the Vectorscope, I can see that the
| | 03:16 | saturation is just fine. But for my
taste, it's a little too saturated.
| | 03:21 | I'm going for something a
little bit more Ansel Adams-like.
| | 03:25 | So let's adjust the saturation of this
clip by coming back to the Basic tab in
| | 03:28 | the Primary In room and back up to
the Saturation parameter. Let's use my
| | 03:33 | scroll wheel on my mouse in
combination with the Option key to reduce the
| | 03:37 | saturation in this clip by scrolling down.
| | 03:39 | And let me scroll down to something
right around 0.4 or so, just like that.
| | 03:46 | Now if I look at the preview, I can see
that the clip has been greatly desaturated
| | 03:51 | and this is the look I was trying to
create when I desaturated the clip.
| | 03:54 | Let's go down to the third clip in the
Color timeline. This clip is pretty well
| | 04:01 | saturated and I can tell that by
looking at my Vectorscope. But the reason I
| | 04:05 | want to use this clip is to show you
two other saturation parameters in the
| | 04:08 | Basic tab: Highlight
Saturation and Shadow Saturation.
| | 04:16 | Highlight Saturation is a way to
selectively desaturate just the highlights in
| | 04:19 | an image. When I desaturate highlights,
it helps restore areas of white to the
| | 04:24 | image where reflection or spill from
other color casts have happened. Let's go
| | 04:30 | take a look at the clip in the preview.
What I want you to notice is this area
| | 04:33 | right here where the sun is
hitting the brick of the house.
| | 04:37 | Notice how it has that slight yellow
cast to it. Well I'm going to come back
| | 04:42 | over to the Basic tab and adjust my
Highlight Saturation. First, let me reduce
| | 04:48 | the Highlight Saturation all the way to
zero so you can see what happens.
| | 04:55 | Let's come back over to the
preview to see what happened.
| | 04:59 | You notice on that area on the house
right here that was saturated yellow
| | 05:02 | before has now been desaturated, and
the brick now looks like it's white.
| | 05:08 | Highlight Desaturation is one way to
restore areas of white to an image where
| | 05:12 | reflection or spill that has
happened in the highlights.
| | 05:16 | Let's go back over to the Basic tab,
and Highlight Saturation, and go the other way.
| | 05:20 | I want to hold down my Option
key and scroll up until I go to a high
| | 05:24 | number like two or three. Now let's
come back over to the preview and see what
| | 05:30 | happened. If I take a look at that same
area on the house, you can see that the
| | 05:34 | saturation has been increased. Let's
go back over to the Basic tab and reset
| | 05:40 | Highlight Saturation.
| | 05:43 | Next, let's take a look at Shadow
Saturation. Just like I did with Highlight
| | 05:48 | Saturation, I'm going to reduce Shadow
Saturation all the way down to zero to
| | 05:51 | see its effect, but first, let's come
over to the preview and take a look at
| | 05:55 | the image. What I want you to notice
are parts of the image that are pretty
| | 05:59 | dark, the guitar, even the jacket.
| | 06:03 | Let's go back over to the Basic tab
and reduce the Shadow Saturation to zero.
| | 06:08 | Again, I'm going to hold down the
Option key and scroll down until the
| | 06:11 | parameter reads zero. Let's go back
over to the preview and see what the effect was.
| | 06:18 | Darker portions of the image
have had their saturation reduced.
| | 06:25 | Desaturating shadows is one way
you can make blacks look deeper.
| | 06:31 | Let's compare this to the original image.
You notice in the original image the
| | 06:35 | guitar is nicely colored red, and in
the corrected image, you notice that the
| | 06:41 | guitar has been greatly desaturated.
That's because I reduced Shadow
| | 06:45 | Saturation. Let's come back over to
the Basic tab and go the other way with Shadow Saturation.
| | 06:51 | I'm going to hold down my Option key,
and this time scroll up quite a bit until
| | 06:55 | my Shadow Saturation reads three or
four. Notice when I scroll up to a value
| | 07:02 | that high, the darker portions of the
image over my preview sort of become
| | 07:06 | neon, they become very, very, very
saturated. Typically, you don't use the
| | 07:11 | Shadow Saturation parameter to
increase saturation in shadows.
| | 07:15 | Like I said, it's often best used to
desaturate the shadows to make your blacks
| | 07:19 | look blacker. Next up on our Color
journey is exploring the primary curves and
| | 07:25 | figuring out when to use the primary
curves versus when to use the primary
| | 07:29 | color balance controls.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding Primary Curves vs. Color Balance controls| 00:00 | In the world of color grading,
whether it's been on online message boards,
| | 00:02 | industry conferences, or over a beer
with a couple of colleagues, there's been
| | 00:06 | a slow growing debate about how or
when to use the primary color balance
| | 00:10 | controls versus the primary curves.
Most modern grading tools have their own
| | 00:15 | interpretation of exactly how these
controls are implemented, but the general
| | 00:18 | idea behind each is the same.
| | 00:21 | In this movie, we'll briefly compare
the primary color balance controls to that
| | 00:24 | of the primary curves. Then after we
have that background knowledge, we'll go
| | 00:28 | into exploring the primary curves in
more detail. So let's recap the primary
| | 00:32 | color balance controls.
| | 00:35 | The primary color balance controls
simulate traditional hardware controls.
| | 00:39 | They allow for manipulation of contrast, hue,
and saturation, and they're often the
| | 00:44 | fastest and most comfortable way for a
colorist to work because they can make
| | 00:47 | broad adjustments using the
primary color balance controls.
| | 00:49 | Here are my primary color balance
controls. Remember I have a color balance
| | 00:54 | control for Shadows, Midtones, and
Highlights. So what are curves? Well, curves
| | 01:02 | are an additional way to adjust
contrast and color balance. They allow for a
| | 01:07 | very fine control over contrast and
color balance, and they may be familiar to
| | 01:13 | those of you who have used other curve
based applications like Photoshop, and
| | 01:16 | here are the primary curves in Color.
| | 01:21 | Notice that I have a curve for red,
green, blue, and luma. So let's compare the
| | 01:29 | primary color balance controls to the
primary curves. The primary color balance
| | 01:34 | controls are generally faster for
broad adjustments, while the primary curves
| | 01:39 | excel at making detailed adjustments.
The primary curves affect only a single
| | 01:45 | color channel while the primary color
balance controls affect all three color
| | 01:49 | channels at the same time.
| | 01:53 | The primary color balance controls
affect three defined tonal ranges: Shadows,
| | 01:57 | Midtones, and Highlights, whereas
primary curves allow for adjustment of the
| | 02:02 | entire tonal range on each curve. One
thing to remember is that curves cannot
| | 02:06 | be keyframed. We'll talk more
about keyframing in Chapter 12.
| | 02:09 | Ultimately, the choice to use the
primary color balance controls or the primary
| | 02:14 | curves is a workflow decision. One way
to think about it is you can make broad
| | 02:19 | adjustments with the primary color
balance controls and then fine-tune with the primary curves.
| | 02:25 | Another way to think about it is you
could correct only with the primary color
| | 02:28 | balance controls or only with the
primary curves. But here's one big key point
| | 02:34 | you need to know when to stop. It
doesn't matter if you use the primary color
| | 02:38 | balance controls or the primary curves.
There's no such thing as a perfect image.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Primary Curves| 00:00 | In this movie we'll take a look at the
mechanics of using the Primary Curves.
| | 00:04 | The Primary Curves are another way of
applying primary corrections, but using
| | 00:07 | them is not as intuitive as say the
Color Balance controls. So, let's see how they work.
| | 00:11 | Unlike the Color Balance controls, each
of which influences a different part of
| | 00:15 | the Tonal Range. The Primary Curves
allow for manipulations across the entire
| | 00:19 | Tonal Range on each curve.
| | 00:20 | What I mean by that is the Tonal Range
is mapped on each curve going from left
| | 00:24 | to right, or dark to light.
| | 00:27 | In Color I have four primary curves,
one for red, green, blue, and luma. When a
| | 00:33 | curve has no manipulations applied to it,
it's represented as a straight line.
| | 00:37 | To manipulate a curve I need to add a
Control Point, and to add a Control Point
| | 00:41 | I simply click on the curve itself.
| | 00:42 | Adding a Control Point doesn't
actually apply a manipulation. I need to
| | 00:47 | reposition this Control Point along the
curve. To reposition the Control Point,
| | 00:51 | I simply click on it and drag. Notice
that the Control Point isn't actually
| | 00:55 | attached to the curve. Instead it
works like a strong magnet influencing the
| | 00:59 | shape of the curve.
| | 01:01 | Another important aspect of Control
Point position is that depending on where
| | 01:05 | I've placed the Control Point I'm
influencing a different part of the Tonal
| | 01:08 | Range. Let me demonstrate.
| | 01:10 | If I position a Control Point say up
here on the curve, I'm influencing the
| | 01:14 | lightest portions of the Tonal Range.
If I position the Control Point say here
| | 01:19 | in the middle of the curve, I'm
influencing mainly the midtones of the Tonal
| | 01:22 | Range. And if I position a Control
Point say down here on the curve, I'm
| | 01:27 | influencing mainly the
darkest portions of the Tonal Range.
| | 01:30 | Let me go ahead and reset this curve
by clicking this little blue dot in the
| | 01:35 | upper left-hand corner, or I could also
take the Control Point and simply drag
| | 01:39 | it off the curve to delete it.
| | 01:42 | The reason I reset this curve is
because I think it will help us illustrate
| | 01:45 | another important point about Control
Point position. If I added a Control
| | 01:49 | Point to this curve and repositioned it,
so it was above the original shape of this curve.
| | 01:54 | I would effectively be adding either
red, green, or blue to that part of the
| | 01:58 | Tonal Range depending on
which curve I'm working on.
| | 02:01 | If I added a Control Point and
positioned it below the original shape of the
| | 02:05 | curve I would effectively be
removing either red, green, or blue, at that
| | 02:10 | portion of the Tonal Range. Let me demonstrate.
| | 02:12 | I'm going to add a Control Point right
in the midtones of the Red Curve, right
| | 02:17 | here in the middle. I'm then going to
reposition this Control Point above the
| | 02:23 | original shape of the curve. You
notice on the gradient that I have in my
| | 02:28 | preview that I've added red mainly to
the midtones. If I take this Control
| | 02:34 | Point and reposition it below the
original shape of the curve I've effectively
| | 02:39 | removed red at that part of the tonal
range, and when I've removed red I've
| | 02:44 | essentially added cyan. Now let's
take a look at the way this works.
| | 02:49 | An easy way to take a look at this is
by looking at my Vectorscope. If your
| | 02:52 | Vectorscope is not showing, right-
click anywhere on one of the scopes and
| | 02:56 | choose Vectorscope.
| | 02:59 | When I added a Control Point on the
Red Curve and I positioned the Control
| | 03:02 | Point above the original shape of the
line I was adding red, and here's the red
| | 03:06 | target. When I position the Control
Point below the original shape of the line
| | 03:11 | I was effectively removing red. And
what removing red means is that I was just
| | 03:15 | going to the opposite side of the
Color Wheel. Thus I was really just adding cyan.
| | 03:19 | And this works exactly the same
for the red, green, and blue curves.
| | 03:24 | So on the Green Curve, if I added a
Control Point above the original shape of
| | 03:27 | the line I'd be adding green. If I
added a Control Point below the original
| | 03:31 | shape of the line I'd be
removing green or adding magenta.
| | 03:36 | On the Blue Curve, if I added a
Control Point and positioned it above the
| | 03:39 | original shape of the line, I'd be
adding blue. And if I added a Control Point
| | 03:43 | and positioned it below the original
shape of the line I'd be removing blue or
| | 03:47 | effectively adding yellow.
| | 03:48 | Let me go ahead and reset the Red
Curve. The Luma curve works slightly
| | 03:56 | different than the red, green, and
blue curves. If I add a Control Point and
| | 04:01 | position it above the original shape
of the curve I'm effectively lightening
| | 04:05 | that part of the Tonal Range. If I add
a Control Point and position it below
| | 04:10 | the original shape of the curve I'm
effectively darkening that part of the
| | 04:13 | Tonal Range. Let me reset the Luma Curve.
| | 04:16 | There is one more important thing to
understand about the primary Luma Curve.
| | 04:21 | Manipulations that I make to the
primary Luma Curve directly influence how much
| | 04:25 | I can adjust the contrast sliders in
each one of the Color Balance controls.
| | 04:29 | Let me demonstrate.
| | 04:32 | If I reposition a Control Point to
say right here, notice on my Gradient as
| | 04:37 | well on my Trace, when my Waveform
Scope is set to luma, when I adjust the
| | 04:41 | Highlight Contrast slider by dragging up,
notice that the Trace cannot go above
| | 04:47 | about 82 or 83%. And that correlates
to the position of this Control Point.
| | 04:52 | Let me reset the Luma Curve and let me
reset the Highlight Color Balance control.
| | 05:00 | The last important thing we want to
talk about in relation to the primary
| | 05:03 | curves is adding multiple control
points. To add multiple control points I
| | 05:08 | simply click on the curve multiple times.
So I'll click here, I'll click here,
| | 05:13 | and I'll add one more Control
Point, say right here in the middle.
| | 05:16 | When I add multiple control points I
can effectively limit the amount of
| | 05:21 | influence that any single Control
Point has. Let me show you. So I'll leave
| | 05:25 | these two control points in place and
just position this middle Control Point
| | 05:29 | above the original shape of the line.
| | 05:31 | You'll notice that when I did that, on
my Gradient, I only added red to just a
| | 05:36 | small portion of the Tonal Range.
Whereas, when I added a single Control Point
| | 05:41 | before and repositioned it above
the original shape of the curve, I was
| | 05:46 | influencing a much larger
area of the Tonal Range.
| | 05:48 | Now that we have a hand on
manipulating the primary curves, in the next two
| | 05:53 | movies we'll put this knowledge to
work and use the curves for the specific
| | 05:56 | purposes or removing color
casts and manipulating contrast.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting luma with Primary Curves| 00:00 | One of the easiest ways I think to
really use curves as part of your everyday
| | 00:03 | workflow is with the Primary Luma Curve.
This includes here in the Primary In
| | 00:08 | room and in the duplicate
set in the Primary Out room.
| | 00:11 | In fact, in some ways, because the
entire Tonal Range is available on the
| | 00:14 | Primary Luma Curve, making Luma
adjustments using the Primary Luma Curve is
| | 00:18 | easier than using the Color Balance
controls because there you are making
| | 00:21 | adjustments across three
different contrast sliders.
| | 00:25 | In this movie we'll take a look at
making some simple corrections using the
| | 00:28 | Primary Luma Curve. First, let's take a
look at the three clips that I want to
| | 00:31 | correct. This first clip I've seen
before. It's an overexposed clip of a person
| | 00:36 | walking by a riverside.
| | 00:38 | The second clip is a clip that's
pretty dark that I just want to lighten up,
| | 00:42 | just a bit. And then the third clip
is a clip that has a very poor Contrast
| | 00:47 | Ratio. We're going to fix all three of
these clips by using the Primary Luma
| | 00:52 | Curve. Let's go back to the first clip.
| | 00:56 | I know that this clip is overexposed
because if I look at the Waveform Scope
| | 00:59 | set to luma, there is a great deal
of Trace above 100%, indicating an
| | 01:03 | overexposed clip. So let's fix this clip.
| | 01:07 | First I'm going to come into the
Primary Luma Curve and add a Control Point at
| | 01:11 | the top end of the Tonal Range, right
about here. I'm going to come into the
| | 01:16 | Control Point that's already built
onto the curve and drag down just a bit,
| | 01:20 | just enough until the Trace
returns below 100% on the Waveform Scope.
| | 01:24 | Next, let's come down to the dark
area of the Tonal Range and add another
| | 01:29 | Control Point right about here.
| | 01:30 | I'm going to take this Control Point
and drag down just a bit, and I want to
| | 01:37 | drag down just enough so that the
bottom part of the Trace touches 0%. Remember
| | 01:42 | the idea is that we want parts of the
image that are supposed to be black to be
| | 01:46 | displayed as black.
| | 01:49 | Lastly, I'm going to come into the
middle part of the Primary Luma Curve and
| | 01:53 | add another Control Point. And here
I'm just going to drag down just a bit,
| | 01:58 | just to darken the midtones. And if
you remember, there's a great keyboard
| | 02:04 | shortcut, Ctrl+G, that lets
me toggle a Grade on and off.
| | 02:08 | So here's the original clip. You can
see that it's washed out and overexposed,
| | 02:12 | and here's the corrected clip that has
a lot more definition to it. Let's take
| | 02:17 | a look at the next clip. This clip is
okay. It's a little dark for my taste
| | 02:22 | though. So let's use the Primary Luma
Curve to brighten it up just a tad bit.
| | 02:28 | So to do this I'm going to come into
the Primary Luma Curve and add a couple of
| | 02:30 | control points. First, let's add a
Control Point towards the bottom end of the
| | 02:35 | Tonal Range, right around here. And
let's drop the Control Point down just a
| | 02:40 | tad bit, just enough to
where the Trace touches 0%.
| | 02:47 | Next, let's come in to the top end of
the Tonal Range and add another Control
| | 02:50 | Point right about here. And let's drag
up just a touch. This will lighten the
| | 02:58 | image ever so slightly.
| | 03:00 | Lastly, let's come into the middle
portion of the Primary Luma Curve and add
| | 03:03 | another Control Point, right about here.
And let's drag this Control Point up
| | 03:08 | just a touch to lighten up the
midtones. Okay, that clip looks pretty good.
| | 03:18 | Finally, let's come to the last clip
in the Color Timeline. I can tell that
| | 03:21 | this clip has a pretty poor Contrast
Ratio if I look at the Waveform Scope set
| | 03:25 | to luma. If I look at the Waveform
Scope I can see that no part of the Trace
| | 03:29 | approaches 0. Also, I can tell that
most of the Trace is centered right here
| | 03:34 | between about 40 to 80%. So let's use
the Primary Luma Curve to fix this clip.
| | 03:41 | First I want to come in to the
Primary Luma Curve and add a Control Point
| | 03:45 | towards the darker end of the Tonal
Range but not too far down, maybe about right here.
| | 03:50 | I'm going to take that Control Point
and drag down just enough to where the
| | 03:55 | Trace touches the 0% line.
| | 04:00 | Next, I'm going to add another Control
Point in the middle part of the Primary
| | 04:04 | Luma Curve, right around here and
drag up just a little bit to lighten the
| | 04:09 | midtones. That's pretty good.
| | 04:15 | Lastly, I'm going to add one more
Control Point towards the top end of the
| | 04:18 | Tonal Range, right around here, to
lighten up the highlights. I'm just going to
| | 04:22 | drag up. And let's compare
this clip to the original clip.
| | 04:29 | Remember Ctrl+G is an easy way to turn
a Grade on and off. Here's the original
| | 04:35 | clip, which looks washed out and has a
poor Contrast Ratio. And the corrected
| | 04:40 | image that has a lot more definition
to it and has a much better Contrast
| | 04:44 | Ratio. Just as we did when correcting
a clip with the Color Balance controls,
| | 04:48 | we first adjusted Contrast. In the
next movie we'll use the Primary curves to
| | 04:52 | remove a color cast from a clip.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting color casts with Primary Curves| 00:00 | One of my favorite uses of the
Primary Curves is removing color casts from
| | 00:03 | footage. Maybe it's because I have a
greater control over the Tonal Range I can
| | 00:07 | affect, or maybe it's because it's
just so much fun to make a ton of little points on a line.
| | 00:13 | Wait a second. That's when I
was in kindergarten, never mind.
| | 00:17 | Well, in this movie we'll use the
Primary Curves to remove a color cast from a clip.
| | 00:21 | As always it's a good idea to
evaluate the clip before I apply any
| | 00:25 | corrections. So, let's begin
playback by selecting the Color Timeline and
| | 00:30 | hitting the Spacebar.
| | 00:30 | I've actually seen this clip before
and it still has the same problem, a blue
| | 00:37 | color cast. And the way that I'm going
to evaluate this clip is by selecting
| | 00:45 | the Waveform Scope and then the Parade
option. I can also evaluate this clip
| | 00:50 | using my Vectorscope.
| | 00:53 | Remember when the Waveform Scope is
set to the Parade option I can see the
| | 00:56 | relative balance between the three
color channels: red, green, and blue.
| | 01:02 | And the elevated Trace on the Blue Channel
here shows me that this clip has a blue
| | 01:06 | color cast, and because the Trace is
above 80% here, I can see that most of the
| | 01:11 | color cast is happening in the highlights.
| | 01:14 | This is usually a good indication that
this clip was proper. This is usually a
| | 01:18 | good indication that when the shot
was taken the camera was using improper white balance.
| | 01:23 | If I take a look at my Vectorscope I
can also see that this clip has a blue
| | 01:28 | cast as most of the Trace on the
Vectorscope is pushed towards the blue target here.
| | 01:32 | So we are going to use the
Primary Curves to make a correction.
| | 01:36 | In previous movies we've used the Color
Balance controls as well as controls on
| | 01:40 | the Basic and Advanced tabs, and this
is just an alternate way of removing a color cast.
| | 01:46 | By no means you have to choose them all.
You can choose whatever method is your
| | 01:50 | favorite to remove a color cast. And
as I said, for this movie we're going to
| | 01:54 | use the Primary Curves.
| | 01:57 | So, because this clip has a blue
color cast I'm going to start in the Blue
| | 02:01 | Curve. Looking at the Waveform Scope
set to Parade I can see that the Trace in
| | 02:08 | the Blue Channel has elevated
highlights. So I'm going to come into the Blue
| | 02:13 | Curve and grab the top-most Control
Point that's there by default and drag it
| | 02:17 | down, right about there.
| | 02:23 | The idea when looking at the Waveform
Scope set to Parade is that we want the
| | 02:26 | three color channels to be in
relative balance, and by pulling that Control
| | 02:31 | Point down on the Blue Curve I
lower the Trace and the highlights so it
| | 02:36 | basically matches the other channels.
We'll do some more manipulation of course
| | 02:40 | to the other channels.
| | 02:42 | Taking a closer look at the Trace, I
can see that most of the difference now
| | 02:46 | between the traces is here in the
midtones. The Red Channel is lowered; the
| | 02:51 | Green and the Blue Channels don't
match either. So once again, in the Blue
| | 02:55 | Primary Curve, let's come in and add a
Control Point in the middle of the curve.
| | 03:01 | Remember that the Tonal Range is
mapped out on each curve, going from dark to
| | 03:05 | light or black to white. So adding a
Control Point in the middle of the curve
| | 03:10 | would be adding a Control Point for the
midtones. I'll click and add a Control
| | 03:15 | Point and then I'll drag down to
lower the midtones on this Trace, maybe a
| | 03:25 | little bit more. All right,
that's working for me.
| | 03:30 | If I take a look now at the blue and
green traces, this area right here between
| | 03:37 | both traces is relatively equal. I
think I'll need to do some adjustment to the
| | 03:41 | Green Channel in just a second.
| | 03:43 | Next, let's go and work on the Red
Channel. Coming to the Red Primary Curve I'm
| | 03:49 | going to add a Control Point right in
the middle of the curve. Again, this will
| | 03:53 | allow me to manipulate the midtones.
I'll click to add a Control Point and I'll
| | 04:00 | drag up quite a bit.
| | 04:04 | Okay, going back to the Waveform
Scope set to Parade, I can see that the
| | 04:09 | midtones of all three channels are in
relative balance now. I still want to
| | 04:13 | tweak the Green Channel a bit. So, let
me go over to the Green Primary Curve
| | 04:17 | and add a Control Point in the
midtones as well and lower those midtones ever so slightly.
| | 04:27 | The danger with removing color casts
with the primary curves is that you might
| | 04:31 | go back and spend all day adding
control points manipulating existing control
| | 04:36 | points. Avoid that temptation when
possible. I think that this clip looks
| | 04:41 | pretty good. I'm going to make one
slight adjustment in the Red Primary Curve.
| | 04:46 | I'm going to grab this Control Point
and reposition it ever so slightly so
| | 04:51 | there is not as much red in the face.
| | 04:55 | Remember I can use the keyboard
shortcut Ctrl+G to toggle a Grade on and off.
| | 05:02 | So here's the original clip. Take a
look at the Waveform Scope set to Parade
| | 05:05 | and notice the Trace, and then here
is the corrected clip. Notice how each
| | 05:11 | Trace for each Color Channel
is in relative balance now.
| | 05:16 | Well, that's it for the Primary In room.
In the next chapter we'll take a look
| | 05:20 | at making secondary
corrections using the Secondaries room.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
7. Secondary CorrectionsUnderstanding the Secondaries room| 00:00 | Welcome to the Secondaries room. In
this chapter we'll take a look at making
| | 00:04 | secondary corrections using the
various methods available in the Secondaries room.
| | 00:08 | We will start in this movie with an
overview of the Secondaries room, then
| | 00:11 | we'll move on looking at different ways
to apply secondary corrections in more
| | 00:15 | detail in the rest of the chapter.
First, let's define what we mean by
| | 00:19 | Secondary Color Correction.
| | 00:20 | Secondary corrections are
corrections that allow us to affect part of the
| | 00:23 | picture while not affecting the rest
of the picture like a Primary Correction does.
| | 00:27 | And in the Secondaries room,
there are three main ways to apply these
| | 00:31 | corrections. The first is by using
what's called an HSL key. An HSL key
| | 00:36 | operates just like the limited effect
of Final Cut Pro's Color Corrector 3-way
| | 00:40 | and an HSL key allows us to isolate a
portion of the image based on its Hue,
| | 00:45 | Saturation, or Lightness, HSL for short.
And once I have isolated a portion of
| | 00:50 | the footage I want, I can apply a
correction using the Secondary Color Balance
| | 00:54 | controls here or even some of the
parameters on the Basic and Advanced tabs.
| | 00:58 | In the Secondaries room, all the
controls I have for performing in an HSL key
| | 01:02 | are found in the upper right-hand
corner of the room on the Basic tab.
| | 01:05 | I can perform in HSL key by using the HSL
Eyedropper to sample values over here in my
| | 01:10 | preview, or I can use these little
strips here called HSL Qualifiers. And then
| | 01:15 | finally, I can use these little color
swatches which let me choose the primary
| | 01:19 | colors, red, green or blue, or the
complimentary colors, cyan, magenta and
| | 01:25 | yellow, that may be present in the image.
| | 01:27 | Let me do a quick HSL key in correction.
Don't worry about each step at this
| | 01:31 | point, I'm just demoing the feature.
The movies later in this chapter will
| | 01:35 | breakdown the process of using an HSL key.
| | 01:41 | So I'll do an HSL key by using the HSL
Eyedropper and selecting the part of the
| | 01:46 | footage that I want over here in my
preview, simply by dragging. Next, once I
| | 01:53 | have the part that I want selected,
I'll soften it up a little bit so there are
| | 01:56 | no hard edges with this Key Blur Parameter.
| | 02:00 | And then finally, I'll use a Secondary
Color Balance controls to add a color
| | 02:04 | cast to the sky, the part I selected.
I can always fine-tune a key that I've
| | 02:23 | made by using the HSL
Qualifiers and I'll do that very quickly.
| | 02:26 | Well, not the finished look, you can
see that it's pretty easy to select
| | 02:42 | portions of the footage using the HSL
key controls. I navigate to the second
| | 02:49 | clip in the Timeline. Let me show
you the second way to apply a Secondary Correction.
| | 02:53 | In this clip from Artbeats.com, I'll
use a Vignette to apply a Secondary
| | 02:56 | Correction. A Vignette uses a
geometric shape to apply a correction. In other
| | 03:01 | words, we can use the shape to define
the part of the clip we want to affect.
| | 03:05 | The neat thing is I can choose to
affect the inside or the outside of the
| | 03:09 | Vignette or what's inside the shape,
or what's outside the shape using this
| | 03:14 | pull-down here at the top of the
Secondaries room for inside, or outside
| | 03:18 | controls. And this works with any
Secondary Correction, it's just particularly
| | 03:23 | useful for Vignettes. So let me go
ahead and add a quick Vignette to this clip.
| | 03:27 | I will enable the Vignette, which
gives me some on-screen controls and I can
| | 03:32 | choose from a Circle,
Square, or User-defined shape.
| | 03:38 | Next, I'll size and position the
Vignette how I want. I'll add some Softness so
| | 03:48 | the edges aren't as hard. Then I'll
come up and make a correction with the
| | 03:55 | Secondary Color Balance controls. But
before I make that correction, I need to
| | 03:58 | make sure that this Enabled checkbox
is checked, and I'll get back to this feature shortly.
| | 04:03 | So with the Secondary Enabled, my
Vignette in place, let me apply the
| | 04:08 | Correction. I'll switch the Control
pull-down to outside here, and what I'm
| | 04:13 | going to do is darken up the part of
the footage outside of the Vignette.
| | 04:30 | And maybe soften it up just a bit more.
