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Author Topic: Apple Color  (Read 6238 times)

Morgan_Moore

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Apple Color
« on: January 23, 2012, 03:57:35 am »

So Ive got FCP/Apple Color and am just making my first steps into 'grading'

As a background my typical workflow (for stills) in PS is to have layers with looks

I might have a noise layer, a flare layer or a warm 70s layer

I might also have a simple layer like darkened sky being a curve applied to a specific portion of the image (adjustment layer?)

Before output I often tone down these effects and corrections before outputting the final (stills file)

Making those final opacity slides is where I really get my 'look' from

So I got going with Color and it was all looking good

Secondaries = Layers

'Vingette' = mask/select faclity

However it seems that Vingnette cannot be applied to filters, and only to a subset of the colour adjustment facilities

Also the 'feather' on 'user shapes' seems to be strange

And you don't seem to be able to dial in the layer opacity

Im sure I have not got a clue how to actually use Color - but from my background in working stills it seems to get you 70% there and then fall over completely

Leading me to the conclusion that i need to look in another direction like the free or $1000 versions of Resolve  

Any comments

BTW im not going PC and am loath to leave FCP which Im very happy chopping on

Best

SMM

« Last Edit: January 23, 2012, 04:00:44 am by Morgan_Moore »
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Sam Morgan Moore Bristol UK

fredjeang

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2012, 05:52:37 am »

In creative cow there are interesting tutos about almost every software.

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/vignette/video-tutorial

Don't know if that's what you were looking for, Biscardi is quite good.
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Morgan_Moore

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2012, 06:03:39 am »

That seems indeed to 'prove' one of my perceived limitations of the software

He has to TYPE IN (is it 1980?) the degrees of rotation of the blend filter

Now the vignette facility in Secondaries you can shape it by clicking and dragging - but can't apply that 'layer mask' to a filter selected from the 'Color FX' Tab

Thanks

SMM

italics mean I am using photoshop language!







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Sam Morgan Moore Bristol UK

fredjeang

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2012, 06:17:18 am »

If you're familiar and like PS, it's however possible to do quite a lot with motion in the extended version of Photoshop.

I haven't explore the PS path enough so far but it's used even in the High-end for many purpose.

Best luck.


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Morgan_Moore

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2012, 06:43:14 am »

I will have to check that out - Im looking to build a simple workflow that can.. I have CS5.1 - that not the same as extended ... right>

Kill the top highlight saturation - easy with Color

Dodge and Burn the image - with tracking if required - nearly easy with Color

Add some filters (e.g. noise) and vary their opacity

Ive just DLd Resolve lets have a look at that

S

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fredjeang

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2012, 08:19:58 am »

Morgan,

Da-Vinci is a superb program, even in its lite and free version.

There is an absolute consensus on that fact so you won't be disapointed.

When Chris Barrett sent the news here that it was available for windows, I jumped into it, installed it and start to put myself into it...after 30mins, I've closed it and never opened it again since then.

Don't get me wrong, it's not because I thought it's not good, it's because I got an overdosis of learning curves, enough with Avid and Nuke wich is as simple as learning to fly a 747, and I realised that Edius does 90% of what Da-Vinci Resolve can do, and I know Edius so why should I put myself into more hassle?

As James said several times, don't let yourself been eaten by the monster (the video PP). Da-Vinci doesn't look long and complicated to learn, but even though, I'm done with more new software to learn at the moment. Since months, all I do is eating datas and practising. That's the reason why I'm so active in Lu-La by the way, because I'm stuck in front of the computer and the only "escape" in those moments is Lu-La while I'm rendering something...that's not healphy at all.

But if you go Resolve, you'd had a great tool for sure.
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Morgan_Moore

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2012, 08:41:20 am »

So I installed Resolve and it crashes on startup .. so I uninstalled it and now my Apple Color is broken too.

Good start

Looks like Im going to have to get eaten.. which is fairly annoying!

S
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Sam Morgan Moore Bristol UK

fredjeang

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #7 on: January 23, 2012, 08:50:02 am »

So I installed Resolve and it crashes on startup .. so I uninstalled it and now my Apple Color is broken too.

Good start

Looks like Im going to have to get eaten.. which is fairly annoying!

S

I'm very sorry.

Have you previously checked the requierements for Resolve? It really bloody needs power and space available and check the card too. (I'm on Nvidia). 

If you reboot the computer Apple color should rework fine as you desintalled it.
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Morgan_Moore

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #8 on: January 23, 2012, 10:28:09 am »

I don't know too much about mac specs but Im only now delving into colour corrections because I have a new mac..

IMac 3.4GHZ with 16 GBram " AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024 MB" (means nothing to me) but Id say its pretty pokey!

MAybe that card is no good

S
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fredjeang

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #9 on: January 23, 2012, 10:48:38 am »

Yeah, it seems it's-or could be the card.

On Ram you're fine.

But your card 1024 MB might be too just. You'd need to investigate if it would work with it. In fact it should but slow.
On cards Resolve doesn't forgive.

You'd need a 8 core.

You'd need a RAID card installed, internaly they say 5 disks minimum.  

You'd need NVIDIA cuadro 4000 CUDA capable as a starter.

Resolve listed those models for PC (don't know Mac but the story is about the same):
"One or more NVIDIA CUDA capable cards for
image processing. The following certified cards
are listed in order of increasing power: Quadro
4000, Quadro 5000, Quadro 6000, Tesla C2075
and GeForce GTX 580 3072 MB."


