| 00:02 | As mentioned in the intro, this
technique was originally developed for 3D
|
| 00:04 | renders. So that's what we're going to
use for our first example. Now the first
|
| 00:08 | thing you need to do is make a copy of
your footage and place it on a new video
|
| 00:11 | track directly above the original of
the footage. An easy way to do that in
|
| 00:15 | Final Cut is to hold on the Option and
Shift keys and drag it on top of itself.
|
| 00:20 | This will automatically create a new
track for you and put a copy on top.
|
| 00:24 | Now the second thing you need to do is
to set a Composite mode for this copy on
|
| 00:28 | top. There are a couple ways to doing
that. If you have a multi-button mouse,
|
| 00:32 | you are going to right-click on it,
choose Composite Mode and then choose from
|
| 00:35 | this list or you can go to Modify >
Composite Mode and choose from the list here.
|
| 00:41 | One of the first things we like to try
is a mode such as Overlay, Hard Light
|
| 00:44 | or Soft Light. If I pick Overlay, you
can see how immediately the render gets a
|
| 00:49 | lot richer, a lot deeper in saturation
with a lot more contrast. Now you may
|
| 00:54 | have noticed that since I set a
Composite mode, my render line above my
|
| 00:57 | sequence turned red.
|
| 00:59 | Unfortunately Final Cut Pro does not do
Composite mode in real-time so you will
|
| 01:03 | have to do some rendering to see this
effect. If I find this effect to be too
|
| 01:07 | intense, I double-click my copy to make
sure it opens in my Clip Viewer, choose
|
| 01:11 | Motion, reveal Opacity and then dial
back the copy's Opacity to get the mix
|
| 01:16 | that I want. Full mix, none at all.
I'll leave it at full for now.
|
| 01:21 | If I find Overlay to be too intense,
I may try something else like Soft Light mode.
|
| 01:25 | So Composite > Soft Light, and you
see we have a more subtle effect but we
|
| 01:29 | still have that richer saturation and
increased contrast. If on the other hand
|
| 01:33 | my main goal here is to brighten the
image to puff up the highlights, I'll pick
|
| 01:37 | a different mode, Modify > Composite Mode > Add.
|
| 01:42 | Add is a very intense mode and you
can see where it can initially block the
|
| 01:45 | image, but again if I dial back the
Opacity of the layer on top, I can get a
|
| 01:48 | more subtle effect. Another
approach to more subtle effect is to pick a
|
| 01:52 | different mode too, such as
Modify > Composite Mode > Screen.
|
| 01:57 | You see again this is a bit lighter
of an effect than Add, which is very
|
| 02:00 | intense. Let's go ahead and use Screen
for now. The next step in this approach
|
| 02:04 | is to add an effect to the copy on top,
some sort of blur is the most common.
|
| 02:09 | So again, with my copy still selected,
I'll pick Effects > Video Filters > Blur >
|
| 02:16 | Gaussian Blur.
|
| 02:17 | I'll open up the Filters tab for this
clip and increase the Radius. And you can
|
| 02:21 | see I get a nice softening blooming
sort of look on this clip and just to compare,
|
| 02:26 | this is what the original render
looked like and this is what it looks like
|
| 02:29 | with this effect.
|
| 02:30 | Duplicate on top, in Screen mode,
with Gaussian Blur added. Different modes
|
| 02:36 | have different looks. For example, if
I was to go back to Modify > Composite
|
| 02:40 | Mode > Add, you'll see I have a very
bright set of highlights around here. I can
|
| 02:45 | go ahead and go back to my Motion tab
and pull back my Opacity if I needed to
|
| 02:48 | tame that down to just a few areas.
|
| 02:51 | If we want a darker look instead of
a brighter look, we can try Modify >
|
| 02:54 | Composite Mode > Overlay. Now you see
we've got a very intense moody look with a
|
| 02:59 | little bit of just hard to define
blooming going on around the edges. If we had
|
| 03:04 | no Gaussian Blur it would look very
hard and sharp like this, but the Gaussian
|
| 03:07 | Blue is adding this nice softening effect.
Again, original footage, processed footage.
|
| 03:12 | But quite often, we won't use just
one copy. We want to balance off this
|
| 03:18 | increased contrast with the blooming
highlights. So I'm going to select my
|
| 03:22 | copy, hold down Option and Shift
again, drag upward and create a second
|
| 03:27 | duplicate on top on a third video track.
I'll set this new copy to an opposing
|
| 03:32 | mode such as Add and then double-click
my clip to make sure I've got it loaded,
|
| 03:38 | go to my Motion tab and bounce off
the brightness of this clip. Now I can
|
| 03:43 | really play some games bouncing off my
blooming highlights against my increased
|
| 03:48 | contrast and copies of Overlay mode
and I can really dial in a custom look.
|
| 03:52 | Let's go back to original again. There
is the original one with Overlay added
|
| 03:58 | and with Add on top, really a nice
look. Now a simple part of this trick is
|
| 04:03 | that the underlying image, the one on
track one, the one on the bottom is not
|
| 04:07 | being blurred. That's how we're
maintaining underlying sharpness. If I was to
|
| 04:11 | look at one of these other clips in my
Viewer, you can see that I've really got
|
| 04:14 | quite a blurred out image. I'll go
ahead and bring up my Opacity and see what
|
| 04:18 | I'm talking about. That's what my clip
on top looks like. So I put it on with a
|
| 04:23 | Composite Mode and dialed back the
opacity, I've got a really nice blend.
|
| 04:28 | Now let's look at this technique using
very different footage. In this case,
|
| 04:31 | humans instead of 3D renders. This
shot is nice because it has good contrast
|
| 04:34 | between bright areas and dark areas.