And you can see in my preview, Look is a
| | 04:39 | Traditional Lens Vignette with dark
edges around the corners. And let me
| | 04:45 | navigate to the last clip in the Color Timeline.
| | 04:48 | The third way to apply a Secondary
Correction is by using the Secondary Curves.
| | 04:52 | In the middle of the Secondaries room,
I have three Secondary Curves, the Hue
| | 04:56 | Curve, the Saturation Curve, and the Luma Curve.
| | 05:00 | The Saturation and Luma curves are
abbreviated Sat and Lum, for Saturation and Luma.
| | 05:06 | The Secondary Curves work
differently than the Primary Curves. Each one
| | 05:10 | the curves maps the Color Spectrum left
to right, and depending on which curve
| | 05:15 | I'm on, Hue, Saturation, or Luma Curve,
adding control point and manipulating
| | 05:21 | those control points will
have a different effect.
| | 05:23 | For example, adding control points on
the Hue Curve will let me alter the Hue
| | 05:28 | part of the Color Spectrum. Adding
control points in the Saturation Curve will
| | 05:33 | let me alter Saturation at that
particular Color on the Color Spectrum and then
| | 05:39 | adding control points on the Luma
Curve will let me adjust the relative
| | 05:42 | lightness at that particular color.
| | 05:46 | Again, let me make a quick correction
to this cool clip from Artbeats.com of a
| | 05:50 | New York City street scene. Later in
this chapter we'll take a look at making
| | 05:54 | this correction in detail. So, I'm
going to choose the Saturation Curve and add
| | 06:00 | quite a few control points.
| | 06:06 | Next, I'm going to move these control
points down like this to desaturate the
| | 06:10 | image. As always, I need to make sure
that I have the Enabled checkbox on to see the effect.
| | 06:26 | Okay, so that's the look. I
desaturated most of the image while leaving other
| | 06:30 | parts of the image saturated.
| | 06:31 | Finally, let's take a look at a few
miscellaneous things about the Secondaries room.
| | 06:36 | First is these tabs at the bottom of
the room. Each tab in the Secondaries room
| | 06:41 | allows me to apply a separate
Secondary Correction. In each tab in the
| | 06:45 | Secondaries room has identical
controls for performing a correction. We can
| | 06:48 | actually combine multiple secondary
tabs together to create an overall look.
| | 06:53 | And later in this chapter, we'll take a
look at combining multiple secondaries.
| | 06:57 | The last thing that I've have already
mentioned, but it's worth mentioning
| | 07:00 | again is the Enabled checkbox here at
the top of the Secondaries room. You have
| | 07:06 | to make sure that this button is
checked to see the results of your Secondary
| | 07:09 | Correction. Trust me, I'll mention
this about a hundred more times, but it's
| | 07:13 | important. I often get asked why can't
I see my Secondary Correction? And 99.9%
| | 07:19 | of the time it's because the Secondary
room was not enabled. Now that we know
| | 07:22 | the tools available in the Secondaries
room and the movies that follow we'll
| | 07:26 | break down each tool and the
corrections that it can make.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the HSL Eyedropper| 00:01 | Our first exploration in isolating
areas for correction in the Secondaries room
| | 00:05 | is by using the HSL
Eyedropper to perform an HSL key.
| | 00:09 | HSL stands for Hue, Saturation, and
Lightness. And what we want to do with the
| | 00:14 | Eyedropper is sample HSL values to
create a Matte, which I'll come back to
| | 00:18 | shortly. So let's jump right into it.
| | 00:21 | This clip is a beautiful shot from
artbeats.com of a bridge in Tokyo.
| | 00:25 | It's already had some Primary Correction
applied to it, and what we want to do is
| | 00:29 | apply some Secondary Correction
to only affect part of the clip.
| | 00:33 | Remember the purpose of Secondary
Correction is to make isolated corrections to
| | 00:37 | part of the clip while leaving
other part of the clips unchanged.
| | 00:41 | What I'd like to isolate the sky in
this clip so I can give it a surreal
| | 00:45 | saturated look. To do this, we are
going to use an HSL key. The HSL controls
| | 00:50 | can be found in the upper right-hand
corner of the Secondaries room. Each one
| | 00:53 | of these strips here is known as an
HSL Qualifier, and there is one for Hue,
| | 00:58 | Saturation, and Lightness, or HSL.
| | 01:01 | In the next movie, we'll talk about
using the HSL Qualifiers to select portions
| | 01:05 | of the clip based on their Hue,
Saturation and Lightness values. But in this
| | 01:09 | movie, we are going to use the HSL
Eyedropper to perform an HSL key.
| | 01:13 | I keep saying key. Let me explain. See,
the idea with an HSL key is that I want
| | 01:19 | to select portions of the image, the
selected portions are known as the Key, or
| | 01:24 | another way of saying that is that the
portions I select will take part in a
| | 01:27 | Secondary Correction.
| | 01:29 | Simply selecting portions of the
footage doesn't actually do anything to them.
| | 01:32 | We'll get to that part shortly. But the
first step is selecting the parts that
| | 01:36 | I want. So let's go ahead and do this.
| | 01:39 | First we just need to get in a habit of
making sure that every time I perform a
| | 01:43 | Secondary Correction, I click the
Enabled checkbox at the top of the
| | 01:46 | Secondaries room. This just ensures
that any secondary corrections I perform
| | 01:51 | well actually be applied to the clip.
| | 01:54 | Next, let's come over and choose the
HSL Eyedropper, I'll simply click on it.
| | 02:00 | What I want you to notice is over
in my Preview I now have these red
| | 02:03 | crosshairs. These red crosshairs let me
choose part of the clip that I want to
| | 02:07 | add to the HSL key. Now
don't click anything yet.
| | 02:11 | If I was to single click, I'd only be
selecting the HSL values right underneath
| | 02:15 | the crosshair. What I actually want
to do is click-and-drag to add the HSL
| | 02:20 | values of multiple pixels. So let
me go ahead and do that. I'm going to
| | 02:24 | click-and-drag in the area of the sky
right around here. So I'll click and drag
| | 02:31 | and add values to the Key.
Something like that works just fine.
| | 02:39 | Now I want you to notice two things.
First, as I was dragging, up here in the
| | 02:45 | Preview, my Preview went to this weird
desaturated look. The stuff that I was
| | 02:50 | selecting is still saturated, but the
rest of the clip is desaturated. That's
| | 02:55 | because of the controls down here in
the Previews tab in the middle of the Secondaries room.
| | 03:00 | Over here on the right-hand side I have
three buttons. The button that's on by
| | 03:05 | default is this one that's gray, green,
gray, and that shows me a Desaturated
| | 03:10 | Preview. The other buttons, I'll get
back to in one second. But first, we need
| | 03:14 | to notice what's going on
here in the Previews tab.
| | 03:17 | Next to my original clip, you can see
now I have this image that's white on
| | 03:21 | black. This is my Matte. The part
here that's white is the part of the clip
| | 03:27 | that I've actually selected, the part
of the clip that's black is the portion
| | 03:32 | of the clip that is not selected. And I
can use these three buttons to control
| | 03:37 | how I'm looking at the image.
| | 03:38 | We've already discussed the button that
is gray, green, gray, and that shows me
| | 03:42 | my Desaturated Preview. The button
underneath that, the one that is black,
| | 03:46 | white, black, shows me my Matte in my
Preview. The button all the way at the
| | 03:53 | top, the one that's red, green,
blue. That shows me the final image.
| | 03:58 | Let's go back to the Matte Only button,
the button that's black, white, black.
| | 04:04 | Here my Matte is displayed in the
Preview and remember the thing with the Matte
| | 04:09 | is the parts that are white are parts
that I have selected and they will take
| | 04:12 | part in the Secondary Correction.
Parts of the Matte that are black are parts
| | 04:17 | that are not selected and they will
not take part in a Secondary Correction.
| | 04:21 | The ideal is to get a perfect white on
black image, meaning that all the stuff
| | 04:25 | that you want to affect is solid white
and all the stuff that you don't want to
| | 04:29 | affect is solid black. In reality,
this is actually pretty hard to do but in
| | 04:34 | the next movie, we'll use the HSL
Qualifiers to fine-tune this Matte. But for
| | 04:39 | right now, this Matte is fine. It's
not all that important for most secondary
| | 04:43 | color corrections to use a perfect Matte.
| | 04:46 | The thing I want you to remember is
that portions of the Matte that are white
| | 04:49 | will take part in the correction, and
portions of the Matte that are black will
| | 04:52 | not take part in the correction. Any
parts of the Matte that are gray will be
| | 04:57 | semi-affected by the correction.
| | 05:00 | Coming back over to the three buttons
next to my Matte, let's choose the one
| | 05:03 | that is a red, green, and blue. This
will just show me the final image in the Preview.
| | 05:10 | Next, let's come up to the Color
Balance controls in the Secondaries room.
| | 05:13 | What I'm going to do is introduce a color
cast into the sky, and to do that,
| | 05:19 | I'm just going to take the Midtone and
Highlight Color Balance controls and drag
| | 05:23 | towards purply-pink. Let
me go ahead and do that.
| | 05:37 | Okay, now you should see in the
Preview the parts of the sky have turned into
| | 05:41 | this sort of light purple. The reason
that the correction only affected the sky
| | 05:45 | is because that's how my Matte was set up.
| | 05:48 | Let's do one more thing. Let's click
back on the Matte Only button, the button
| | 05:53 | that's black, white, black next to my
Matte. If I take a closer look at this
| | 06:00 | Matte, you can see that there is some
pretty hard edges, especially on parts
| | 06:04 | that go from white to gray.
| | 06:05 | In my final image, these edges might
be visible, so I can actually soften up
| | 06:11 | these edges so the overall effect is a
little softer. To do that, I'm going to
| | 06:15 | use the Key Blur control, which
is underneath the HSL Qualifiers.
| | 06:19 | Remember to change any Parameter box
in Color you can simply use the scroll
| | 06:22 | wheel on your mouse. If you hold the
Option key and you scroll up or down, you
| | 06:26 | can change the value faster.
| | 06:28 | So I'm going to hold down the Option
key and scroll up to add a little bit of
| | 06:31 | Key Blur. A value of around 1.5 is fine.
Back over in my Preview, you can see
| | 06:36 | the Matte has now been blurred.
| | 06:38 | Again, this will just soften some of
the hard edges for the Matte transitions
| | 06:43 | from white to black, or white to gray.
Let's show my final image by clicking on
| | 06:46 | the Final button, the button that's red,
green, blue, and here you can see the final correction.
| | 06:53 | For those of you who are astute, you
may have noticed that the correction
| | 06:56 | didn't affect the part of the sky
underneath the bridge. It also affected the
| | 07:00 | small portion of the water, and I
can see that on my Matte by these white pixels right here.
| | 07:06 | In the final movie in this chapter
we'll take a look at combining multiple
| | 07:10 | secondaries, and by combining multiple
secondaries, we'll actually finish the
| | 07:13 | effect on this clip. In the next movie,
we'll take a look at using the HSL
| | 07:17 | Qualifiers to isolate a portion of an image.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the HSL Qualifiers| 00:00 | In the last movie we took a look at
using the HSL Eyedropper to pull a quick key.
| | 00:04 | We used that key to give the clip
a cool effect. But we didn't focus too
| | 00:09 | much on the quality of the key. Many
times in Color Correction that method
| | 00:13 | works just fine but other times, you
will need to get a much more solid Matte.
| | 00:18 | In this movie, we'll explore using
the HSL Qualifiers to select and then
| | 00:21 | fine-tune a Matte. Remember the HSL
controls can be found in the upper
| | 00:25 | right-hand corner of the Secondaries
room. HSL stands for Hue, Saturation and
| | 00:29 | Lightness. And to recap, HSL keys
allow us to select portions of the clip for
| | 00:35 | secondary corrections based on
Hue, Saturation, and Lightness.
| | 00:39 | Before we use these controls to make a
correction, let's take a look at their
| | 00:42 | mechanics. First off, each Qualifier
is represented by a little strip.
| | 00:48 | The Lightness strip showing the Tonal Range
going from left to right, or from dark
| | 00:52 | to light, the Saturation strip, showing
Saturation, going from left to right or
| | 00:58 | Desaturated to Saturated, and a Hue
strip showing the Color Spectrum. The only
| | 01:03 | thing interesting about the Hue
strip is that it actually wraps around.
| | 01:06 | So when we start making corrections,
the control is going to actually from one
| | 01:10 | side to the other side in a wraparound manner.
| | 01:13 | First off, when a Qualifier is not
active, this center point handle right here
| | 01:18 | on each strip will be lined up. Also,
the handles of each strip will be pegged to the end.
| | 01:23 | Additionally, if I look at my Previews
tab in the center of the room, my Matte
| | 01:28 | preview will be solid white. The
checkboxes next each Qualifier let us enable
| | 01:34 | or disable the Qualifier controls.
This is useful, for example, if you are
| | 01:38 | simply trying to isolate say the
lightness of an object on screen to reduce its
| | 01:41 | lightness for broadcast safe. You
would de-select Hue and Saturation and only
| | 01:47 | use Lightness Qualifier.
Let me turn this back on.
| | 01:51 | Each Qualifier has a set of handles on
either end of the strip. To move these
| | 01:56 | handles, simply drag one of the handles.
I'll drag the Lightness Handle here.
| | 02:04 | By moving these handles, you can
isolate a portion of Hue, Saturation and
| | 02:07 | Lightness you want to select. For
example, with the Lightness Handle set like
| | 02:12 | this, I'm selecting mainly the midtones
in this clip. These handles are called Range Handles.
| | 02:18 | I can also keep the relative position
of the handles the same, but reposition
| | 02:21 | it on the strip by grabbing
the center handle like this.
| | 02:28 | If you look close, and you really
have to look close, because even on a big
| | 02:32 | monitor they are small. I have two
additional handles and they are actually
| | 02:36 | attached to the Range Handles. To make
these handles a little easier to look
| | 02:40 | at, I'm going to pull them out. And
to pull those handles out, I'm going to
| | 02:43 | click on either side of the Range
Handles and drag left and right.
| | 02:46 | Here we go. These are called my
Tolerance Handles and a good way to think of
| | 02:54 | the Tolerance Handles is that they
control the amount of falloff or softness
| | 02:58 | around the edges of the values you've
chosen for either Hue, Saturation, or Lightness.
| | 03:03 | To manipulate the Tolerance Handles,
you simply drag, like I said, behind
| | 03:07 | either one of the Range Handles. There
are few last things about manipulating
| | 03:11 | the HSL Qualifiers before we make a correction.
| | 03:14 | By default, dragging the Range or
Tolerance Handles, affects both sides, making
| | 03:21 | an asymmetric change. But if you want
to make an asymmetrical change, all you
| | 03:26 | need to do is hold down the Shift key
on the keyboard and you can affect one side or the other.
| | 03:32 | Okay, let's make a correction. First,
let's reset the HSL Qualifiers by
| | 03:37 | clicking on this little blue button
here right next to the Lightness Qualifier.
| | 03:41 | What I think I'd like to do in this
clip is once again isolate the sky for
| | 03:45 | correction. And the way that we are
going to do that is we are going to start
| | 03:48 | with the Lightness slider and let's
drag the Range Handles in closer to the
| | 03:53 | center until they are around, I don't
know, 30 or 50%. I'm going to drag them
| | 03:58 | in and then I'm going to use the
Center Handle to reposition them. Something
| | 04:07 | like that should work.
| | 04:08 | And the reason I positioned these
handles right around 30 to 50% is because if
| | 04:13 | I look at my Waveform Scope when it's
set to Luma, I can see a large amount of
| | 04:17 | Trace right between about 30 to 50 or
so percent. I'm thinking that the area of
| | 04:22 | Trace above 60 to say almost 100% is
these clouds. And remember, because the
| | 04:28 | Waveform Scope mimics the actual picture,
this is actually pretty easy to tell.
| | 04:33 | Over here on the right side of the
Preview, I can see just the part of the clip
| | 04:36 | that's the sky and that's represented
by this large amount of Trace right here
| | 04:40 | around 20%. And that's represented by
this large amount of Trace right around
| | 04:44 | 20 to probably about 50%. Also, I want
to add a little Softness to the values
| | 04:49 | I've chosen. So to do that, I'm
going to drag the Tolerance Handles out.
| | 04:53 | Remember to drag the Tolerance Handles,
just drag the area behind each one of
| | 04:57 | the Range Handles, just like this.
| | 04:58 | When I start making corrections, notice,
when I start making corrections on my
| | 05:05 | previous tab, I can see the Matte
that I'm creating. Also, if I turn
| | 05:09 | Desaturated Preview on, the button
that's gray, green, and gray, I should be
| | 05:14 | able to see my desaturated preview.
But hold on a second, I can't see my
| | 05:18 | desaturated preview. Why is that?
| | 05:21 | Well, it's very easy to forget to turn
on the Secondaries room and I did this
| | 05:26 | just for effect. But please make
sure you for you perform any Secondary
| | 05:30 | corrections that you click this
Enabled checkbox. Now I can see a desaturated
| | 05:35 | preview. What I have selected is
still saturated, and the stuff that is not
| | 05:40 | selected, the clouds, is desaturated.
| | 05:45 | I can click on the Matte Only button,
the button that's black, white, black,
| | 05:50 | see just my Matte, and this view is
very useful when you want to get a bigger
| | 05:53 | picture of your Matte, instead of the
one that's just used down here in the Previews tab.
| | 05:57 | Next, let's manipulate the Saturation
Qualifier, and I'm going to do this by
| | 06:01 | moving the Range Handles just a bit
outside the area that I've chosen for my
| | 06:05 | Lightness Qualifier. Let
me go ahead and do that.
| | 06:11 | Remember to affect one side, or the
other, or to make an asymmetric change,
| | 06:16 | simply hold down the Shift key, and
this will allow me to position the handles
| | 06:23 | independently from each other.
| | 06:28 | Once again, I want to add a little bit
of Softness, and I'm going to do that by
| | 06:32 | using the Tolerance Handles for
the Saturation Qualifier. Remember to
| | 06:36 | manipulate the Tolerance Handles,
simply drag on the area behind the Range
| | 06:40 | Handles. I actually don't have to
use the Hue Qualifier for this clip.
| | 06:46 | Remember the idea is to get your Matte
to be white on black. The white portions
| | 06:51 | being the part of the clip that you
want to affect. The black portions of the
| | 06:57 | Matte being the part of the clip that
you don't want to select. And this clip
| | 07:00 | is pretty good. White for the sky,
black for the clouds. But sometimes there
| | 07:05 | are clips that you'll need to use a
combination of Hue, Saturation, and Lightness.
| | 07:10 | Next we just want to soften up the
edges between where the Matte transitions
| | 07:14 | from white to black. And to do this,
I'm going to use the Key Blur Parameter.
| | 07:17 | Remember I can just use my scroll
wheel on my mouse to change this value, or
| | 07:21 | hold the Option key down to change
the value faster. I'm going to scroll up
| | 07:27 | until the value is around 1.5.
| | 07:29 | Finally, let's actually make the
correction. Let's switch back to my final
| | 07:33 | view, the button that's red, green,
and blue. Now all I want to do here is
| | 07:39 | increase the Saturation of the sky.
So I'm going to use the Saturation
| | 07:43 | Parameter, which is right underneath
the Key Blur Parameter that we were just affecting.
| | 07:48 | So I'll use the scroll wheel on my
mouse to scroll up to change this value, or
| | 07:53 | I could hold down the Option key to
change the value faster. Just be careful
| | 07:58 | you don't go too far or the clip
might start to look weird. Also, remember,
| | 08:02 | illegal Chroma values can be
represented on the Vectorscope and the Trace goes
| | 08:06 | outside the imaginary
line created by the targets.
| | 08:09 | So let's just playback the clip to see
our correction. To do that, I'll simply
| | 08:12 | select the Color Timeline and hit the
Spacebar. And I can see that the sky is nicely saturated.
| | 08:22 | In the past two movies we used HSL keys
to isolate a portion of the footage.
| | 08:26 | In the next two movies, we'll use an
alternate way of applying the Secondary
| | 08:30 | Correction using vignettes and user shapes.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying basic vignettes| 00:00 | Vignettes are one of those things I
love about Color. I think vignettes are an
| | 00:07 | immensely powerful way to make
Secondary corrections. Often when I'm teaching
| | 00:11 | and I make this statement, you will
find yourself using vignettes all the time,
| | 00:14 | I get a lot of students who
say, come on, how can that be?
| | 00:18 | Well, I think the essential issue is
that many people hear the word Vignette
| | 00:21 | and they automatically think
traditional lens vignettes, darkened edges around
| | 00:26 | the side of a frame. Well, we can
certainly create that kind of effect in
| | 00:29 | Color, but there is so much more to
vignettes. So let's dive in and take a look
| | 00:34 | at vignettes in the Secondaries room.
| | 00:37 | The first thing I always want to do
before making a Secondary Correction is
| | 00:40 | enable the Secondaries room, and I do
that by checking the Enabled box here at
| | 00:44 | the top of the room. Next to activate
the controls for the Vignette, I need to
| | 00:50 | make sure that the Vignette box is
checked right here under the Previews tab.
| | 00:55 | The first thing I need to choose is
what kind of Vignette I want to apply.
| | 00:59 | I can choose this with the Shape pull-down.
| | 01:01 | Here I can choose from a Square, Circle,
or User-defined Shape. A User-defined
| | 01:07 | Shape is just a shape that I make in a
Geometries room and that's what we'll do
| | 01:10 | in the next movie. But for
now, let's just choose Circle.
| | 01:16 | Notice that after I chose Circle here
in the Previews tab I have some on-screen
| | 01:20 | controls, and this is where I
can manipulate the Vignette.
| | 01:24 | If you are more of a parameter box
kind of a person, you can use the controls
| | 01:28 | here to manipulate the Vignette. What
I'd like to do with this clip is apply
| | 01:32 | the Circle Vignette so we can
brighten up just the face on the subject.
| | 01:36 | So I want to go ahead and position the
Vignette centered over the face. And to
| | 01:40 | move the Vignette using the on-screen
controls, I simply click and drag in the
| | 01:45 | middle of the Vignette. Just like this.
| | 01:46 | To change the Size or Aspect of the
Vignette, I simply just drag one of the
| | 01:51 | control points on the Vignette corner,
just like this. Change the Size and the
| | 01:56 | Aspect. I can rotate the Vignette by
right-clicking and dragging one of the
| | 02:01 | points on the corner of
the Vignette just like this.
| | 02:06 | Also, notice in my Preview I'm once
again seeing a desaturated preview, just
| | 02:10 | like I did when we were using HSL keys.
| | 02:13 | That's because the Matte buttons here
work exactly the same. Currently, I'm
| | 02:18 | viewing my Preview as a desaturated
preview, and that's the button that's gray,
| | 02:21 | green, gray. If I want to view my final
image, I'll simply click on the button
| | 02:26 | that's red, green, blue.
| | 02:29 | If I want to view just the Matte, I
click on the button that's black, white,
| | 02:33 | black. But the Matte doesn't make
much sense when I'm using a Vignette.
| | 02:37 | Let me go back and click on the
Desaturated Preview, the button that's gray,
| | 02:41 | green, gray. What I want you to notice
in the Preview is that the Vignette has
| | 02:45 | a hard edge right around the
subject's face. We need to fix this before we
| | 02:50 | apply the Correction,
otherwise it will look silly.
| | 02:53 | So to do this, I need to add some
Softness to the Vignette. There are two ways
| | 02:56 | of doing this. You can use the
Softness Parameter down here in the Vignette
| | 03:01 | controls, or you can use the on-screen
controls. To use the on-screen controls,
| | 03:06 | you simply hold down your middle mouse
button and drag to add softness.
| | 03:12 | It's the exact same thing as adding
Softness using the Parameter.
| | 03:19 | Let's drag up until we get to a
Softness value right around .85, so this is
| | 03:24 | going to be a pretty soft effect. In
the Preview, you should now see that the
| | 03:28 | edges of the Vignette are much softer.
| | 03:30 | Okay, So now for the correction. In
the previous movies about HSL keying, we
| | 03:34 | didn't discuss this feature, but it's
very useful for Vignettes and it also
| | 03:38 | works for HSL keys and the Secondary curves.
| | 03:42 | At the top of the Secondaries room,
there is a pull-down called Control, and
| | 03:47 | here is where I can control if the
Correction is going to be applied to the
| | 03:50 | inside or the outside of what I have
selected. In the case of the Vignette,
| | 03:55 | when it's set to Inside, it will be
affecting the area inside the Vignette.
| | 04:01 | In the Vignette we just built,
this would be the face.
| | 04:04 | When the Control pull-down is set to
Outside, we'll be affecting the area
| | 04:09 | outside the Vignette. In this
correction, we are simply going to affect the
| | 04:12 | inside of the Vignette.
| | 04:16 | So to do this, let's switch to my final
view, the button that's red, green and
| | 04:21 | blue here. And then, let's take the
Contrast slider and the Mid-tone Color
| | 04:26 | Balance control and drag up just
a bit, something like that works.
| | 04:33 | In previous movies, when I wanted to
see the original clip versus the corrected
| | 04:38 | clip, I use the keyboard command Ctrl+G.
Ctrl+G toggles the entire grade off,
| | 04:44 | and if you remember, a grade is the
sum of Primary and Secondary corrections.
| | 04:51 | So if I hit Ctrl+G here, I'd be
toggling the entire grade off, turning off not
| | 04:55 | just the Secondary, but also the
Primary Correction that was already applied.
| | 05:00 | So an easy way to toggle off just
the Secondary is by using the Enabled
| | 05:04 | checkbox. So here is the original
clip, and here is the corrected clip,
| | 05:11 | original and corrected. And you can see
that the face on the corrected clip is
| | 05:16 | a great deal brighter. Actually, it's
a little too bright, so I'll drag back
| | 05:20 | down in the Midtone Color Balance
control just a bit. Let's apply what we've
| | 05:25 | learned to another clip in the Color Timeline.
| | 05:27 | I'm going to select the Color
Timeline, and simply hit the Down Arrow to
| | 05:30 | navigate to the second clip. Let me
playback this clip. This clip is okay
| | 05:40 | looking, but I think it could be a
little bit more dramatic with the use of a
| | 05:42 | Vignette. I'll hit the Spacebar to
stop playback. So the procedure that we
| | 05:47 | follow to add a Vignette is exactly
the same as what we just did in the first clip.
| | 05:50 | I'll make sure that the Secondaries
room is Enabled, I'll make sure that the
| | 05:55 | Vignette is Enabled, I'll then
position the Vignette where I want, change its
| | 06:01 | Size and add Softness, if need be.
I'll add quite a bit of Softness for this one.
| | 06:11 | Next, we just need to make sure that
I'm affecting either the inside, or the
| | 06:14 | outside of the Vignette. So let's
actually switch this to the outside.
| | 06:21 | So now any corrections that I do are
going to affect the outside of Vignette,
| | 06:26 | not the area inside of the Vignette.
And I want make a Contrast correction to
| | 06:30 | the outside of this Vignette. Basically,
I'm going to darken the area around
| | 06:33 | the Vignette so it looks like we've
made a drastic lighting change to this clip.
| | 06:37 | Let me go ahead and do that.
| | 06:41 | In the Highlight Color Balance control,
I'm going to drag the Contrast slider
| | 06:44 | way down. I'll do the same thing in
the Midtone Color Balance control. So now
| | 06:57 | if I playback this clip, again, just
select the Color Timeline, and hit the
| | 07:00 | Spacebar, you can see that this clip
is now much more dramatic. To toggle off
| | 07:08 | the correction, remember, you can
just use the Enable checkbox. Here is the
| | 07:12 | original, here is the corrected clip.
| | 07:14 | You might be wondering, what about
this dark area back here where the person
| | 07:17 | seems to run into the Vignette? Well,
in later lessons in this title, we'll
| | 07:22 | talk about tracking vignettes as well
as keyframing vignettes. By using either
| | 07:26 | one of those two methods, we can
actually have the Vignette move around on
| | 07:29 | screen. But for right now,
this thing Vignette is fine.
| | 07:33 | Finally, let's go to the last clip in
this Color Timeline. I'll hit the Down
| | 07:36 | Arrow to navigate to the last clip. So
this clip is a pretty good shot of the
| | 07:40 | Washington Monument and the Potomac
River in Washington, DC. But I think that I
| | 07:45 | want to do something a little different
in the sky here, and I'm going to apply
| | 07:49 | another Vignette. The methodology that
we'll use is exactly the same as in the previous clips.
| | 07:53 | Let me Enable the Secondaries room,
I'll come down and Enable the Vignette.
| | 08:00 | This time instead of a Circle, let's
choose the Square, and I'm going to
| | 08:05 | position the Square so it's on the top
half of the clip and it doesn't touch
| | 08:10 | the top of the Washington Monument.
Something like that works just fine.
| | 08:28 | Next, let's actually apply the
Correction. I'm going to come into my Highlight
| | 08:32 | Color Balance control and drag towards
blue. And right off the bat, you should
| | 08:39 | notice that I have this hard edge in my
Preview. To get rid of that hard edge,
| | 08:43 | all I need to do is up my Softness. So
I'll come into the Softness Parameter
| | 08:49 | and scroll up to add some
softness into the Vignette.
| | 08:54 | Next, let me come into the Midtone
Color Balance control and I'll add some blue
| | 08:58 | to the midtones. Something
like that works just fine.
| | 09:05 | The one thing about adding
vignettes like this is that it's often a
| | 09:08 | back-and-forth process. So I have added
the Vignette, I've added some Softness,
| | 09:13 | I have applied the Correction, but
rarely does something happen perfect the first time.
| | 09:17 | So if I want to go back and change any
of the parameters for this Vignette, I
| | 09:21 | can very easily just by going back and
changing them. So for example, I could
| | 09:25 | reposition the Vignette higher or lower
on the clip. I could change the actual
| | 09:32 | color that I'm using to treat the sky,
or I could play with the Softness
| | 09:36 | Parameter and soften the Vignette even
more. Let's take a look at the original
| | 09:42 | clip and the corrected clip.
| | 09:46 | As always, to get a better idea of what
the clip really looks like, let's just
| | 09:49 | playback the clip. There you can see
I have a nice soft Vignette that makes
| | 09:56 | that sky a little more blue, a
little more purple in the clouds.
| | 09:59 | In the next movie, we are going to take
a look at creating Custom User Shapes.
| | 10:03 | We'll then attach those
custom shapes to a Secondary.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating custom vignettes with user shapes| 00:00 | Sometimes standard shapes or HSL
keys don't hold water for the purpose of
| | 00:04 | making Secondary corrections.
So what's a lowly colorist to do?
| | 00:08 | In this movie, we'll explore the idea
of User Shapes. The idea behind User
| | 00:12 | Shapes is that they allow me to create
a custom shape that I can then apply to
| | 00:16 | a Secondary for the
purpose of using as a Vignette.
| | 00:18 | The thing is the way that we create and
then attach the shape to a Secondary is
| | 00:23 | not all that intuitive. So
let's see how this process works.
| | 00:26 | Because I'm going to be using a User
Shape and attaching it to a Secondary, the
| | 00:29 | process starts in the Secondaries room.
The first thing I want to do as always
| | 00:33 | is just to make sure
that I Enable the Secondary.
| | 00:36 | Next because I'm going to be using the
User Shape as a Vignette, I just want to
| | 00:40 | make sure that I Enable the Vignette.
| | 00:43 | By default, when I enabled the
Vignette, I'm presented with a circle on the
| | 00:46 | on-screen controls. And we saw earlier
how we can change this from a Circle to
| | 00:51 | a Square, but I also can choose a User Shape.
| | 00:54 | Before I actually click on User Shape
here, I just want to prepare you for
| | 00:57 | what's going to happen. When I select
User Shape, I'm going to jump out of the
| | 01:02 | Secondaries room and into the Geometry room.
| | 01:04 | It's in the Geometry room that we
actually make the User Shape, not in the
| | 01:09 | Secondaries room. So let me choose
User Shape, and there you go. I jumped
| | 01:15 | immediately to the Geometry room. This
is kind of weird at first, because you
| | 01:19 | are thinking to yourself, I thought I
was in the Secondaries room, I thought I
| | 01:22 | was making a Vignette, but remember
the Geometry room, specifically the
| | 01:26 | Geometry room and on the Shapes tab,
is where we make Custom User Shapes.
| | 01:31 | When you jump from the Secondaries room
to the Geometry room, the Shapes tab is
| | 01:35 | automatically selected. My footage is
presented to me in the middle of the
| | 01:39 | room, much bigger than the preview,
which is kind of nice. But you'll notice
| | 01:42 | that it's kind of dim. The idea
behind this is that when you add control
| | 01:46 | points, they are easier to
see it against the footage.
| | 01:49 | I can zoom in and pan around the
footage as well. To zoom in, I simply hold my
| | 01:54 | right mouse button down and drag. This
lets me to zoom in. Holding my middle
| | 01:59 | mouse button down and dragging allows
me to pan around the image. And to center
| | 02:04 | the image back up in the Geometry room,
I simply hit the F key on the keyboard.
| | 02:08 | A good way to remember that keyboard
shortcut is F for Frame. It will frame the
| | 02:12 | footage back in the center of the room.
| | 02:14 | In the Shapes tab, I have quite a few
controls. Starting on the top, I have
| | 02:18 | some buttons that allow me to attach or
detach a shape. We'll get back to those shortly.
| | 02:23 | I have a list of all shapes that I have
applied to this clip, and currently, I
| | 02:27 | have a shape that's called untitled0.
This shape was automatically created for
| | 02:31 | me when I jumped from the Secondaries
room. There are some other parameters
| | 02:34 | here, too. I can use tracking data.
