Color ... grading different tracks?

I'm doing some minor effects in FCP. Just two layers, top layer in Composite Mode (Add). I want to send the project to Color for grading. Will I be able to grade the separate 'layers' or tracks in Color?
For example, I want to color correct and then add a vignette to one layer, but not the other.
If this is possible, is there any special trick to jumping from one layer to the other?
I've got to deliver a project tomorrow morning, going to Color is a bit of a luxury. I've graded a number of films before, in Color, but always only one layer / track.
All ears,
Ben

Yes... you can color correct 2 layers in Color...
Right click on the top layer to unlock it... Right click on the top layer to hide/show top layer. Now you can turn off the top layer making to where you can see the lower layer for color correcting.

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Hello, apologies that I posted this question also on the beginners video forum.
I am about to get a new Mac Pro set up specifically for color grading as I am a cinematographer and need more control over small projects where there is no budget for color grading of images at professional post houses. My vendor suggests using the 24" HP DreamColor LP 2480zx monitor driven from a Black Magic Intensity Pro card using the HDMI output. I have read conflicting reports and read a huge amount on forums such as Creative Cow about this but still not convinced I can get full 30bit grading from a Mac OS X using this monitor. I am in Australia and most projects here are in PAL format in HD at 1080p25 or 50i. I use FCP 7.
Any advice please?

are you saying I should look at Da Vinci Resolve to grade? Why?
It depends on whether you're a day-in and day-out business, and your preferred workflow. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. The Balckmagic-branded daVinci has a number of internal core processing advantages, a tracker that works, far superior color science, especially in secondary processing, but suffers from an old, "tape-to-tape" single-layer capability. However, it is truly "real-time", but that isn't as important to some.
The latest version of Resolve supports multiple-GPU processing on Mac, so the difference between the OSX offering and the much more expensive LInux may not be that great in actual performance. You can build a faster machine with more hardware.
The question... is it the software or controller that makes is (sic) so good? misses the point. Its a synergy of elements, just like good grading itself.
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LCD for Color Grading

I'll need to dive into Color when I finish editing my one-hour long documentary in a couple months. The doc is intended to be shown on a large theatre screen one time, then broadcast on community-access television and lent through our regional public library system on DVD. My question(s): Can the Apple 30" Cinema Display be used for color grading? Or HP's 2480zx LCD Monitor? Would the Spyder3Elite Display Calibration product be useful? Thanks in advance.

Interestingly enough, the options for trying to push a computer text display into being a grade monitor are narrowing down to nothing. The harder people have been trying to make a silk purse out of these sow's ears has resulted in the inevitable conclusion that hey, there really is no such thing as free lunch. Even the vaunted ACD's after watching two of them for nearly three years now, can't hold a calibration for more than a couple of hours and then go magenta. Its because we need so much green to make D65 white. Those poor green dots just peter out and then red and blue take over. So you better be fast, because you will be working with a different monitor for the second half of the day.
An interesting thread on a pro telecine site has been discussing the HP Dreamcolor... the general conclusion is that it is probably great for a cubicle farm full of compositing and animation artists who more need a match between them than truly accurate colorimetry. At least its consistent. A high end grading device company member warned against using certain types of "probes", since at varying resolutions of display, you really have no idea what the thing is integrating to come up with a white point.
One of the really huge things that is missing is the ENVIRONMENT that the grade is taking place in. Sure, the monitor is important... but almost equally so is the room in which it is situated... its ambient illumination and the requirement for a constant contrast neutral 18% D65 background against which to judge the monitor itself, not just what it is trying to display.
That's one of the reasons that the COLOR GUI is that "ugly" grey.... even though its probably not grey at all if the monitor you're using to display it is whacked. Every time you look at it... it is influencing the balance of your target image. Imagine you're the beer taster at the world's finest brewery.... and what (hold on a minute while I savour the fantasy.... okay, I'm back) but between samples you take a big gulp of vinegar. Right. Is that going to work?
jPo

Change text and background color when multiple tracks of text

I am finishing up a project and the client wants the final title card to be white background with colored text. I have read a bit about how to do this but I can't fit it into my situation. My text is on four different tracks, each piece of text "For more information," "email address", "contact", "phone number" So I need to change each one. But the way that I have read about it, it seems those answers are only for one level of text.
Help?

You should probably be using boris title 3D rather than the default text generator. title 3D is part of the fcp default install and is available in the same generator options where the text generator is found under Boris.
It will allow you to conbine fonts, font sizes, etc in the same clip.
And then you'll just have to put a color matte on a video track under the clip.
You can of course just put all your text clips on a track above the color matte and manually change the color of all the text.

