FCP - Color Workflow?

Ok, I'll try to be as descriptive as possible in my explanation of my workflow. I'm working on color grading a small independent film for a friend. Since we both of Apple computers, we are using FCP and Color. The directory is doing all the editing on her Macbook Pro. I'm doing all the color grading on my Mac Pro. We are both working on external 1Tb hard drives (1 for editing, 1 for grading).
She starts by editing the film. I already have a copy of her FCP project (and all media files) on my external hard drive. So when she tweaks and edits a sequence, I just copy her FCP project onto my external. I then open her project and export an XML from FCP to reconform with Color.
Color reconforms the XML fine. It was my knowledge that to get from my Color to her FCP, that I would just need to render my Color project, give her the XML that Color creates for her to import into FCP. Unfortunately that is not as smooth as I was hoping. As soon as she imports the XML into FCP, it is constantly trying to reconnect the media. No problem until I realize that the render in Color produced .movs on my external. I proceed to copy those onto her external and they are not able to link up. I keep getting the error that there is a difference in audio - video tracks.
I wish the workflow was easier between both programs when they are on different computers. It just seems that they are not meant to handle a project that is edited and graded on different machines. Does anybody have any suggestions to improve the workflow? I'm sure I could be doing something wrong, but I searched and read and could not find much info about working on different computers. Thanks for any help.

The issue that you are facing is that you did not realize that COLOR would render new media, and it is all video ONLY.
The workflow that succeeds for sharing projects is one in which the media moves with the project.
You do not need to move everything everytime. There is a strategy using "Media Manager". Your production partner should "Media Manage" the locked project to the transport drive. You would open that and create a target directory on that drive for COLOR. Render your graded COLOR version to it, do a Send To... FCP, where it will create a new (from COLOR) sequence in the original FCP project and return the whole shebang to the editor. Beware that there may be some panning issues with the XML -reconnected audio. In that case, copy the audio from the original FCP (for COLOR) into the new (from COLOR) sequence. Or bake it out from the original and drop it into the new graded sequence, or wait for the finished wav from the audio post house.... oh, wait a minute, you're probably not getting the audio mixed or sweetened, but whatever.
There is another, cumbersome, workflow and that has to do with creating a "Final Gather" Quicktime for export. Mostly that option is employed with dpx sequences, since you will by now have probably figured out that COLOR somewhat inconveniently renders each new QT into its own subfolder, which makes them a tiny bit inaccessible for most manual reconnection approaches. To be honest, I haven't used it for so long, that I'm not sure that it works for QT anymore. Worth looking up in the Manual.
Would you mind exploring that for me?
jPo

Similar Messages

  • FCP - Color Workflow Question

    I have DVCPRO HD sequences in FCP that I have applied Smoothcam filter to in many instances (one 10 minute sequence probably has Smoothcam applied to at least 15 of the clips). With over 4 hours of footage and Smoothcam applied often it would seem very labor intensive to have to create individual Quicktime movies for each of the clips where Smoothcam is applied and then drop those into the FCP timeline before sending to Color (especially as I will likely have to tweak the Color settings multiple times before getting the perfect outcome).
    My sense is that I may be able to minimize the workload by:
    1) creating one Quicktime movie of say an entire sequence with multiple instances of the Smoothcam fliter applied (instead of creating individual Quicktime movies of each clip where Smoothcam is applied)
    2) sending that Quicktime movie to Color for grading
    My question under the scenario directly above is how do you then split the Quicktime movie into the individual clips in Color so that each clip can be graded individually?
    The only other alternative I can see is to:
    1) remove all of the Smoothcam filters (and sharpening filters) in the FCP timeline
    2) send sequence to Color for grading
    3) roundtrip to FCP
    4) apply Smoothcam filter (and sharpening filters) to all of the individual clips again after color grading is totally complete
    I am a little daunted by the thought of this with over 4 hours of DVCPRO HD footage. Your suggestions regarding the best and most efficient workflow would be greatly appreciated.