We'll talk about tracking in Chapter 9.
| | 02:39 | I can add Softness to the shape. I can
give the shape a name. These buttons right
| | 02:43 | here allow me to create a New shape,
Remove a shape, Close a shape, which we'll
| | 02:47 | get back too shortly, Save a shape
for later use or Load a shape that I've previously saved.
| | 02:52 | This area right here allows me to
control the type of shape that I'll make.
| | 02:56 | Either a B-Spline shape or a Polygon
shape. When I choose B-Spline, I can curve
| | 03:02 | the corners of the shape. When I
choose Polygon, I'll have hard corners.
| | 03:07 | So another way of thinking about that is
that B-Splines are good when you have a
| | 03:11 | lot of curves that you need to go around.
And Polygon shapes are good when you
| | 03:14 | have nice defined edges.
| | 03:16 | In this clip, what I want to do is I
want to actually create a shape that goes
| | 03:20 | around the edge of the building like
this. That way, when I apply it to the
| | 03:24 | Secondary, I can use the User
Shape as a Vignette and treat the sky.
| | 03:28 | When I jump from the Secondaries room
to the Geometry room, a shape is already
| | 03:32 | created for me. I don't
need to click the New button.
| | 03:36 | So to start making the shape, all I
need to do is click on the actual footage.
| | 03:41 | So I'll click once, and a Control
Point is added. Before I add another point,
| | 03:46 | let me jump over and choose Polygon.
| | 03:47 | I am choosing Polygon because I know
that I need nice hard edges to go around
| | 03:52 | this building. Let me zoom in a little
bit to the footage, and again I do that
| | 03:56 | by right-clicking and dragging in.
And I can pan the footage by holding my
| | 04:02 | middle mouse button down
and dragging left or right.
| | 04:07 | So I'll add another point right here.
I'll add another point at the top of the
| | 04:12 | building, maybe in the middle of the
roof, at the end right there. I need to
| | 04:24 | add a couple of points right here to
cover this little weird area of sky.
| | 04:28 | So let me go ahead and do that. Frame
the image again by hitting F on the
| | 04:38 | keyboard, and I want to cover the whole
sky, so I'll add another point way down
| | 04:43 | here, down here, and down here.
| | 04:47 | Now to close the shape, I have two
options. I can hit the Close Shape button
| | 04:52 | and that will automatically close the
shape for me, but the thing to keep in
| | 04:55 | mind is that we'll find the shortest
path to the original point. So on some
| | 05:00 | clips, it might look weird. Or I can
simply click on the original Control Point
| | 05:04 | and that will also close the shape. I
know that the shape is closed when I have
| | 05:09 | a little green box here in
the middle of the footage.
| | 05:12 | Okay, so I've created my User Shape,
how do we now attach it to a Secondary? To
| | 05:17 | attach the shape to a Secondary, I
need to come to the top of the Shapes tab
| | 05:21 | and click the Attach button.
| | 05:22 | Note, above the Attach button there is
an item that says Current Secondary.
| | 05:27 | It says 1. This is auto-populated when I
got sent from the Secondaries room to the Geometry room.
| | 05:32 | The Secondary I came from was Secondary
number one. So I'll just hit the Attach
| | 05:37 | button and that shape has been attached.
Not so obvious, is it? Well, I need to
| | 05:45 | come back to the Secondaries room. Now,
if I look down at my Vignette controls,
| | 05:50 | you can see that the shape I'm using is
defined as User Shape. Also notice that
| | 05:55 | all the parameters for the Vignette are
grayed out. That's because any changes
| | 05:59 | that I might want to perform, I need to
actually do back in the Geometry room.
| | 06:03 | I cannot do them with the Vignette controls.
| | 06:07 | So currently I'm displaying my
Vignette as the Desaturated Preview. Gray,
| | 06:10 | green, gray. Let's change that to the
Final View, red, green, blue. Let's use
| | 06:16 | my Color Balance controls to treat the
sky. I want to make this quite surreal.
| | 06:21 | I'm going to add a lot of
purple into the footage.
| | 06:23 | If I look closely, I can see a little
bit of the original sky right here on the
| | 06:29 | edge of the building. So to fix this,
all I need to do is come back into the
| | 06:34 | Geometry room. Select that shape, and
remember it was shape number one, and I
| | 06:40 | can see the Secondary that's applied to
right here as well. And then I can just
| | 06:45 | reposition the points as needed.
| | 06:56 | Let's select the Color Timeline and
play this clip back. It looks like I went a
| | 07:03 | little too far in moving the shape. So
let me adjust it back ever so slightly.
| | 07:07 | Again, maybe zooming in will help me
just a bit. Yup, you can see that I moved
| | 07:13 | the shape too far and now it's
covering the edge of the building.
| | 07:16 | A touch of Softness might also help, so
I'll adjust the Softness Parameter up, just a tad bit.
| | 07:30 | Let's navigate to the next clip in the
Color Timeline by hitting the Down Arrow.
| | 07:36 | Here I have a shot that has all sorts
of color balance problems. But instead of
| | 07:41 | actually correcting for this footage,
I'm going to do something different.
| | 07:45 | I've decided that I'm going to use Custom
User Shape to isolate the subject, and
| | 07:50 | then I'm going to desaturate the
background almost completely. That way I don't
| | 07:54 | have to deal with the color balance
problems back here in the background.
| | 07:58 | So process is the same, but remember
the process starts in the Secondaries room.
| | 08:03 | Don't just create a shape
first and then try to apply it to the
| | 08:07 | Secondary, you'll have some issues.
| | 08:10 | So let me come back to the Secondaries
room, enable the Secondary, enable the
| | 08:16 | Vignette, under the Shape pull-down
choose User Shape. And now I'm in the
| | 08:23 | Geometries room ready to create a shape.
Unlike the building we were looking at
| | 08:28 | just a few minutes ago, the
subject has lots of curves.
| | 08:33 | So what I'm going to do is use a B-
Spline shape instead of a Polygon shape.
| | 08:38 | So let me spend a minute and
actually create the shape.
| | 08:53 | Okay, so now I've made the shape, and
you can see that I have literally dozens
| | 08:58 | of control points. Remember B-Spline
shapes are the best, when you need to make curves.
| | 09:02 | So now that I have created the shape,
let me attach it once again to the
| | 09:06 | Secondary. I'll come up to the top of
the Shapes tab and hit the Attach button.
| | 09:12 | Then I'll switch back to the
Secondaries room. Now that the shape has been
| | 09:17 | applied, I can do whatever
correction I want to do. Let me come up to the
| | 09:22 | Control pull-down and
change the Control to Outside.
| | 09:27 | Now, I'll be affecting the area
outside of the shape that I just made.
| | 09:30 | I'm going to desaturate that area
outside the shape by using the Saturation
| | 09:36 | Parameter here. Let me just double-
check that I'm looking at my Final View,
| | 09:44 | red, green, and blue, which I am.
Now you can see that the subject is so
| | 09:48 | saturated, but the background is
almost completely desaturated, creating a
| | 09:53 | pretty cool effect. Let me go ahead
and playback this clip. That works pretty well.
| | 10:03 | Remember if you need to make any
adjustments to a shape you always need to go
| | 10:07 | back to the Geometry room to make
those adjustments. Such as making Softness,
| | 10:13 | moving control points around, and so on.
I should make one special note about that.
| | 10:17 | To move a Control Point around
after you've made it, simply click on the
| | 10:22 | Control Point to move it, like so.
| | 10:26 | The thing to remember is that you can't
move control points until you close the
| | 10:30 | shape. That's just a little caveat when
working with User Shapes. So far we've
| | 10:34 | used HSL keys, Vignettes, and User
Shapes to apply Secondary corrections to a clip.
| | 10:40 | And those adjustments include
things like moving existing control points
| | 10:45 | and adding softness. And that's
actually the last two things I want to talk
| | 10:48 | about in this movie.
| | 10:49 | So let me go ahead and zoom into the
footage. Moving a Control Point is pretty
| | 10:55 | simple. All you need to do is click on
it and reposition it. The thing is you
| | 11:01 | can only move control points like this
after the User Shape is closed. If the
| | 11:05 | User Shape is open, Color assumes that
you want to click and add a new Control
| | 11:09 | Point. Not move an existing one. And
finally, let's talk about Softness just a
| | 11:14 | bit in regards to User Shapes. I raise
my Softness in this clip, you can see
| | 11:21 | that it looks like that I have three
User Shapes now. Well, in fact, I still
| | 11:26 | only have one User Shape.
| | 11:28 | The middle line here, the yellow line
shows me my User Shape. The two other
| | 11:33 | lines, or the green lines, show me my
softness. What's cool about softness with
| | 11:38 | the User Shape is that I can control
the Softness outside the User Shape and
| | 11:43 | inside the User Shape. And notice how
I have control points that mimic the
| | 11:47 | position of the original control points
on the User Shape. I can move these in
| | 11:51 | just the same way as I move
control points on the regular User Shape.
| | 11:59 | The ability to adjust softness like
this is great, especially when you have a
| | 12:03 | real finicky shape that you need to go
around. But for this particular clip, I
| | 12:06 | don't really need to add any softness,
so let me reset the Softness Parameter.
| | 12:13 | So in the past few movies, we've
taken a look at HSL keys, User Shapes and
| | 12:17 | Vignettes, and next up we'll take a
look at using the Secondary curves.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Hue Curve to change a color| 00:00 | In this first movie about the
secondary curves, we'll take a look at the
| | 00:03 | Secondary Hue Curve. The Secondary
Hue Curve is one of those tools that at
| | 00:07 | first glance doesn't really seem to
make a whole lot of sense. Some use this
| | 00:10 | curve to adjust the Hue of skin tones
and close-ups or other shots that need
| | 00:14 | skin tone adjustments. Well, I thought,
we could be a little bit more fun with
| | 00:16 | our application of the Secondary Hue
Curve, and use it to change the color of
| | 00:20 | an object on screen.
| | 00:21 | The Secondary Hue Curve can be found
alongside the other Secondary curves in
| | 00:25 | the Previews tab in the
middle of the Secondaries room.
| | 00:29 | As always, before applying any
Secondary corrections, just make sure to turn on
| | 00:33 | the Enabled checkbox here at
the top of the Secondaries room.
| | 00:37 | The goal of the Correction with this
clip is to change the color of this
| | 00:40 | jacket. And I'm going to do that with
the Secondary Hue Curve. The Secondary
| | 00:46 | curves operate a little bit differently
than the Primary curves, that I find in
| | 00:50 | the Primary In and the Primary Out
rooms. The Secondary curves map the Color
| | 00:53 | Spectrum left to right. And I can see
that pretty easily just looking at the
| | 00:57 | curve. Here I have red, yellow, green,
and so on down the line. Manipulating a
| | 01:04 | Secondary Curve works just like
manipulating the Primary curves.
| | 01:07 | I simply click on the curve itself to
add a Control Point. The thing is, when
| | 01:11 | you manipulate a Control Point, each
one of the Secondary curves operates
| | 01:15 | differently. For example, with the Hue
Curve, dragging a Control Point up or
| | 01:20 | down rotates Hue. So another way of
saying this, when I drag a Control Point
| | 01:28 | down on the Hue Curve, I'm rotating Hue
to the right. And when I drag a Control
| | 01:33 | Point up, I'm rotating left. Just like
the Primary curves I can add multiple
| | 01:38 | control points to limit the effect,
any single Control Point has on the shape of the curve.
| | 01:43 | Let me go ahead and reset the Hue
Curve here simply by clicking this little
| | 01:51 | blue dot in the upper left-hand
corner. As I mentioned, the goal of this
| | 01:56 | correction is to change the color of
this jacket. This jacket is obviously
| | 02:00 | blue, so the control points that I'm
going to add to the Hue Curve are going to
| | 02:04 | center right around the blue part of
the Color Spectrum. So let me go ahead and
| | 02:08 | add a couple of control points.
| | 02:15 | Next, I'm going to leave these two
outside control points where they are so
| | 02:19 | that the rest of the curve is not
affected. And then I'm going to drag the two
| | 02:23 | middle control points upward slightly
to rotate Hue and change the color of the jacket.
| | 02:38 | Over in my preview, you should now
notice that the jacket is no longer really
| | 02:41 | blue, it's a little bit more of a sea
foam. Remember as I drag these points up,
| | 02:46 | Hue is rotated to the left and I can
see over here on the Color Spectrum I'm
| | 02:52 | getting more greeny blue, more sea foam.
| | 02:56 | The other important consideration when
you are adjusting any curve is the shape
| | 02:59 | of the curve. The softer the shape of
the curve, the softer the effect. So I'm
| | 03:05 | going to spread these points out just
a little bit to soften the shape of the
| | 03:09 | curve where I'm trying to target here
in the blue area. If you didn't get it
| | 03:15 | just right, don't worry. You can always
reposition any of these control points on the curve.
| | 03:19 | So I could slide these over just a
little bit, targeting more of a deep blue,
| | 03:31 | something like that. Let me select
the
Color Timeline and begin playback.
| | 03:39 | Now I can see, I have changed the
color of the jacket to this sea foam.
| | 03:46 | Let's compare this correction to the
original clip, and I'll do that by just
| | 03:50 | clicking the Enabled checkbox. Here is
the original clip, note the blue jacket,
| | 03:58 | and here is the corrected clip.
Note the sea foam color of the jacket.
| | 04:02 | In the next two movies, we'll
continue our tour of the Secondary curves.
| | 04:07 | Up next is a Saturation Curve,
and then finally the Luma Curve.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a desaturated look with the Saturation Curve| 00:01 | Our next stop on the Secondary curves
tour is the Sat Curve, or the Saturation
| | 00:05 | Curve. The Saturation Curve is a great
way to subtly saturate or desaturate a
| | 00:10 | particular color or color range.
| | 00:13 | In this movie, we'll show you a way
for making a mundane correction, and use
| | 00:16 | the Sat Curve to create a
cool New York City street scene.
| | 00:20 | The clip that I'm working with is from
artbeats.com, and it's actually a really
| | 00:23 | cool clip. Let me playback the
clip, so you can see what I mean.
| | 00:29 | This clip is a really neat New York
City street scene that sped up. The thing I
| | 00:34 | notice most about the clip is all the
yellow taxicabs going by. This gave me
| | 00:40 | the idea for a cool look. I think what
I want to do is desaturate the entire
| | 00:44 | image, but leave the taxicabs
saturated. To do this, I'm going to use a Saturation Curve.
| | 00:52 | The Saturation Curve or Sat Curve for
short can be found in the middle of the
| | 00:56 | Secondaries room. Before I actually
apply any corrections, let's just make sure
| | 01:02 | I have the Secondaries room Enabled.
That way any corrections that I perform
| | 01:06 | actually get applied to the clip. The
Saturation Curve like the other Secondary
| | 01:12 | curves maps the Color
Spectrum out left to right.
| | 01:17 | Manipulation of the Sat Curve works
just like the other curves in Color.
| | 01:21 | I simply add a Control Point to the curve.
Secondary curves do different things,
| | 01:27 | and the Sat Curve, as its name implies
adjusts Saturation. And if I reposition
| | 01:32 | a Control Point up on the Sat Curve,
I'm increasing Saturation. If I drag that
| | 01:39 | Control Point down, I'm decreasing
Saturation. I can add multiple control
| | 01:44 | points to limit the part of the curve
that's being saturated or desaturated as well.
| | 01:49 | So let's go ahead and actually make
a correction. I'm going to reset this
| | 01:53 | Saturation Curve by clicking the
little blue button in the upper left-hand
| | 01:55 | corner. Remember I can always delete
individual control points too by simply
| | 02:01 | just dragging them off of
the curve, which deletes them.
| | 02:05 | So remember our game plan, we wanted to
desaturate the entire image, but leave
| | 02:10 | the taxicabs saturated. So to do this,
I'm going to add multiple control points on the Sat Curve.
| | 02:14 | Starting on the left-hand side here,
let me add about three to four points.
| | 02:26 | Next, because I want to keep the
saturation in the taxicab, right around here,
| | 02:31 | yellow and red, I need to drag the
rest of the curve down. So let me start
| | 02:37 | repositioning some of these other
control points down, the goal leaving just
| | 02:42 | the yellow portion right here saturated.
As I reposition points down, just be
| | 02:50 | careful that you don't drag them
off the curve. That will delete them.
| | 03:02 | Okay, I'm starting to desaturate the
image, but now I just need to reposition
| | 03:06 | left and right some of these control
points. Let me reposition this one over to
| | 03:11 | the right to add more yellow back into
the clip. And I'll reposition this one
| | 03:16 | also over to the right to get
some more yellow back in the clip.
| | 03:22 | The thing to remember anytime that
you are adjusting a curve is that the
| | 03:26 | straighter the line is up and down,
and the less curved it is the more severe the correction.
| | 03:32 | So what I want to do here as I
essentially want to make as straight as possible
| | 03:35 | up and down line between these bottom
control points and these top two control points.
| | 03:44 | Okay, that's really starting to work.
If I wanted to increase the Saturation of
| | 03:50 | the taxicab, I could just drag one
or both of these control points around
| | 03:55 | yellow, orange up a bit, just to add
a bit more saturation back into the taxicab.
| | 04:01 | Okay, that's looking really good.
However, there is one problem with this clip.
| | 04:06 | And I'm not going to fix it in
this movie. If you take a look at the
| | 04:10 | background, I still have parts of
the clip that are saturated, like this
| | 04:14 | Planters sign, this Kodak sign, and a
few miscellaneous items in the background.
| | 04:19 | In the last movie in this chapter,
we are going to take a look at using
| | 04:21 | multiple Secondaries. By using multiple
Secondaries, I'll be able to fix parts
| | 04:27 | of this clip that I don't like.
| | 04:30 | Finally, let's just take a look at the
clip by playing back. Looks pretty cool.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting the luma of a specific color| 00:00 | Every once in a while, there comes a
need to perform a correction where you need to
| | 00:04 | increase or decrease the lightness of
this specific color. For example, there
| | 00:08 | might be a bright object on screen and
otherwise dark shot that's distracting,
| | 00:13 | or maybe the opposite. You want to
increase the lightness of an object that
| | 00:16 | falls within a specific color range.
| | 00:18 | In this movie, we'll use the Secondary
Luma Curve to decrease the lightness of
| | 00:22 | the feature on screen. The Secondary
Luma Curve could be found next to the
| | 00:26 | other Secondary curves in the middle of
the Secondaries room. It's the last tab
| | 00:30 | right here and it's abbreviated Lum Curve.
| | 00:34 | As always, before I apply any
Secondary corrections, I just want to make sure
| | 00:38 | that the Secondary is enabled. This
just ensures that any corrections I do are
| | 00:42 | actually applied to the clip. The goal
with the correction on this clip is too
| | 00:46 | darken this blue jacket. And I'm going
to do that of course with the Secondary Luma Curve.
| | 00:52 | The Secondary Luma Curve works just
like the other Secondary curves. The Color
| | 00:56 | Spectrum is mapped out, left to right,
across the curve. I can add control
| | 01:01 | points to manipulate the curve. And
in Luma Curve, if I drag upwards, I'm
| | 01:05 | increasing lightness and if I
drag down, I'm decreasing lightness.
| | 01:11 | Just like the other curves, I can add
multiple control points to effectively
| | 01:14 | limit the influence that any single
Control Point has on the curve. Let's go
| | 01:19 | ahead and reset the Luma Curve by
clicking the blue button in the upper left-hand corner.
| | 01:22 | As I mentioned, the goal of this
correction is to decrease the lightness of
| | 01:26 | this jacket. So obviously, the jacket
is blue, so I want to add a few control
| | 01:32 | points in the blue part of the
Spectrum. By adding multiple points, I can
| | 01:36 | effectively limit the correction on the
rest of the curve. So, let me go ahead
| | 01:41 | and add a few points.
| | 01:49 | Okay, now that I've added a few points,
let's actually perform the correction.
| | 01:53 | I'm going to drag these two center
points down ever so slightly. That seems to
| | 02:07 | work pretty well. You should notice
that the jacket got a little bit darker,
| | 02:12 | let's toggle the Secondary On and Off.
Here is the jacket originally, and here
| | 02:19 | is the jacket after the correction.
One thing to point out, if you see any
| | 02:24 | banding or artifacting going on in
the jacket, it may just seem to move a
| | 02:27 | couple of the control
points to soften the effect.
| | 02:30 | I have reduced the banding by moving
these two control points out a little
| | 02:40 | further, softening the shape of the curve.
| | 02:43 | In the final movie in this chapter,
we'll take a look at combining multiple Secondaries.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using multiple secondary corrections| 00:01 | Most of the time, when performing
Secondary corrections, only a single
| | 00:05 | Secondary tab is what it takes. In
this movie, we'll take a look at combining
| | 00:09 | the couple of tabs in the Secondaries
room to create a more complex look.
| | 00:12 | Most of the time when performing secondary
corrections, a single Secondary tab is all it takes.
| | 00:18 | But there are times when you need to
harness the power of the eight separate
| | 00:21 | Secondary tabs complete to look. In
this movie, we'll take a look at combining
| | 00:24 | a couple of tabs in the Secondaries
room, as well as combining a couple of
| | 00:28 | secondary operations on a single tab.
You might remember this first shot.
| | 00:32 | This is a clip from artbeats.com that we
used a few movies ago to create a cool
| | 00:36 | desaturated look of a
New York City street scene.
| | 00:39 | I mentioned, when we finished that
movie I wasn't completely happy with the
| | 00:42 | look, mainly because there were
still items in the background that were
| | 00:45 | saturated. Like this Planters sign,
this Kodak sign and a few miscellaneous
| | 00:51 | things here in the background.
| | 00:52 | The reason that happened of course was
because these signs had the same color
| | 00:57 | and relative saturation as the taxicabs
that we were trying to target. But this
| | 01:01 | is an easy fix if I
combine multiple secondaries.
| | 01:04 | To make the fix, I'm going to click on
the Secondary Tab number 2. In Secondary
| | 01:10 | Tab number 2, I'm going to click on my
Previews and make sure that I Enabled
| | 01:13 | the Secondary room. The idea is that
I'm going to use a Vignette on the top
| | 01:18 | half of the clip, and then I'm going to
desaturate inside the Vignette, so the
| | 01:23 | parts of the footage that are still
saturated now will become desaturated
| | 01:26 | because they will be inside of the Vignette.
| | 01:28 | So let's enable the Vignette, and I
don't think a circle is going to work all
| | 01:33 | that well. So let's change the shape
to a square. Then let's position the
| | 01:40 | square on the top half of the clip.
Something like that works for right now.
| | 01:58 | Next, let's come over to the basic
tab and adjust my Saturation Parameter,
| | 02:03 | let's reduce the Saturation inside
of the Vignette. Before I reduce the
| | 02:07 | Saturation, let's just double check
that you're actually going to reduce it
| | 02:10 | inside of the Vignette. Make sure that
the Control pull-down is set to Inside,
| | 02:15 | not Outside. So I'll reduce the
Saturation inside the Vignette.
| | 02:24 | And now, over in the clip, you can
see the parts of the footage that were
| | 02:27 | saturated before that I didn't like
are now desaturated, because they are
| | 02:31 | inside of the Vignette. Let me select
the Color Timeline and start playback, so
| | 02:37 | we can see this. It looks pretty good.
This is a pretty cool look now, because
| | 02:43 | only the taxicabs are saturated.
| | 02:47 | Let's move down to the second clip in
the Timeline. Here is another clip from
| | 02:54 | artbeats.com. You might remember this
one as well. If you remember, we used
| | 02:58 | this clip and applied an HSL key to the
sky, to give the sky that purple color.
| | 03:02 | But as I mentioned before when we
were working with this clip, I wasn't
| | 03:05 | completely happy with the
final look for two reasons.
| | 03:08 | One, you will notice that the effect
doesn't really come down here underneath
| | 03:12 | the bridge; and two, the purple hue I
gave to the sky spills over a little bit
| | 03:17 | here on the water. So on this clip, we
are going to combine multiple Secondary
| | 03:21 | operations on the same tab.
| | 03:23 | Let me switch back over to Secondary
Tab 1, and then click on my Previews.
| | 03:31 | And here, I can see the HSL key that I
previously performed. If I look at my Matte
| | 03:36 | Preview, you can see that quite a bit
of the key spills out into the water.
| | 03:39 | Let me click the Matte Only button so we
can see it a little easier in my preview.
| | 03:46 | You can see that a large part of
the key spills out into this water.
| | 03:49 | Let's go ahead and redo the key first
and then we are going to use Vignette to
| | 03:53 | limit the effect of the key. So I'll
come down and reset the Secondary by
| | 03:59 | clicking on the Reset Secondary button.
And let's apply the key again. I'll use
| | 04:07 | my HSL Eyedropper -- oops, this
sometimes happens when you forget to switch
| | 04:12 | back over to your final or
desaturated preview. I'm going to reset the
| | 04:17 | Secondary one more time. So I'll click
on Desaturated Preview, and then I'll
| | 04:24 | use the HSL Eyedropper to make the key.
| | 04:31 | And this time, I'm going to drag all
around the screen trying to get as much of
| | 04:37 | the sky as possible. Okay, that works.
I'm going to look at the Matte in the Preview.
| | 04:51 | So now, you can see that I selected the
entire sky, a great deal of the water,
| | 04:57 | but the important thing is that I got
the sky underneath the bridge, so, let me
| | 05:01 | actually apply the Correction.
| | 05:03 | I'll use my Midtone and Highlight
Color Balance controls to add that purple-y
| | 05:10 | color back into the sky.
| | 05:11 | But now, the problem is really bad. We
can see the purple spillover quite a bit
| | 05:23 | on the water. No worries, I'm just
going to use a Vignette to limit the effect of the HSL key.
| | 05:32 | Vignettes can limit HSL keys when you
apply them on the same tab as the HSL key.
| | 05:37 | So, let's go ahead and enable the
Vignette, and this time, let's not use a
| | 05:43 | circle, let's use a square. And already,
over my preview, you can see I have
| | 05:49 | this big purple square. That's
because the Vignette is already limiting the key.
| | 05:53 | What I want to do is place the
Vignette over the sky and down over the
| | 05:58 | bridge. Let's go ahead and do that.
| | 06:00 | And if you want, add a touch of
softness, so you don't see the hard edge here
| | 06:16 | at the bottom. If you want, add a
touch of softness so you don't see the hard
| | 06:21 | edge underneath the bridge.
| | 06:32 | Okay, I'm now happy with that. So, just
remember that if you use a Vignette on
| | 06:38 | the same tab as you have applied an HSL
key, the Vignette can limit the effect
| | 06:43 | of the key. Okay. That does it for
our tour of the Secondaries room. In the
| | 06:48 | next chapter we'll take a
look at the Color Fx room.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
8. Color FXUnderstanding the Color FX room| 00:01 | In this movie, we'll do an overview of
the Color FX room. We'll talk about how
| | 00:05 | the room is designed, as well as taking
a look at the mechanics of adding a few pre-built looks.
| | 00:10 | First, let's see how the Color FX room
is laid out. On the left-hand side here,
| | 00:15 | I have my node list. Each node in the
node list performs a separate operation
| | 00:19 | on the footage. The thing to remember is,
because the Color FX room comes after
| | 00:24 | the Primary In and Secondaries room,
the footage that each node affects is
| | 00:28 | actually the footage that has Primary
or Secondary corrections already applied to it.
| | 00:33 | Next, the large gray area here in the
middle of the room is called the Node View.
| | 00:36 | This is where I work with, and
manipulate Node Trees. And Node Trees are
| | 00:41 | simply multiple nodes all linked
together. Let me show you a Node Tree by
| | 00:46 | showing you another part of the Color
FX room. Over here on the right-hand side
| | 00:50 | of the room, I have two tabs, the
Parameters tab, where I adjust the parameters
| | 00:54 | of a node, and the Color FX Bin.
| | 00:57 | The Color FX Bin is where I can access
pre-built nodes created by Apple in that
| | 01:01 | ship with Color, and where I can save
and access my own Node Trees that I have
| | 01:06 | saved. We'll talk more about
saving our own Node Trees in Chapter 11.
| | 01:11 | For now, let's apply a few of these pre-
built Node Trees. On this first clip, I
| | 01:15 | think I'm just going to apply the Node
Tree called Dream_Cold. I can scroll to
| | 01:19 | find it. There it is, right there.
And to apply this Node Tree, I simply
| | 01:24 | double-click on it, or I can single
click on it and come down to the bottom of
| | 01:28 | the Color FX Bin and click the Load button.
| | 01:31 | If you are having a hard time finding
this Node Tree, there is a few buttons at
| | 01:35 | the top of the Color FX Bin that may
help you. First, I can view the Color FX
| | 01:40 | Bin as icons as I'm
viewing it now, or as a list.
| | 01:43 | When I'm in Icon View, I also have a
little Scroll Bar here where I can adjust
| | 01:50 | the size of the thumbnails. Let me
scroll back down and I'm going to activate
| | 01:56 | the Dream_Cold Node Tree. To do that,
I simply double-click on it, like I
| | 02:00 | previously mentioned.
| | 02:02 | Now, in the Node View here, I have a
bunch of nodes all linked together.
| | 02:07 | Each node is linked together by what we
call a Noodle, and that's just this white
| | 02:11 | line here that connects the output,
this little triangle right here to the
| | 02:16 | input of another node, this
little triangle right here.
| | 02:20 | Each node has at least one input. While
some nodes like this add node here have
| | 02:25 | two inputs. Nodes with multiple inputs
let us combine different manipulations
| | 02:30 | to the footage. The thing to remember
is that the output of each node is what
| | 02:35 | feeds that effect down
through the rest of the Node Tree.
| | 02:39 | In a common phrase that you hear all
the time in regards to Node Trees is
| | 02:43 | adjusting a node further downstream,
and what that means is a node that comes
| | 02:48 | down further in the Node Tree. So,
for example, this Gamma Node is further
| | 02:52 | downstream than, say, this Blur Node.
| | 02:57 | But the thing to remember is that when
you click on a node further downstream,
| | 03:00 | you're viewing its effect as well as
the sum of the nodes that came before it.
| | 03:04 | So, when I clicked on this Gamma Node,
I'm seeing the effect that the gamma
| | 03:07 | node has. But also the effect of the
blur, the black and white, and the add node.
| | 03:14 | With a node selected, if I click on
the Parameters tab, I can adjust the
| | 03:18 | settings for that node. Some nodes,
like this black and white node, don't have
| | 03:23 | any settings. The only setting
that they have is a Bypass Setting.
| | 03:27 | If I click on the Bypass Setting,
notice the node now has this orange dotted
| | 03:32 | line around it, and the noodle coming
out of the output of that node also is
| | 03:35 | dotted orange. This just indicates
that this node is being bypassed.
| | 03:41 | Other nodes, like this Blur Node, do
have controls that I can adjust. In the
| | 03:46 | case of the Blur Node, I can adjust
its spread or the amount of blur.
| | 03:50 | And depending on the node you'll have
more or less parameters. I can select
| | 03:55 | multiple nodes by simply
drawing a marquee, like this.
| | 04:00 | So let's add a few more of these pre-
built Node Trees to the other clips in
| | 04:03 | this Color project. Let me click back
on the Color FX Bin and in my Timeline
| | 04:09 | let me navigate to the second clip.