Then you need a lot os space in the same HD you'll install the program. (hundreds of GB). I was amazed by the amount of space it ocupates in the HD by default.

It's like Avid, it seems that all that is not NVIDIA is problematic.

For the "fun", the oscur CUDA is a technology that allows to share the comlicated calculations between the card itself and the cpu. It's a sort of turbo to use an image.

More generally, it's very important for people who want to invest in computer for motion and FX to look very closely to the cards specs-requirements. NVIDIA is generaly the required brand for many softwares.
For ex, to take advantage of the full potential of the latest Premiere Pro: NVIDIA CUDA. Avid? NVIDIA again...

It seems that we never have enough. One just buy a brand new powerfull computer, and it result that it's still underpower for the latest softwares. It never ends.

Now, for the specs you have writen, Resolve should work anyway and not crash just on opening. I ignore if there is a prob with the Mac OS, it could also be. Make sure you got at least 200GB of free space in the HD you install it. This program needs to create a huge folder.

Then it works as a server-database.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2012, 01:24:38 pm by fredjeang »
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Morgan_Moore

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #10 on: January 23, 2012, 02:44:52 pm »

Thanks for taking the time for a detailed answer

I will bring this up with my computer tech guy!

(I have 1.6TB free) this is my new clean machine!

Thank you

SamMM
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Sam Morgan Moore Bristol UK

Morgan_Moore

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #11 on: January 24, 2012, 03:10:25 am »

Ignoring issues with getting colour to run nicely (and it is again?)

I have found that I can get a good look from Color

It might be very counter intuitive

My PS process is simply Lasso, (say a sky) and then bring the curve down to richen it

Now

In colour you can lasso everything but the sky and lighten it

then in primary out you crush the whole image

SO basically differentially equalise the image, then add contrast/look

There is always a way!
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fredjeang

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #12 on: January 24, 2012, 04:08:45 am »

Apple color has been applauded, well deserved IMO.

It's maybe a little outdated software, but it was really the only one that could compeat with expensive grading suites at a modest cost. It's been used and abused by professional colorists, so the software is quite efficient and allows without doubt a perfectly efficient grading.
And you don't need the Pentagon computer power to make it work.

Resolve is a much powerfull tool from a suite that used to be reserved to the high-end and costed a fortune. But then the computer requierements are much bigger, generally on those suites like Flame etc...you'd need the correct system built exactly within the manufacturer requierements.
But in fact you'll reach the same "looks" with Apple color.

Or even if speed is a concern, a Magic Bullet "LOOK" plug-in for ex would give instant pleasure results that you can finetune, and usable on a simple laptop in a trip or on set. Resolve on a laptop would work but you'd need to investigate in serious wich models.

Apple color, Magic bullet Look etc...will work on anything. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfw2RBlIyGQ

It's just going into its logic and get used of a non-photoshop way (you'd have to do it with Da-Vinci anyway).
« Last Edit: January 24, 2012, 04:13:01 am by fredjeang »
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Chris_Brown

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #13 on: January 28, 2012, 11:15:03 pm »

AFAIK, Color has been discontinued as a separate application, with bits of it embedded into FCPX. If you're going to get serious and drill into grading video, Da Vinci Resolve is worth considering. Note that the "Lite" version is free, and a great way to get check out the product.
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fredjeang

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #14 on: January 29, 2012, 05:23:39 am »

I was also thinking,

Morgan, if PS is really the tool you'd like to have within your motion works, you can actually use it even without the extended version.

The thing is that you'd have to work (and so convert) in image sequences and work with scripts inside PS. Some batch processing can even been acheive combined with bridge.
No after-effects, no resolve, just PS.

If you have time and you are doing short clip campaigns, this is a path worth to explore IMO.
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Morgan_Moore

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #15 on: January 30, 2012, 04:37:24 pm »

AFAIK, Color has been discontinued as a separate application, with bits of it embedded into FCPX.

I use FCP 7 and Color is installed.

Yep Im going to try Resolve.. but the install was not working with a few clicks (see above)

Thanks

S

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Sam Morgan Moore Bristol UK

Morgan_Moore

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #16 on: January 30, 2012, 04:39:58 pm »

I was also thinking,

Morgan, if PS is really the tool you'd like to have within your motion works, you can actually use it even without the extended version.

The thing is that you'd have to work (and so convert) in image sequences and work with scripts inside PS. Some batch processing can even been acheive combined with bridge.
No after-effects, no resolve, just PS.

If you have time and you are doing short clip campaigns, this is a path worth to explore IMO.

Without having explored (the motion capabilities of) PShop deeply but having done some work on Color, I can see that motion tracking is very important with grading movies .. and it seems to work in Color for simple stuff

I have used PS for some stuff - minty grading time-lapse using Actions

:)

S
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Chris_Brown

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #17 on: January 30, 2012, 05:24:35 pm »

After Effects, which uses layering and blend modes identical to PS, can use Mocha, an excellent tracking and rotoscoping tool for those time you want to localize grading.
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Morgan_Moore

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #18 on: February 03, 2012, 03:18:31 am »

Had a crack at my Reel in Color - managed to desat some of the highs and also tonally burn stuff in - if you can't see it I've done OK

Some of the colours are still off IMO

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Chris_Brown

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Re: Apple Color
« Reply #19 on: February 03, 2012, 10:34:11 am »

Great job, Mr. Moore!

My only critique would be that to show your talents as a DP, the edits are too quick. It's not easy or natural to study lighting and camera work with short clips (but it is trendy nowadays).
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