Let's start out the same. We'll select the
|
| 04:39 | clip in the sequence, hold down Option
plus Shift and drag it up. I now have a
|
| 04:43 | copy on top on the second video
track and choose Modify > Composite Mode >
|
| 04:49 | Screen. We'll start by brightening
the shot. And you see who it does, it
|
| 04:52 | immediately get brighter.
|
| 04:54 | Now the next step is to add an effect.
So Effects > Video Filters > Blur >
|
| 04:59 | Gaussian Blur. Double-click to open up
this clip in this tab, access my Filters
|
| 05:05 | and increase the Radius of the blur.
Now I get that nice softening effect, sort
|
| 05:10 | of a pro-mist or Vaseline-on-the-lens
sort of look. Again, Before and After.
|
| 05:17 | I'll take another copy to bring some of
the contrast back. Hold down Option and
|
| 05:21 | Shift, drag the clip upward and now
I have another copy on a third video
|
| 05:25 | track, pick a different Composite mode,
in this case Overlay, double-click to
|
| 05:33 | open up this clip in the Viewer and now
let's go ahead and drag back the Radius
|
| 05:37 | a little bit, just to add a little
bit of definition to the dark areas.
|
| 05:40 | Now the blur on the Screen copy and
on the Overlay copy do have different
|
| 05:43 | effects. The Overlay is little bit more
of a black diffusion, although it does
|
| 05:46 | affect the brights as well. While the
Screen is much more of a puffy highlight
|
| 05:50 | sort of look and now let's balance out the two.
|
| 05:53 | Open up my Opacity again. I'm working
with the Overlay copy. I can use it to
|
| 05:57 | dial back my contrast or bring some
more back in. Select my middle copy, which
|
| 06:03 | was my Screen copy, open up this Opacity
and decide how much brightening I have
|
| 06:07 | in the shot. None at all to a little
bit of a nice glow. Again, let's see how
|
| 06:13 | we were before.
|
| 06:14 | This is the original clip, which
suddenly looks pretty flat, doesn't it?
|
| 06:18 | Screen copy, Overlay copy. A nice rich
healthy glow. Any client would be thrilled if
|
| 06:23 | you could consistently make their footage
look like this, and you can with this technique!
|
| 06:29 | Now let's look at a third example.
This shot might be typical of
|
| 06:32 | what we get from an industrial or
corporate client. A boardroom scene that we
|
| 06:36 | want to make it look more exciting,
to give a higher production value to.
|
| 06:38 | We'll hold down Option+Shift, drag the
clip up and now we've got another copy
|
| 06:44 | on another track. If I'll choose Modify >
Composite Mode. Oh, let's go ahead and
|
| 06:49 | try Screen to start off with.
Immediately the scene gets a lot brighter.
|
| 06:53 | I'll select Effects > Video Filters and
pick this Gaussian Blur effect we've been
|
| 06:58 | using so far. Double-click my clip,
click on this Filters tab and now let's go
|
| 07:03 | ahead and increase the Radius and
notice how the scene gets nice and soft and
|
| 07:06 | puffy, particularly this glass water
jug right here gets a really nice glow to
|
| 07:11 | it. Here's how it was before, here's
what looks like after the treatment.
|
| 07:14 | Okay, we've made the whole scene bright,
maybe a bit washed out. So let's go
|
| 07:18 | ahead and add that second copy on top.
Hold down Option and Shift, drag the
|
| 07:23 | copy upward for a third copy. Modify >
Composite Mode and pick something such
|
| 07:28 | as Soft Light or Overlay to increase
contrast. We'll use Overlay now for fun.
|
| 07:33 | Double-click it to open up its Filter
tab and notice again that the Radius has
|
| 07:37 | a real effect here. If I want to
really increase the definition of the black
|
| 07:40 | areas like this laptop, I'll knock the
Radius down. If I increase that the black
|
| 07:45 | areas get too much diffusion and
decreases my readability of the scene.
|
| 07:48 | So I'll keep my Overlay layer down with
no blur at all on it, just in Overlay mode.
|
| 07:52 | Now let's go about balancing layers
off against each other. Double-click my
|
| 07:57 | Screen layer to make sure it opens up
in my tab, you'll notice I've got more
|
| 08:00 | blur on it. We'll puff out a little bit
more. Click on its Motion tab, reveal its
|
| 08:05 | Opacity and then we'll start dialing
in the sort of look that we want, maybe
|
| 08:08 | somewhere around there.
|
| 08:12 | Double-click my Overlay copy, look
underneath its Motion tab, Opacity, decide
|
| 08:16 | how much contrast I need to add to
the scene, maybe somewhere around there.
|
| 08:21 | Again, let's see before and after.
Before. Kind of a dull scene now isn't it?
|
| 08:27 | With Screen mode, with Overlay mode. Now
I have a scene looks -- well, I hate to
|
| 08:32 | use the word but more filmic and
that's what we're trying to get after with
|
| 08:35 | this technique.
|
| 08:36 | In the next movie, I'll show you some
variations on this technique where you can go
|
| 08:40 | ahead and try out different filters,
apply this technique to an entire sequence,
|
| 08:45 | and also really focus this so you
have only very tight specular highlights
|
| 08:48 | that are getting bloomed out.
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| Collapse this transcript |
