MC + Color Finesse as Good as FCP + Color?

[Peter Moretti]

From what I've seen, Color offers much more color correction capabilities than is available with MC + Boris.

However, Boris Red, a.k.a. Avid FX, can host Color Finesse's plugin version. Any thoughts on how this combination stacks up against FCP + Color?

Avid DS or Symphony are really not in my budget right now.

Thanks much for any insight!

 

[Bruce Allen]

The thing is more about workflow and UI than features.

For example, After Effects can smoke pretty much any high-end color corrector incl Lustre, Quantel, Avid DS, etc, feature-wise, if you're only color correcting 1 or 10 shots. You have unlimited secondaries, amazing range of filters, keyers, fantastic matte painting tools, etc.

Even Media Composer on its own can do good secondaries if you break it into layers, use their SpectraMatte keyer and then apply CC to that.

But the problem comes when you're trying to CC something with a few more shots... then you want an interface designed around CC. So Color is probably better. Get a Tangent Wave panel and you can work quickly.

You can also do MC + Color, of course...

You can always just do a tape-to-tape session with DaVinci etc. Nobody ever mentions that here because they're all DIY-sorts. But you can get a lot done very quickly and effectively there.

That help any?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

 

[Alexis Hanawalt]

Totally agree with Bruce. Color Finesse is an amazing tool... for a couple shots. The workflow sucks, though. I tried to use it on a show and it was not up to the task.

 

[Dylan Reeve]

You can also do MC + Color, of course...

I've yet to see a good workflow for that. Given my experience grading an FCP sequence (actually sequences once I'd broken it down into parts Color could cope with) I can't see that an MC to Color grade would be very easy.

Best solution I could come up with was:
MC to Tape
Capture tape into FCP at ProRes
Apply EDL cut to FCP capture (using EDL Mirror or similar)
Take FCP sequence(s) into Color
Render back to FCP
Output to tape from FCP

Could avoid the tape in the beginning with a quicktime export from MC.

It would be possible in theory to take QT from Avid (in compatible codec) straight into Color and applying the EDL cutlist, but as Color can't (I believe) render dissolves itself, or any other transitions, this could be very limiting. Adding the FCP step allows for simple dissolves and things to be rendered.

 

[Peter Moretti]

Totally agree with Bruce. Color Finesse is an amazing tool... for a couple shots. The workflow sucks, though. I tried to use it on a show and it was not up to the task.

Alexis,

How we're you hosting Color Finesse?

 

[Alexis Hanawalt]

Alexis,

How we're you hosting Color Finesse?

I've used it via After Effects and via FCP.