Key Framed color correction? at DVinfo.net

Joe Holt · February 22nd, 2015, 11:13 PM

Is there a way to adjust the color, luma and hue over time with key frames in a single clip? I don't work with Final Cut X on a regular basis so I'm still bumping my head against the wall on trying to do what should be a simple thing. Am I crazy in thinking I should be able to set key frames for changing luminance in a clip? I can't seem to find any tutorials out on YouTube for this specific question. Can anyone give me a hint?.

Here's what I'm trying to do. I have a scene where the actor is silhouetted against a bright background. I want to raise the luminance as the clip plays to give a blinding light effect. I tried to do a slow dissolve to a white background but it just isn't the same as blowing out the mids and highlights and leaving the blacks in the dirt. I know I can do this easily in Premiere CS6 but can't figure out how to do it in FCX.

William Hohauser · February 23rd, 2015, 04:20 AM

Simple way:

Copy the clip and paste it over itself. Apply the adjustment to the overlay clip and dissolve the effect on.

David Dixon · February 23rd, 2015, 08:27 AM

The approach I use:

HyColour PRO - Complete Colour Grading for FCPX HY-FX

HyColour Pro - excellent $45 plugin that gives many more options than the FCPX Color Board, and everything is keyframeable. It will do color correction, exposure correction, sharpening, saturation, vignettes, etc.

Joe Holt · February 23rd, 2015, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by William Hohauser

Simple way:

Copy the clip and paste it over itself. Apply the adjustment to the overlay clip and dissolve the effect on.

I'll give that a try. I think that will work in this instance as I just need to make a change in the exposure as the clip plays. Thanks.

Joe Holt · February 23rd, 2015, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Dixon

The approach I use:

HyColour PRO - Complete Colour Grading for FCPX HY-FX

HyColour Pro - excellent $45 plugin that gives many more options than the FCPX Color Board, and everything is keyframeable. It will do color correction, exposure correction, sharpening, saturation, vignettes, etc.

I just spent a few minutes watching the tutorial and reading. It looks really good. Is everything keyframeable? I only saw reference to the mask and a few other features as keyframeable on the web site but couldn't find confirmation that all parameters were able to be key framed. It still looks like a better way to color correct than the built in corrector. Will the built in scopes in FCX still work with HyColour Pro? Thanks

David Dixon · February 24th, 2015, 04:16 PM

Yes to all your questions!

Practically everything is keyframeable - color balance, exposure, highlights, mids, shadows, saturation, etc. - all separately.

That's exactly the way I use it - open the scopes in FCPX, adjust everything like I want in HyColour referencing the luma waveform and any of the others that apply. And, you can still use the shape and color masking built in to FCPX for more specific tweaks on a clip that has HyColour on it as well.

Joe Holt · February 24th, 2015, 05:02 PM

Thanks Dave. I've got my CC out right now. I've got about 400 clips to grade for this project and not having to click tabs is worth the cost of entry.

David Dixon · February 24th, 2015, 06:21 PM

I forgot about that aspect of it - yes - exposure, saturation, color - all in one panel. I'm lucky in that most things I shoot are such that I can set HCPro on a representative clip, Paste Attributes, then just make minor tweaks.

I've even experimented with opening HCPro in Motion and "unpublishing" some of the features that I don't use to customize the interface for me. I need to get back to that again.

Sylva, huh? Beautiful country. We go to Asheville from time to time, and I was in NC a fair amount in my prior life (before retirement) as an assistant director for one of the high school bands in Knoxville. Been to many a marching contest over there.

Hope the software works for you!

Joe Holt · February 24th, 2015, 10:36 PM

I've been playing with the software a bit and can already tell it is going to save me time. Thanks again for the suggestion. Knoxville is just over the mountain from us. I imagine you got the same pasting from this morning's snow storm and like us, you're probably bracing for the next wave to hit tomorrow evening.

Do you recommend Motion for an occasional user like myself? I've been working during my day job mostly in Premiere and have only done a few side projects in FCX on my system here at home . At work, I have access to the full Adobe CS 6.0 including After Effects and find I have too little time to mess with AE as the interface is a bit foreign to me. Is Motion more intuitive than AE?

David Dixon · February 25th, 2015, 12:21 PM

I'm a novice at Motion, but have never used AE at all. I just use the right click-Open in Motion trick to edit commercial templates I've bought for FCPX, both graphics and the occasional plugin like I mentioned. However, Motion does a lot (but not everything) that AE will do, is faster, easier for most people to learn, and at $50 is not much of a stretch.

Joe Holt · March 1st, 2015, 10:06 PM

David,

I ended up using HY Colour Pro for my music video project and it was a huge time saver from not having to click all those tabs to go from exposure levels, to hues and to saturation. I also ended up using the vignette effect to some effect which was a nice bonus. The color tinting feature was also very useful for some fast "look" creations. I did also get Motion and ended up using it to create a very believable effect where I had an actor in a dark tunnel with icicles hanging from the ceiling. The icicles were real but I needed to see his breath to really sell how cold it was. I was able to make a believable breath vapor cloud using the particle emitter. I admit I had about 2 hours of frustration figuring out how everything worked together but in the end, I got the effect I wanted. My only true complaint is it seams "JKL" keys do not work for playback controls. I can't tell you how many times I kept hitting "L" and wondering why nothing was happening. I am sure I would starve if I had to make a living working with Motion but it is nice to know I can create a believable effect if I need to if given enough time to figure out how, Thanks again for the suggestions. Joe

David Dixon · March 2nd, 2015, 10:55 AM

Wow, you really took this and ran with it - glad it worked out so well for you!

