1.5

Advantages of Grading with Color
When Does Color Correction Happen? discusses how color correction is accomplished in
other post-production environments. This section describes how Color fits into a typical
film or video post-production process.
Color provides many of the same high-end color correction tools on your desktop that
were previously available only in high-end tape-to-tape and telecine color correction
suites. In addition, Color provides additional tools in the Color FX room that are more
commonly found in dedicated compositing applications, which give you even more
detailed control over the images in your program. (For more information, see The Color
FX Room.)
Color has been designed as a color correction environment for both film and video. It’s
resolution-independent, supporting everything from standard definition video up to 2K
and 4K film scans. It also supports multiple media formats and is compatible with image
data using a variety of image sequence formats and QuickTime codecs.
Color also has been designed to be incorporated into a digital intermediate workflow.
Digital intermediate refers to a high-quality digital version of your program that can be
edited, color corrected, and otherwise digitally manipulated using computer hardware
and software, instead of tape machines or optical printers.
Editors, effects artists, and colorists who finish video programs in a tapeless fashion have
effectively been working with digital intermediates for years, but the term usually describes
the process of scanning film frames digitally, for the purposes of doing all edit conforming,
effects, and color correction digitally. It is then the digital image data which is printed
directly to film or compiled as a file for digital projection.
Finishing film or video programs digitally frees colorists from the limitations of film and
tape transport mechanisms, speeding their work by letting them navigate through a
project as quickly as they can in a nonlinear editing application. Furthermore, working
with the digital image data provides a margin of safety, by eliminating the risk of scratching
the negative or damaging the source tapes.
When Does Color Correction in Color Happen?
Color correction using Color usually happens at or near the conclusion of the online edit
or project conform, often at the same time the final audio mix is being performed. Waiting
until the picture is locked is always a good idea, but it’s not essential, as Color provides
tools for synchronizing projects that are still being edited via XML files or EDLs.
Color has been designed to work hand in hand with editing applications like Final Cut Pro;
Final Cut Pro takes care of input, editing, and output, and Color allows you to focus on
color correction and related effects.
22 Chapter 1 Color Correction Basics