Let's try the warm glow on this clip.
| | 04:19 | Again, to add one of these pre-built
Node Trees, simply double-click on it.
| | 04:24 | And you can see this Node Tree is a little
bit more complicated. Let me navigate to
| | 04:28 | the third clip in the Timeline and
here I think I'll add the node Dream_Warm
| | 04:33 | and that gives this clip a
pretty cool dream-like state.
| | 04:38 | Let's go to the third clip and let me
add the node Cold High. That gives this
| | 04:46 | clip a very high contrast, but cold
look. And then finally on the last clip,
| | 04:54 | let's use the node Defocus_Vignette.
But you'll notice, however, if I click on
| | 04:59 | a couple of the other Node Trees that
sometimes their name is abbreviated here
| | 05:03 | in the Icon View. If I click on one of
the Node Trees, down at the bottom of
| | 05:07 | the Color FX Bin, in the File Box here,
I can see the full name of the Node Tree.
| | 05:14 | So, again, I'll click on Defocus_
Vignette and double-click on it to add it to
| | 05:18 | this clip, and that simply just
blurred the edges of this clip.
| | 05:22 | So now that we have a better idea of
how the Color FX room works, we'll dive
| | 05:27 | into a little bit more detail in the
next movie, and start building our own Node Trees.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Building Color effects| 00:00 | In the last movie, we got an overview
of the Color FX room. In this movie,
| | 00:04 | we'll build a simple Node Tree, and
then in the remainder of the movies in this
| | 00:08 | chapter, we'll build some recipes or some looks.
| | 00:12 | First, let's start out by making our
own simple Node Tree. Let's come over to
| | 00:16 | the node list and find the Duotone Node.
I'm going to click on the Duotone Node
| | 00:21 | and drag it out into the Node View.
| | 00:23 | Notice when I do that that the Node
View becomes highlighted. And I'll let go
| | 00:28 | and when I let go, notice that the
Duotone Node came along with an Output Node.
| | 00:34 | This is really important. On any Node
Tree you build you must have an Output Node.
| | 00:40 | The Output Node connects the
tree to the Color Render pipeline.
| | 00:43 | And without the Output Node
your tree won't be rendered.
| | 00:47 | So, let's change a few parameters of
the Duotone Node. To do that, I'll simply
| | 00:51 | click on the node and come over to the
Parameters tab. And this Duotone Node
| | 00:56 | has two parameters, Light Color and
Dark Color. I'm going to change them both towards blue.
| | 01:07 | Next, let's come back over to our Node
List and find the Film Grain Node.
| | 01:12 | This time instead of dragging, I'm just
going to double-click on the Film Grain Node.
| | 01:15 | Notice when I did that that the
Film Grain Node was added to the Node
| | 01:19 | View, but it's not
connected to the rest of the tree.
| | 01:21 | Let's try it again. I'll select it and
just delete it. This time, instead of
| | 01:29 | double-clicking on the Film Grain
Node, let's drag it into the Node View.
| | 01:36 | You notice when I did that, it didn't
come along with an Output Node. That's fine.
| | 01:39 | The reason that didn't come
along with an Output Node is because I only
| | 01:42 | need one Output Node in any Node Tree.
And because I had previously dragged the
| | 01:47 | Duotone Node in, it came with an
Output Node, Color is smart enough to figure
| | 01:52 | out I don't need another Output Node.
| | 01:55 | Next, let's talk about connecting and
disconnecting noodles. Remember a noodle
| | 02:00 | is just this thin white line here,
and it's what connects the output of one
| | 02:03 | node to the input of another node.
| | 02:05 | What I want to do here is I want to
connect the Duotone Node to the Film Grain
| | 02:10 | Node and finally to the Output
Node. To disconnect a noodle, simply
| | 02:15 | double-click on the input of a node
downstream from the one you want to disconnect.
| | 02:19 | So I'll click the Output Node input
here and that disconnects the noodle. Next,
| | 02:25 | let's take the output of the Duotone
Node and drag it to the input of the Film
| | 02:30 | Grain Node. Notice this green line. The
green line indicates that I'm dragging
| | 02:34 | a noodle. I just haven't connected it
to anything yet. And when I come down to
| | 02:39 | the Film Grain Node, notice that when
I position my mouse over the input it
| | 02:44 | becomes highlighted blue and says Source.
| | 02:47 | This indicates that if I let go now,
the noodle will be connected and then two
| | 02:51 | nodes will be joined. So I'll let go.
And now you can see the noodle connecting those two nodes.
| | 02:59 | And finally, I'm going to connect the
Film Grain Node to the Output Node in
| | 03:02 | exactly the same way. I'll drag the
output of the Film Grain Node to the input
| | 03:07 | of the Output Node.
| | 03:09 | So now I have a Duotone Node that then
feeds to a Film Grain Node, then finally
| | 03:14 | outputs. And if I want it to, I could
always come into the Film Grain Node and
| | 03:19 | adjust some of the parameters for the
Film Grain, Grain Intensity or Grain Size.
| | 03:24 | But let me show you one more
interesting thing about connecting noodles.
| | 03:27 | I'm going to select the Film Grain Node
again and hit the Delete key. Because I
| | 03:32 | deleted a node in the middle of a Node
Tree, the Duotone and Output nodes are
| | 03:37 | no longer connected, so let's reconnect them.
| | 03:41 | If I don't want to have to do all this
connecting and disconnecting, what I can
| | 03:45 | do is I can automatically connect the
nodes together, when I drag out into the
| | 03:48 | Node View. Here's how this works.
| | 03:51 | Instead of double-clicking or just
dragging the Film Grain Node into the gray
| | 03:54 | area of the Node View, when I drag it
I'm going to drag it right onto this
| | 03:58 | noodle. So, let me show you. I'll take
the Film Grain Node and drag it right on to the noodle.
| | 04:06 | Notice how when I do that, the noodle
becomes highlighted blue. I'll let go,
| | 04:12 | and now the Film Grain Node is
automatically connected to the Duotone Node and the Output Node.
| | 04:20 | Let's delete this whole tree. I'll just
drag a box around all the nodes and hit
| | 04:24 | the Delete key. Multi-input nodes work
just like single-input nodes with the
| | 04:29 | obvious difference being
they have multiple inputs.
| | 04:33 | The thing to remember about a Multiple
Input Node is that a blank input simply
| | 04:37 | feeds in the original clip, i.e. the
clip before the Color FX room. Another way
| | 04:43 | of saying that is that it feeds in the
clip affected by the Primary In room and
| | 04:47 | the Secondary In room.
| | 04:48 | Also, different inputs on Multiple
Input nodes can do different things.
| | 04:53 | For example, this Alpha Blend Node has
three inputs, and the third input is built
| | 05:01 | to accept a Matte. We'll actually
use this node in a recipe later in this
| | 05:05 | chapter, but for now, let me delete it.
| | 05:09 | So, let's build a very, very simple
Multi-input Node Tree. First, let's add a
| | 05:15 | Color Node, and I'll drag it into the
Node View. Remember when I drag a node
| | 05:20 | into a blank Node View, it
also brings an Output Node.
| | 05:24 | Next, let's go find the Add Node. It's
right here at the top of the Node List.
| | 05:28 | I'm going to take that and drag it
right onto the noodle between the Color Node
| | 05:32 | and the Output Node
| | 05:35 | Okay, so what this did, was that it
connected one of the inputs of the Add Node
| | 05:41 | to the color and then finally to the
Output Node. This blank input here is
| | 05:46 | feeding in the original footage.
Remember this blank input feeds in the
| | 05:51 | original footage, and the original
footage is from the Primary and the
| | 05:55 | Secondaries room, not the actual original clip.
| | 05:59 | The cool thing about the Add Node is
that it allows us to adjust the Bias
| | 06:03 | between the two inputs. In other
words, I can affect how much one input
| | 06:07 | influences the look over the other. So
because the Color Node is attached to
| | 06:11 | the first input, if I wanted to reduce
this blue color, I'd simply adjust the
| | 06:16 | source 1 Bias, and I'll do that by
using my scroll wheel on the mouse and reducing the Bias.
| | 06:24 | But notice how the clip got darker. So,
all I need to do then is adjust the
| | 06:28 | Bias of Source 2. Right now, by
default it's set to 0.50, I actually want to
| | 06:33 | set this to use the entire original clip.
1 would equal the original clip, so,
| | 06:38 | I'll type-in 1. Now you can see the
clip in my preview got much brighter.
| | 06:44 | And I'd still like it to be a bit more blue,
so I'll adjust the Source 1 Bias up a little bit.
| | 06:50 | This Node Tree and the effect that it
creates is probably one that I actually
| | 06:53 | wouldn't add to this clip. The Color
Node in combination with the Add Node
| | 06:57 | simply washed out this clip with a
blue color cast. It doesn't look all that good.
| | 07:01 | The reason that I added this
Node Tree was just to demonstrate
| | 07:05 | multi-input nodes like this Add Node.
| | 07:07 | Finally, Color was built from the
ground up to work with progressive footage,
| | 07:11 | like I'm working within this title.
If you do need to work with interlaced
| | 07:15 | footage, there is one important thing
to be aware of in regards to the Color FX room.
| | 07:18 | To build Node Trees that work
properly with interlaced footage, you must
| | 07:23 | treat each field separately.
| | 07:25 | Let me come over to the Color FX Bin.
I've saved a Node Tree that shows this
| | 07:30 | work-flow. You don't have this Node
Tree in your project. So to apply a preset
| | 07:35 | like we did in the previous movie,
I'll simply double-click on it.
| | 07:38 | The important thing is any Node Tree that
you currently have in your Node View,
| | 07:42 | will be replaced when you
double-click on this Preset.
| | 07:46 | Okay, so here is an interlaced Node
Tree. Notice how both sides of the Node
| | 07:50 | Tree look identical. They both have
HSL key nodes, Blur nodes and Alpha Blend
| | 07:57 | nodes. But at the top of each side of
the tree there is a Deinterlace Node.
| | 08:03 | What this Deinterlace node does is it
splits out the even and odd fields.
| | 08:08 | Then at the bottom of the tree those fields
are once again recombined using the Interlace Node.
| | 08:15 | Remember color really likes to work
with progressive footage. If you do need to
| | 08:19 | work with interlace footage in the
Color FX room you may need to add Node Trees
| | 08:23 | that look like this. There is more
information about working with interlace
| | 08:27 | footage and Node Trees in the Color User Manual.
| | 08:31 | Now that we have the proper
background on the Color FX room, let's start
| | 08:34 | building some recipes or looks, and
that's exactly what we're going to do in
| | 08:38 | the next few movies.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a glowing highlights look| 00:00 | Whether it's an alien abduction, a
flashback or an interrogation under a really
| | 00:05 | bright light, all of these scenes have
glowing blown out highlights in common.
| | 00:10 | In this movie we're going to put
together a simple recipe to achieve this look.
| | 00:13 | The clip that I'm going to use to build
this look is perfect. It already has a
| | 00:18 | lot of highlights here on the face,
and I'm simply going to take these
| | 00:20 | highlights and take them up a notch.
| | 00:23 | Before we actually build this look,
let's think about what goes into building it.
| | 00:27 | First, we need a way to isolate
just the highlights here on the face. Next,
| | 00:32 | we need a way to take those highlights
and blow them out. We can do this with a few simple nodes.
| | 00:37 | I am going to add an HSL Key Node to
isolate just the highlights on the face.
| | 00:42 | I'll add this node by double-clicking
on it and adding it to the Node View.
| | 00:48 | Next, I need a way to blow out the
highlights that I'll select with the HSL Key Node.
| | 00:51 | I'm going to use an Add Node.
The Add Node takes in two inputs and as
| | 00:59 | its name implies, performs an add operation.
| | 01:02 | The result on this clip will be blowing
out the highlights. I know that it will
| | 01:07 | also need an Output Node for the Node
Tree to be added to the Color Render
| | 01:11 | pipeline. So let me go
ahead and add an Output Node.
| | 01:16 | The one node that might not be obvious
is I need a Blur Node. Here is why.
| | 01:21 | If I select the HSL Key Node, you can see
that there is no Key Blur Parameter
| | 01:25 | anywhere in the controls for the HSL key.
I need to be able to blur the Matte I
| | 01:30 | create with the HSL Key Node, so
I have no hard edges on the Matte.
| | 01:35 | So let me go back over into the Node
List and add a Blur Node. Now let's
| | 01:45 | connect everything together. First, I'm
going to take the output of the HSL key
| | 01:53 | and connect it to the input of the Blur Node.
| | 01:58 | Next, we'll take the output of the
Blur Node and connect it to input number 2
| | 02:04 | on the Add Node. And finally, we'll
take the output of the Add Node and connect
| | 02:10 | it to the input of the Output Node.
| | 02:13 | Now we're ready to build the look.
Let's go back up to the HSL Key Node, and
| | 02:18 | make sure that the Parameters tab is
selected over here on the right-side of
| | 02:21 | the room, and let's use the HSL
Eyedropper to key the highlights on the face.
| | 02:26 | So here's the HSL Eyedropper, and I'll
drag along the highlights on the face.
| | 02:34 | It's kind of hard just looking at the
preview to tell if I've selected just the
| | 02:37 | highlights. So remember, if I double-
click on a node downstream from the node I
| | 02:43 | want to adjust, and then single-click
back on the node I want to adjust, the
| | 02:47 | preview will show the
output of the node downstream.
| | 02:50 | So in this case, I'm going to
double-click on the Blur Node, and then
| | 02:55 | single-click on the HSL Key Node. Now,
I'm viewing the output of the Blur Node
| | 03:02 | with the ability to adjust the HSL Key Node.
| | 03:05 | You can see when I perform that key
that I actually got most of the image in
| | 03:09 | the key. The face, a little bit of
the background, and some other parts.
| | 03:15 | So I need to adjust the HSL
Qualifiers for this HSL Key Node to get a good
| | 03:20 | Matte. And I'm going to
adjust the Lightness Qualifier.
| | 03:23 | Remember because we want to have the
highlights blown out, I need to isolate
| | 03:28 | just the highlights. So using the
Lightness Qualifier, I'm going to hold my
| | 03:32 | Shift key down so I can make an
asymmetric edit to the Lightness Qualifier, and
| | 03:37 | drag up with the left handle. Over in
my preview, you can see that I've just
| | 03:45 | selected the highlights of the face.
| | 03:48 | Next, let's double-click anywhere in
the gray area of the Node View to unlock
| | 03:52 | the Blur Node from View. Then I'm just
going to click back on the Blur Node and
| | 03:57 | adjust the Spread of the Blur up to
about 2-2.5. And remember, I can always
| | 04:06 | make this go faster by holding down
the Option key when scrolling with my
| | 04:09 | mouse. So there we go.
Somewhere between 2 and 2.5.
| | 04:16 | Now, let's select the Add Node. Not
quite what you were thinking, huh? Don't
| | 04:22 | worry. We'll fix this output. Remember
any time a Multi-input Node has a blank
| | 04:28 | input the original footage is inputted
into that blank input. And with the Add
| | 04:33 | Node we can adjust the
bias between the two inputs.
| | 04:37 | So let's go ahead and change the Bias
of Source 1 to 1. And I could either
| | 04:43 | scroll this value up or I could simply
type-in 1 and hit Enter. Ah, that looks
| | 04:50 | much better. Then we can adjust the
Bias of input number 2 to control the
| | 04:55 | amount of blowout happening in the
highlights. I'm going to adjust it down just
| | 05:00 | a bit, somewhere around 0.37, 0.38.
| | 05:07 | You may have noticed that this recipe
pushed the Trace on the Waveform Scope
| | 05:11 | above 100%, indicating illegal luma.
Don't worry. We can fix this later in the Primary Out room.
| | 05:18 | So you can see, it was pretty simple
to create this common look of blown out highlights.
| | 05:24 | In the next movie, we'll build
a recipe to smooth skin tones.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Smoothing skin tones| 00:00 | Sure, upon first look, the Color FX
Room is built for the uber-sexy effect.
| | 00:06 | But often a colorist faces much more
mundane tasks. But thanks to the power of the
| | 00:11 | Color FX Room, those mundane tasks
can be done very quickly, and if you're
| | 00:14 | lucky, maybe even have a touch of sex appeal.
| | 00:18 | In this movie, we'll take a look at
softening detail on skin tones using the
| | 00:23 | Color FX Room. The clip I'm going to
use for this recipe is representative of a
| | 00:27 | lot of clips that you'll find yourself
having to soften skin tone on. If I look
| | 00:32 | at this side of the face here, and then
drag through the clip, I can see a lot
| | 00:36 | of patchiness on the face. So it's
a perfect candidate for this recipe.
| | 00:42 | As we did in the last movie, let's
think about what we'll need to do before
| | 00:46 | actually building the look. First, we
need a way to isolate just the face.
| | 00:52 | Next, we need a way to soften the face.
Like in the last recipe, we're going to
| | 00:57 | use an HSL Key node to isolate the
part of the clip that we want to affect,
| | 01:01 | i.e., the skin on the face. So let's
double-click on an HSL Key node to add it to the node view.
| | 01:08 | Next, we need a way to soften the skin
we're going to isolate with the HSL Key node.
| | 01:12 | So the easiest way to do that
is with a Blur node. Let me go up and
| | 01:17 | double-click on a Blur node
to add it to the node view.
| | 01:21 | Also, we need a way of combining the
portion of the clip that the HSL Key will
| | 01:25 | isolate with the Blur that will
soften the skin on the face. The node that
| | 01:29 | we'll use for this is the Alpha Blend
node. Let me go up and double-click on
| | 01:33 | the Alpha Blend node to add it to the node view.
| | 01:37 | Here's the deal with the Alpha Blend
node. The Alpha Blend node has three
| | 01:41 | inputs, one, two and three. Notice the
third input is noted out. What happens
| | 01:48 | with the Alpha Blend node is that
inputs one and two are blended together, but
| | 01:53 | only in the areas defined by input
number three. Input number three will be the
| | 01:59 | output of the HSL Key. In other words,
it will be a map that will be inputted
| | 02:05 | on the Alpha Blend node.
| | 02:07 | We, of course, also need an output
node to add this node tree to the color
| | 02:11 | render pipeline. So let me scroll down
and add an Output node. One last, not as
| | 02:22 | obvious node that we'll
need is a second Blur node.
| | 02:25 | This is because the HSL Key doesn't
have any key blur parameters, and we want
| | 02:30 | to blur the edges of the map that the
HSL Key node creates, so that there are
| | 02:34 | no hard edges. So let me scroll up in
the node list and add another Blur node.
| | 02:45 | So let's connect everything together.
First, let's take the output of the HSL
| | 02:52 | Key and connect it to the input of the
first blur. Then we'll take the output
| | 02:58 | of the first blur and connect it to
input number three on the Alpha Blend node.
| | 03:03 | Remember input number three is where
we want to input my map, and this input
| | 03:08 | will define how input number one and
two are blended together. Then let's take
| | 03:14 | the output of the Alpha Blend node and
connect it to the input of the Output node.
| | 03:20 | What about this other Blur node? Well,
that's what we're going to use to soften
| | 03:24 | the skin tones, so let's connect it
to input number two on the Alpha Blend node.
| | 03:29 | Remember any time that you have
a blank input on a node, like I do here
| | 03:34 | on the Alpha Blend node,
the original footage is used.
| | 03:38 | So on the Alpha Blend node, input one
is the original footage. Input two will
| | 03:44 | be a blurry version of the footage.
Those two inputs will combine only in the
| | 03:49 | areas defined by input number three,
which is the map that we'll create with the HSL Key.
| | 03:56 | Let's get cracking. Let's select the
HSL Key node and then use the HSL Key
| | 04:01 | eyedropper to sample the skin on the
side of the face, something like that.
| | 04:12 | It's kind of hard though, just
looking at the preview to tell what you've selected.
| | 04:16 | So remember, by double-clicking on a
node downstream, the Blur node in this
| | 04:21 | case, I can lock the preview to the
output of that node. Then I can single
| | 04:26 | click back on the HSL Key
node to adjust its parameters.
| | 04:31 | So next, let's come into the HSL
qualifiers and adjust the map a bit. As with
| | 04:36 | any map, I want to adjust the HSL
qualifiers until I have a map that I'm happy
| | 04:41 | with and I think that will work.
So let me go ahead and do that.
| | 04:44 | I'm going to adjust the Lightness
qualifier first. Remember I can do an
| | 04:51 | asymmetric adjustment to any of the
handles on any of the qualifiers by holding
| | 04:55 | down the Shift key. Okay,
I'm pretty happy with that map.
| | 05:13 | I'm not going to worry about this
area of white over here that's also been
| | 05:16 | selected. It's going to be blurred,
but it won't be noticeable. So we have a
| | 05:22 | map that we're happy with. The next
thing we need to do is blur the edges of that map.
| | 05:27 | So we need to soften up the map, but
first, we need to double-click anywhere in
| | 05:31 | the gray area here in the node view to
unlock the Blur node from the preview.
| | 05:38 | Then we'll select the Blur node again,
and just adjust its spread, or blur up a
| | 05:44 | couple of notches. Something
around 2 will work just fine.
| | 05:48 | Remember I can hold down the Option key
and use my scroll wheel on my mouse to
| | 05:52 | adjust this value faster. The last step
in this recipe is to adjust the second
| | 05:59 | Blur node for how much softness you
want to have in the skin. So let me select
| | 06:04 | the second Blur node and adjust the
spread. I'm going to start out with a
| | 06:09 | conservative value of around 1.5.
| | 06:14 | Click on the Output node to see the
result. Here you can see, right in the
| | 06:18 | cheeks, especially, the skin tone has
been softened quite a bit. You can play
| | 06:23 | with this Blur node and adjust the
Blur up and down to soften the effect even more.
| | 06:28 | So if I scroll up to say 2 or 3,
and click back on the Output node, you
| | 06:38 | can see that the skin is now very soft.
| | 06:42 | Just be careful that you don't apply
too much softness to the skin tone.
| | 06:46 | Too much softness can look weird and kind
of hokey. So let me go back to that Blur
| | 06:50 | node and adjust the spread down to
something a little more conservative, around
| | 06:58 | 1.75. Then I'll simply play back
the clip to see the correction.
| | 07:10 | It looks pretty good. To toggle a
Color FX correction on and off, we can use
| | 07:17 | the Bypass button on any given node.
The best way to see that for this node is
| | 07:22 | I'm going to select the Alpha
Blend node and then choose Bypass.
| | 07:29 | If you look at the skin tone, as I
toggle this on and off, you can see the
| | 07:34 | difference that the softening made. The
reason that I selected the Alpha Blend
| | 07:40 | node is because it was the last node
in the tree before the Output node.
| | 07:44 | So you can see, with just a few simple
nodes, we were easily able to soften the
| | 07:48 | skin tone on this clip. This is a good
recipe to remember, as you find yourself
| | 07:53 | doing this type of correction all the time.
| | 07:55 | In the next movie, we'll create one
last recipe. We'll use various nodes to
| | 08:00 | create a film look.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a film look| 00:00 | It seems like every producer or DP I
talk to is obsessed with the idea of
| | 00:04 | making their video look like
film. Newsflash video is not film.
| | 00:09 | However, that doesn't stop everyone
from wanting to be that way. As a colorist,
| | 00:14 | you're often asked to approximate film
looks. In this movie, we'll create our
| | 00:19 | own Bleach Bypass look with a little
bit of grain thrown in for good measure.
| | 00:24 | To understand what goes into this
recipe, you have to understand what film
| | 00:28 | developed with a Bleach
Bypass process looks like.
| | 00:32 | The Bleach Bypass process is simply
skipping a step when developing film.
| | 00:37 | That is, the part that removes silver from a film.
| | 00:41 | Film that undergoes this process
typically has higher contrast, a grainier look
| | 00:46 | and lower overall saturation. So we're
going to add quite a few nodes just to
| | 00:51 | adjust the contrast and saturation of this clip.
| | 00:55 | Let's first start with an Exposure
node. I'm going to double-click on the
| | 00:58 | Exposure node to add it into the Node
view. We'll use this node to drop the
| | 01:03 | overall exposure of the clip quite a bit.
| | 01:06 | The Exposure node affects the lower end
of the tonal range more than the upper end.
| | 01:10 | So it will make the clip more
dark. Next, let's scroll up and add the
| | 01:15 | Bleach Bypass node. The Bleach Bypass
node simulates the traditional process.
| | 01:24 | Then let's add a Lift node.
| | 01:28 | Remember a Lift operation applies an
overall luma adjustment to the clip.
| | 01:33 | We use the Lift node to crush the blacks
in this clip, which we'll add to the contrasted look.
| | 01:38 | To also help with creating the
contrasted look, we'll add a Gain node.
| | 01:44 | We'll use this node to blow out the
highlights. Next, let's add a Saturation node.
| | 01:51 | We'll use the Saturation node to
decrease the saturation in this clip because
| | 01:56 | the Bleach Bypass process tends to
lower saturation. Let's scroll up and add a
| | 02:05 | Film Grain node. We'll use the Film
Grain node to help grunge up this clip a bit.
| | 02:12 | Then finally, we'll add an Output node.
I'll add the Output node by simply
| | 02:17 | double-clicking on it to
add it to the Node view.
| | 02:21 | Remember every node tree has to have
an Output node for the node tree to be
| | 02:24 | rendered in the color pipeline.
| | 02:27 | So let's go ahead and link up each one
of these nodes in a linear fashion.
| | 02:32 | What I mean by that is I'll take the output
of Exposure and connect it to the input
| | 02:37 | of the Bleach Bypass.
| | 02:39 | Next, I'll take the Bleach Bypass and
connect it to the input of the Lift node,
| | 02:45 | and so on, until I've
connected all of the nodes.
| | 03:03 | Now, we're ready to adjust each one of
the nodes. Let's start at the top of the
| | 03:07 | node tree with the Exposure node. I'll
click on the Exposure node and then just
| | 03:11 | make sure that my Parameters tab is
active, which it is, and I can adjust the
| | 03:16 | Exposure parameter.
| | 03:18 | As I said before, we're going to use
the Exposure node here to drop the overall
| | 03:22 | exposure of the clip quite a bit. So
I'm going to adjust the Exposure parameter
| | 03:27 | down, and let's adjust it down
to something around 0.1 or so.
| | 03:35 | Next, let's click on the Bleach Bypass
node. You'll notice in my Parameters tab
| | 03:40 | that this node doesn't have any
parameters that we can adjust.
| | 03:44 | So moving on, let's click on the Lift
node. Remember the Lift node performs an
| | 03:51 | overall luma adjustment to the clip,
and we're going to use the Lift node to
| | 03:55 | crush the trace here in the Waveform Scope.
| | 03:58 | So I'm going to adjust the master Lift,
not the Red, Green, or Blue Lift and
| | 04:03 | I'm going to adjust that down to a
value of around 0.2, maybe a little higher
| | 04:10 | 0.18. That works just fine.
| | 04:13 | You can see on the Waveform Scope,
we've shifted the trace down quite a bit on
| | 04:17 | the scale, darkening this clip up considerably.
| | 04:21 | Next, let's adjust the Gain node. And
remember anytime that I'm adjusting a
| | 04:27 | parameter box I can always use the
Option key and use my scroll wheel to change
| | 04:31 | the value faster. Maybe a little less
than 1.8, 1.72, 1.73 looks just fine to me.
| | 04:46 | Next up, the Saturation node. Remember
that the Bleach Bypass process tends to
| | 04:52 | desaturate footage. So let's go ahead
and desaturate this clip a little bit
| | 04:57 | using the Saturation parameter of the
Saturation node. I'll desaturate this
| | 05:02 | clip to a value of around 0.45 or so.
| | 05:08 | Finally, let's grunge up the clip a
little bit with the Film Grain node.
| | 05:12 | The Film Grain node has a few parameters,
Grain Intensity, Grain Size and the
| | 05:17 | ability to display the grain as Monochrome.
| | 05:20 | I'll leave the Grain Size where it is
and I'll leave Monochrome unchecked, but
| | 05:23 | let's just change the Grain Intensity.
Let me scroll up until I reach a value
| | 05:29 | of around 0.75, maybe a little less.
How about 0.65 or 0.60? Yeah, I like 0.60.
| | 05:40 | Okay, we're done creating the look.
Let's go down to the Color Timeline and
| | 05:46 | start playback. You can tell that the
clip is pretty grungy and it really does
| | 05:54 | have that Bleach Bypass look.
| | 05:58 | A couple more thoughts. You may have
noticed that we pushed the trace for this
| | 06:02 | clip well below 0 on the Waveform
Scope, and a little bit above 100.
| | 06:07 | Don't worry about this right now.
We can fix this in the Primary Out room.
| | 06:11 | We'll discuss the Primary Out room in chapter 10.
| | 06:14 | So the other thought is by clicking on
each one of these nodes, I can see its
| | 06:19 | effect on the image. By clicking on
each one, I can get a better idea of how
| | 06:27 | each node adds to the look.
| | 06:29 | In the next chapter, we'll jump into
the Geometry room and take a look at
| | 06:33 | making Pan & Scan adjustments
along with tracking footage.
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|
|
9. Pan and Scan and TrackingUnderstanding the Geometry room| 00:00 | In this movie, we'll do a quick
overview of the Geometry room. In the movies
| | 00:03 | that follow later in this chapter,
we'll use the Geometry room to apply a few
| | 00:07 | pan and scan corrections as well as
track footage, so we can have a correction
| | 00:11 | following object around screen.
| | 00:13 | The Geometry room consists of three tabs,
the Pan&Scan tab, the Shapes tab, and
| | 00:19 | the Tracking tab. The Pan&Scan tab is
where I can apply geometric adjustments to my clips.
| | 00:25 | The Shapes tab is where I can create
custom shapes to attach to a secondary, to
| | 00:30 | then be used as a Vignette, and we did
this in chapter 7. Finally, the Tracking
| | 00:34 | tab is where I can track an object on screen.
| | 00:38 | All of the tabs in the Geometry room
have a few navigation features in common.
| | 00:42 | First, notice the footage in the
middle of the room is darkened a bit.
| | 00:45 | This helps us to see on-screen controls
in each of the three tabs a bit better.
| | 00:48 | So the Wireframe in the Pan&Scan tab,
Control Points in the Shapes tab, and
| | 01:00 | Track Controls in the Tracking tab.
Next, I can zoom, pan and reframe all the
| | 01:11 | tabs in the same way
| | 01:12 | By holding down my right mouse button
and dragging, I can zoom in and out.
| | 01:19 | By holding down my middle mouse button
and dragging, I can pan around the clip.
| | 01:24 | And by hitting the F key on my keyboard
I can reframe the clip or reposition it
| | 01:29 | back in the center of the room.
| | 01:30 | Let me demo a couple of the tabs
quickly and then in the movies that follow,
| | 01:34 | we'll break down the specifics of
the Pan&Scan tab and the Tracking tab.
| | 01:37 | The Pan&Scan tab is where I can apply
geometric adjustments to my clips.
| | 01:41 | I do this by using the on-screen controls
here of this Wireframe or by using the
| | 01:44 | parameters over here, at the top of
the Pan&Scan tab. Let me make a quick
| | 01:48 | geometric adjustment.
| | 01:51 | I'll zoom into the clip and then I'll
rotate the clip, and over in my viewer,
| | 01:57 | you can see the change. I can also
reposition the frame once I've zoomed in.
| | 02:05 | So let me position this down here, so
I have a close-up of the guitar pickup,
| | 02:08 | and the bottom of the fretboard. The
thing to remember about making adjustments
| | 02:12 | in the Pan&Scan tab is that if you send
a project from Final Cut Pro to Color,
| | 02:16 | the adjustments won't actually be
rendered by Color. Instead, they'll be
| | 02:19 | rendered back in Final
Cut Pro as motion effects.
| | 02:23 | Next, let's click on the Shapes tab.