    Not quite six of one and half a case of the other, but you are in for some effort either way. Thomas Edison had an observation about "opportunity" arriving dressed in coveralls, but most people take a pass on it because it looks like "too much work".
    If you elect the "bake out one big QT file" workflow, there is some efficiency to bringing the new QT onto a copy of the originating timeline and using that as a cutting guide to "razor in" the event boundaries, and then send that to COLOR. It will save a significant amount of re-rendering time.
    If you remove the Smoothcam and other filters and send the raw source media to COLOR, that would be a normal workflow. I'd imagine there will be a significant amount of "attribute" copying after the fact, and of course all the smoothcams will have to go through "re-analysis". (I'd send a duplicate sequence, so the original filtered sequence can act as a source.)
    The smoothcam filter will probably yield a different rendition on the COLOR-graded media, since the Boolean re-scaling (to keep the image within the active picture area) may not exhibit the same behaviour -- since you will only be dealing with the selected footage, rather than the entire source clip.
    Sending the clips with an attached Smoothcam filter would probably result in massive render times, since FCP requires the entire intact source media to compute the stabilizing script, similar to sending a clip with a speed adjustment.
    jPo

  • FCP + After Effects + Color Workflow Question

    Forgive me if this is a naive question. I would like to know what is the best way to work between FCP, Color, and After Effects. This is the first project I'm working on that requires all three applications.
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    Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
    DP

    Hello David.
    Regarding your question about DVCPro HD support, it is supported as an Importable format, but Color cannot render out in DVCPro HD. Color supports ProRes across the board. Here's a list of supported formats:
    http://documentation.apple.com/en/color/usermanual/index.html#chapter=4%26sectio n=9%26tasks=true
    After Effects really isn't part of my normal workflow, so I can't really comment on it, other than I've had a lot of problems with 10.0.1 and ProRes. That problem has caused me to eliminate AE from any workflow that I use here.

  • Color workflow validation

    Hi all. First time post here.
    Being self-taught sometimes means having to unlearn bad habits learned from various forums and the good ol' internet, right?
    I need some help "validating" my current color workflow, to see whether  I'm actually wasting too much time and energy on the wrong habits  (probably am!), after having recently seen a colleague of mine use  something utterly different as workflow.
    Got my screen and printer calibrated right now, and my  color settings in Illustrator and Photoshop matching. Basic so far.
    Now when I start a new project in Illustrator, I go through my swatch  book (4-color process guide book) to pick out a CMYK build I like and  apply that to my design. The color up on the screen doesn't really match at all my swatch book (I know, different gamut), but I'm basing myself on the swatch  book so I know what I'm aiming for... (& let me make it clear; I do not actually use any spot colors in my final layout, just a small square of it somewhere for referencing purposes only).
    Finally, I go to Photoshop once the designing is done and use the color  picker to find the closest Pantone match (for solid coated).
    So then I return to AI, and apply that Pantone color off my artboard for  my printer to have as reference, if needed. The breakdown of that PMS  color is never really spot-on the CMYK build I initially started with -  it's usually off by 5-10%. Normal I imagine.
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    When I go back to AI and apply swatch 2945 and click "Convert to CMYK",  the breakdown suddenly gives me 100/45/0/14. A little too far off for my  tastes, but hey...
    Reason I do all these steps is because the colors I pick out in the  swatch books to begin with never match what I see on screen, so my  clients always freak out when they receive soft proofs and then see the  finished printed results. The colors always look a wee bit lighter on  screen than on print.
    I'm aware that screen representation is pretty much useless even with  proper calibration (for lack of better wording), but can I fully trust and base myself on my swatch books - considering that the stock I'm  printing on is different, etc, etc? Especially because I'm dealing with  blues right now...
    Would you(s) say this is a somewhat correct workflow or utterly  ridiculous workflow? (And please be gentle if going the ridiculous route  ).
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    Thanks guys!

