Problems with Color at DVinfo.net

Joe Lawry · October 5th, 2007, 05:41 PM

Just thought i'd post my experiences after really putting colors workflow through its paces. If anyone else has found solutions to my problems please let me know.. so

Just finished off a 3 minute corporate promo video. All shot in DVCPRO50 off an HPX2000 and after that.. color and I are not friends.

Sending the sequence was fine, however i soon found a bunch of problems.

1. Color cant do clips with motion effects. You can grade them fine, however as soon as it comes to renders, for some reason color renders the whole original master clip that the in and the out on the timeline has come from. Very annoying. Lucky for me they were only 2 minute master clips.

However, its a huge issue. Im not prepared to go through a timeline before its sent to color, pull out all the slowed down or speed up clips and change them back to their original speed before sending them to color. I did try this after the edit was out and it worked fine.. but for anything longer than a 3 minute sequence.. no, Im not going to do it.

2. Color doesnt like you sending sequences from the same projects back and forth between it and FCP a number of times .

The first time i sent the sequence to color everything was fine.. bar the motion effect clips. I managed to send it back to FCP fine as well. I sent ended up having clients coming back and of course making changes post grade, so the sequence got sent back to color a number of times. By about the 7th time.. when color booted the sequence it had imported was not what i had sent it. Random clips from the projects.. all over the place basically.

I ended up copying the clips i needed to grade to another sequence and sending them over. This worked fine a couple of times but then stopped working. Very annoying, the handling of xml's needs to be sorted out.

The other major issue i had, which was my fault. Was somehow after my first grade i went to render and stupidly hadnt checked the color project settings and for some reason the whole render went out as ProRes422 HQ. You'd think this would be fine.. well no, it was a dvcpro50 50i timeline originally.. with a lower field dominance... and Prores has an upper field dominance.

Wow.. that caused some major issues, and it wasnt just a matter of dropping it into a new sequence. Why it hadnt defaulted to my original timelines settings i dont know.. but from now on im checking this.

Sorry for the long post. .but i needed to get that off my mind. If anyone has a way of sorting out the whole 'sending a motion effected clip to color' issue i've been having, let me know please.

I've also just noticed the sticky at the top of this forum about using color. Time to convince work i need to buy this.

Joe 'Loving colors grading options but hating the workflow' Lawry

Mathieu Ghekiere · October 6th, 2007, 06:01 AM

There seem to be pretty many issues with Color, although at the price point (for free included in FCS package, where before the same program costed 5k-25k) you of course can't beat it...
But many people hope that Apple will get many bugs out of Color, and maybe, in the future, let it do 4k...
Then Color could REALLY become a very big contender, considering it's price...

Dylan Pank · October 8th, 2007, 07:10 AM

Joe,

Couldn't you just use media manager to create a trimmed project that ONLY contains the final footage and export that to Color? Obviously it'll take time, but it does it non interactively so you could set it to create the new file over a coffee break/ overnight (depending how long the timeline is).

I know Media Manager used to have isses with motion and speed clips but I think that's all settled now(6.x version anyway).

Joe Lawry · October 9th, 2007, 06:24 PM

Yup, that would work fine, however the project was a 2 day turn around from start to finish. So definitely no time to do that.

When i get some free time im planning on going back and having a play with the sequence again, will try your media manager suggestion if i can free up enough room on the raid.

Cheers.

Simon Denny · October 11th, 2007, 07:15 AM

Hey Joe,
I have just read your post with color grading, wow what a long way to do things...
Try sony Vegas man you will have none of those problems.

Cool
Simon

Glenn Chan · October 11th, 2007, 12:33 PM

Color definitely has workflow landmines to watch out for. But once you know about them, you can avoid them and get work done.

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2825

In your case, you need to render out the speed changes into a file and bring that in.