The Shapes tab is where I can make my own
| | 02:28 | user-defined shapes. The thing is, I
don't actually want to create shapes here by themselves.
| | 02:32 | I always want to access the Shapes tab
from within the Secondaries room, and I
| | 02:36 | do that by choosing to add a
Vignette and then choosing user shape as a
| | 02:40 | Vignette type. We already covered
creating user shapes in chapter 7. So I'm
| | 02:44 | going to skip over the
controls in the Shapes tab.
| | 02:46 | Finally, I have the Tracking tab. The
Tracking tab lets me track an object
| | 02:51 | around screen, and to demonstrate this,
I'm going to choose the second clip in
| | 02:54 | the Color Timeline. So let me
playback this clip so we can see it.
| | 02:57 | What I want to do in this clip is
track the nose on the subject's face.
| | 03:10 | By doing that, I can then attach a
Vignette that follows that tracking data.
| | 03:14 | Let me go back to the beginning of
the clip by hitting the up arrow on the
| | 03:18 | Timeline, and then let's click the New
button to add a new tracker. This gives
| | 03:25 | me some on-screen controls, which I'll
adjust and position around the nose on
| | 03:29 | the subject's face.
| | 03:40 | Once I'm done positioning the controls,
I'll hit the Process button. You can
| | 03:59 | see the object was tracked around the
screen. All these little red dots here
| | 04:04 | are tracking points, and this
blue line represents the track path.
| | 04:08 | I can smooth this path by using the
Tracking Curve Smoothness controls over
| | 04:12 | here in the Tracking tab. I can either
type in a value or use this slider, and
| | 04:18 | this smoothes out the path to
make it look a little more natural.
| | 04:21 | Now that I have tracking data, I can go
back into the Secondaries room, enable
| | 04:26 | a secondary, enable a Vignette,
choose the tracker ID of the tracker that I
| | 04:34 | just created and enter it in the Use
Tracker box here in the Vignette controls.
| | 04:39 | And then position and adjust
the Vignette as I normally would.
| | 04:52 | Then when I begin playback, the
Vignette will follow the tracking data and
| | 04:55 | follow the subject's nose around
screen, which it did just fine.
| | 05:06 | I can also use tracking data to attach
to a Pan&Scan correction. I enter the
| | 05:10 | tracker ID here in the Use Tracker box
in the Pan&Scan tab. I can also apply
| | 05:15 | tracking data in the Shapes tab. In the
middle of the Shapes tab, I also have a
| | 05:21 | Use Tracker box where I can
enter the ID of a tracker.
| | 05:24 | Now that we've gotten an overview of
the Geometry room, in the movies that
| | 05:29 | follow later in this chapter we'll
make a couple of corrections using the
| | 05:32 | Pan&Scan tab as well as add a
few tracks using the Tracking tab.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Pan and Scan creatively| 00:00 | In the last movie, we took a look at
using the controls in the Pan&Scan tab of
| | 00:03 | the Geometry room. In this movie, we'll
take a look at using those controls to
| | 00:07 | creatively reframe a few shots.
| | 00:08 | Let's take a look at the first clip in
the Color timeline. I'll simply select
| | 00:12 | the timeline and then hit the Spacebar
to begin playback. You can see that this
| | 00:17 | is a pretty cool clip, except that it
has a problem. As the camera pans over to
| | 00:22 | the left, I can start to see the
edge of the screen that was used as the
| | 00:25 | background for the clip. Let me stop
playback. I can fix this problem pretty
| | 00:29 | easily in the Pan&Scan tab of the Geometry room.
| | 00:31 | So let's go to the Geometry room. Just
make sure the Pan&Scan tab is chosen,
| | 00:36 | which it is for me. Next, using the on-
screen controls, let's grab any one of
| | 00:40 | the corner points of the wireframe and
drag in. When I do this, what I should
| | 00:44 | notice that happens is that I zoom into
the image. By zooming into the image, I
| | 00:49 | can get rid of this edge that I
see on the side of the screen.
| | 00:52 | So let me grab one of the corner
points and drag in. Sure enough, I zoom into
| | 00:58 | the image. If I wanted to, I could also
rotate this image to match the angle of
| | 01:03 | the guitar. Let's go ahead and do that.
Clicking any side of the wireframe, I'm
| | 01:07 | going to click-and-drag left or right
to rotate the wireframe, and there you go.
| | 01:12 | Something like that works.
| | 01:14 | Let's go to the next clip on the Color
timeline. Select the Color timeline and
| | 01:18 | just hit the Down Arrow to navigate
to the next clip. Here you have another
| | 01:22 | shot that could benefit from some pan
and scan adjustment. The problem with
| | 01:25 | this clip is that there is a little bit
too much headroom, and I have a lot of
| | 01:28 | dead area over here to the left.
| | 01:30 | So again, using the on-screen
controls, let me grab any one of the corner
| | 01:34 | points of the wireframe and drag in.
Remember as I drag in, I zoom into the
| | 01:38 | image. So I'll drag in to zoom in.
Then let's just take the wireframe and
| | 01:46 | position it more over the center of
the subject's face. Something like that works.
| | 01:50 | Up next, we'll take a look at using the
pan and scan controls to reframe a shot
| | 01:54 | destined for 4x3 output.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Pan and Scan to frame for 4x3 output| 00:00 | I should mention right off the bat,
before we start this movie that the method
| | 00:03 | I'm about to describe here is not at
all the best method for reframing objects
| | 00:07 | to a given aspect ratio. Indeed, there
are those who might say that really the
| | 00:10 | best way to do this is by using the
hardware standards converter, or at the
| | 00:14 | very least, a dedicated software application.
| | 00:16 | However, for this movie, let's just
assume that we need a quick and reliable
| | 00:19 | way to make a 4x3 output while giving
ourselves creative control over how our
| | 00:23 | footage is framed. By default, when I
send a project from Final Cut Pro to
| | 00:26 | Color, the wireframe in the Geometry
room matches both the aspect ratio and the
| | 00:31 | resolution of the source footage.
| | 00:33 | If I look at this first clip in the
Geometry room, I can tell that this is true.
| | 00:36 | The wireframe has the same 16x9
aspect ratio as the footage it covers,
| | 00:40 | and it appears to have the same
resolution. However, I can change both
| | 00:44 | resolution and aspect ratio for a project.
| | 00:47 | To do this, I'm going to come to
the Setup room and then to the Project
| | 00:51 | Settings tab. In the middle of the
Project Settings tab, I have a pulldown
| | 00:54 | that's called Resolution Presets. By
default, when you send a project from
| | 00:57 | Final Cut Pro to Color, this matches
the sequence settings back in Final Cut Pro.
| | 01:01 | Let's go ahead and pull the
Resolution Presets box down and let's choose
| | 01:05 | something different, like 720x486 NTSC.
Notice what happened when I did that.
| | 01:10 | In my preview, I now have a 4x3 image.
Let's click back into the Geometry room.
| | 01:16 | In the Geometry room, you can see that
my wireframe has changed to match the
| | 01:20 | 4x3 aspect ratio of the preset that I
chose, and it's quite a bit smaller, to
| | 01:24 | match the 720x486 resolution
that it shows in that preset.
| | 01:28 | Now because I have a 4x3 aspect ratio
and a smaller resolution, I can position
| | 01:32 | the wireframe anywhere I want on the
16x9 footage. Let's position the wireframe
| | 01:36 | over the hands in this first shot.
Let's take a look at the other clips and see
| | 01:41 | how we can frame them.
| | 01:42 | Let me select the Color timeline and
just simply hit the Down Arrow to go to
| | 01:46 | the next clip. In this clip, I think
I'd like to position the wireframe in the
| | 01:50 | lower left-hand corner so that the
taxicab is centered in the frame.
| | 01:53 | Let's check out the third clip.
| | 01:56 | In this clip, I think I want to center
the frame over the face like this.
| | 01:58 | Let's take a look at the fourth clip. Again,
just hit the Down Arrow to navigate to
| | 02:03 | the next clip. In this clip, I think I
want to position the frame in the lower
| | 02:06 | left-hand corner here over the guitar
pickups. Then finally, in the last clip,
| | 02:11 | I think I want to center the
frame over the head and face.
| | 02:13 | Let's take a look at the creative
choices I just made, but first, let's switch
| | 02:18 | our timeline playback mode, so that we
can see all the clips play back instead
| | 02:21 | of just one clip. To do this, I want to
come up to the Timeline menu and choose
| | 02:26 | the option Toggle Playback Mode. Note
the keyboard shortcut, Shift+Command+M.
| | 02:30 | When I selected that option, I now can
play back the entire timeline, and I can
| | 02:36 | see this because the in point and the
out point are at the very beginning and
| | 02:40 | end of the timeline. Let's hit the
Spacebar to begin playback, and I'll watch
| | 02:45 | through the timeline. Okay, cool. You
can see that it's relatively easy to use
| | 03:01 | the on-screen controls in the Pan&
Scan tab of the Geometry room to prep a
| | 03:04 | project for a 4x3 output.
| | 03:06 | In the next two movies, we'll learn
about the two ways to track footage in Color,
| | 03:09 | automatically and manually. We'll learn
how to assign those tracks to corrections.
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| Using Auto Tracking| 00:00 | In the colorist utopia, all shots
would be static. Actors would stay in one
| | 00:04 | place, the camera wouldn't make any
moves and your hourly rate would triple
| | 00:07 | because you're simply the best. But
welcome back to reality for a minute.
| | 00:11 | Sometimes manually keyframing, which
we'll discuss in chapter 12, just doesn't
| | 00:14 | cut it. That's why we have the tracker.
| | 00:16 | We can use the tracker to follow
objects across the screen, and then use that
| | 00:20 | data to attach vignettes, user shapes
and pan and scan corrections so that they
| | 00:24 | follow the same path. In Color, this
can be done automatically or manually.
| | 00:28 | In this movie, we'll look at automatic
tracking and attaching the motion tracking
| | 00:31 | data to a vignette.
| | 00:32 | In Color, I can find my tracking
controls inside of the Geometry room, and then
| | 00:37 | by choosing the Tracking tab. To add a
new tracker, all I need to do is simply
| | 00:40 | hit the New button here. We have a
few things to discuss before I add a new tracker.
| | 00:44 | First, what am I trying to accomplish
with this clip? I think I want to apply a
| | 00:48 | vignette around the face to brighten
the face up just a little bit. The problem
| | 00:51 | is, if I begin playback, I can see
that the face, and indeed, the head move
| | 00:55 | quite a bit. Let me show you.
| | 01:02 | If I was to apply a vignette, I'd
actually have to make the vignette pretty
| | 01:05 | soft and pretty big so that I wouldn't
see the edges of the vignette. I think
| | 01:09 | what I'm going to do is add a tracker
to follow a feature of the face around
| | 01:12 | screen. Then I'm going to use that
tracking data to attach a vignette.
| | 01:16 | That way, I can have a vignette that's a
little tighter on the face than the one
| | 01:18 | I previously described.
| | 01:20 | The next thing I want to talk about is
how Color defines the area that it wants
| | 01:23 | to track. If I was to add a new tracker,
which I'll go ahead and do right now,
| | 01:26 | just by clicking the New button.
You'll notice underneath the clip, in green
| | 01:30 | letters, I have in and out. This
represents the area that Color wants to try to
| | 01:36 | track. By default, it uses the
position of my playhead and the nearest out
| | 01:40 | point or the end of the clip to track.
| | 01:42 | If I manually want to define the area
that I want to track on the clip, I need
| | 01:46 | to position my playhead where I want,
and then click on the Mark In button or
| | 01:51 | the Mark Out button, depending on the
area that I'm trying to define. For the
| | 01:55 | purposes of this movie, I
want to track the entire clip.
| | 01:58 | So I'm going to move the playhead back
to the beginning of the clip and hit the
| | 02:01 | Mark In button. Now you can see my in
point and my out point are defined at the
| | 02:07 | beginning and the end of the clip. Again,
I can see that with the in, in green
| | 02:11 | letters here and the out in green letters.
| | 02:13 | Next, let's talk about two other
things that happen when I click the New
| | 02:16 | button. First, I have some on-screen
controls. These are the controls that I
| | 02:21 | can actually use to set up the tracker,
but we'll come back to that in one second.
| | 02:24 | Also, at the top of the Tracking tab, I
now have a tracker listed. It's called
| | 02:28 | Tracker 1, and note its ID, number 1.
This is because it's the first tracker
| | 02:33 | applied to this clip. Also notice the
Status. The Status bar is red, because I
| | 02:37 | actually haven't tracked an object yet.
Let's go back to the on-screen controls.
| | 02:42 | The on-screen controls consist of two
boxes, one inside the other. The outside
| | 02:46 | box is known as my search area, and
the inside box is known as my reference area.
| | 02:52 | Here's the idea. I want to
position the reference area on the actual
| | 02:55 | object that I want to track. Then I
want to adjust the search area so that it
| | 02:58 | can be big enough to
follow the object around screen.
| | 03:01 | If an object that you're trying to
track goes outside of the search area, then
| | 03:04 | I want to make the search area big
enough to encompass the movements that the
| | 03:08 | object that I'm trying to track might
make. If the object that you're trying to
| | 03:11 | track goes outside of the search box,
the track will fail. Make sure that you
| | 03:15 | make the search box big enough.
| | 03:17 | However, be aware of this one issue.
The bigger the search box, the longer it
| | 03:21 | takes to process to track. Also,
another thing to be aware of when applying the
| | 03:25 | tracker is that trackers do best when
you're trying to track an object that's
| | 03:29 | angular or has high contrast. Let's
go ahead and position the reference box
| | 03:33 | here on an object on the face. I'm
going to choose the end of the nose, right here.
| | 03:38 | Then I'm going to adjust my search area
around that. Something like this should
| | 03:46 | work just fine. Now, to actually
process the track, all I need to do is hit the
| | 03:50 | Process button. You can see, when I
do that, the object is tracked.
| | 03:59 | When tracking is done, my playhead bounces
back to the first frame that I began my
| | 04:02 | track from, and a couple
of other things happened.
| | 04:06 | At the top of the Tracking tab, I can
see my Status bar for the tracker is now
| | 04:09 | green, indicating that tracking has
been completed. Also, on the on-screen
| | 04:13 | controls, I can see that the
reference box is now green, another indication
| | 04:16 | that the track is done. So I've
successfully tracked an object around the screen.
| | 04:20 | The next thing I need to do is apply
it to the vignette I was describing
| | 04:23 | earlier. Let's go back into the
Secondaries room and let's enable the
| | 04:26 | Secondaries room as we normally would.
Let's click on the Previews tab if it's
| | 04:31 | not already selected. Then
let's enable the Vignette controls.
| | 04:35 | You notice in the Vignette controls, I
have an entry box that says Use Tracker.
| | 04:39 | It has the number 0 in it, by default.
When this box is populated with 0, I
| | 04:43 | won't be using any trackers. But to
use a tracker, I need to enter the ID of
| | 04:47 | the tracker. If you remember, the ID
of the tracker that I just created was
| | 04:51 | number 1, so I'll type in 1.
| | 04:53 | Now I can use the on-screen controls
for the parameters to adjust the vignette.
| | 04:57 | Let me spend a second to adjust the
vignette, pretty tight around the face.
| | 05:00 | I'm going to add a little softness.
Something like that is good. Then I'm going to
| | 05:17 | lighten the face just a little bit
using the Midtone color balance control.
| | 05:27 | If I begin playback now, I should see
the vignette follow the object that I
| | 05:31 | tracked around the screen. Let's see.
It appears to do so, but to prove this
| | 05:44 | point to you, I'm going to make the
edges of the vignette really, really hard
| | 05:47 | for a second, and then we'll come
back and adjust the parameters again.
| | 05:51 | So let me reset the softness and then
let me adjust the Midtone color balance
| | 05:59 | control way, way up, so that in my
preview you can see a nice hard edge around
| | 06:04 | the vignette, and let me begin playback again.
| | 06:07 | Now you should be able to see in the
preview that the vignette follows the
| | 06:17 | object that I tracked around the
screen. Let me just go back and adjust my
| | 06:24 | settings again. I'm going to raise
the softness and I'm going to lower the
| | 06:33 | Midtone color balance control.
| | 06:38 | Tracking can really be powerful in
helping you achieve some awesome results
| | 06:41 | with your footage. Buyer be warned
though, getting tracks to do exactly what
| | 06:45 | you want can sometimes be
challenging and can be a time suck.
| | 06:48 | So instead of crossing your fingers and
simply hoping that the 400th time that
| | 06:52 | you adjust the search box will be the one.
In the next movie we'll explore manual tracking.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Manual Tracking| 00:00 | In the last movie we explored Auto
Tracking and it worked rather well for
| | 00:03 | animating a Vignette. In this movie,
I was having some problems tracking a
| | 00:07 | fretboard of a guitar for a Vignette I
wanted to do. I tried several times, but
| | 00:10 | I didn't like the results I was getting.
Let's say Colors to do? Option one,
| | 00:14 | look for a better spot to track or
option two, something your Dad might have
| | 00:18 | said when you were little, a
little manual labor is good for you kid.
| | 00:21 | In this case, the manual labor is
Manual Tracking. Just like auto tracking, I
| | 00:25 | find the controls for Tracking in the
Geometry room and then the Tracking tab.
| | 00:29 | So to add a new tracker, I simply
click the New button. By default, when I
| | 00:33 | click the New button, a new Auto track
is created. To do a Manual track, I just
| | 00:37 | need to check Manual Tracker in the
Tracking tab. Here's a really, really
| | 00:41 | important thing though. Once you select
Manual Tracker, the next time that you
| | 00:45 | click in the image that will
set up the first track point.
| | 00:49 | So, just be prepared before you click
again that you know where you want to
| | 00:52 | click. The point that I want to track
is this little dot in the middle of the
| | 00:56 | fretboard. As we discussed in the
first chapter in this movie, I can zoom in
| | 00:59 | and out of the image in the Geometry
room pretty easily by holding down my
| | 01:03 | right mouse button and dragging it
left and right. And I can pan the image by
| | 01:08 | holding the middle mouse button down
and dragging left and right or up and down.
| | 01:12 | This will just allow me to focus
in on the spot that I want to track a little closer.
| | 01:16 | So once again, I want to track this
little spot in the middle of the fretboard
| | 01:21 | and the first click that I'm going to
make is going to be the first point that
| | 01:24 | the Tracker uses. So, let me go ahead
and click right in the middle of the spot.
| | 01:27 | Don't click again. What happened
when you added that first point was that
| | 01:32 | Color added the Track point and then
moved your playhead forward by one frame.
| | 01:36 | Every time that you click you add a
new track point and Color automatically
| | 01:39 | advances your playhead by one frame.
| | 01:41 | Let me just spend the next minute
adding some new track points. The thing you
| | 01:46 | have to be aware of as you add new
track points is that you have to be a little
| | 01:49 | bit predictive about where you think
the spot you want to track is going to be
| | 01:53 | as you click. And you'll notice that
every time that I click, a new track point
| | 01:58 | is added, and the new track points are
represented by those little red dots.
| | 02:03 | In the middle of making a manual track,
if I need to reposition the image, don't worry.
| | 02:07 | You can do that. I'll just
simply hold down my middle mouse button
| | 02:09 | to pan the image again.
| | 02:11 | Notice as I click and add new tracking
points, the playhead is advancing and
| | 02:27 | there is a green bar under the
track showing my progress. When I'm done
| | 02:43 | tracking the object what will happen is
that the last tracking point will turn
| | 02:47 | green, signifying that I'm done with
the track. Now I'm going to add this
| | 02:50 | tracking data to a Vignette. Let me
click over to the Secondaries room, and I
| | 02:54 | have actually created a Vignette for
us to use. Go ahead and just enable the
| | 02:58 | Vignette controls and in the Use
Tracker box, let's just type in the ID of the
| | 03:03 | Vignette. It should be 1. Then
simply position the Vignette around the fretboard.
| | 03:13 | Choose your Color timeline, hit the
Spacebar to begin playback and you should
| | 03:17 | notice the Vignette follows the
fretboard around screen. Now that the track
| | 03:27 | meet is done, we're ready to move on
to the last place where we can tweak
| | 03:30 | things, the Primary Out room. One
last note about tracking, it's often very
| | 03:35 | tempting to track everything you can,
but try to avoid that because it can be a
| | 03:39 | major drain on time.
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|
10. Primary OutUsing the Primary Out room| 00:00 | Poking around Color, you might have
wondered what's the difference between the
| | 00:03 | Primary In and Primary Out rooms? Well
the answer is, not a whole lot. In fact,
| | 00:07 | all but a few controls are exactly the
same between the two rooms. So what's
| | 00:11 | the purpose of the Primary Out room
then? Well explaining that is the purpose
| | 00:14 | of this movie. The Primary Out room is
where you make adjustments that affect
| | 00:17 | the corrections made by the rooms
that came before it. So in other words,
| | 00:20 | corrections in the Primary In,
Secondaries and Color FX rooms.
| | 00:25 | I think there are four good ways to
think about the role that the Primary Out
| | 00:27 | room plays in Color. First, it allows
us to make overall modifications to a
| | 00:31 | grade because it comes after the
Primary In, Secondaries and Color FX rooms.
| | 00:35 | For example, your client walks into
your suite and says, can you make that shot
| | 00:39 | a touch lighter or maybe a touch darker,
or can you increase or maybe decrease
| | 00:44 | the saturation a bit? Well you can
easily do that in the Primary Out room
| | 00:47 | without having to go back to the other rooms.
| | 00:49 | Second, it's a perfect place to
manually correct for broadcast legality.
| | 00:53 | Even though you might have made sure your
clip had legal Luma and Chroma levels in
| | 00:56 | the Primary In room, corrections that
you applied in the Secondaries and Color
| | 00:59 | FX rooms may have pushed those levels,
making them illegal. Third, it's an easy
| | 01:04 | place to make broad adjustments to a
clip, so you can adjust its look. Another
| | 01:08 | less technical but equally as
important workflow consideration is that the
| | 01:11 | Primary Out room lets you
make adjustments in one place.
| | 01:14 | Sure, there are times when you'll
need to go back into one of the previous
| | 01:17 | rooms and make adjustments, but
many times you can make all the final
| | 01:20 | adjustments you need in this one room.
You might also be wondering why I
| | 01:24 | skipped over the Primary Out room and
looked at the Geometry room first in the
| | 01:27 | last chapter. Well, maybe it's because
I'm a rule breaker. I don't think that's it.
| | 01:31 | No, the real reason I did this is
because sometimes based on a adjustments
| | 01:35 | that I might make in the Geometry
room, my use of the Primary Out room is affected.
| | 01:38 | For example, let's say there was an
object on the side of the screen that was
| | 01:42 | pushing my Luma levels into the red. I
made a Pan and Scan adjustment, pushing
| | 01:46 | into the clip, and that object was no
longer on screen. Therefore, I wouldn't
| | 01:50 | need to correct for it in the Primary
Out room. Which brings me to my last
| | 01:53 | point before we make a few corrections
with the Primary Out room. There is no
| | 01:56 | requirement that you use the Primary
Out room. Many projects don't. So it's
| | 02:00 | best to get a feel on your own for how
the Primary Out room will fit into your workflow.
| | 02:05 | So the Primary Out room like I said is
identical to the Primary In room, except
| | 02:09 | for a few controls. And those few
controls are over here on the Basic tab,
| | 02:12 | right underneath my master Lift, Gain
and Gamma. Using these controls, I can
| | 02:17 | enable or disable clipping. With
clipping enabled, I can control the chroma
| | 02:21 | levels for my red, green and blue
channels. If you have the Broadcast Safe
| | 02:26 | feature on as well, the lowest values
between these two features in Color are
| | 02:30 | applied to the clip. So that's the
difference between the two rooms.
| | 02:32 | Let's actually make some corrections.
| | 02:34 | This first clip in my Color timeline
had primary correction applied to it, a
| | 02:39 | secondary correction, and a color
effect node tree applied to it. And if I take
| | 02:45 | a look at my Waveform Scope when it's
set to Luma, I notice that this clip has
| | 02:49 | illegal Luma levels, both at the top
end of the scale and at the bottom end of
| | 02:53 | the scale. The trace is above 100% and
a little bit below 0%. So, the Primary
| | 02:59 | Out room is a perfect tool to adjust
this clip for broadcast legality. I'll do
| | 03:03 | that using the Color Balance
controls in the Primary Out room.
| | 03:06 | First, I'll come into the Shadow Color
Balance control and drag up a little bit
| | 03:10 | on the contrast slider just to get the
trace right around 0%. Next, let's fix
| | 03:18 | the illegal Luma levels here in these
blown out highlights. I'll come to my
| | 03:23 | Highlight Color Balance control in the
Primary Out room and drag the contrast
| | 03:27 | slider down just a bit until the trace
is right around at 100%. Let's go to the
| | 03:36 | next clip in the Color timeline. I'll
select the Color timeline and hit the
| | 03:39 | down arrow to navigate to the second
clip. Let me play back this clip and this
| | 03:44 | is a clip we've seen before.
It's just that spotlight effect.
| | 03:47 | So, we have a Primary In and a
Secondary correction on this clip but upon
| | 03:52 | further inspection, I think the clip is
still a bit too yellow, so I'm going to
| | 03:56 | make a slight overall adjustment to
this clip using the Primary Out room, but I
| | 04:00 | don't have to go back into the primary
in or the Secondaries room. I can make
| | 04:04 | the adjustment right here. So I'm going
to come into my Highlight Color Balance
| | 04:08 | control and just nudge the Color
Balance control towards blue just to cool off
| | 04:16 | the clip ever so slightly and maybe a
little bit also in my midtones. There we go.
| | 04:25 | And the last adjustment we'll make
is on the third clip. I'll select the
| | 04:28 | timeline and hit the down arrow to
navigate to the third clip. This clip also
| | 04:34 | has a Primary and Secondary correction
applied to it and I'm going to use the
| | 04:39 | Primary Out room to create a look on
this clip. As I say that, I'm using my
| | 04:44 | hands to make quotation marks, and
the reason I'm doing that is because the
| | 04:48 | real place to create a look in Color
of course is the Color FX room.
| | 04:53 | But there's nothing saying that I can't
create a look by adjusting color balance,
| | 04:57 | and/or contrast and that's what I'm
going to do here in the Primary Out room on this clip.
| | 05:01 | I'm going to create a contrasting look
on this clip that also plays with the
| | 05:04 | color balance. I'm going to come into
my Highlight and Midtone Color Balance
| | 05:08 | controls and push towards yellow red,
something like that. Then I'm going to
| | 05:21 | take my Shadow Color Balance control
and drag towards blue. This cools off the
| | 05:29 | blacks in the background, the jacket,
hair and parts of the face here.
| | 05:36 | And maybe I'll push a little more towards yellow
in the Midtone and Highlight Color Balance controls.
| | 05:52 | Okay, I'll playback that clip and I
have created an interesting look to this clip.
| | 05:59 | So that was a quick tour of
the Primary Out room in Color.
| | 06:04 | In the next chapter, we'll take a look at some
tools that will help us manage Corrections and Grades.
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|
11. Grade Management and Scene-to-Scene Color CorrectionsUsing multiple grades and corrections| 00:00 | Life is full of choices. What socks
you're going to wear today, plain or
| | 00:04 | pepperoni pizza, or in the world of
color, the question becomes dark or light,
| | 00:08 | saturated or unsaturated and so on. I
can't help you with the pizza dilemma but
| | 00:12 | I can help you with the choices in
color. The answer: using multiple grades.
| | 00:17 | By using multiple grades, you can apply
different or the same corrections to a
| | 00:20 | clip in different ways. The reasons for
doing this are pretty simple. You want
| | 00:24 | to apply different looks to a clip
without replacing looks that you've already
| | 00:27 | created, or maybe you have a client
that has a strong opinion about the
| | 00:30 | corrections for a particular clip but
you think that they're wrong. So you
| | 00:33 | create a new grade to show them just
how ugly their decisions are before
| | 00:37 | flipping back to your grade. The
reasons are endless, but the execution is rather simple.
| | 00:41 | First, let's remember the
difference between corrections and grades.
| | 00:44 | Corrections take place in each room in
Color, and the grade is the sum of all
| | 00:48 | corrections for a particular clip. So
far in this title, we've been adding
| | 00:52 | corrections to clips, and every time
that we've added a correction, it's been added to a grade.
| | 00:57 | Down here in the Timeline, I have my
Grade track. By default, I always have one
| | 01:02 | grade attached to a clip. That's Grade
1. Underneath the Grade, I can resize
| | 01:06 | the grade track by pulling down.
| | 01:10 | So here's what happens in the Grade
track. I can have multiple grades and I can
| | 01:14 | see each correction that I've applied
to a clip. Currently on this clip, I have
| | 01:18 | no corrections applied, but let me go
ahead and apply a few corrections.
| | 01:21 | I'm going to come into the Primary In
room and perform a primary correction.
| | 01:34 | Now, it doesn't look like anything
happened in the Timeline. If I switch off
| | 01:38 | the clip and switch back to the clip
now attached to Grade 1, you can see this
| | 01:43 | bar that's labeled PI
and it's PI for Primary In.
| | 01:49 | Every room in Color has its own
correction bar. So if I switch to the
| | 01:54 | Secondaries room and attach a Vignette
like that, I'll switch off the clip and
| | 02:15 | come back to the clip.
| | 02:16 | Now, you notice I have a correction
bar labeled S1. S1 just stands for
| | 02:20 | Secondary 1 and each tab in the
Secondaries room can have its own correction bar.
| | 02:26 | The Color FX room works in the exact
same way. If I add a node tree, switch off
| | 02:32 | the clip in the Timeline and come back
to it, you'll notice that now I have a
| | 02:37 | correction bar that's
labeled CFX for color effects.
| | 02:43 | Finally, the Primary Out room works
in the exact same way. If I perform a
| | 02:47 | Primary Out correction to this clip,
switch off the clip and come back to it,
| | 02:53 | now you see a correction bar
labeled PO for Primary Out.
| | 02:57 | Some of correction that I performed
here was not meant to actually be a
| | 03:00 | correction that I do in the real world.