Desktop Monitor for Web Color Grading

First question is simple: I'm in need of new desktop monitors. Looking towards the Dell Ultrasharps, which have been a favorite in the past, specifically the U2412M. Any other suggestions?
Second question, more difficult: I do a fair amount of color work with DaVinci Resolve. None of it for broadcast. By this logic, I feel like I can get away with a solid desktop monitor rather than a Dreamcolor, FSI or something pricier. If this is the case, any input on whether the Ultrasharps are a better or worse choice than anything else?
And third question: Resolve doesn't output to a second monitor without a Decklink. I guess this means I would need the Decklink Studio, or buy an SDI/HDMI converter to get to the desktop monitor? Seems like overkill, but the only option?
Thanks much!

Thanks, Shane.
2 - A computer monitor is never good for color grading. Different colorspace than TVs or broadcast monitors.
That's sort of the idea-- almost all my work is for the web, and therefore I feel like a good computer monitor is actually (albeit counter-intuitively) a good fit.
Besides that, I'd love to kill two birds with one stone and have an extended desktop when I'm not grading.
Faulty logic?

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Hello. I requested as a new feature the next:
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Also will be interesting the full screen playback mode as Premiere on desktop second monitor, for video preview."
Do you think this is a good idea?

Don't be too anxious to get an entire feature into AE as a single project. Back in the day when we cut and spliced film we worked with a maximum reel size of 1000 feet. That's 10 minutes. Even the colorist at the lab only worked on 1000 feet at a time. When It's time for me to color grade in AE I render to a nearly lossless or lossless 10 bit codec segments or scenes of the movie that go together so that I'm not dealing with every shot.
This is actually the same way I cut. I cut Scenes together as individual sequences then I drag all of the scenes into a new timeline that is the movie. If a scene needs work then I just open up that scene's timeline and make the changes. This is easier in the long run, faster, and especially easier when you're trying to fine tune the story and the performances. I know a lot of editors that work this way. I've never seen anyone with a bunch of experience just start at 00:00:00;00 and start cutting a show from the first shot to the last. I've never known anyone that was that good.

Color: grading before or after SmoothCam??

I can't believe I'm asking this. I just finished a film full of SmoothCam. And I can't remember if I created the SmoothCam before or after I sent the show to Color. Does it make a difference? Mmmm. I'm thinking that if Color is being 'rendered' out, does this mean the SmoothCam has to be applied BEFORE the show goes to Color?
Ben

Hi Shane, and I bet it was you who told me all this about two weeks ago, for the last film. Thank you for your patience. I'd already converted the whole show to ProRes; I'm doing that now, whatever the original format. So the clips sent to Color are only the actual length of the shot plus 2 seconds either side.
I'm hooked on Color now. The one thing I notice different (aside from the funky little details you can play with, multiple grading, vignettes and all) is that the shows are much more even, shot to shot. I'm using the Scopes a lot more than I ever used them in FCP. I can see the difference. It's reminding of way back when, when I was in a color grading studio in Toronto at $650 hr. and the technician NEVER looked at the actual image, only at his scopes. And I kept wanting him to do things with the color (that I'd done easily in Media 100, staying within Broad cast), but he was sooooo hooked on his scopes and some weird old rigid set of criteria. A battle it was. He won. At $650 hr. you don't want to drag it out very much.
All the best, and thanks again,
B

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Hi,
I was watching an "In Action" Final Cut Studio video on Apple's website (the "Euro RSCG" one to be more precise):
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/action/
and I was wondering what Color grading controller was that guy using?
http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/apple/mac/finalcutstudio2/2008/inaction/applefinalcutstudio_eurorscg_20080617640x360.mov

It's a JL Cooper control surface. http://www.jlcooper.com/cgi/index.cgi?home

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To put it in a slightly different fashion. I could have a dedicated Mac Mini with my iTunes library and it would feed tracks with meta data to 3 stereos in various parts of the house. Each stereo independently select tracks or playlists.
iTunes purchased tracks need to work as well.
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What you need is to use one Mac (or PC) as a server (and storing all the music) and then one of the following in each room connected to that rooms HiFi system.
Sonos ZonePlayer see http://www.sonos.com this is the most expensive option but is regarded as the premier multi-room solution.
Roku SoundBridge see http://www.rokulabs.com (I have three M2000 SoundBridges myself)
Slim Devices Squeezebox see http://www.slimdevices.com
Apple TV see http://www.apple.com/appletv (unlike all the above this will require the use of a TV)
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Is there a way to select multiple track sections from different tracks and join them to make the chorus on iPhone?

I am currently using the iPhone to record my vocals on top of professional beats, or riddims as they are called in the dancehall world. Is there a way for me to select multipe voice sections from different tracks, copy them and then paste them later in the project. I don't want to record the chorus more than once. Normally what I do is sync the project to my wife MacBook Air and then from there edit it but I would like to avoid this. Also, I use the earpods microphone to record my voice and of course it doesn't come out professional quality but it is decent. Do you recommend a microphone that plugs to the iPhone or should I get an interface? Thanks for the help.