    First I think you have badly calibrated system. With properly calibrated system what you see on your monitor should give a very good representation of your final colors, although for offset print you should always have a print proof accepted from your print shop. I use print proof not because I don't trust my monitor but because it requires client approval and the print shop can guaranty the color match. Obviously there is a difference between colors produced by emitting light vs reflecting but the eye has a good adaptive system of recognizing the same colors produced differently and proper color management takes this into account. If your standards are very high a proper calibration and viewing environment should give you a very good screen representation of the final result. Many Artists and designers create colors successfully referring entirly to monitors.
    type_uk wrote:
    Finally, I go to Photoshop once the designing is done and use the color  picker to find the closest Pantone match (for solid coated).
    So then I return to AI, and apply that Pantone color off my artboard for  my printer to have as reference, if needed. The breakdown of that PMS  color is never really spot-on the CMYK build I initially started with -  it's usually off by 5-10%. Normal I imagine.
    For instance, I chose CMYK build 100/70/0/0 in my guide book. That gives  me PMS 2945 in PS. When I click "OK" in PS, PMS 2945 becomes  100/70/17/3 in its equivalency as CMYK. Pretty close but not perfect.
    When I go back to AI and apply swatch 2945 and click "Convert to CMYK",  the breakdown suddenly gives me 100/45/0/14. A little too far off for my  tastes, but hey...
    Reason I do all these steps is because the colors I pick out in the  swatch books to begin with never match what I see on screen, so my  clients always freak out when they receive soft proofs and then see the  finished printed results. The colors always look a wee bit lighter on  screen than on print...
    I'm not sure why you are even using Photoshop for that but , Illustrator is much more accurate than Photoshop when matching RGB and CMYK to Pantone colors. Also have in mind that the Pantone match depends on your color settings. The color managed program you are using for matching Pantone color will use the display color space of your image, in combination with your monitor profile to figure out the best Pantone color match based on the assumption of how the color is displayed on the monitor and seen by the user. So the Pantone match may be different for each user if the color settings are set differently. Photoshop will choose Pantone 2945 C for your CMYK color if the image is assumed to be displayed in U.S.Web Coated (SWAP) v2 color space. Change that to something else and the Pantone match will be different. Interestingly though, Illustrator with the same settings picks Pantone 2728 C which is much more closer to the original color. I'm not sure as to why Photoshop is that much off - ask the Photoshop programmers, but this is why I always use Illustrator for color conversions.

  • Proper color workflow with CMYK inkjet printer

    Hi, I work in an academic science group that has a networked HP DesignJet 800ps printer (postscript RIP). Unlike many inkjets, it appears to be a true CMYK printer - that is, our i1 Match software recognizes it as a CMYK device. We do all our printing in house - we don't have to worry about commercial printing or publishing, and our color management needs are basically confined to trying to have the printer's output match what we see on our monitors when we print photos in Photoshop or posters in Illustrator.
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    I've looked at the "Color Workflows for Adobe Creative Suite 3" document published by Adobe, and although it is very meticulous, none of the examples seem to match our situation. Specifically, all the info regarding CMYK printing involves working with commercial presses, which is not relevant to us.
    I would like to avoid making my colleagues work in different color spaces depending on whether they are working in Illustrator or Photoshop - ideally, I would like it if we could stay in RGB at all times. First question: Is this unrealistic given that we have a CMYK printer?
    No doubt I will have more questions, but I want to start simple for now. Thanks for helping me out - this is not my area of expertise.

    > profile them as RGB devices" (to quote the book). The printers that I've profiled in the past with i1 worked this way.
    As Peter points out in his post, it is most likely that your RIP is a CMYK RIP (most RIP's are.) If that is the case, you'll be profiling a CMYK device, not an RGB device (as you have in the past.) It is a totally different exercise to profile a CMYK device - ink limits and Kgen are variables that must be dealt with.
    > Yes, details would be very helpful. Thanks.
    Color management is all about moving from one device/color space to another device/color space while maintaining color appearance as closely as possible.
    1) Based on the description of your workflow, step one is to create your original art in a well-behaved RGB color space (like Adobe98) while viewing it on a well-calibrated monitor.
    2) If your final output is to be on the HP 800ps, step two would be to preview that art on your monitor as it would look on the HP. This is called soft-proofing - a process by which the art is viewed through the HP profile on-screeen so you can see what happens to all those beautiful, rich RGB colors when they're squeezed into the smaller gamut of the HP profile.
    To do this, you go to View > Proof Set-Up > Custom, and choose the HP 800ps profile from the pop-up of all the profiles on your system. You can also choose from among 4 rendering intents - Relative Colorimetric, Perceptual, Absolute Colorimetric, and Saturation. Choosing the correct rendering intent is key - this willl determine how Photoshop deals with the out-of-gamut colors. Without getting into an explanation of what each RI does, the important thing is to choose the one that LOOKS the best on screen. There's no magic to it. In general, for photographic images, you'll be choosing from Relative or Perceptual. For vector graphics (which it sounds like you're doing), throw Saturation into the mix as well. Just try them and see which looks best.
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    This will give you a good idea of what the final printed version will look like. While you're in soft-proof mode, you can edit the RGB file to alter the way out-of-gamut colors appear. In fact, there's no reason why you couldn't create your art from the beginning while in soft-proof mode. Using a well-built profile and a good calibrated monitor, you should be able to get an extremely close match between monitor and print.
    3) When you print, be sure to choose the same profile/rendering intent that you used in Proof Setup.
    Again, it all starts with a good profile. Good luck.