It was just to illustrate how these
| | 03:03 | correction bars work. So the next
thing I want to do is figure out how I can
| | 03:07 | add a new grade and apply different
corrections but keep this grade and these corrections.
| | 03:13 | Well, it's pretty simple. I can come up
to the Grade menu. In the Grade menu, I
| | 03:19 | can choose from one of four grades. I
already mentioned that I had Grade 1 on clip.
| | 03:24 | Grade 1 is the grade that's on
the clip by default. But I can add three
| | 03:27 | more grades to clip. I can add Grade 2,
3and 4. Note that each grade has a
| | 03:32 | keyboard shortcut as well.
| | 03:33 | So I'll choose Grade 2. When I chose
Grade 2, my clip went back to the original look.
| | 03:39 | Down on the Timeline, I can see
that a second grade has been added.
| | 03:44 | I can also tell that a grade is selected
when it's highlighted blue like this.
| | 03:47 | I can switch back and forth between
grades very easily by simply clicking on them.
| | 03:51 | Here's Grade 1, and I can see
all the corrections attached to Grade 1.
| | 03:55 | Then I'll click on Grade 2, which
currently doesn't have any corrections applied to it.
| | 04:01 | So let's make some corrections that
will be applied to Grade 2. I'll come back
| | 04:05 | in and choose the Primary In
room and make a primary correction.
| | 04:20 | Next, I'll go into the Secondaries room
and add a secondary correction. Notice
| | 04:53 | if I switch off the clip and then back
to the clip, I now have two correction
| | 04:57 | bars attached to Grade 2. For this
grade, we'll skip the Color FX room and go
| | 05:04 | right to the Primary Out room.
| | 05:05 | In the Primary Out room, I'm going to
lighten the clip just a bit. Remember the
| | 05:19 | Primary Out room works with the sum of
all the rooms before it. Click off the
| | 05:24 | clip, back onto the clip, you'll
notice now that I have three grade bars.
| | 05:28 | One for the Primary In room, one for the
first secondary, and then one for the
| | 05:31 | Primary Out room. I can still click
back on Grade 1 to view it. There's Grade
| | 05:35 | 1, there's Grade 2.
| | 05:37 | The thing is I like Grade 2 better. So
it would be cool if there was a way to
| | 05:41 | signify that I like this grade better.
Well, in fact there is. If I come up to
| | 05:46 | the Grade menu, I can choose Set
Beauty Grade, and what Set Beauty Grade does
| | 05:50 | is it simply marks this grade as my
favorite grade. It doesn't actually do
| | 05:54 | anything to the footage.
| | 05:55 | So let me choose Set Beauty Grade.
You'll notice now that Grade 2 on the
| | 06:00 | Timeline was colored orange. This is
the indication that this grade is my
| | 06:05 | beauty grade. If I click back on Grade 1,
the active grade is labeled blue, but
| | 06:11 | my beauty grade is still labeled orange.
| | 06:14 | Again, the Beauty Grade doesn't
actually do anything to the footage. If I'm not
| | 06:18 | a menu type of person, I can also use
keyboard shortcuts to navigate between
| | 06:22 | grades. Remember that each grade has
its own keyboard shortcut, and the grade
| | 06:26 | shortcuts are Ctrl+1 through 4. Just
remember this one thing about the grade shortcuts.
| | 06:31 | If you're using Mac OS 10.5, the new
feature called Spaces by default uses
| | 06:36 | Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3, Ctrl+4 and so
on to activate a space. You'll want to go
| | 06:41 | into System Preferences and change
these default shortcuts for spaces.
| | 06:44 | You might also be wondering why the
keyboard shortcut is the same to create the
| | 06:48 | grade and to switch between the
grades. Well, here's how it works.
| | 06:51 | If a grade has already been created,
using the keyboard shortcut will simply
| | 06:54 | switch to that grade. If a grade has
not been created, using the keyboard
| | 06:58 | shortcut will create the grade.
| | 07:00 | So in other words, I don't have a Grade
3 on this clip, and if I choose Ctrl+3,
| | 07:07 | the grade is created. But because I
already have Grade 2, if I chose Ctrl+2,
| | 07:11 | I'd simply navigate back to that grade.
| | 07:15 | If I right-click on any grade, I can
choose to reset the grade, which will get
| | 07:20 | rid of all the corrections on that
grade. I can add a grade, or I can simply
| | 07:24 | remove the grade all
together. Let me remove Grade 3.
| | 07:28 | Now, that you know that multiple grades
and the correction bars are available,
| | 07:31 | in the next movie, we'll take a
look at copying and moving grades and
| | 07:34 | corrections from one clip to another.
We'll also take a look at copying and
| | 07:38 | moving corrections from one grade
to another grade on the same clip.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Copying and moving grades and corrections| 00:00 | In this movie, we'll talk about how
to copy corrections and grades from one
| | 00:03 | clip to another clip or even
multiple clips. The reason for doing this is
| | 00:07 | pretty obvious. You like a correction
and you want to apply it to another clip.
| | 00:10 | One thing to keep in mind before we
begin. In Color, there are multiple ways to
| | 00:13 | effectively do the same thing when it
comes to speeding up workflow, whether
| | 00:17 | it's copying and dragging corrections
or grades, saving them as presets to
| | 00:20 | recall later or using logical
organizations to group clips. Ultimately the goal
| | 00:24 | is the same, to help you work more
efficiently. But by no means do you have to
| | 00:28 | use all the methods all the time.
| | 00:30 | So starting with this movie, you might
feel like we're doing the same thing but
| | 00:33 | just in a different way. That's true,
but it's up to you to pick the way that
| | 00:36 | you're most comfortable with to apply
corrections and grades across multiple
| | 00:39 | clips. I'm going to start out our
exploration of copying corrections and grades
| | 00:43 | with this first clip.
| | 00:44 | Notice that this first clip has a
primary correction applied to it, and then
| | 00:48 | notice that the last clip in the
Color Timeline is a similar clip except it
| | 00:52 | does not have a Primary Correction
applied to it. So why reinvent the wheel?
| | 00:55 | I'll copy this primary correction and
paste it onto this clip. To do that, I'm
| | 01:00 | going to select the first clip, come
into the Primary In room and then I'm
| | 01:05 | going to use the Copy buttons down here
in the bottom right-hand corner of the room.
| | 01:08 | I have two copy buttons. I can choose
to Copy To Selected. That will copy the
| | 01:12 | correction to any selected clips that
I have, or I can choose to Copy To All.
| | 01:16 | That, of course, will copy the
correction to all the clips in the Color
| | 01:19 | Timeline. And because all these clips
are different, that's probably not what I
| | 01:22 | want to do. So let me select the last
clip in the Color Timeline and I'll hit
| | 01:27 | the Copy To Selected button.
| | 01:29 | Now notice that that primary
correction was applied to that last clip.
| | 01:32 | This would work just the same if I had
multiple clips selected. In this case, I just
| | 01:36 | had a single clip selected. You can
see the correction is now the same. Next,
| | 01:43 | let's navigate to the third clip in the
Color Timeline. This clip has a Primary
| | 01:47 | and a Secondary Correction on it to
correct the spotlight effect. Instead of
| | 01:51 | copying these corrections to another
clip, we're going to go ahead and drag
| | 01:55 | these corrections. I actually have to
do it this way because in the Secondaries
| | 01:59 | room there are no copy buttons.
| | 02:05 | So take a look at the fifth clip down.
It's a similar clip. It just doesn't
| | 02:10 | have any corrections applied to it yet.
So what I'm going to do is actually
| | 02:13 | take and drag these corrections onto
this clip, but I can't actually drag it
| | 02:19 | onto the clip. What I mean by that is
that I have to drag the corrections onto
| | 02:24 | this Grade bar, not onto the
clip icon. Let me demonstrate.
| | 02:29 | If I take this secondary correction
and drag it onto the actual icon, notice
| | 02:34 | this hand that's holding the secondary
correction, and let go, nothing actually
| | 02:40 | happens. The correction is not applied
to the clip. What I need to do when I
| | 02:45 | drag a correction is drag it onto the
Grade bar for that clip. So I'll take the
| | 02:52 | correction, drag it onto the Grade bar
for that clip and if you're working with
| | 02:56 | multiple grades, you'd simply drag it
to the grade that you want to apply the correction to.
| | 02:59 | Notice the Grade bar becomes
highlighted and notice the hand is holding the
| | 03:03 | secondary correction. I'll let go and
that secondary correction has now been
| | 03:08 | applied to that clip. Of course,
because these clips are similar, it probably
| | 03:11 | also makes sense to drag this Primary
In correction. I'll go ahead and do that,
| | 03:14 | dragging it to the Grade bar.
| | 03:16 | Now if I look at these clips, they
have the same corrections applied.
| | 03:23 | The second clip in the Color Timeline
has multiple corrections applied to it.
| | 03:26 | It has a Primary In correction, a
secondary correction and a Color FX correction.
| | 03:32 | The fourth clip in the Color Timeline
is a similar clip and has no corrections applied to it.
| | 03:37 | So instead of dragging each correction
to this clip, what I'm going to actually
| | 03:41 | do is drag the grade. So I'll drag
this grade onto this Grade bar. And what
| | 03:47 | that does is it replaces any
corrections that were on this grade. But since I
| | 03:51 | have no corrections, I should be fine.
So what I'm going to do is actually drag
| | 03:55 | this Grade bar onto this Grade bar,
and what that will essentially do is
| | 03:59 | replace any corrections that were on
this grade. But this grade doesn't have
| | 04:03 | any corrections on it, so the effect
will essentially be new corrections.
| | 04:07 | So I'll take this Grade bar and drag
over onto the other Grade bar and notice
| | 04:11 | that the hand is holding the
primary, the secondary and the Color FX
| | 04:15 | correction. These corrections are the
corrections that are attached to the
| | 04:18 | grade on the original clip. I'll let go
and now all three of those corrections
| | 04:23 | were applied to the new clip. I'll
take a peek and it's the same look.
| | 04:28 | There's another way to copy grades. Let
me show you that real quick. But first,
| | 04:33 | I'm going to reset this grade, so I
get a blank grade again. To reset a grade
| | 04:37 | I'll right click on the Grade bar and
say Reset Grade. That clears all the
| | 04:41 | corrections on that grade and
I'm back to the original clip.
| | 04:45 | So up here in the Grade menu, I can
choose to copy and paste grades. When I
| | 04:50 | copy a grade, I can choose to store it
in any one of five memory banks.
| | 04:54 | Each memory bank can store a separate grade.
| | 04:57 | So let me go ahead and store this
grade in Memory bank number one. Nothing
| | 05:02 | really happens in the Color interface,
but this grade was stored in that memory bank.
| | 05:06 | I'll come down to this next clip,
that's the same guitar shot, come back
| | 05:12 | up to the Grade menu and choose Paste
Grade. And because I've stored the grade
| | 05:17 | in Memory bank number one, I'll paste
memory bank number one. Now you can see
| | 05:23 | that that grade was applied
to this second guitar shot.
| | 05:26 | Finally, let's take a look at copying
corrections and grades within one clip.
| | 05:30 | I'll go down to the second to last
clip in the Color Timeline. In this shot
| | 05:34 | from artbeats.com, we've previously
graded to have this surreal sky. Currently
| | 05:39 | there is a Primary In and a Secondary
on this grade, but what I want to do is
| | 05:43 | go ahead and create a new grade, and
if you remember from the previous movie,
| | 05:46 | to create a new grade, I can just
choose the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+2, Ctrl_3
| | 05:50 | or Ctrl+4 for Grade 2, Grade 3 and Grade 4.
| | 05:53 | So I'll do Ctrl+2. And a new grade is
added to that clip, and I'm back to the
| | 05:59 | original clip because that grade is
empty of corrections. So to copy a
| | 06:02 | correction from one grade to another
grade within the same clip, all I need to
| | 06:06 | do is go back to the first grade, find
the correction that I want to copy, say
| | 06:11 | this Primary In correction, and
drag it onto the Grade 2 bar.
| | 06:17 | That automatically switches me back over to
Grade 2, and I now have that exact same
| | 06:21 | Primary In correction that was on grade one.
| | 06:24 | Let me go ahead and reset Grade 2 here
so we can do something else. I'll right
| | 06:29 | click on Grade 2 and choose Reset
Grade 2. That will get me back to the
| | 06:34 | original clip. So we just saw how to
drag a correction from one grade to
| | 06:39 | another grade within the same clip, but
we can do the same thing by dragging a
| | 06:43 | grade to another grade within the same clip.
| | 06:46 | So instead of dragging each individual
correction into Grade 2, what I'll do is
| | 06:50 | drag one grade bar onto another grade
bar. So I'll drag Grade 1 onto Grade 2
| | 06:57 | and notice that the little hand is
holding the Primary and the Secondary
| | 07:00 | correction that were contained on Grade
1. I'll let go on Grade 2 and now Grade
| | 07:07 | 2 has the exact same correction that
Grade 1 does. And the reason I'm showing
| | 07:15 | you this is because this is a very
useful way when you want to start out with a
| | 07:18 | base correction, the same between grades,
but there's something different that
| | 07:21 | you want to do on the second grade.
| | 07:24 | So for example, on both of these
grades the sky is this purple color.
| | 07:28 | So on Grade 2, let's go ahead and change
the color of the sky. But since we already
| | 07:33 | dragged the Primary and Secondary
corrections, I don't have to reinvent the
| | 07:36 | wheel, meaning that the HSL key and the
Vignette that I used to limit that HSL
| | 07:42 | key are already applied. All I need
to do now is simply change the color.
| | 07:47 | So instead of this pink-purple-y color,
let's drag down and add a deep blue.
| | 08:02 | Something like that and now if I
switch back and forth between the Grades,
| | 08:06 | here's the surreal sky and here's the
deep blue sky. By dragging Grade 1 onto
| | 08:11 | Grade 2, that was a really easy way to
update the look without having to do all the grunt work.
| | 08:15 | So we've been able to copy and drag
corrections and grades, and in the next
| | 08:19 | movie, we'll take a look at saving
corrections and grades, so we can apply them
| | 08:22 | to clips in our project and other projects.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Saving corrections and grades| 00:00 | Automation is all around us. Your iPod
syncs with your computer. Your monthly
| | 00:04 | credit card statements are
automatically emailed to you with a friendly or
| | 00:08 | maybe not so friendly reminder to pay
the bill, and while we probably wouldn't
| | 00:11 | want total automation within color,
because after all, every shot is slightly
| | 00:14 | different. The more grading that you do,
the more you realize there are a lot
| | 00:17 | of times, where you want to use the
same kinds of corrections or even the exact same correction.
| | 00:22 | In this movie, we'll take a look at
Saving Corrections and Grades, so that we
| | 00:25 | can apply them to other clips, and in
that way, not only can we work faster,
| | 00:29 | but we can maintain consistency
throughout our show. So the mechanics of Saving
| | 00:33 | Corrections in Color is pretty easy.
In the Primary In, Secondaries, Color FX
| | 00:38 | and Primary Out room, I can easily
save corrections by using the corrections bin.
| | 00:43 | In the Primary In, Secondaries and
Primary Out room, that corrections bin
| | 00:48 | is right here on the left-hand side of the room.
| | 00:50 | And in the Color FX room, I can save
the color FX in the Color FX Bin down here
| | 00:56 | at the bottom of the room. So to save
an actual correction, all I need to do is
| | 01:02 | select the clip, and the correction
that I want to save, for example, this
| | 01:05 | first clip already has a primary
collection applied to it, so I'll simply
| | 01:08 | position my playhead on the clip,
make sure that I'm in the room of the
| | 01:12 | correction I want to save, and then
all I need to do is click the Save button
| | 01:16 | at the bottom of the bin.
| | 01:17 | Now before I do that, I want you to
notice something. Here in the File box, I
| | 01:21 | have all these weird numbers, and
here's what this is. By default, if you don't
| | 01:25 | give a correction a name by entering
it here in the File box, Color will save
| | 01:29 | the file by the correction type, day,
month, year, hour, minute, second and
| | 01:34 | even time zone followed by an extension.
Well that's kind of confusing.
| | 01:39 | So I actually want to give
this correction my own name.
| | 01:43 | So I'll click in the box and let's
call this closeup primary. Now here's a
| | 01:52 | little quirky thing about Color. If I
click somewhere else in the interface,
| | 01:56 | say in a gray area right here of the
corrections bin, notice that the name that
| | 02:02 | I entered is reset. I just want to
make sure when I name a file that I
| | 02:09 | immediately click the Save button.
And when I click the Save button the
| | 02:14 | correction is saved. And it saves a
little thumbnail here that's representative
| | 02:19 | of the frame I was on when I saved the
correction. You can see the thumbnail
| | 02:23 | and the name of the correction here. I
can also view this as a list simply by
| | 02:27 | changing my view to List
View here at the top of the bin.
| | 02:31 | Now if you think about it, you can
see that quite easily this bin could get
| | 02:35 | pretty messy. If you use Color for say
over a year and you're working on dozens
| | 02:40 | and dozens of projects, this bin could
get very messy very quickly. So wouldn't
| | 02:44 | be nice if I could organize things
into folders? Well I actually can, and to
| | 02:48 | create a new folder in a corrections
bin, all I need to do is click the New
| | 02:52 | button. When I click the New button,
Color prompts me to Name the folder.
| | 02:56 | And I'll call this something like music
video corrections, and hit Create.
| | 03:05 | Now you didn't delete your correction.
What happened was, Color automatically
| | 03:08 | stepped you into that folder. You can
go back up one level by hitting the up
| | 03:14 | button here, or you can go back to the
default directory by clicking the little
| | 03:17 | button with the house on it. Back on
the main level, you can now see I have a
| | 03:22 | folder and I have the primary
correction that I previously saved. If I want to
| | 03:26 | save a new primary correction into that
folder, all I need to do is go into the
| | 03:30 | folder, and save a
correction like I previously did.
| | 03:34 | If I want to organize corrections that
I've already saved, I actually can't do
| | 03:38 | it here in Color. You would think that
you could just take this correction that
| | 03:41 | you saved and drag it into this folder.
You can't actually do that. What I need
| | 03:45 | to do is go out of Color and into the
Finder to organize this correction into that folder.
| | 03:50 | So I'll hide Color quickly by hitting
Command+H and then I'll choose my hard
| | 03:56 | drive, my user folder, Library,
Application Support and Color. Once again, that
| | 04:06 | file path is user, Library,
Application Support, and Color. And here I have a
| | 04:14 | number of folders. I have folders
for pre-saved Color effects, pre-saved
| | 04:19 | Grades, Primary corrections and
Secondary corrections as well as Shapes and
| | 04:23 | something called Look-up tables.
| | 04:25 | So let me step into my Primary folder
and here you can see I have a few files.
| | 04:30 | The .lsi file is the thumbnail that
Color saves, and the .pcc file is the
| | 04:36 | actual color correction file, with .pcc
standing for Primary Color Correction.
| | 04:41 | If I saved the secondary color
correction, it would be labeled .scc for
| | 04:45 | Secondary Color Correction. And here
we can see the folder that I made inside of Color.
| | 04:50 | Now to organize this correction into
this folder, I need to make sure that I
| | 04:54 | select both the thumbnail and the
actual color correction file and drag those
| | 05:00 | into that folder. If I go back to Color
now, I need to refresh the Corrections Bin.
| | 05:07 | To refresh the Corrections Bin,
simply click the button with the little
| | 05:11 | house on it and that will refresh the
bin. And now you can see I just have the
| | 05:16 | folder, not the correction and the
folder. And if I step into the folder,
| | 05:21 | there's the correction that I moved into it.
| | 05:23 | Okay, let's talk about saving a
secondary correction. I'll click on my
| | 05:26 | Secondaries room and let's navigate
down to the third clip on the Color
| | 05:30 | timeline. Here's a clip that has a
secondary applied. It's just a vignette to
| | 05:34 | give this sort of spotlight effect.
The mechanics of saving a secondary
| | 05:38 | correction work just like a primary
correction. If I don't give it a name it
| | 05:41 | defaults to this weird naming or of
course, I can actually type in a name in
| | 05:45 | the File box here. So I'll call it
spotlight and click Save. And the correction
| | 05:54 | is saved into the Secondaries Bin.
| | 05:57 | Now it would probably make sense if I
organized these corrections into folders
| | 06:00 | as well. So of course, I can create a
new folder by simply hitting the New
| | 06:04 | button. It will prompt me for a
name. I'll also call this music video
| | 06:12 | corrections, and then click Create.
Color of course automatically steps me into
| | 06:18 | that bin. If I go back up one level,
remember I can't drag a correction into a
| | 06:24 | bin, but I can create a
correction when I'm inside of a bin.
| | 06:28 | So I'll select this correction that I
just saved and actually just hit the
| | 06:32 | Delete button. Color prompts me with
this warning that says this action is
| | 06:36 | undoable. You're going to be deleting
this file at this file path. Do you want
| | 06:40 | to continue? And I'm daring, so I'll say sure.
| | 06:44 | So the correction is deleted. But now
if I go into the folder and click Save,
| | 06:50 | just make sure that you have the
correct name that you want to use, the
| | 06:54 | correction is saved inside of that
folder. Next, let's take a look at saving a
| | 06:59 | Color FX correction. The fourth clip
on the Color timeline has a Color FX
| | 07:05 | correction. Here's its node tree. The
mechanics of saving a Color FX correction
| | 07:09 | are the same as the Primary
In and the Secondaries room.
| | 07:11 | What I can do is simply give this node
tree a name, and to do that I'll come
| | 07:19 | into the File box here and give it a
name. We'll call this blur vignette and
| | 07:24 | I'll hit Save. And notice that the
correction is saved. Here's my one pet peeve
| | 07:31 | about the Color FX Bin. Color ships
all these great pre-built color effects,
| | 07:35 | but I don't like them cluttering up
the main level of the Color FX bin.
| | 07:38 | So as we previously discussed I can organize
this very easily by going back out into
| | 07:43 | the Finder. Remember the file path, User,
Library, Application Support and then
| | 07:49 | Color, and I'll come into the Effects
folder and here's where I can see all my
| | 07:57 | Color effects, including the one I just
created, this blur vignette. But I want
| | 08:03 | to organize all the other Color
effects into a folder called apple presets.
| | 08:07 | That way they won't take up so much
space on the main level of the Color FX Bin.
| | 08:11 | So I'll create a new folder and let's
call this apple presets. And then I'll
| | 08:19 | select all the presets except for
the one that I just created, this blur
| | 08:27 | vignette, and I'll drag all the apple
presets into the apple presets folder.
| | 08:34 | And it probably makes sense at this
point to create my own folder, just like I
| | 08:37 | did for the primary corrections
and the secondary corrections.
| | 08:41 | So I'll call this folder music video
corrections, and take the color effect
| | 08:48 | that I just saved and put it in there
as well. Now I'm back in Color, if I
| | 08:56 | refresh the Color FX Bin, again, I
refresh the bin by simply clicking the icon
| | 09:01 | with the little house on it here. So
now I have a folder for my apple presets
| | 09:07 | as well as a folder for
corrections for this project.
| | 09:10 | So we've saved corrections. Let's
take a look at actually applying those
| | 09:12 | corrections. So remember I saved a
primary correction for this first clip.
| | 09:20 | If I take a look at the last clip in the
Color timeline, it looks very similar.
| | 09:24 | So it would make sense then to simply not
redo the primary correction, but just
| | 09:28 | take the saved primary correction and
apply it to this last clip in the Color
| | 09:32 | timeline. I have three ways of doing
this. I can select the Clip, select the
| | 09:38 | correction that I saved, and hit the
Load button, I can double-click on the
| | 09:43 | correction that I saved, or I can
drag the correction onto the Grade that I
| | 09:48 | want to apply the correction to.
| | 09:51 | I'll simply double-click on the
correction. Now it doesn't look like anything
| | 09:55 | happened in the timeline, but remember,
Color is a little quirky about this
| | 09:58 | kind of thing. So if I switch off the
clip and then switch back to the clip,
| | 10:02 | you can see that the primary
correction has been applied.
| | 10:05 | Next, let's apply a secondary correction.
Here was the correction that I saved,
| | 10:11 | this spotlight effect, and there's a
clip down further in the timeline, this
| | 10:17 | guy, that doesn't have that
spotlight effect. I want to apply this saved
| | 10:21 | correction to this new clip. Remember
three ways to do it. Select the Clip, hit
| | 10:26 | the Load button, double-click on the
saved correction, or simply drag the
| | 10:31 | correction onto the Grade you
want to apply the correction to.
| | 10:33 | I'll take the correction and drag it
down onto the Grade. Again, Color is a
| | 10:38 | little quirky about this switch off the
clip, switch back to the clip, and you
| | 10:42 | can see that the correction has been
applied. It would probably make sense if I
| | 10:45 | also saved the primary correction
from this original clip that had the
| | 10:49 | spotlight effect on it.
| | 10:50 | So I'll do that very quickly. And I
can apply that primary correction in the
| | 11:04 | same way. Now let's apply our color
effects correction that we saved. Remember
| | 11:10 | that color effect we saved, it was that
blur vignette. Well I'll simply select
| | 11:18 | another clip in the timeline that
looks very similar, come to the Color FX
| | 11:22 | room, into my music video
corrections folder and apply the blur vignette.
| | 11:27 | And I can do that in the same exact
three ways that I applied the other
| | 11:31 | corrections. Select the Clip, double-
click on the correction, select the Clip,
| | 11:36 | select the Save Correction and hit Load,
or drag the correction down onto the Load.
| | 11:40 | I'll just double-click on the
saved correction. I'll click off the clip
| | 11:46 | and back to the clip and you can see
that the color effect has been applied,
| | 11:49 | and here's its node tree.
| | 11:51 | So saving corrections and applying
corrections is pretty straightforward.
| | 11:54 | Let's talk about one more thing, saving
Grades. Here's a clip that used in primary
| | 12:00 | correction too, I'll add a secondary
correction to it, and I'll add a Color FX
| | 12:04 | correction. So let me very quickly do
some primary correction to this clip.
| | 12:16 | I'll apply secondary by using the
vignette, and then let's apply a color
| | 12:43 | effect. I'll use one of the Apple
presets. This Bleach Bypass Warm I think will work.
| | 12:49 | That's a pretty cool look.
| | 12:53 | So if I switch off a clip in the Color
timeline, you can see now that I have a
| | 12:57 | primary, secondary and a Color FX
correction applied to this Grade. When I'm
| | 13:02 | saving a Grade, all I'm really doing
is saving all the corrections that are
| | 13:05 | attached to that Grade. And to save a
Grade what I need to do is come into the
| | 13:09 | Setup room and choose the Grades
tab. And this works just like saving corrections.
| | 13:15 | I simply select the clip or have my
playhead on the clip and click Save.
| | 13:22 | But first, I'm going to give this Grade
a name, so I'll call this guitar with
| | 13:29 | bleach, for Bleach Bypass and I'll hit
Save. And just like with corrections,
| | 13:36 | the Grade is saved. So to illustrate
applying a Grade, I'll reset this Grade in
| | 13:41 | the Color timeline by right
clicking on it and saying Reset Grade.
| | 13:45 | So now I'm back to the original clip.
And to apply the Grade, all I need to do
| | 13:49 | is double-click on it, switch off the
clip, switch back, and you can see that
| | 13:55 | the Grade has been applied. Remember
this Grade consisted of a primary and a
| | 13:59 | secondary, and a Color FX tree.
| | 14:03 | After you apply a Grade or a correction,
it doesn't mean that you can't tweak
| | 14:06 | it further. So I applied this Grade,
but now I could come in and perform more
| | 14:10 | corrections if I wanted to. For example,
I could come into the Geometry room
| | 14:13 | for this clip, into the Pan
and Scan tab and zoom in a bit.
| | 14:22 | The Grade that I saved is still there.
It just doesn't have that geometry
| | 14:26 | adjustment. Now we've gone through
saving Corrections and Grades, and hopefully
| | 14:29 | you can see that it's a pretty
powerful way to speed up your workflow.
| | 14:32 | There are a couple of quirky things about
saving corrections and Grades, but I think
| | 14:35 | once you get around those, it's very useful.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Groups| 00:00 | The more experience you get with color
grading, the more you realize that the
| | 00:03 | actual corrections are the easy part.
I don't say that's to make light of the
| | 00:06 | actual time and effort it takes to
make these corrections, but often the task
| | 00:09 | that most consumes a colorist's life
is making sure that similar shots are
| | 00:12 | corrected in the same kind of way.
| | 00:13 | In this movie, we'll take a look at a
feature in Color Code Groups. We use this
| | 00:17 | feature to apply corrections and grades
to groups of clips in a consistent and
| | 00:20 | logical way. I access Groups in the
setup room, and then I'm on the shots tab.
| | 00:25 | The shots tab simply shows me all the
clips that I have in a Color project, and
| | 00:28 | there's two ways of viewing it. List
view, which I'm looking at now, and Icon
| | 00:33 | view, which helps me see icons or
thumbnails of all my clips. Either way,
| | 00:38 | simply selecting a clip here in the
shots tab, also selects it in the Color
| | 00:41 | timeline. I can search for clips, say,
based on their name, and I can sort any
| | 00:48 | one of the columns here in List view,
by clicking on the column head. But the
| | 00:52 | only way I can use groups
is when I'm in Icon view.
| | 00:55 | You'll notice right now that the
Shots tab is sort of confined to the
| | 00:58 | right-hand side of the setup room. Well,
if I come in between my file browser
| | 01:02 | and the shots tab, and hover my mouse,
this blue line becomes active.
| | 01:07 | If I click on that blue line, I can expand
the Shots tab. If I want to get the file
| | 01:11 | browser back, simply hover your mouse
here, click again, and you have the file
| | 01:16 | browser back. But I want the expanded
Shots tab. In the Shots tab, I can view
| | 01:22 | icons of all my clips like I'm viewing
now, and a good way to think about the
| | 01:25 | Shots tab when it's set to icon view
is like a traditional photographic light
| | 01:28 | table. I can see all my clips, and
then I can drag them around and position
| | 01:32 | them into groups. To select a clip,
all I need to do is click on it. Then to
| | 01:37 | move it, all I need to do is drag.
But I need to drag on its name bar, this
| | 01:41 | area right here. And I can reposition the clips.
| | 01:47 | Remember every time that I select a
clip it's also selected in the Color
| | 01:51 | timeline. Just like I did in the
Geometry room, I can zoom in and out and pan
| | 01:55 | around. Let's recall how to do this. By
holding my right mouse button down, and
| | 02:00 | dragging up and down, I can zoom in
and out. And by holding my middle mouse
| | 02:07 | button down and dragging left and right,
up and down, I can pan around. Let me
| | 02:12 | zoom out a little bit. You can see
in this project, it looks like I have
| | 02:17 | similar clips. These two shots right
here, these three guitar shots, and these
| | 02:22 | two profile shots. It makes sense
then that I'd like to group these clips,
| | 02:26 | because they're similar. So let's
go ahead and actually make a group.
| | 02:33 | To make a group I'm going to select
two clips. So I already have one clip
| | 02:36 | selected here. I'm then going to
select the second clip by command clicking.
| | 02:41 | Command clicking lets me select
multiple items. With these two clips selected,
| | 02:45 | I'm going to use the keyboard
shortcut G, G for Groups. When I hit G, a new
| | 02:50 | Group is added. I see that with this
Group bar right here, and also notice that
| | 02:56 | each one of the clips is connected to
that group. By selecting the Group bar, I
| | 03:00 | can move both the clips around at the
same time. But I can also move each clip
| | 03:05 | around individually.
| | 03:08 | Let's go ahead and make another
group for these two clips, but instead of
| | 03:11 | selecting the clips first, I'm going to
go ahead and just add a group, and then
| | 03:15 | we'll add the clips to the group. So
just make sure that you have no clip
| | 03:18 | selected. So I'll click anywhere here
in this gray area to de-select a clip.
| | 03:23 | And then let's just use that same
keyboard shortcut, G for Groups. And now I
| | 03:29 | have a new group added, it's labeled
Group 2. I'll then select these two clips,
| | 03:41 | and then to add each one of the clips
to the group, what I need to do is right
| | 03:45 | click on its name bar and drag. As I do
that, you can see this white line.
| | 03:51 | This is the line that I'm going to use to
connect this clip to the group, so I'll
| | 03:54 | drag onto the group bar itself, and
the clip is added to the group. I'll take
| | 04:00 | this clip and drag on to the group.
| | 04:02 | Again, remember, I right click on the
name bar, and drag out to the group bar.
| | 04:10 | And now both these clips are added to a
group. Finally, let's add a third group
| | 04:16 | for these three guitar shots. So I'll
hit G to add a Group, but notice what
| | 04:21 | happened when I did that? I still had
this one clip selected, and that clip was
| | 04:27 | now added to group three. That's not
what I want. So to disconnect a clip from
| | 04:32 | a group, I right click on it again, but
instead of dragging to a group, I drag
| | 04:36 | out anywhere into the gray area here,
and that clip is now disconnected from
| | 04:41 | Group 3. I can reconnect it back to its
original group by right clicking on its
| | 04:46 | name bar, dragging out to Group 2.
| | 04:53 | So let's organize these three clips
into Group 3 by following the same
| | 04:57 | methodology. I'll right click on the
name bar and drag to the Group bar.
| | 05:06 | Now I have three groups that make sense.