October 5th, 2007, 05:41 PM	#1
Joe Lawry Major Player Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 418	Problems with Color Just thought i'd post my experiences after really putting colors workflow through its paces. If anyone else has found solutions to my problems please let me know.. so Just finished off a 3 minute corporate promo video. All shot in DVCPRO50 off an HPX2000 and after that.. color and I are not friends. Sending the sequence was fine, however i soon found a bunch of problems. 1. Color cant do clips with motion effects. You can grade them fine, however as soon as it comes to renders, for some reason color renders the whole original master clip that the in and the out on the timeline has come from. Very annoying. Lucky for me they were only 2 minute master clips. However, its a huge issue. Im not prepared to go through a timeline before its sent to color, pull out all the slowed down or speed up clips and change them back to their original speed before sending them to color. I did try this after the edit was out and it worked fine.. but for anything longer than a 3 minute sequence.. no, Im not going to do it. 2. Color doesnt like you sending sequences from the same projects back and forth between it and FCP a number of times . The first time i sent the sequence to color everything was fine.. bar the motion effect clips. I managed to send it back to FCP fine as well. I sent ended up having clients coming back and of course making changes post grade, so the sequence got sent back to color a number of times. By about the 7th time.. when color booted the sequence it had imported was not what i had sent it. Random clips from the projects.. all over the place basically. I ended up copying the clips i needed to grade to another sequence and sending them over. This worked fine a couple of times but then stopped working. Very annoying, the handling of xml's needs to be sorted out. The other major issue i had, which was my fault. Was somehow after my first grade i went to render and stupidly hadnt checked the color project settings and for some reason the whole render went out as ProRes422 HQ. You'd think this would be fine.. well no, it was a dvcpro50 50i timeline originally.. with a lower field dominance... and Prores has an upper field dominance. Wow.. that caused some major issues, and it wasnt just a matter of dropping it into a new sequence. Why it hadnt defaulted to my original timelines settings i dont know.. but from now on im checking this. Sorry for the long post. .but i needed to get that off my mind. If anyone has a way of sorting out the whole 'sending a motion effected clip to color' issue i've been having, let me know please. I've also just noticed the sticky at the top of this forum about using color. Time to convince work i need to buy this. Joe 'Loving colors grading options but hating the workflow' Lawry

October 6th, 2007, 06:01 AM	#2
Mathieu Ghekiere Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Belgium Posts: 2,195	There seem to be pretty many issues with Color, although at the price point (for free included in FCS package, where before the same program costed 5k-25k) you of course can't beat it... But many people hope that Apple will get many bugs out of Color, and maybe, in the future, let it do 4k... Then Color could REALLY become a very big contender, considering it's price... __________________ http://productionsofthe3rdkind.com http://pr3k.com

October 8th, 2007, 07:10 AM	#3
Dylan Pank Major Player Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Portsmouth, UK Posts: 611	Joe, Couldn't you just use media manager to create a trimmed project that ONLY contains the final footage and export that to Color? Obviously it'll take time, but it does it non interactively so you could set it to create the new file over a coffee break/ overnight (depending how long the timeline is). I know Media Manager used to have isses with motion and speed clips but I think that's all settled now(6.x version anyway). Last edited by Dylan Pank; October 8th, 2007 at 07:55 AM.

October 9th, 2007, 06:24 PM	#4
Joe Lawry Major Player Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 418	Yup, that would work fine, however the project was a 2 day turn around from start to finish. So definitely no time to do that. When i get some free time im planning on going back and having a play with the sequence again, will try your media manager suggestion if i can free up enough room on the raid. Cheers.

October 11th, 2007, 07:15 AM	#5
Simon Denny Trustee Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Australia Posts: 1,409	Hey Joe, I have just read your post with color grading, wow what a long way to do things... Try sony Vegas man you will have none of those problems. Cool Simon

October 11th, 2007, 12:33 PM	#6
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	Color definitely has workflow landmines to watch out for. But once you know about them, you can avoid them and get work done. http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2825 In your case, you need to render out the speed changes into a file and bring that in.