  • Fcp to Color workflow

    I have 20 videos that I need to color correct, and am a neophyte in color... My questions are real simple, just trying to buckle down a workflow.
    I have a sequence in fcp. Do I have to add in all transitions prior to sending to Color (does Color embed back in fcp as a single output sequence)?
    I shot the footage with two cameras. Do, or should I, place A camera on one line, and B camera on another in fcp, and then send to Color to make anything easier?
    I will be using some simple alpha animations to the video. Should I do this after color correction? Or should I place above the footage on the timeline and just highlight the clips I want to send to color?
    Thanks in advance!

    YOu need something more than a reply on a forum... you need a tutorial on how to use COLOR.  Get this:
    http://store.creativecow.net/p/66/stop_staring_and_start_grading_with_apple_colo r
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    Put all the footage on ONE track if you can.  Two if you must.  But one track makes things easier.  And all the footage must match EXACTLY...meaning same codec, frame size, frame rate.
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  • HP DreamColor Monitor for FCP Color grading

    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.
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    are you saying I should look at Da Vinci Resolve to grade? Why?
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    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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  • DPX - Glue Tools -  Final Cut - Color workflow problem

    Hello all,
    I haven't worked much with DPX since the Final Cut Studio 2 update and have now come upon an urgent problem.
    I need to import 16bit DPX files into Final Cut, cut them on the timeline, then send to Color and back to FCP after correction.
    I've tried this in serveral ways which lead to different problems.
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    Again it switches to Final Cut, but I get the following error message (translation from German): The xml transformation has been cancelled due to a serious error.
    Third approach:
    Because I don't have much time at the moment I thought I'd just go back to the older workflow of putting the dpx files into a mov container first (I haven't worked much with dpx since FCS2).
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    It seems to cut off all the shadows. When I open the newly exported mov file with QT7 and compare it with the still open dpx sequence it looks even more flat than the dpx files and seems to has lost all shadow detail.
    When I drop the mov file into FCP, send to Color and try to get some contrast into the film the shadows look completely crushed.
    Sending back to Final Cut works now though.
    I've searched through the archive and read the Glue Tools manual again, but nothing I try seems to work.
    I use the newest Glue Tools version and the settings are standard. Changing them doesn't seem to influence exporting to a mov file anyway.
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    So I opened one of the dpx files with QT7 and exported into an uncompressed mov file and already have the first problem.
    it looks even more flat than the dpx files and seems to has lost all shadow detail.
    It "looks" even more flat and seems to have lost shadow detail?
    You are not measuring values with a scope? In other words you're "flying blind.''
    Sounds like an RGB/Y'CbCr scaling problem -- Probably the dpx files are full range and the QT is being rendered Linear so the black "0" is actually being mapped to about minus 10 IRE and your white vales won't be able to make it much above 85-90 units. There will also be a gamma difference. If you were scoping these values, they'd be instantly obvious.
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  • Best color workflow with hdv source material?

