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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 :)

Thoughts on Color

C

Cail Young

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After playing with it for a few hours, I've reached the highly scientific conclusion that Color's really, really nice.

However, after trawling through the manual, it seems that 2K workflow requires DPX/Cineon file I/O - FCP/XML roundtrip cannot be used for 2K. That's fine, but this means (and correct me if i'm wrong):

* Lock edit in FCP
* Use RPL in REDCINE to export selected frames as DPX/Cineon
* Export an EDL (not an XML) from FCP
* Use EDL to conform DPX frames into timeline in Color
* Color correct
* Render to DPX/Cineon

And you're done!

Not too bad; it essentially mirrors the film DI workflow for Color, but I'm hoping that they release an update for Color to allow XML or FCP conforming of 2K data.
 
Interesting... I'll have to play with it some more tomorrow. I've just been playing with 720p DVCPROHD clips so far, loading them into color, haven't tried taking anything round-trip from FCP and back.
 
Yes it's clearly early days for both Final Cut Studio 2 and REDCODE, but in six months time I think we really need to be able to take an edl of our apple pro res 422 edit from FCP to colour, conform it with our 4K REDCODE "neg" and grade for telecine back to film or a 4K master for digital projection. I also think that it would be cool to do an initial grade with the 422 codec (since it'll run much faster) and go to 4K with all the colour decisions in place just to tweak those RAW files. :gun:

But then, maybe I know nothing..


Also we should post apple requests on their support site I guess..
 
Need to try the dpx 2k part.. same only played with 1080 prores and SD material..

The manual states Color does not deal with still frames.. so wondering how it uses dpx files :-/

having fun though.. :)

s
 
Michele Gavazzeni said:
Can you explain why
Thanks
Click to expand...

Limitation in the software - I'm sure you could feed it a Quicktime file at 2K size (and in fact, I should try this) but for actual "2K" DI-style workflow the manual states that DPX/Cineon are the only options.

EDIT: I'm rendering out now, but here's what I just did:

* Export milkgirls1080.mov as a ProRes file at 2048x1152
* Import that into Color
* set color to render to S35 2K (2048x1556) DPX on the film scale (log)
* add the clip to the render queue and render

EDIT AGAIN: And it looks pretty successful; shake views them correctly through a log-to-lin LUT.
 
fergus said:
Yes it's clearly early days for both Final Cut Studio 2 and REDCODE, but in six months time I think we really need to be able to take an edl of our apple pro res 422 edit from FCP to colour, conform it with our 4K REDCODE "neg" and grade for telecine back to film or a 4K master for digital projection. I also think that it would be cool to do an initial grade with the 422 codec (since it'll run much faster) and go to 4K with all the colour decisions in place just to tweak those RAW files. :gun:
Click to expand...

You can do both of those things right now, you are just limited to the EDL format for your edit interchange with Color. There's just a few extra steps involved - i.e. (and I'll have to test this) you can load colour corrections from other projects into new ones - greatly speeding up your 4K online. You can also export an EDL from a ProRes timeline to conform RAW in Color - but this may involve a Cinema Tools database and a Pull List...

EDIT: With the test I did above, it's possible that you could reconnect your FCP project to the 2K reference clips and then FCP roundtrip to Color. This hinges on Color accepting REDCODE.
 
Yes but currently Color can't do 4k. Nor can it read RAW files in their native state. If Color goes to 4k, that would be great. What would be even better would be if could also read REDCODE RAW files, and use the metadata to set initial settings in the primary room.
 
Color runs on my ATI Radeon 9600 card, albeit really slow.

Seems powerful, although the interface fonts are really ugly. Reminds me of Shake and their unpolished UI. I think I'll wait for V.2.
 
fergus said:
I also think that it would be cool to do an initial grade with the 422 codec (since it'll run much faster) and go to 4K with all the colour decisions in place just to tweak those RAW files.
Click to expand...

I personnaly won't make color decision with prores 422 codec and then apply that to RGB or 4:4:4 files, as they won't react the same to your color grade.

Using proxy (smaller resolution but with same codec) is a better option, I think.

antoine.
 
Desert Rune said:
Color runs on my ATI Radeon 9600 card, albeit really slow.

Seems powerful, although the interface fonts are really ugly. Reminds me of Shake and their unpolished UI. I think I'll wait for V.2.
Click to expand...

I think it is really a question of taste, as I love Shake's user interface. So simple! Not messy as After Effects is...

antoine.
 
I understand Proxys only do splits of 4k so would be 2k or 1k grade.. but that brings up some concerns...

1, how do you monitor 1k? via aja or BlackMagic you'll have 720p or 1080p on the broadcast monitor.. so it's scaled... so you could miss details.

Wonder if it's possible to do 1k as 1280x720 but not scaled to fit ?

Is a 2k projector the only was to see the true rez of 2k grading currently? apart from using a apple 30" or something. CRT's are only 1000 lines.
 
flameop said:
Is a 2k projector the only was to see the true rez of 2k grading currently? apart from using a apple 30" or something. CRT's are only 1000 lines.
Click to expand...

The Blackmagic Multibridge Extreme can show 2k on an Apple 30" display now via DVI, and when their Multibridge Eclipse come out later this year, you will be able to use that in conjunction with an HD-Link Pro to have 3D LUTs as well.
 
DPX Conform DOESN'T WORK

DPX Conform DOESN'T WORK

Hi,

we were looking forward to Color (never seen FinalTouch though).
But it was a disappointment.
I have a simple edl and dpx scans from northlight. Import EDL to Color, browse for source dpx files and...all I see is placeholders on the timeline. Trying to reconnect, nothing happens. Seems like developers don't care for error messages...

But thats not all. When I import dpx sequence with timecode gaps (since we scanned only selected takes), it doesn't handle it very well. After first clip, instead of black, there are some frames from first clip looping?!

Nevertheless, if there is someone here who has dpx workflow/conform experiences with FT/Color please help.

BTW gui is really ugly. Needs some urgent facelift.

Vladus
 
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