A group for the profile shots, a group for
| | 05:11 | these close-ups, and a group for these
guitar shots. So the next thing we want
| | 05:16 | to do is actually start applying some
corrections to these groups. This first
| | 05:19 | shot that I have on my Color timeline
is one of these close-ups, and clicking
| | 05:23 | on the thumbnail also selects it in
the timeline. The last clip in the Color
| | 05:27 | timeline is also a close-up. It's
this guy. Instead of redoing the primary
| | 05:32 | correction that this first clip has,
I'm going to apply this primary correction
| | 05:35 | to the group, which will also apply it
to the last clip in the Color timeline.
| | 05:40 | So I'll grab the primary correction in
the Color timeline and drag it on to the
| | 05:45 | Group bar. Notice when I do that, the
Group bar becomes highlighted. I'll let
| | 05:51 | go and that correction is applied to
the last clip in the Color timeline.
| | 05:56 | This of course works with secondary
corrections, or in fact works with any
| | 05:59 | correction. Let's do it again with a
secondary correction. This third clip in
| | 06:03 | the Color timeline is one of the
profile shots, and it has a secondary
| | 06:07 | correction. There's also another clip
later on that's the same profile shot,
| | 06:11 | but it doesn't have a secondary
correction applied yet. So I'll just take the
| | 06:15 | secondary color correction from the
timeline, and drag up, and drop it on to the Group icon.
| | 06:24 | And you can see that applied that
secondary to the clip later in the timeline.
| | 06:28 | I can keep adding corrections like this,
and what I mean by that is that this
| | 06:32 | clip doesn't have the primary
correction that this clip does, but that doesn't
| | 06:36 | matter. I can simply keep adding
corrections. So I'll take the primary in
| | 06:40 | correction, and drag it up to the Group
icon, and that also adds the Primary In
| | 06:46 | correction. But you can see that very
easily it would take a while if I had a
| | 06:50 | lot of corrections on a clip to keep
dragging each correction to the group icon.
| | 06:54 | So instead I can drag a Grade.
| | 06:56 | The second clip on the Color timeline
has a couple of corrections on it.
| | 07:00 | A Primary In correction, a Secondary
correction and a Color FX correction.
| | 07:04 | So instead of dragging each correction to
the group, I'm simply going to drag the
| | 07:08 | Grade. Notice that this clip has
three corrections on it, a Primary In, a
| | 07:12 | Secondary and a Color FX correction. So
if I take this Grade and drag it up to
| | 07:19 | Group 3, notice as I drag that I'm
actually dragging three corrections.
| | 07:24 | This Grade contains three corrections. If I let go,
the entire Grade was applied to these other clips.
| | 07:32 | There's just two things to keep in mind
when dragging corrections and grades to
| | 07:37 | groups like this. Any grade that you
apply replaces the current correction or
| | 07:41 | the current grade on those clips. The
second thing to realize is that after you
| | 07:45 | apply a correction or a grade by
dragging it to a group, it's not undoable.
| | 07:49 | So in other words, I can't hit Command+Z
to undo that Grade that I just dragged to
| | 07:54 | Group 3. I'd have to come into
each clip and reset the grade.
| | 08:01 | It's just a quirky little thing in
Color. As you can see, groups are pretty cool.
| | 08:05 | I'd like to say one more time
that whether it be by dragging or copying
| | 08:09 | corrections, saving corrections, or
grades, or using groups, there's no wrong
| | 08:14 | or right way to manage your
corrections or grades. We've just discussed a lot
| | 08:17 | of them in this chapter. What matters
most is that you find a way that you're
| | 08:20 | comfortable with, and I think
you'll find that most often by using a
| | 08:23 | combination of the methods that we've
talked about in this chapter, to organize
| | 08:26 | and work with your corrections and
grades, will often work the best.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Still Store room| 00:00 | I have probably said it a thousand
times up to this point, but a colorist's
| | 00:03 | eyes and the decisions they make with
those eyes are their biggest asset.
| | 00:06 | The designers of Color realize this and
to help us utilize these wonderful eyes
| | 00:09 | created the Still Store Room. The
purpose of the still store room is to capture
| | 00:12 | a representative frame of one clip, and
then use that frame as a comparison to
| | 00:16 | another clip. Why, you might ask? Well,
when you're performing scene to scene
| | 00:19 | color correction, the still store room
is a handy tool for comparing contrast
| | 00:23 | in Color between two clips,
so you can match them.
| | 00:26 | If you're an experienced Final Cut Pro
user, you may be familiar with the Frame
| | 00:29 | Viewer. Well, the idea of the still
store room is essentially the same.
| | 00:32 | So let's go ahead and take a look at the
still store room. The first clip that I
| | 00:35 | have in my Color timeline is working
for me. The second clip, however, is not
| | 00:41 | and that's because of this obvious
blue color cast. The other thing is that
| | 00:44 | these two clips were shot at the same
location right around the same time of
| | 00:47 | day, so they should match. So to help
me match these shots, what I'm going to
| | 00:52 | do is save a still of this first clip,
and use that still to compare against the second clip.
| | 00:58 | That will aid me in making the
corrections I need to make on this second clip.
| | 01:03 | So first let's go to the frame that I
want to save in this first clip. That one
| | 01:08 | works. Just make sure that it's
representative of the clip. Next, let's go into
| | 01:14 | the still store room. The main area
here in the still store room is where I
| | 01:18 | save or store stills. Over on the
right-hand side of the room I have some
| | 01:24 | controls for how those saved stills
are displayed. Then at the bottom of the
| | 01:27 | room, I have controls for naming the
file and choosing the directory where the
| | 01:31 | file is saved. We'll get back to
this directory part in one minute.
| | 01:34 | So, with my playhead on the frame that
I want to save, all I need to do is hit
| | 01:38 | the Save button, right here, or I
can come up to the still store menu and
| | 01:43 | choose Store. Note the keyboard
shortcut, Ctrl+I. Often times when saving
| | 01:48 | stills, using this keyboard shortcut,
Ctrl+I is the fastest way to do it.
| | 01:53 | So I'll use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+I,
and the still is saved. Remember back
| | 01:58 | to a few movies ago when we saved
corrections in the Primary, and Secondary,
| | 02:01 | as well as the Color FX room.
| | 02:02 | When we saved those corrections, it
took on a weird default name, and when I
| | 02:07 | save stills, it does the same thing.
So to save a still with a name that I
| | 02:11 | choose, let me go ahead and delete the
still. I'll select the still, and hit
| | 02:15 | the Delete key. Color warns me that
this action is undoable, do you want to
| | 02:19 | continue? I'll say sure. To save the
still with the name that I want, what I
| | 02:25 | need to do is type in the name that I
want in the file box here, and just to
| | 02:29 | keep things simple, I'll call this
good shot. And then I can either use the
| | 02:34 | keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+I, or hit the
Save button here. And this still is once
| | 02:40 | again saved, but this time it's
saved with the name good shot.
| | 02:44 | So before we actually go ahead and
compare this still to the second shot in the
| | 02:48 | Color timeline, let me hide Color for
one second. What I want to show you is
| | 02:52 | where these stills are stored by
default. If I go into my exercise files disk
| | 02:56 | image, I'll go into the Chapter 11
folder, and then the 11_5 Stillstoreroom
| | 03:03 | Color project. Let me right click on
this Color project, and choose Show
| | 03:07 | Package Contents. In the Package
Contents I have a folder called StillStore.
| | 03:14 | In the StillStore folder, that's where my
stills are stored, and just like saved
| | 03:18 | corrections, there's two files. The .
LSI file is the icon file. That's the
| | 03:23 | thumbnail that shows up in Color. And
the .SRI file is the actual still store file.
| | 03:28 | Do you remember when I deleted that
still that I saved earlier? Well, Color
| | 03:31 | actually doesn't delete the still from
disk. It's still inside of my project.
| | 03:36 | The reason I'm showing you all of this
is because when you save stills, they're
| | 03:40 | saved as part of your project, and if
you save a lot of stills on a project,
| | 03:43 | the size of your project file will go
up. Also, unlike saved corrections and
| | 03:48 | grades that you can share between
projects, when you save a still, it's saved
| | 03:52 | in the project, not between
projects. Okay, let's jump back to Color.
| | 03:56 | Now that we've saved the still, we
need to compare it against the second shot
| | 04:01 | in the Color timeline, so all I need to
do is select the still and click Load.
| | 04:07 | That still is now loaded. Then I
just need to make sure that this Display
| | 04:11 | Loaded Still check box is checked, or I
can use the still store menu and choose
| | 04:17 | Enable. Note the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+U.
| | 04:22 | So let me position my playhead into the
second clip. Something like that works
| | 04:30 | right around 403, midway through the
clip. I just picked midway through the
| | 04:34 | clip, so hopefully it's representative
of the clip. Notice now on my preview I
| | 04:38 | have a split screen. Here's the still
that I saved and then loaded, and here's
| | 04:42 | the clip that's currently under my
playhead. This doesn't really do me much
| | 04:44 | good, 'cause I'm simply
looking at this washed-out sky.
| | 04:47 | Over here in the upper right-hand
corner of the room, I have some controls I
| | 04:50 | can adjust to change how the still is
being displayed against the clip under my
| | 04:55 | playhead. So I have these presets where
I can display the still Left to Right,
| | 04:59 | Right to Left, Top to Bottom, Bottom to
Top. So for example, if I choose Right
| | 05:03 | to Left, the loaded still and the
clip under my playhead swap places.
| | 05:10 | I can then use the Transition and Angle
parameters here to adjust where the actual split happens.
| | 05:16 | So if I adjust my transition parameter,
you can see that I can change where the
| | 05:21 | split happens. And now I can see more
clearly that this shot definitely doesn't
| | 05:29 | match the saved shot. Now I'm ready to
actually make the correction to the clip
| | 05:33 | under my playhead, the blue clip here.
I actually already went ahead and made
| | 05:37 | the correction. So let me click back
into my Primary In room, and I previously
| | 05:42 | saved a primary correction for this
clip. Just note, you won't actually have
| | 05:46 | this correction as part of your
exercise files, but we've already talked
| | 05:49 | extensively about Primary and Secondary
color correction, so you should be able
| | 05:52 | to make the correction to this
clip to match the loaded still.
| | 05:56 | Let me just double click on the saved
correction, and now you can see the two
| | 06:00 | clips match. Again, this is the whole
idea behind the still store room.
| | 06:04 | I can use the loaded still to compare
against another clip, and then make the
| | 06:09 | corrections that I need to make to have
the two clips match, as I've done here,
| | 06:13 | with this correction. Once again, you
won't actually have the saved correction
| | 06:17 | in the exercise files. But knowing
what you know now about Primary correction
| | 06:21 | and Secondary correction, you should
be able to make the corrections to this clip.
| | 06:24 | So you can see that the still store
room is an easy tool to compare two shots.
| | 06:29 | To recap the process, I simply position
my playhead on the frame that I want to save.
| | 06:33 | I then save that frame into the
still store room. I click on that frame,
| | 06:38 | and load the frame. I make sure that
the still is actually being displayed with
| | 06:44 | this display loaded still button, or by
choosing Still Store room Enable.
| | 06:51 | I'll adjust how my split screen is
happening, and then I correct the clip that's
| | 06:56 | under my playhead. And the clip that's
under my playhead is the clip that I'm
| | 06:59 | using to compare against the loaded still.
Up next, we're going to talk all about keyframing.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
12. Changing Color Over TimeBasics of Keyframing in Color| 00:00 | So you thought you were done with
keyframes when you learned Motion or After
| | 00:03 | Effects or some other application
that uses keyframes. You thought you were
| | 00:06 | going to escape them in Color? Ha! In
this chapter, we'll cover the basics of
| | 00:11 | keyframing and look at how different
rooms keyframe different things. Then in
| | 00:15 | the next few movies, we'll put that
knowledge to work and keyframe some corrections.
| | 00:20 | So what's a keyframe? Well, put simply,
a keyframe is like a bookmark in time
| | 00:24 | that remembers information about a
particular setting or parameter. By using
| | 00:29 | multiple keyframes, you can have a
setting or parameter change over time. So,
| | 00:34 | for example, in Color, if you have a
keyframe at the start of the clip and
| | 00:37 | another in the middle of the clip,
each one of those keyframes can remember a correction.
| | 00:42 | So if those corrections are different
in animation or a change will happen
| | 00:46 | between the two keyframes, keyframes
are a great way to fix problems that
| | 00:50 | otherwise can't be fixed by a single
correction, like fixing an exposure change
| | 00:55 | that happened in the middle of a clip.
So in this movie, we're going to talk
| | 00:58 | about the mechanics of keyframes in Color.
| | 01:01 | First, to add a keyframe in Color, you
have two options, use the Timeline menu
| | 01:06 | and choose Add Keyframe, or use the
keyboard shortcut Ctrl+9. One really,
| | 01:13 | really important note about keyframe
shortcuts in Color, if you're using Mac OS
| | 01:17 | 10.5, the OS has a feature called
Spaces. The thing is, the default keyboard
| | 01:23 | shortcut to switch directly to
a space is Ctrl, then a number.
| | 01:28 | So depending on how you have Spaces
configured, you may jump right to a
| | 01:31 | different space rather than adding or
navigating the keyframe in Color. So it's
| | 01:36 | a good idea to change that default
shortcut in your System Preferences.
| | 01:39 | I've already changed it on my system.
| | 01:42 | Next, you need to make sure that the
room you want to add the keyframe to is
| | 01:46 | active before adding the keyframe.
Keyframes in Color get added to the
| | 01:50 | currently selected room and the
currently selected grade. So let's add a
| | 01:55 | keyframe. I'll choose Add Keyframe
from the Timeline menu to this clip in the
| | 01:59 | timeline. Already in the timeline,
I have a number of keyframes set up.
| | 02:05 | I'll show you each one of
these keyframes in a minute.
| | 02:08 | Notice how when I added that keyframe,
it was put onto its own keyframe track
| | 02:12 | that's labeled PI. Each one of these
little flags here represents a keyframe
| | 02:18 | track and there's one for each room.
In fact, the Secondaries room can have
| | 02:22 | multiple keyframe tracks, but
I'll get back to that in one second.
| | 02:25 | The important thing to understand is
when I add a keyframe it gets added to the
| | 02:28 | keyframe track for that particular room.
I added a keyframe for the Primary In
| | 02:33 | room, but let's talk about a few
specific things about the Primary In room.
| | 02:36 | In the Primary In room, every feature
except Curves can be keyframed. Also, you
| | 02:42 | can't keyframe an individual
parameter. Each keyframe records all the
| | 02:46 | parameters in the room at once, so the
Color Balance controls, the Basic and
| | 02:50 | Advanced tabs, and so on.
| | 02:52 | If you want to keyframe a color
correction, opposed to a contrast correction,
| | 02:57 | there's one important thing to remember.
In the Setup room, and then in User
| | 03:02 | Preferences, there's an option called
Radial HSL Interpolation. This is a big
| | 03:08 | fancy way of saying that a color
correction will be animated in a different way if it's on or off.
| | 03:15 | What Radial HSL Interpolation controls
is how an animation happens on a color
| | 03:19 | wheel. With it unchecked, let's say I
have my color balance control here, and I
| | 03:26 | added a keyframe for this correction.
Then later in time I had another keyframe
| | 03:31 | that animated to another
part of the color wheel.
| | 03:33 | Well, with the Preference off, the
animation happens in a linear fashion across
| | 03:39 | the color wheel, like that. With
Radial HSL Interpolation on, the animation
| | 03:46 | would happen around the color wheel. A
linear animation is preferred, as you
| | 03:51 | get less visible cycling through the
colors as the animation is made. And the default is off.
| | 03:58 | So we added one keyframe to the
Primary In room. Let me navigate my playhead
| | 04:02 | down a little further in this clip, and
you can see that there's a point in the
| | 04:05 | clip right around here that there's
an exposure change. So this is probably
| | 04:10 | where I want to make my second
keyframe, so I can correct for this exposure change.
| | 04:13 | Let me go ahead and try to make the
correction. I'll come up to the Highlight
| | 04:17 | color balance control and adjust its
Contrast slider. That doesn't seem to be
| | 04:24 | working. In fact, if I try to adjust
any control in the Primary In room, I can't.
| | 04:30 | Unlike applications like Final Cut Pro,
where you set an initial keyframe, and
| | 04:35 | then changes that you make after that
are interpreted by the application as a
| | 04:38 | request for a new keyframe. Color
makes you manually add a keyframe before
| | 04:43 | making a correction.
| | 04:45 | This is kind of good if you think
about it, because it's kind of a safety net
| | 04:47 | of sorts. I need to add another
keyframe, and notice the keyframe was added
| | 04:55 | down in the Primary In keyframe track,
and then, I can make the correction.
| | 05:00 | I'm not sure if that's the best
correction, I was just trying to show you the
| | 05:09 | mechanics of working with keyframes.
In a later movie in this chapter, we'll
| | 05:13 | actually keyframe this clip
properly to fix for the exposure change.
| | 05:16 | Let's go to the next clip down. This
clip has three keyframes, and those
| | 05:22 | keyframes are animating the vignette.
Let me click on the Secondaries room to
| | 05:26 | see this. If I drag through the clip
again, on the on-screen controls, you can
| | 05:32 | see the vignette animating. I'll play
the clip and you can see it a little bit
| | 05:37 | better. Animating this vignette kept
the effect of the spotlight that we did
| | 05:45 | moving with the subject.
| | 05:47 | The thing to note about keyframing in
the Secondaries room is that each of the
| | 05:50 | eight tabs in the Secondaries room,
these guys here at the bottom of the room,
| | 05:57 | can be keyframed, and each has their
own keyframe track. Both HSL keys and the
| | 06:02 | vignettes can be keyframed. However,
secondary curves cannot be keyframed.
| | 06:06 | Naturally, the same is true back in
the Primary In and Primary Out room.
| | 06:12 | As a rule in Color, curves cannot be
keyframed. In addition to being able to
| | 06:19 | keyframe HSL keys and vignettes, we can
actually keyframe the Enabled button on
| | 06:24 | and off, which allows us to turn the
Secondary on or off. We can keyframe the
| | 06:30 | Vignette button on or off to
turn a vignette, well, on or off.
| | 06:36 | Again, each Secondary tab has its own
keyframe track here in the timeline.
| | 06:42 | This keyframe track is denoted by S1 for
Secondary 1 and the tab that I'm working
| | 06:47 | with currently is Secondary tab 1. If I
added another secondary using secondary
| | 06:52 | 2, and added keyframes to this
secondary, I would expect to see a keyframe
| | 06:57 | track that's labeled S2.
| | 06:59 | All right. Let's move down to the
next clip. This clip appears to have some
| | 07:04 | sort of color effect on it. Let me go
into the Color FX room, and indeed it does.
| | 07:10 | I can see I have a node tree here.
Each node in the Color FX room can be
| | 07:13 | keyframed, but to save space, the
Color FX room is displayed as a single
| | 07:18 | keyframe track on the timeline,
not as a track for each node.
| | 07:22 | Here's the other thing that's kind of
confusing at first about keyframes that
| | 07:25 | are displayed for the Color FX keyframe
track. Notice currently in the timeline
| | 07:30 | for this clip, I have a Color FX
keyframe track, and it looks like, I don't
| | 07:35 | actually have any keyframes for
this node tree that I've built.
| | 07:39 | Well, this is actually a little bit of
a misnomer. If I click on the Vignette
| | 07:43 | node here, notice that all of a sudden
some keyframes appeared. Only keyframes
| | 07:49 | for the currently selected node are
displayed in the keyframes track for the
| | 07:53 | Color FX room in the timeline.
| | 07:55 | So if I switch to another node, say
the Alpha Blend node, the keyframes
| | 08:00 | disappear from the keyframes track in
the timeline. So if keyframes seem to
| | 08:05 | disappear at random from the Color FX
keyframe track, you've probably just
| | 08:09 | selected a different node that
doesn't have any keyframes on it.
| | 08:12 | Let's navigate to the last clip in
the Color timeline. I've quite a few
| | 08:17 | keyframes on this clip, but let's
first start in the Geometry room. In the
| | 08:22 | Geometry room, we can keyframe the
Pan&Scan tab as well as the Shapes tab.
| | 08:28 | And both the Pan&Scan tab and the Shapes
tab have their own keyframe track in the
| | 08:33 | timeline. Here's the Pan&Scan
track and here's the Shape track.
| | 08:37 | There's two things to keep in mind
about the Pan&Scan and Shapes tab in regard
| | 08:42 | to keyframes. First, if you sent your
project from Final Cut Pro to Color,
| | 08:46 | remember that Color doesn't
actually render the pan and scan movements.
| | 08:51 | Instead, those adjustments are rendered
back in Final Cut Pro. The reason that
| | 08:56 | this relates to keyframes is because
keyframes will also get sent back to Final Cut Pro.
| | 09:03 | The thing about the Shapes tab is that
we don't really want to create shapes here.
| | 09:08 | Remember the thing to do is to
first select a secondary, add a vignette,
| | 09:13 | choose user shape, create the user
shape in the Shapes tab of the Geometry room
| | 09:20 | and then attach it to the secondary. In
fact, that's the only way that you can
| | 09:25 | animate a shape if it's
been attached to a secondary.
| | 09:29 | The last room that we can keyframe is
the Primary Out room. The Primary Out
| | 09:35 | room has its own keyframe track as
well on the timeline. It's just labeled PO
| | 09:39 | for Primary Out. On this clip, I use
the Primary Out to keyframe a lighting change.
| | 09:50 | So we discussed how keyframes work in
each one of Color's rooms. Let's talk
| | 09:54 | about how keyframes work on the
timeline. I'll come back to this first clip,
| | 09:58 | and let me zoom in a bit. First, I
can resize the keyframe tracks in the
| | 10:05 | timeline. I can't resize an individual
keyframe track, but I can resize them
| | 10:09 | altogether. The way this works is I
simply grab the black bar for keyframe
| | 10:14 | track and drag down. This will expand
or contract the vertical height of each keyframe track.
| | 10:26 | The thing is if you're not currently in
the room that that keyframe was applied
| | 10:29 | to, you can't actually select it.
Notice if I try to select this keyframe, it
| | 10:35 | just keeps blinking out on me. So
what I can do is if I double-click on a
| | 10:39 | keyframe, it will bring me back to the
room that created that keyframe. In this
| | 10:45 | case, it was a Primary In correction.
| | 10:49 | So after I'm back in the room, I
simply position my playhead on the keyframe
| | 10:54 | and notice that it's active, and that's
signified by this blue highlighting.
| | 10:59 | I can move a keyframe left or right by
simply dragging it, but here's the really
| | 11:03 | neat thing. If I hold down the
Command key while dragging a keyframe,
| | 11:08 | the playhead locks to that keyframe. As I
drag, the preview updates. This is great
| | 11:15 | when you need to be very precise
about the position of the keyframe.
| | 11:19 | I can navigate back and forth between
keyframes very easily by using a keyboard
| | 11:23 | shortcut. If I hold down the Option
key and then hit either the Left or Right
| | 11:27 | Arrow keys, I can navigate between
keyframes. So the Right Arrow to go to the
| | 11:32 | next keyframe, and the Left
Arrow to go to the previous keyframe.
| | 11:36 | I can delete an individual keyframe
by coming up to the Timeline menu and
| | 11:40 | choosing Remove Keyframe or I can
use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+0.
| | 11:48 | I can remove all keyframes for a given room
by right-clicking in the keyframe track
| | 11:52 | for that room and choosing Delete All
Keyframes. When I do that, I'm presented
| | 11:58 | by a dialog box that asks me if I'm
sure if I want to delete all the keyframes
| | 12:01 | for that room and for that
current grade. I'll click Cancel.
| | 12:06 | Finally, the last thing we need to
know about keyframes is how animation
| | 12:10 | happens between two keyframes. How does
animation happen between two keyframes
| | 12:14 | is known as Interpolation, and we can
change keyframe interpolation in Color very easily.
| | 12:19 | First, to be able to change keyframe
interpolation, I need to make sure that I
| | 12:23 | have the leftmost keyframe selected
out of a group of two keyframes. Here, I
| | 12:28 | have the proper keyframe selected. I
could not change keyframe interpolation if
| | 12:32 | I had this keyframe selected.
| | 12:38 | So with the first keyframe selected,
I'll come to the Timeline menu and choose
| | 12:43 | Change Keyframe or note the keyboard
shortcut, Ctrl+8. Before I click this,
| | 12:48 | let's talk about the default method
of keyframe interpolation. The default
| | 12:51 | method is what's called Ease. And Ease
will slowly ease in and ease out of a
| | 12:57 | keyframe, giving you a natural animation.
| | 13:00 | If I change this keyframe, the next
type of interpolation is called Linear, and
| | 13:07 | I can see that represented by this
straight line. The straight line between
| | 13:11 | keyframes indicates a linear
interpolation, and the effect will either slow
| | 13:15 | down or speed up. It will
go at a constant steady pace.
| | 13:22 | Finally, the last interpolation method
that I have is called Constant. The way
| | 13:28 | that Constant Interpolation works is
that the value for the first keyframe is
| | 13:32 | held until the playhead gets to the
second keyframe and the change happens instantaneously.
| | 13:39 | So one last note. If you're exploring
this timeline on your own, just remember,
| | 13:43 | the keyframes that are added to
this project were not meant to be
| | 13:46 | representative of actual corrections.
They were added just to show the
| | 13:49 | mechanics of working with keyframes
in individual rooms. In later movies in
| | 13:54 | this chapter, we'll make
specific corrections using keyframes.
| | 13:57 | So now that we have the background info
on keyframes, let's jump into the next
| | 14:01 | few movies and put that knowledge to work.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Keyframing an exposure change| 00:00 | A common situation that you'll often
encounter as a colorist is having to
| | 00:04 | change the lighting in a shot. This
could literally mean changing the lighting
| | 00:07 | on an actor's face for example, or
having to compensate for exposure and iris
| | 00:12 | changes that happen in camera. In
this movie we'll keyframe a primary
| | 00:16 | correction to fix an exposure change.
Let's first just take a look at the shot.
| | 00:20 | I'll select the Color Timeline and hit
the spacebar to begin playback, and you
| | 00:26 | can see very clearly about halfway to
three-quarters of the way through this
| | 00:29 | shot, that there's an exposure change,
right there. This is going to be pretty
| | 00:33 | easy to fix though with a couple of
keyframes. Let's navigate back to the frame
| | 00:38 | right before the exposure change happens,
right about there. And the frame that
| | 00:44 | I'm on is one second and 19 frames, and
I can see that by taking a look at the
| | 00:48 | Current Frame box in the
right-hand side of the Timeline.
| | 00:52 | Because I know that I need two
keyframes for any change to happen, this is
| | 00:55 | where I'm going to make the first
keyframe. To do that, I'm going to come up to
| | 00:58 | the Timeline menu, and down to add
keyframe, or I could use the keyboard
| | 01:03 | shortcut, Ctrl+9. I'll just use Add
Keyframe here. Remember that keyframes are
| | 01:10 | added to the current room that you're
working in. So if I look at the keyframe
| | 01:13 | track, this keyframe track is labeled
PI for Primary In. That's because I'm
| | 01:19 | working in the Primary In room. If I
wanted to add keyframes to another room, I
| | 01:24 | need to first make sure that I'm
working in that room, and then add keyframes.
| | 01:28 | Okay, let's navigate to where the
exposure change happens. I think it's only a
| | 01:32 | frame or two away, so I'm going to use
the left and right arrows to navigate
| | 01:36 | frame by frame on the Timeline. Let me
hit the right arrow. Oh, and there it is.
| | 01:39 | It was only a frame away. This is
actually a pretty quick exposure change,
| | 01:45 | really quick, actually, but this is
where I'm going to make the next keyframe.
| | 01:49 | And to do that I'll just use
the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+9.
| | 01:51 | All right, now I have my two keyframes,
but let's zoom in on them a bit to make
| | 01:57 | it easier to look at. First, I'm
going to resize the keyframe track by just
| | 02:01 | taking the track resize handle
underneath the keyframes and dragging down.
| | 02:07 | Next, I'll zoom in a bit on the
keyframes, by just using my right mouse button,
| | 02:11 | and dragging left or right. But because
these keyframes are so close together,
| | 02:15 | there is an easier way to zoom in.
I'll come up to my Setup Room, choose User
| | 02:20 | Preferences, then let's just change the
units that the Timecode ruler is using
| | 02:25 | in the Timeline. Currently it's set to
seconds, let's change it to frames, and
| | 02:30 | this will zoom into the Timeline. I'll
just reposition the Timeline a little
| | 02:34 | bit by holding my middle mouse button
down and dragging left and right, and now
| | 02:38 | I have the keyframes centered up nice
and big. Okay, let's switch back to the
| | 02:43 | Primary In room. The thing that's
really going to help us make this correction
| | 02:48 | is comparing the trace on the Waveform
Scopes, when set to Luma, between the
| | 02:52 | two frames. And let's do that now. With
my playhead on the second keyframe, you
| | 02:58 | can see that the trace is pretty
elevated on the waveform scope.
| | 03:02 | I have trace that's well above 100%,
and most of the trace is centered between
| | 03:06 | about 20 upwards to about 70%, right
here. Let's navigate back to the previous
| | 03:14 | keyframe, and remember the keyboard
shortcut for that is to hold down the
| | 03:18 | option key and use the left or right
arrows to navigate between keyframes.
| | 03:22 | In this case, because I want to go back
one keyframe, it's option and the left
| | 03:26 | arrow. And here's the frame before the
exposure change. Notice the difference
| | 03:32 | in the trace. In this frame the trace
is centered really between about 10 to
| | 03:38 | upwards around 45 or 50% with some
peaks coming between 50% to just over 80% here.
| | 03:45 | So the idea is that I want to try
to match the trace between this frame,
| | 03:51 | and the frame where the exposure change happens.
| | 03:54 | So let's navigate back to the frame,
where the exposure change happens, and
| | 03:57 | let's get started with our correction.
I'm going to use the Contrast sliders
| | 04:03 | and the Color Balance controls to make
this correction work. First, I'm going
| | 04:07 | to come into the highlight Color
Balance control, and drag the Contrast slider
| | 04:10 | way down, something like that. When
making this type of correction, it's often
| | 04:19 | useful just to very quickly go back
and forth between the frames, so you can
| | 04:23 | compare the shot as well as the trace.
