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FCP? Shake? Photoshop? What is the best way to enhance video color?

S

SpaceJello

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 2, 2006
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I am looking for ways to enhance the color of some footage i have beyond just color correction. I want to make it as "vibrant" as possible, but I have found that FCP to be quite sad on this part for some reasons (maybe i am using it wrong). I know Shake can do some color editing, but :

is there anyway to really edit image colors like you can in photoshop but with video editing plugins or otherwise??
 
Shake should be able to do it also I think it is quite difficult to learn.

I personally use Adobe After Effects. It can do the job as well easily.
 
CmdrLaForge said:
Shake should be able to do it also I think it is quite difficult to learn.

I personally use Adobe After Effects. It can do the job as well easily.
Click to expand...

Curious, when you use adobe after effects, does it take long to render the sequences? i have had a 2 minute sequence rendered on shake but it took like gosh several hours at least, it was only slow motion and steady cam. c2d here as well.
 
SpaceJello said:
I am looking for ways to enhance the color of some footage i have beyond just color correction. I want to make it as "vibrant" as possible, but I have found that FCP to be quite sad on this part for some reasons (maybe i am using it wrong). I know Shake can do some color editing, but :

is there anyway to really edit image colors like you can in photoshop but with video editing plugins or otherwise??
Click to expand...

Use levels and desaturate in FCP to boost your footage.
 
Color correction with Shake is an art. You probably don't want to go through the hassle of learning how to use it correctly.

Final Cut has powerful tools for picture corrections. You should be able to do it there. Unless you want the look of something specific. But then you will probably need plug-ins for Shake that cost thousands.

You really should give us an example of what you are going for. ;)
 
color correction

Color correction is an art period. Doesn't matter what one is using. Colorists correcting high profile commercials, music video and movies get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to do what they do.

Using a DaVinci is top shelp, using FCP is a comprimise at best.
 
SpaceJello said:
I am trying to get some footage to achieve this coloring like the movie Letters from Lwo Jima by Eastwood
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/letters_from_iwo_jima/

Think I will check into shake more and actually learn it :D
any good tutorials etc online?
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I think the Apple Pro training books (here) are really good. I've read Shake 3, Shake 4, Getting started with Motion, Motion, Editing in FCP, Advanced Finishing in FCP, DVD Studio Pro 2, DVD Studio Pro 3, and Soundtrack Pro.

If you have some footage of your own and some audio bites, then you can do the books twice and play around with some "real" uses for each application.

Shake is so, how do I say this, open ended. You can do almost anything with very little once you learn a few tricks. I think you'll be impressed with Shake. Just remember- NEVER use the color correct node. Always use separate nodes that concatenate. And never break concatenation. ;)
 
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grading

using a color grading app like davinci/lustre/scratch is extremely expensive and requires years of practice (do to properly, anyways).


you should be able to achieve what you want using FCP's color corrections tools, but if you want that extra boost, you can look into buying Magic Bullet for FCP (or after effects if you want to work with secondaries) or a new product called Colorista (also from Red Giant) (although i'm not sure colorista is available on FCP, it is for after effects though).

There is a new Magic Bullet slated for release at NAB (about a week from now), if you're willing to wait.
 
Awesome, thanks for all the advice. I think I will learn shake, i will have a look at Magic bullet as well. Is it just me but I find that FCP plugins and others aren't as powerful sometimes, they tend to degrade the image.
 
SpaceJello said:
Awesome, thanks for all the advice. I think I will learn shake, i will have a look at Magic bullet as well. Is it just me but I find that FCP plugins and others aren't as powerful sometimes, they tend to degrade the image.
Click to expand...

What type of video are you working with? DV is pretty fragile because of the compression and 4:1:1 color sampling where as footage from a Digibeta captured via SDI into an uncompressed timeline will be able to be manipulated more before it starts to fall apart.


Lethal
 
Plug-ins

There are plug-ins for FCP and AE called "Magic Bullet" that should do what you need. It has dozens of pre-sets to give video specific film looks like Bleach Bypass, Vibrant, Warm, etc. The more expensive version for AE will also change the video cadence to make 30fps (29.97fps) video appear as if it was originally shot at 24fps and then telecined to video. Using these two "effects" can produce very realistic film look from video.

Check out a distributor called Red Giant Software.
 
i have both DV and HDV footage, but i did notice that hdv obviously is way better with the plugins. Does anyone know if Magic Bullet will be updating significantly with their new release at nab?
 
SpaceJello said:
i have both DV and HDV footage, but i did notice that hdv obviously is way better with the plugins. Does anyone know if Magic Bullet will be updating significantly with their new release at nab?
Click to expand...

There is a new Magic Bullet app set to be announced at NAB. Before you drop mega bucks on MB, take a look at the Nattress Filters. Very powerful and very inexpensive. Also, if you already have After Effects you can do some very powerful CCing in that as well. Stu Maschwitz, one of the founders of the VFX house The Orphanage as well as the man behind Magic Bullet and Colorista, loves AE and maintains that if you have the skill and the time you can do just about anything in AE that you can do in a million dollar on-line suite.


Lethal
 
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