You can either copy and paste single regions or duplicate sections, if you want to copy regions
from different tracks in parallel.
See: Extend a song with song sections
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Add a copy of a section:
Open the song section controls, choose the section you want to copy, then tap Duplicate.The copy is added after the last section.
Tap Done to close the song section controls.
After copying the section, move the new section to the end of the song:
Change the order of sections:
Open the song section controls, then tap Edit.
Drag a section up or down in the list by the handle on its right edge.
When you are finished, tap Done.
Tap Done to close the song section controls.
Regards
Léonie

Same colors appearing different in the same document

I have a document where I have filled different table cells with the same RGB color. However, they sometimes appear as two different shades, one darker than the other. I checked to be sure it was the same RGB color and it was, but it appears quite different both in InDesign and when I export it to pdf. Any idea why the same color is appearing differently in the same document?

It doesn't appear to be a monitor problem, as the colors are different both on my laptop screen and on my external monitor. As I do not have the ability to print a hard copy before the file gets sent to the printer to make a proof, I need to know which is the "right" color (or at least the once closest to how it will print). Even if the colors are showing up differently on screen, if the swatch for both is exactly the same, will it show up as the same color once the actual hard copy is printed?

When clicking an audio clip on the timeline in Premiere Pro CC 2014, it duplicates it on a different track and makes it impossible to work.

I'm experiencing a disturbing issue as it actually prevents me to do the work in Premiere. I will put as much info as possible:
1) Project started on a different computer (the editor), PC with Premiere Pro CC,
2) Now opened on my Imac with Premiere Pro CC 2014,
3) I am not editing, simply trying to move audio clips on different tracks to export audio tracks only,
THE ISSUE:
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2) When I select an audio clip to highlight it, Premiere creates a duplicate on a different track:
Note that the clip highlighted in the previous screen cap is the duplicate and I didn't click it, Premiere highlights it as soon as it is duplicated.
3) When I click out of the timeline or scroll up or down on the timeline, the duplicates disappear. However, when I try to move the original clips, it doesn't do anything, they are stuck in place.
ANTICIPATED ANSWERS:
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2) Try and save an updated version of your project from your computer. --> Already done that.
Thank you for your help. I usually use the customer support chat but I am on the other side of the globe and it is now closed. This issue prevents me to work so I need to solve it quickly.
Kind regards,
Aurelien

This sounds to me like it could be a graphics related problem are you on the latest driver. Something else you could try, start a new project and import the one from the PC into that rather than directly opening it in the MAC

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Looking for Pre-Rendered Editing / Color Grading Workflow suggestions.
All my material is rendered via RenderMan, our resolution is 1280x544, and our format is generally .exr in 32 bit space.
Our editor has been converting over to 32-bit tiffs, and using Apple Intermediate Codec for editing, mostly for speed concerns.
We need to re-vamp our workflow so that we can edit our footage, and then do color grading of the edit head to tail to smooth the look between scenes. We want to do this in Color, being fed by Final Cut Pro's timeline.
We want to keep our bit depth as high as possible when coming into Color.
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I wasn't sure if we should just export and EDL from FCP and try to get Color to load our single frames from that. Or if there is a special Quicktime wrapper we should be using, or converting our 32-bit .exr files into some other format more readily available for using in Color?
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You're not going to get anywhere beyond 10-bit. That's it.
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jPo

Need To Purchase Color Grading Monitor Today. Please Help

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• And, if I do, can I still color-correct HD projects with it when the time comes?
• Should I do some type of HD monitor set-up?
Right now I'm working with the following:
• Dual 3Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon G5 Tower
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Jonathon,
Did you not read my very post to your question? I answered this question for you. Look above, you'll see I tell you that the Kona LHe downconverts hd on the fly and I view it through component analong in my Sony PVM. I don't mind helping but you've asked this question 3 times now.
Worst case scenario (I guess) would be to down convert the HD footage to SD and color-correct in FCP via a Firewire and a SD CRT monitor. Correct? And if that's the case how would you do the the down conversion before the color-correction?
Yes, that is a very worst case scenario and one you should avoid. Personally, shooting hd to deliver in sd makes no sense to me at all. Darn near every show I've worked on this year is acquired in hd and then broadcast in sd and we use hardware downconverters that are horrendously expensive and yet the product is marginal.
If this is the workflow you're going to use, you'll want to use Compressor to change formats but geez, why on earth would you do this when a Kona LHe will do everything you want it to, right out of the box.

Color ... grading different tracks?

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