    Hi,
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    My first Color experience, I sent a AIC timeline (hdv source) to color, made my corrections, clicked NO when sending back to fcp when asked if I wanted the rendered timeline to be conformed to color render settings (apple pro-res) as I wanted the same sequence settings back in fcp.
    I then tried to off/online back to my source hdv capture files, and therein arose the problems. Because color had renamed the files, the new names came up in the re-connect media window, not the hdv source. When ignoring these and locating the hdv source, the corrections were not attached.
    After advice, tried onlining the original, locked edit, opening in color - files came up red (offline?), but could not apply the grades from the previous project anyway, as the whole program crashed before I could do anything?
    Thoughts on workflow, theories on what I may have done wrong greatly appreciated.
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    Hi Tom, agree 100% with all of JP OWENS comments on this thread. This is very good advice.
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    As as has been mentioned in this thread, for working with HDV and trying to perform any reasonable grading using color.app you would indeed move it all to  PRORES422 by either:
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    • workflow transcoding is faster. (many threads in these forums concerning exporting from an HDV timeline).
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    IN short, work in PRORES422 from your HDV source and your workflow will improve and efficiencies will be seen.
    hth
    w

  • Conforming timeline for Color (workflow INSANITY!)

    Hi all, I've got a doozie of a workflow issue here, hopefully someone can offer a good piece of advice, it'd be a huuuge help!
    What I've got going on is this - working on a 3D animated TV show, the producers decided they wanted to be able to color correct the characters, environments, and props all separately, prior to final color correction. We tried doing this in color, but color is unable to import mattes, so that option was out. What we had to do was layer our shots with B&W mattes in FCP, using composite mode -> Luma travel matte, and CC each layer using the 3-way CC, which has been working fantastically. Now, we need to send the projects to Color for a final pass prior to sending off our master. (I know this is NOT an ideal workflow, believe me, it was simply the only way to do what they needed to be done at this point)
    The thing is, I need to send the entire composite image into color, not the multiple tracks. I'd like to do this without bouncing each shot, scene or the entire episode individually, unless there's an automated way to do so. (it'd be nice to be able to correct any small shot-to-shot difference if possible afterwards, though the differences should be minor, if any exist at all). The most important is scene-to-scene CC. Is there a command to conform down each edit, merging all the layers into a single clip and in effect bouncing all layers?
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    DVCPROHD tapes are compressed 6:1 and are 8-bit at 960x720. Capturing that as uncompressed would essentially yield pixel interpolated results. 960x720 will be stretched to 1280x720 and your signal may be "cleaner" (I think it is 150mb/s uncompressed), but it is 8-bit compressed footage being "upconverted", so to speak, to an uncompressed format.
    I know people who have used DVCPROHD tapes to go to film with, but I also know people who swear against it. Personally, I've never tried. My work is DVCPROHD with the VariCam, but I rarely have a need for uncompressed material.
    ~Athen

  • Magic Bullet "V" FCP Color

    Anyone use both? Whats your thoughts, which is better? Heard that color is pretty hard to use??

    Here is my thought.
    Are you a colorist? Then don't use COLOR. Color is a highly professional color correction application. It isn't as simple as the 3-way, it requires a pretty strict workflow and set of codecs. It has a lot of settings internally that you need to do right. CAN you pick it up? Yes...I have, because I had to. I have two tutorial DVDs and I had a week to play and figure things out. I even had people I could call and have them help me figure out the more trickier aspects. And I STILL only use the PRIMARY room.
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    My Humble Opinion. Color isn't simple to use, and isn't for everyone.
    Shane

  • FCP color rendering in QuickTime

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    Thanks. I think I'm going to start using compressor more. QT just doesn't have the control I need and not being able to carry through the gamma settings from FCP is a hassle.

  • Output card for FCP / Color

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    I'd check with Blackmagic on the latest sets of drivers- depends what gear you want to monitor to. In theory any of their current line except for the Intensity card would work. There's also the AJA Kona cards and IO that I hear are a bit better suited to working with Color
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  • Fcp - color - fcp ALL BLURRY in PAL Anamorphic - any ideas?

    ok, so admittedly i'm not working on my normal system but i've been using color (and final touch before that) for a while on a number of small and large fcp projects (dv, hdv, prores) and now i'm working on a small tv show for austrian broadcasting.
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