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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Apple color r3d workaround

David Battistella

David Battistella

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Hi all,

Wanted to report a solved problem here. Thanks Very Much to Wade Macdonald who helped me solve this issue.

Some of you may know that I have been reporting a problem with garbage renders from FCP.

For the benefit of the world I am reporting my workflow here to help anyone else who runs into this.


1. Edited in FCP with transcode OFFLINE media created with clipfinder (or redrushes)
2. Exported XML file of FINAL FCP SEQUENCE
3. Opened Clipfinder and ran CONFORM FCP PROJECT with XML file to create NEW file.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT NOT to rely on the RESIZE the SEQUENCES to 1920x1080 in clipfinder.

4. Opened NEW XML in FCP and set the sequence by hiting apple key "0" to the following. CUSTOM 2048x1024, 23.98, etc
5. used SEND TO COLOR command to open sequence in COLOR
6. CHANGE floating point to 10-bit in COLOR
7. Change EXPORT size of FINAL project in USER settings (it is very important to do this set within COLOR or it will not work!)

***ADDING TWO THINGS HERE to eliminate any frozen renders you might get. (DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION OF BETA CLIP FINDER)

8. Close Color project
9. Open Clipfinder
10 In the tools menu run the Color Project through "FIX LOOPING BUG IN COLOR PROJECT"
11. Reopen in Apple Color and proceed.

You now have FULL access to the R3D files and can use the RED TAB in Color and render out great Prores 4444 or Uncompressed without any problems.


MORE INFO AT THIS LINK AS WELL

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=40628

I am so glad I finally solved this nagging issue.

David
 
David Battistella said:
Hi all,



1. Edited in FCP with transcode OFFLINE media created with clipfinder (or redrushes)
2. Exported XML file of FINAL FCP SEQUENCE
3. Opened Clipfinder and ran CONFORM FCP PROJECT with XML file to create NEW file.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT NOT to RESIZE the SEQUENCES to 1920x1080 in clipfinder.
David
Click to expand...

Hi David,

I'm interested to know why you export an xml then conform in clipfinder ??

I have had great results just editing H proxies on a 2k timeline then "send to color" from fcp. Then close Color use Colorfixer to fix project, then simply open Color & grade then send back to Color apple pro res.

Cheers
 
David,
Why are you using 10 bit internal processing in Color? Was there a problem using 32 floating point? Thanks.
Michael
 
You must use 10 bit internal. I have not tested the 32 bit, but the the FCS whitepaper tells you to change it to 10-bit as part of the process.

David
 
carrington benz said:
Hi David,

I'm interested to know why you export an xml then conform in clipfinder ??

I have had great results just editing H proxies on a 2k timeline then "send to color" from fcp
Click to expand...

You need to send out an XML and do a CF conform if you're editing with transcodes and not the camera proxies.

Editing with the camera proxies works on an academic level, but in a real-world, client-driven offline editing situation, you just cant edit with the proxies, due to their poor playback performance. Hence the need to conform the transcodes back to the original proxies (or re-wrapped R3D quicktimes) via an XML export.
 
I'm using the offline/online workflow with clipfinder and then sending to color function often and it works. Due I'm using not the newest color version I'm not able to do a full debayer, whats not so good. But I dont want to install FCP 7 because I heard a lot of bad things about the new version.
How ever... I'm using also floating point internal in color and the exports looking not so bad.... but after sending back to fcp and doing the finish there and looking to the fcp export, I can see a lot of banding in the material. Really bad render quality.... If I compare it with After Effects, the exports out of it looking amazing.

Am I doin something wrong ?

thx
rainer
 
Rainer Fritz said:
I'm using the offline/online workflow with clipfinder and then sending to color function often and it works. Due I'm using not the newest color version I'm not able to do a full debayer, whats not so good. But I dont want to install FCP 7 because I heard a lot of bad things about the new version.
How ever... I'm using also floating point internal in color and the exports looking not so bad.... but after sending back to fcp and doing the finish there and looking to the fcp export, I can see a lot of banding in the material. Really bad render quality.... If I compare it with After Effects, the exports out of it looking amazing.

Am I doin something wrong ?

thx
rainer
Click to expand...

Rainer,

You should follow the guidelines and stick to 10-bit for the bit depth. Also, you might want to render out using the 10-bit Uncompressed codec.

What is the render codec in color?

Are you SURE you are grading the r3d file? (the best way to check is to see if the RED tab is enabled in Color)

Check your geometry setting to make sure you are rendering out the correct size image.

If you are using V1.0.4 make sure you are using the H proxy in Color, but in Color 1.5 you are using the FULL 4K debayer.

I've been running 7 on Snow Leopard without many problems at all.

David
 
I'm sure to work on the RAW Files.... sending H Proxy conformed to color.

I'm working always with uncompressed codec, since my storage allows it till 4k.

I will give the 10bit setting a try and also FCP 7.

regards
rainer
 
I've been reading a lot about using FCP and Color on this forum and others and must say I'm still confused, how to easiest get my project into color.
1. The film was shot with RED in 4K.
2. I've used the M proxies to edit in FCP. (Just draged them into FCP)
3. I now want to color correct in Color with the best quality possible.
4. The final goal is a 2K master.

So how do I do this as smooth, simple and with as high quality as possible. These are my questions.

1. How do I export the project from FCP to Color? Can I use "send to Color function" or do I need to export EDL/XML? Do I need to use any other software as well?
2. When/in what software do I conform/render into 2K for the master? Do I need to go back to FCP or can I do that in Color?
3. Any other things to think about?
 
1. Use send to Color.
2. Apple Color is where you do teh final grade and render. After that you send to FCP from Color.
3. Color reads the FULL resolution of the r3d file. You need to set your output settings in color IE: 1920x1080 and then the clips will be scaled to that format or you will have to adjust them in the geometry room.

David
 
Can you edit in FCP with low res RED files as an offline edit. then re-conform to high res or RD3 RED files later for the final edit.
 
William Lang said:
Can you edit in FCP with low res RED files as an offline edit. then re-conform to high res or RD3 RED files later for the final edit.
Click to expand...

you can edit using either the proxy files (send to color->run colorfixer->grade, render and export back to fcp)

or various other formats including prores (export xml->use clipfinder to link xml files to original r3d->import xml into color->grade, render and export back out to fcp)

fcp can't handle much more than 2k and even that usually requires something better than the stock graphics card if you're using anything pre 2009.
 
I am going to be using this same workflow/system when I get the scarlet so I am glad to read accounts of troubleshooting/testing the round trip through the workflow. I Hope to edit in 2k and would like to know some suggestions of cards that a 2.8 ghz dual quad Mac Pro with 10 gigs of ram may use? Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere but, as you may notice from my post count, I am kinda new. Lurker for a long while tho.
 
Thanks...
 
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