So here's the original frame before the
| | 04:28 | exposure change, and the frame after
the exposure change, with the correction
| | 04:32 | that I just made. It's getting close,
but you can see on the frame after the
| | 04:41 | exposure change, that the trace is
still a little more spread out than it is on
| | 04:45 | the frame before the exposure change,
especially right here to this big clump.
| | 04:49 | So let's remedy that by making an
additional change. I'll come into the midtone
| | 04:54 | contrast slider and drag down ever
so slightly, and then, I'll drag the
| | 05:02 | Highlight Contrast slider down,
just a touch more as well.
| | 05:04 | Now let's compare the frames. Oops! I
went a little too far, so no worries.
| | 05:15 | I'll just drag my midtones back up,
just a touch. All right, that looks pretty
| | 05:26 | close. Don't worry, on the frame after
the exposure change, if your highlights
| | 05:30 | aren't quite as high. Highlights
change from frame to frame. Now this
| | 05:35 | correction is looking pretty good but
there's one difference though between the
| | 05:38 | frames. If you look at the frame before
the exposure change, take a look at the
| | 05:42 | ground underneath the puddle. Then let
me flip to the next frame and notice the
| | 05:48 | ground here, and I'll go back and forth
real quick for you. The problem is that
| | 05:57 | the saturation of the ground seems to
change on the frame after the exposure
| | 06:02 | change. This commonly happens within
in-camera exposure change. As exposure
| | 06:06 | goes up, saturation tends to go down.
Just like we did for the Luma component,
| | 06:11 | by looking at the Waveform Scope.
Let's take a look at the saturation change,
| | 06:15 | looking at the Vectorscope. Here's the
frame before the exposure change, and
| | 06:21 | take note of the trace on the
Vectorscope, and here's the frame after the
| | 06:26 | exposure change, and look at the trace
on the Vectorscope now. You can see that
| | 06:31 | it's less saturated. Remember
saturation on the Vectorscope is measured from
| | 06:35 | the distance from center
out to the edge of the scope.
| | 06:38 | So all we want to do is make a simple
saturation change to the frame after the
| | 06:42 | exposure change. So to do this, I'm
going to come to my basic tab in the
| | 06:46 | Primary In room, and change the
saturation parameter. Let's just drag up a
| | 06:52 | little bit using my scroll wheel on
my mouse. Remember I can hold down the
| | 06:56 | option key to have this value change
faster. That looks pretty good, let's just
| | 07:03 | compare the two frames. All right,
looks spot on. Let's just play back the clip
| | 07:13 | and see if we can see a difference.
Nope, looks pretty good to me and there's
| | 07:24 | one more change that I might want to
make, and that's the interpolation between
| | 07:28 | those keyframes. First, let's zoom way
back out of our keyframes. Remember I
| | 07:33 | can do that by coming into the Setup
Room, and let's change the units that the
| | 07:36 | Timecode ruler is using in the Timeline,
back to seconds. And then let's click
| | 07:41 | back in the Primary In room, and what
I want to do is I want to change the
| | 07:46 | interpolation between these two frames,
and to do that I'm simply going to
| | 07:50 | select the first keyframe, and then
come up to the Timeline menu and choose
| | 07:57 | change keyframe. Or I could
use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+8
| | 08:01 | The first time that I hit change
keyframe, it changes it from ease to a linear
| | 08:08 | change, but because these keyframes
are only one frame away, I think it would
| | 08:13 | be better to have this as a constant
change. So I'll hit Ctrl+8 to toggle the
| | 08:18 | keyframe one more time, and now you
can see it's set to constant. That's
| | 08:23 | indicated by this red line here
going straight across between the two
| | 08:26 | keyframes, indicating that this change
will be instantaneous. Let's play this
| | 08:32 | back one more time, and it looks
great. So you can see with just a few
| | 08:42 | keyframes, and a little bit of
elbow grease, it's really easy to fix an
| | 08:45 | exposure change in a shot.
| | 08:47 | In the next movie we'll get a little
bit more creative in keyframe a mood change.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Keyframing for a mood change| 00:00 | Sometimes keyframing primary
corrections is really not about fixing problems,
| | 00:05 | but more about adding a touch of
style. In the utopia that the colorists
| | 00:09 | sometimes wishes he or she lived, the
style or rather mood changes would be
| | 00:13 | done on set by a good DP, Director or
Gaffer. But this doesn't always happen of
| | 00:18 | course, and in this movie we'll take a
look at a shot that could really benefit
| | 00:22 | from some keyframing to help a mood change.
| | 00:25 | First, let's just watch the clip back.
I'll select the Color timeline, and hit
| | 00:28 | the Spacebar to begin playback, and you
can see that this is a shot of a light
| | 00:34 | switch with somebody turning the light
off. The problem with this clip is that
| | 00:40 | when the light switch got thrown down,
the lights didn't change. Think about it.
| | 00:44 | When you're at home and you turn
off a light, what happens? Well, the
| | 00:49 | lights go off. And when the
lights go off it usually gets darker.
| | 00:54 | So in this clip I'm going to add a
couple of keyframes to facilitate this
| | 00:57 | change. First, let's just scrub in my
timeline with the playhead and find the
| | 01:03 | point where I think that the light
switch is about to be thrown down. I think
| | 01:11 | somewhere right around there. The
exact frame that I'm on is 1 second and 8
| | 01:16 | frames and I can tell that by looking
in my current frame box on the right side
| | 01:20 | of the timeline. Remember to make any
change happen, I have to have at least two keyframes.
| | 01:27 | So to add a keyframe at this point I
have two options. I can come up to the
| | 01:31 | Timeline menu, and choose Add Keyframe,
or I could use the keyboard shortcut
| | 01:37 | Ctrl+9. I'll just add the keyframe here
from the Timeline menu. And down on the
| | 01:44 | timeline beneath the clip a keyframe is
added into the keyframe track. Remember
| | 01:51 | that keyframes are room specific, so
when I added this keyframe, the keyframe
| | 01:55 | track that was added was labeled PI for
Primary In, because that's the room I'm currently using.
| | 02:02 | If you want to make keyframes for other
rooms, you just need to make sure that
| | 02:05 | you are in that room first before
making the keyframe. Let's drag our playhead
| | 02:10 | to the point where we think the light
switch is fully off. I think that's the
| | 02:14 | place. If I look at my current frame
box, the exact frame that I'm on is 1
| | 02:19 | second and 12 frames. Okay, and I know
that I need two keyframes for any change
| | 02:24 | to happen, so I'm going to add
another keyframe at this point.
| | 02:26 | I will just use the keyboard shortcut
this time, which is Ctrl+9. Okay, now
| | 02:32 | that we have two keyframes, we are
ready to make the correction. But let's zoom
| | 02:36 | in a bit to the keyframes to make them
a little easier to look at. First, I'm
| | 02:39 | just going to take the keyframe track,
resize handle, and drag down to make the
| | 02:44 | keyframes a little bigger. Next, I'll
just zoom in so the keyframes are also a
| | 02:51 | little easier to look at. Before I
actually make any changes, I need to make
| | 02:55 | sure that I'm actually on a
keyframe and a keyframe is active when it's
| | 02:59 | highlighted like this. But if you're
ever in doubt, the easiest way to navigate
| | 03:04 | between keyframes is just simply to
hold the option key down, and choose either
| | 03:08 | the left or the right arrow to go
to the previous, or next keyframe.
| | 03:12 | So let me demonstrate. If I hold the
Option key down and hit the left arrow I
| | 03:16 | go to the previous keyframe, and
you will see that that keyframe is now
| | 03:19 | highlighted. If I hold the Option key
down and hit the right arrow, I go to the
| | 03:24 | next keyframe, and that keyframe is
highlighted. With my playhead on the second
| | 03:29 | keyframe, I'm going to use the
contrast sliders in the Primary Color Balance
| | 03:33 | controls to darken up the shot.
| | 03:37 | First, I'll come into the Highlight
contrast slider, and just drag down quite a bit.
| | 03:41 | Next, let's come into the Midtone
contrast slider and also drag down.
| | 03:51 | And finally, I'll deepen the blacks a
little bit by using the shadow contrast
| | 03:55 | slider and dragging down. In this
project I have Broadcast Safe on, but it
| | 04:04 | would be very easy making this
correction to drag your Luma values below 0%.
| | 04:10 | Just be aware, without Broadcast
Safe on, you may be making illegal Luma
| | 04:14 | values. But I have
Broadcast Safe on, so I'm good.
| | 04:18 | So I have made the shot quite a bit
darker, and let's go back and see what the
| | 04:23 | change looks like. I'll position my
playhead back before the first keyframe and
| | 04:27 | then just play the clip. Okay, that
looks pretty good, except I have one
| | 04:33 | problem with it. If I drag my playhead
slowly through the change, you can see
| | 04:41 | that the light change is sort of
ramped, and that's because my keyframe
| | 04:45 | interpolation is currently set to ease,
indicated by this curve between the keyframes.
| | 04:51 | I think to better simulate the real
world effect of throwing down the light
| | 04:56 | switch I should change this
interpolation to a linear change. So to do that I'm
| | 05:01 | going to navigate back to the first
keyframe by holding down the option key,
| | 05:04 | and then hitting the left arrow to
navigate one keyframe back, and I'm going to
| | 05:09 | come up to the timeline menu, and
choose Change Keyframe. I could also use the
| | 05:15 | keyboard shortcut which is Ctrl+8, and
remember, what Change Keyframe does is
| | 05:20 | it lets you toggle through your
different keyframe interpolation modes.
| | 05:25 | So I'll select Change Keyframe. Now my
interpolation is linear and I can see
| | 05:31 | that, because I have a straight line
between the keyframes. I'll back up a bit,
| | 05:35 | and play again, and that works much
better. So you can see that it's pretty
| | 05:43 | easy to use keyframes to make a mood
change. And now that we have a hand on our
| | 05:47 | keyframing primary corrections, in
the next movie we'll take a look at
| | 05:51 | keyframing a secondary correction.
Don't worry. It's just as easy and fun.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Keyframing a Vignette| 00:00 | In this movie we'll take a look at
keyframing a vignette in the Secondaries room.
| | 00:04 | Well, many times you simply
track a vignette as we did in Chapter 9,
| | 00:09 | sometimes it's just easier to keyframe
the vignette, especially if the vignette is very soft.
| | 00:15 | So let's just take a look at this
clip in the Timeline. I'll select the
| | 00:18 | Timeline and hit the Spacebar to
begin the playback. And this is a pretty
| | 00:22 | standard vignette. The vignette is
just being used to create a spotlight
| | 00:26 | effect, but there's a problem. Right
about there, the subject runs into the
| | 00:32 | edge of the Vignette. But we can fix
this pretty easily with a couple of keyframes.
| | 00:38 | So let's navigate to the beginning of
the clip. I'll just hit the up arrow to
| | 00:41 | navigate back to the beginning. And at
the beginning of the clip, the vignette
| | 00:45 | is situated just fine, so this is
where I want to add my first keyframe.
| | 00:48 | I'll come up to the Timeline menu and
choose Add Keyframe. Of course, I could use
| | 00:54 | the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+9 as well.
| | 00:58 | So just like in the Primary room, when
I add a keyframe, the keyframe is added
| | 01:03 | to the keyframe track. And because I'm
working in the Secondaries room, this
| | 01:07 | keyframe track is labeled S1. S1
because I'm in the Secondaries room working on
| | 01:13 | tab number 1. If I was to add keyframes
in other Secondary rooms, the keyframe
| | 01:19 | track would be labeled S2, S3, S4, and so on.
| | 01:24 | Now that we've added the first keyframe,
let's navigate further into the clip
| | 01:28 | and see where the subject runs into
the edge of the vignette. Somewhere right
| | 01:33 | around there. I'm at 1 second and 23
frames, and I can see that in my Current
| | 01:38 | Frame box here on the right-
hand side of the Timeline.
| | 01:40 | So let's go ahead and reposition the
vignette. If I go into my Previews tab and
| | 01:47 | use the on-screen controls, I'll
reshape the vignette. Oops! What's this all
| | 01:53 | about? Remember Color will not let me
change any parameters if I've previously
| | 01:58 | set a keyframe. To be able to change
the parameters at this point in time, I
| | 02:02 | need to add another keyframe. So don't
get discouraged if you're trying to make
| | 02:07 | a change and Color won't let you. It's
just because you haven't added another
| | 02:10 | keyframe. It's actually a pretty cool
safety net feature if you think about it.
| | 02:14 | So to add another keyframe I'm going
to use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+9 and
| | 02:20 | that adds a keyframe at that point.
Now let me reposition and change the size
| | 02:26 | of the vignette. I'll do this just
using the on-screen controls in the Previews tab.
| | 02:30 | Okay, now the subject is back in
the spotlight. And let's just playback
| | 02:37 | the results. I'll hit the Spacebar to
begin playback, and now you can see as
| | 02:42 | the subject goes towards the edge of
the screen the vignette follows it.
| | 02:53 | Okay, I can make one more change to
this clip that might help. After that
| | 02:59 | middle keyframe, the subject comes
back to the right-hand side of the frame,
| | 03:06 | but now the keyframe doesn't move
back with it. So let's just add a third
| | 03:11 | keyframe to animate the back-end of
this clip. So I'll navigate to the end of
| | 03:17 | the clip, right there. I'm at 3
seconds and 19 frames, and let's add another
| | 03:25 | keyframe. Ctrl+9 to add a keyframe.
And this time let's just position the
| | 03:32 | vignette back closer to the subject's face,
something like that. And let's play back the clip.
| | 03:54 | Okay, that seems to work pretty well.
Remember you can always reposition a
| | 04:00 | keyframe simply by clicking on the
keyframe and moving it around. So if you
| | 04:04 | wanted the animation to happen faster,
you'd position the keyframes closer
| | 04:08 | together. If you wanted the animation
to happen slower, you could position the
| | 04:12 | keyframes further away from each other.
But overall, I was pretty happy with
| | 04:16 | this animation. Looks pretty good.
| | 04:23 | All we have left to cover is getting
footage out of Color, and that's what
| | 04:27 | we'll talk about in the next chapter.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
13. Rendering and Outputting FilesAdding clips to the Render queue| 00:00 | All right. Sorry. I can't contain my
excitement, but we're almost done. No, no,
| | 00:05 | no, no, no, don't misunderstand me.
I'd love to talk with you forever about
| | 00:08 | color, but we're coming to the end
of the food chain as far as color is
| | 00:11 | concerned. In this movie we'll talk
about adding grades and clips to the render
| | 00:15 | queue and how to render them. But
before we do that, we need to do a few under the hood things.
| | 00:22 | Let's come and choose the Setup room
and then the Projects Settings tab, and
| | 00:27 | maybe you'll remember that we
discussed this Render Directory button and the
| | 00:30 | Project Settings tab quite a few
movies ago. Well the Render Directory button
| | 00:34 | lets me choose a directory that this
project will be rendered to. If I select a
| | 00:39 | directory here, it overrides the
Default Render Directory in my User
| | 00:44 | Preferences, and I'm going
to do that for this project.
| | 00:49 | I'll select the Render Directory
button and then I'll navigate back out to my
| | 00:54 | Desktop and I have previously created
a folder called music video, and I'll
| | 01:04 | select that folder and then click Choose.
So now when I render my project, all
| | 01:11 | the new QuickTimes I create will go
to that folder. Next, let's talk about
| | 01:16 | Broadcast Safe for a second.
| | 01:18 | It's always a good idea to turn
Broadcast Safe back on before you render your
| | 01:22 | clips. This will just ensure that any
stray pixels that you might not have
| | 01:25 | caught while color correcting and
grading will be brought back into the legal
| | 01:29 | range. Or if you have corrected your
project without Broadcast Safe in mind,
| | 01:35 | this is definitely an option you want
to turn on. Broadcast Safe will take any
| | 01:39 | really illegal clips and just bring
those values back into the legal range.
| | 01:42 | So I'll turn Broadcast Safe on. Next,
let's discuss QuickTime Export Codecs.
| | 01:51 | When I send a project from Final Cut
Pro to Color, this still falls to the
| | 01:58 | original format and for most Color
projects it's fine to send the project back
| | 02:03 | to Final Cut Pro using the original
format. In other words, the original codec.
| | 02:09 | But you do have the option to render
to another codec. Currently you have the
| | 02:13 | option to render to four different codecs.
| | 02:15 | Apple Pro Res 422, 422 High Quality,
Uncompressed 10-bit and Uncompressed
| | 02:23 | 8-bit. The thing is if you render a
project into one of these different codecs
| | 02:29 | and then send your project to Final Cut
Pro, which we'll do in the next movie,
| | 02:32 | you may have to render the project in
Final Cut Pro. This is because the media
| | 02:37 | that you rendered doesn't match the
sequence settings that Final Cut Pro thinks
| | 02:41 | the media should be using. But that's
an easy fix in Final Cut Pro anyway.
| | 02:45 | But just be aware of it.
| | 02:47 | For this project, I'm going to choose
Original Format. Okay, so we're ready to
| | 02:52 | add some clips to the Render Queue.
I'll select the Render Queue, and at the
| | 02:57 | bottom of the Render Queue I have a
whole bunch of buttons. I can add selected
| | 03:00 | clips or I can add all the clips in my
project. I can clear any clips that I
| | 03:06 | have added to the Render Queue
previously, or I can remove just selected clips.
| | 03:13 | Let me go ahead and choose Add All
and all my clips from my project will be
| | 03:19 | added to the Render Queue. Here's one
important thing though. Next to the name
| | 03:24 | of the clip and it's an in and out
point there's this column for Grade ID.
| | 03:29 | The Grade ID column matches the grade that
was active when you sent the clips to
| | 03:34 | the Render Queue. This is important
because you need to have the grade you want
| | 03:38 | to be rendered selected before
adding the clips to the Render Queue.
| | 03:42 | Let me go ahead and take a closer look
at my Timeline down here. You'll notice
| | 03:50 | that each one of these clips has two
grades. What I did when I built this
| | 03:54 | project was I made all my adjustments
on Grade 1, and the original clip or the
| | 03:59 | unaffected clip is on Grade 2. So
here's the unaffected clip and here's the graded clip.
| | 04:07 | So for this project I'm going to send
every clip with Grade 1. However, your
| | 04:12 | own projects may be different. Just
be aware before you add a clip to the
| | 04:16 | Render Queue, you need to make sure
that you have the correct grade selected.
| | 04:21 | And you can check that for each clip
simply by looking at the Grade ID column.
| | 04:26 | Next, let's take a look at a few
things in the Color Timeline. When I added
| | 04:30 | these clips to the Render Queue, notice
that each clip now has this yellow bar
| | 04:36 | on the Grade bar. This is yet another
indication that this will be the grade
| | 04:40 | that is rendered. If you had a
different grade selected, for example, if Grade
| | 04:45 | 2 was selected before I added the clip
to the Render Queue, Grade 2 would have this yellow bar.
| | 04:52 | As a side note, you can actually
change the color of this bar to represent a
| | 04:56 | clip before it's been rendered in the
Setup room in User Prefs. You can see
| | 05:02 | right here in the middle of the User
Prefs room, yellow is the color that I'm
| | 05:06 | using for a queued grade. Okay. Back to
the Render Queue. The next thing I want
| | 05:12 | you to notice on the Timeline is this
orange line that's above all the clips.
| | 05:18 | This just indicates that these clips
have not been rendered yet. Then finally
| | 05:22 | in the Render Queue, you can see
next to each clip it gives a status, and
| | 05:27 | currently all these clips are queued.
| | 05:30 | So the checklist that you want to make
before rendering anything is that the
| | 05:34 | grade that you want to be rendered is
selected and do that before you add the
| | 05:38 | clip to the queue. Second, make sure
that you've added the clips that you want
| | 05:41 | to add, and you can do that by either
adding all or simply adding selected
| | 05:46 | clips. After you've done those
two steps you're ready to render.
| | 05:50 | Now you might be asking yourself, what
about the step that we did before when
| | 05:54 | we set up the Render Directory?
That's completely optional. You can still
| | 05:58 | render to the Default Render Directory
that's set up in your User Preferences.
| | 06:02 | For this project, I just chose to
render to another location. That's what I did
| | 06:06 | when I changed that Render
Directory option in the Project Settings.
| | 06:10 | Okay, so now I'm ready to render. And
just because I'm paranoid, I'm going to
| | 06:14 | go back to the Setup room and Project
Settings and just make sure Broadcast
| | 06:18 | Safe is on one more time, which it is.
Okay. Let's go back to the Render Queue
| | 06:23 | and I'll hit Start Render. And as I
start rendering, you'll notice that I get
| | 06:31 | this little progress bar for each clip.
As I render, my scopes disappear and I
| | 06:37 | can see the clip here in my Preview.
| | 06:39 | Also, down in the Timeline, notice this
green bar that's slowly inching its way
| | 06:44 | across the top of the Timeline. As
this bar progresses, that indicates that
| | 06:49 | clips have been rendered. Also as I
look at each clip, this little purple
| | 06:54 | marker on the clip indicates that the
clip is currently rendering, and the
| | 06:58 | green bar indicates that the
clip has successfully rendered.
| | 07:02 | So this is going to take a minute or
two so I'll just let it render. So the
| | 07:08 | speed of each render is dependent on
how complex the grade is and of course the
| | 07:13 | speed of your machine. As these clips
were rendering, you may have noticed that
| | 07:17 | some of these clips showed up looking
like they were offline, indicated by this
| | 07:20 | red box. Don't worry. These
clips really aren't offline.
| | 07:24 | Color sometimes has problems
redrawing the screen while rendering. And as a
| | 07:30 | further indication that these clips
really aren't offline, as one is rendering,
| | 07:34 | you can see it over here in the
Preview. Okay. I'm done. All the clips have
| | 07:41 | rendered. You can always check to make
sure that all the clips have rendered
| | 07:46 | simply by scrolling through the Render
Queue, and they should all say completed
| | 07:49 | if you had no problems.
| | 07:52 | Let me go ahead and hide Color for a
second, and then I'm going to show you on
| | 07:55 | my Desktop the directory that we
created when we set up the Render Directory in
| | 07:59 | the Project Settings tab before we
rendered. So when you render the project, a
| | 08:06 | folder is created that has the same
name as the project. Inside of that folder,
| | 08:13 | every single shot has its own folder.
And then inside of that folder, you
| | 08:20 | actually have your clip, and the way
that the clip is named is the number of
| | 08:25 | the clip, underscore, the grade
that you used to render this clip.
| | 08:30 | So this clip was the first clip in the
Color Timeline and this clip used Grade
| | 08:34 | 1. If you had used a different grade,
this clip would have been named 1_g and
| | 08:41 | then the number of the grade that you used.
| | 08:44 | In the next movie, we're going to take
a look at sending back to Final Cut Pro.
| | 08:48 | And if you move this directory behind
Color and Final Cut Pro's back, when you
| | 08:52 | send the project from Color to Final
Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro will have no idea
| | 08:57 | where the files are. So as I said, in
the next movie, we'll take a look at
| | 09:01 | sending our project back to Final Cut Pro.
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| Sending a Color project back to Final Cut Pro| 00:00 | Okay, so we've rendered our clips to
disk. Now we need to tell Final Cut Pro
| | 00:04 | where those files are and what to think
about them. In this movie, we'll take a
| | 00:08 | look at sending a Color project back to
Final Cut Pro, which thanks to Apple is
| | 00:12 | quite simple. I'm continuing on with
the lesson file 13_1 selecting grades
| | 00:17 | clips to render queue. So all of our
clips have rendered, and I can tell that
| | 00:21 | it was successful, because next to
each clip in the Render Queue, I have this
| | 00:24 | Completed label. Additionally, down
on the timeline above the clips, I have
| | 00:28 | this green render bar, indicating
that the clips rendered successfully.
| | 00:33 | And then finally the grades that I
added to the Render Queue are also labeled
| | 00:36 | green. So to send a Color project back
to Final Cut Pro, all I need to do is
| | 00:41 | come back to the File menu, choose
Send to Final Cut Pro. One quick note
| | 00:46 | though, before you choose Send to Final
Cut Pro, just make sure that you don't
| | 00:51 | deselect the grades that you
originally added to the Render Queue.
| | 00:55 | To reiterate, simply leave the selected
grades active. Don't switch to other
| | 00:59 | grades on your clips. This can cause
problems when sending a project back to
| | 01:03 | Final Cut Pro. So I'll choose File,
send to Final Cut Pro, and Final Cut Pro
| | 01:10 | will launch in just a second. And when
it opens up. I get this little message
| | 01:15 | about importing XML data.
| | 01:17 | That's all that's really happening
when you send a project from Color back to
| | 01:19 | Final Cut Pro is that an XML file is
being transferred behind the scenes.
| | 01:25 | So my original Final Cut Pro project opens up,
and I have a new timeline here. 13_1
| | 01:30 | selecting grades clips to render queue,
but note now in parentheses it says,
| | 01:35 | from Color. In my original Final Cut
Pro project, I have the original sequence.
| | 01:41 | Color simply adds this from Color
label at the end of the sequence name to
| | 01:46 | avoid confusion. One more note about
sequences. An additional thing to be aware
| | 01:50 | of is that if Color could not find
your original Final Cut Pro project, a new
| | 01:55 | Final Cut Pro project would be created,
and in that new Final Cut Pro project,
| | 01:59 | you would find your sequence.
| | 02:01 | But Color found my original project, no
problem. So let me just double click on
| | 02:05 | the from Color sequence to open it up.
And here's the sequence, and if I scrub
| | 02:13 | through, it has all my color grades. So
now the sequence is ready for me to do
| | 02:23 | whatever else I need to do to it. Back
in Color, you may have noticed that the
| | 02:27 | sequence had two video tracks. When I
originally sent the sequence to Color
| | 02:31 | from Final Cut Pro, I left the second
video track in the sequence simply as a
| | 02:36 | reminder that when I came back to Final
Cut Pro that I wanted to add titles and
| | 02:40 | some other elements on video track two.
But we're not going to do that right now.
| | 02:44 | So that's all there really is to it.
Just remember that there's two steps
| | 02:48 | involved, when you want to get a Color
project back to Final Cut Pro. First,
| | 02:53 | you need to render your media to disk.
Second, you need to send an XML file
| | 02:58 | from Color, back to Final Cut Pro,
and this is accomplished by using the
| | 03:02 | File>Send to Final Cut Pro command in
Color. And when Color sends the project
| | 03:07 | back to Final Cut Pro, it looks for
your original Final Cut Pro project.
| | 03:11 | If it can't find that original Final Cut Pro
project, it creates a new one. But in
| | 03:16 | our case the original Final Cut Pro
project was found. And in that original
| | 03:20 | Final Cut Pro project, we have a new
sequence that just has from Color in
| | 03:24 | parentheses, added to the original
sequence name. And this is the sequence that
| | 03:28 | I'm looking at right now. Okay, in the
next movie we'll take a look at one last
| | 03:32 | small issue to be aware of when
working with Final Cut Pro projects that you
| | 03:36 | send to Color, and back to Final Cut Pro.
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| Making additional changes after rendering| 00:00 | In this movie we'll take a look at what
needs to happen, if you need to make a
| | 00:03 | change to a project that you've already
sent back to Final Cut Pro from Color.
| | 00:07 | The need to make a change to a project
that you've already sent back to Final
| | 00:10 | Cut happens all the time. Maybe it's
because you don't like a correction that
| | 00:15 | you applied to a shot, or maybe it's
because you've been requested by a client
| | 00:18 | to make it change. Either way, we
need to follow a procedure to make these changes.
| | 00:23 | Remember when you send a project from
Color to Final Cut Pro, a new sequence is
| | 00:27 | created with this 'from color label at
the end,' and that's the sequence that
| | 00:31 | I'm currently looking at. If I need to
make a change to this sequence, what I
| | 00:36 | don't want to do is come up to the
File menu and choose Send to Color.
| | 00:42 | This would be pointless. All this would do
is create a new Color project, and that
| | 00:46 | new Color project would use this
media on this sequence, and that's the
| | 00:51 | color-corrected media that I previous
rendered out of Color. And with that
| | 00:55 | Color project that I would create with
this command, I wouldn't have access to
| | 00:58 | the corrections and grades that I
previously made, because it's a new project.
| | 01:02 | What I need to do is go back to Color,
make the change, render out a new clip,
| | 01:07 | and then send back to Final Cut Pro. So
let me switch back to Color. Let's say
| | 01:15 | I want to make a change to this first
clip in the Color Timeline. I'll select
| | 01:22 | it, and make my change. Then I need to
add this clip to the Render Queue, so
| | 01:30 | I'll select the Render Queue, I'll
clear all my previous clips, and add just
| | 01:37 | this clip. I'll then hit start Render,
to Render this clip. Once the render is
| | 01:46 | complete, I need to go up to the File
menu and down to send to Final Cut Pro.
| | 01:51 | Final Cut Pro will open back up, and
now notice that I have a sequence that's
| | 01:59 | labeled the exact same thing as the
previous sequence that I sent to Final Cut Pro.
| | 02:03 | Let me open up the new sequence.
This sequence for all intents and
| | 02:08 | purposes is exactly the same as the
original sequence. The only difference is
| | 02:13 | this first clip now has the change that
I made. Let me compare them. Here's the
| | 02:20 | original sequence and here's the new
sequence in the first clip. This new clip
| | 02:26 | is a bit brighter. The cool thing is
that Color and Final Cut Pro talk well
| | 02:31 | enough to realize that this
is the only clip that changed.
| | 02:35 | All the rest of the clips are still
referencing the media that I rendered out
| | 02:38 | of Color the first time. Let me hide
Final Cut Pro for one second, and I'll
| | 02:44 | also hide Color. Back out in my Finder,
let me open up that music video folder.
| | 02:51 | Remember that's where we had rendered
our media to. Let me choose shot 1 and
| | 02:59 | now you can see in the shot 1 folder
there's two clips. When I re-rendered that
| | 03:04 | first clip, the original clip that I
rendered out of Color was made a copy, and
| | 03:09 | the new clip now takes on the right name,
the number of the shot and the grade
| | 03:13 | number. Again, this was the original
clip that I rendered out of Color, and
| | 03:18 | this is the shot after I made the
change. Color automatically made this
| | 03:23 | original clip a copy when I rendered
out the new clip. Back in Final Cut Pro,
| | 03:28 | it might be useful to rename this new
sequence that got sent the second time.
| | 03:34 | I'll name it 'from color2'. That way, I
know that this is the sequence that has
| | 03:40 | the change. Well, only one
thing left. To say goodbye.
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ConclusionGoodbye| 00:00 | Well, here we are at the end of the
road. I really hope that after going
| | 00:04 | through this title, you'll feel
prepared to go out and tackle your own projects
| | 00:08 | with Color. I wanted to share one
last thought, and that is, never stop
| | 00:13 | learning. Color correction and grading
is an art, and the best colorists also
| | 00:19 | study the real world. They study the
real world for light interaction, and
| | 00:23 | natural color phenomenon. Learn as
much as you can about Color Science,
| | 00:28 | including Human Physiology. The more
you know about how we see the world, the
| | 00:33 | better decisions you can make, while
color correcting and grading. Talk to
| | 00:38 | other colorists, it's amazing what you
can learn from a simple conversation.
| | 00:42 | Colorists who have years of experience
have a wealth of information that they
| | 00:45 | can share. Watch everything, study TV
and movies for things you like, and make
| | 00:52 | notes, and try and emulate those
looks and techniques. Thanks again for
| | 00:57 | spending time with me,
Robbie Carman, and lynda.com.
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