February 22nd, 2015, 11:13 PM	#1
Joe Holt Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Sylva, North Carolina Posts: 153	Key Framed color correction? Is there a way to adjust the color, luma and hue over time with key frames in a single clip? I don't work with Final Cut X on a regular basis so I'm still bumping my head against the wall on trying to do what should be a simple thing. Am I crazy in thinking I should be able to set key frames for changing luminance in a clip? I can't seem to find any tutorials out on YouTube for this specific question. Can anyone give me a hint?. Here's what I'm trying to do. I have a scene where the actor is silhouetted against a bright background. I want to raise the luminance as the clip plays to give a blinding light effect. I tried to do a slow dissolve to a white background but it just isn't the same as blowing out the mids and highlights and leaving the blacks in the dirt. I know I can do this easily in Premiere CS6 but can't figure out how to do it in FCX.

February 23rd, 2015, 04:20 AM	#2
William Hohauser Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New York City Posts: 2,650	Re: Key Framed color correction? Simple way: Copy the clip and paste it over itself. Apply the adjustment to the overlay clip and dissolve the effect on. __________________ William Hohauser - New York City Producer/Edit/Camera/Animation

February 23rd, 2015, 08:27 AM	#3
David Dixon Major Player Join Date: May 2011 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 495	Re: Key Framed color correction? The approach I use: HyColour PRO - Complete Colour Grading for FCPX HY-FX HyColour Pro - excellent $45 plugin that gives many more options than the FCPX Color Board, and everything is keyframeable. It will do color correction, exposure correction, sharpening, saturation, vignettes, etc.

February 24th, 2015, 04:16 PM	#6
David Dixon Major Player Join Date: May 2011 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 495	Re: Key Framed color correction? Yes to all your questions! Practically everything is keyframeable - color balance, exposure, highlights, mids, shadows, saturation, etc. - all separately. That's exactly the way I use it - open the scopes in FCPX, adjust everything like I want in HyColour referencing the luma waveform and any of the others that apply. And, you can still use the shape and color masking built in to FCPX for more specific tweaks on a clip that has HyColour on it as well.

February 24th, 2015, 05:02 PM	#7
Joe Holt Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Sylva, North Carolina Posts: 153	Re: Key Framed color correction? Thanks Dave. I've got my CC out right now. I've got about 400 clips to grade for this project and not having to click tabs is worth the cost of entry.

February 24th, 2015, 06:21 PM	#8
David Dixon Major Player Join Date: May 2011 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 495	Re: Key Framed color correction? I forgot about that aspect of it - yes - exposure, saturation, color - all in one panel. I'm lucky in that most things I shoot are such that I can set HCPro on a representative clip, Paste Attributes, then just make minor tweaks. I've even experimented with opening HCPro in Motion and "unpublishing" some of the features that I don't use to customize the interface for me. I need to get back to that again. Sylva, huh? Beautiful country. We go to Asheville from time to time, and I was in NC a fair amount in my prior life (before retirement) as an assistant director for one of the high school bands in Knoxville. Been to many a marching contest over there. Hope the software works for you!

February 24th, 2015, 10:36 PM	#9
Joe Holt Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Sylva, North Carolina Posts: 153	Re: Key Framed color correction? I've been playing with the software a bit and can already tell it is going to save me time. Thanks again for the suggestion. Knoxville is just over the mountain from us. I imagine you got the same pasting from this morning's snow storm and like us, you're probably bracing for the next wave to hit tomorrow evening. Do you recommend Motion for an occasional user like myself? I've been working during my day job mostly in Premiere and have only done a few side projects in FCX on my system here at home . At work, I have access to the full Adobe CS 6.0 including After Effects and find I have too little time to mess with AE as the interface is a bit foreign to me. Is Motion more intuitive than AE?

February 25th, 2015, 12:21 PM	#10
David Dixon Major Player Join Date: May 2011 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 495	Re: Key Framed color correction? I'm a novice at Motion, but have never used AE at all. I just use the right click-Open in Motion trick to edit commercial templates I've bought for FCPX, both graphics and the occasional plugin like I mentioned. However, Motion does a lot (but not everything) that AE will do, is faster, easier for most people to learn, and at $50 is not much of a stretch.

March 1st, 2015, 10:06 PM	#11
Joe Holt Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Sylva, North Carolina Posts: 153	Re: Key Framed color correction? David, I ended up using HY Colour Pro for my music video project and it was a huge time saver from not having to click all those tabs to go from exposure levels, to hues and to saturation. I also ended up using the vignette effect to some effect which was a nice bonus. The color tinting feature was also very useful for some fast "look" creations. I did also get Motion and ended up using it to create a very believable effect where I had an actor in a dark tunnel with icicles hanging from the ceiling. The icicles were real but I needed to see his breath to really sell how cold it was. I was able to make a believable breath vapor cloud using the particle emitter. I admit I had about 2 hours of frustration figuring out how everything worked together but in the end, I got the effect I wanted. My only true complaint is it seams "JKL" keys do not work for playback controls. I can't tell you how many times I kept hitting "L" and wondering why nothing was happening. I am sure I would starve if I had to make a living working with Motion but it is nice to know I can create a believable effect if I need to if given enough time to figure out how, Thanks again for the suggestions. Joe

March 2nd, 2015, 10:55 AM	#12
David Dixon Major Player Join Date: May 2011 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 495	Re: Key Framed color correction? Wow, you really took this and ran with it - glad it worked out so well for you!