1.5
Table Of Contents
- Color User Manual
- Contents
- Welcome to Color
- Color Correction Basics
- Color Correction Workflows
- An Overview of the Color Workflow
- Limitations in Color
- Video Finishing Workflows Using Final Cut Pro
- Importing Projects from Other Video Editing Applications
- Digital Cinema Workflows Using Apple ProRes 4444
- Finishing Projects Using RED Media
- Digital Intermediate Workflows Using DPX/Cineon Media
- Using EDLs, Timecode, and Frame Numbers to Conform Projects
- Using the Color Interface
- Importing and Managing Projects and Media
- Creating and Opening Projects
- Saving Projects
- Saving and Opening Archives
- Moving Projects from Final Cut Pro to Color
- Before You Export Your Final Cut Pro Project
- Move Clips That Aren’t Being Composited to Track V1 in the Timeline
- Remove Unnecessary Video Filters
- Organize All Color Corrector 3-Way Filters
- Divide Long Projects into Reels
- Export Self-Contained QuickTime Files for Effects Clips You Need to Color Correct
- Use Uncompressed or Lightly Compressed Still Image Formats
- Make Sure All Freeze Frame Effects Are on Track V1
- Make Sure All Clips Have the Same Frame Rate
- Media Manage Your Project, If Necessary
- Recapture Offline Media at Online Quality, If Necessary
- Check All Transitions and Effects If You Plan to Render 2K or 4K Image Sequences for Film Out
- Using the Send To Color Command in Final Cut Pro
- Importing an XML File into Color
- Before You Export Your Final Cut Pro Project
- Importing EDLs
- EDL Import Settings
- Relinking Media
- Importing Media Directly into the Timeline
- Compatible Media Formats
- Moving Projects from Color to Final Cut Pro
- Exporting EDLs
- Reconforming Projects
- Converting Cineon and DPX Image Sequences to QuickTime
- Importing Color Corrections
- Exporting JPEG Images
- Configuring the Setup Room
- The File Browser
- Using the Shots Browser
- The Grades Bin
- The Project Settings Tab
- The Messages Tab
- The User Preferences Tab
- Monitoring Your Project
- Timeline Playback, Navigation, and Editing
- Basic Timeline Elements
- Customizing the Timeline Interface
- Working with Tracks
- Selecting the Current Shot
- Timeline Playback
- Zooming In and Out of the Timeline
- Timeline Navigation
- Selecting Shots in the Timeline
- Working with Grades in the Timeline
- The Settings 1 Tab
- The Settings 2 Tab
- Editing Controls and Procedures
- Analyzing Signals Using the Video Scopes
- The Primary In Room
- The Secondaries Room
- What Is the Secondaries Room Used For?
- Where to Start in the Secondaries Room?
- The Enabled Button in the Secondaries Room
- Choosing a Region to Correct Using the HSL Qualifiers
- Controls in the Previews Tab
- Isolating a Region Using the Vignette Controls
- Adjusting the Inside and Outside of a Secondary Operation
- The Secondary Curves Explained
- Reset Controls in the Secondaries Room
- The Color FX Room
- The Primary Out Room
- Managing Corrections and Grades
- The Difference Between Corrections and Grades
- Saving and Using Corrections and Grades
- Managing Grades in the Timeline
- Using the Copy To Buttons in the Primary Rooms
- Using the Copy Grade and Paste Grade Memory Banks
- Setting a Beauty Grade in the Timeline
- Disabling All Grades
- Managing Grades in the Shots Browser
- Managing a Shot’s Corrections Using Multiple Rooms
- Keyframing
- The Geometry Room
- The Still Store
- The Render Queue
- Appendix A: Calibrating Your Monitor
- Appendix B: Keyboard Shortcuts in Color
- Appendix C: Using Multi-Touch Controls in Color
- Appendix D: Setting Up a Control Surface
Stage 8: Grading Your Program in Color
Grade your program in Color as you would any other. For better performance, it’s advisable
to use the Proxy controls in the User Prefs tab of the Setup room to work at a lower
resolution than the native 2K or 4K frame size of the media. For more information, see
Using Proxies.
Important: When grading scanned film frames, it's essential to systematically use carefully
profiled LUTs for monitor calibration and to emulate the ultimate look of the project
when printed out to film. For more information, see Using LUTs.
Stage 9: Conforming Transitions, Effects, and Titles, Rendering Media, and Gathering
Rendered Media
At this point, the process is the same as in Stage 9: Conforming Transitions, Effects, and
Titles in A Tapeless DI Workflow.
Using EDLs, Timecode, and Frame Numbers to Conform Projects
Using careful data management, you can track the relationship of the original camera
negative to the video or digital transfers that have been made for offline editing using
timecode. The following sections provide information on how Color tracks these
correspondences.
• For more information on how Color relinks DPX images to EDLs, see How Does Color
Relink DPX/Cineon Frames to an EDL?
• For more information on how color parses EDLs for DI conforms, see Parsing EDLs for
Digital Intermediate Conforms.
• For more information on how your image sequences should be named for DI workflows,
see Required Image Sequence Filenaming.
How Does Color Relink DPX/Cineon Frames to an EDL?
The key to a successful conform in Color is to make sure that the timecode data in the
EDL is mirrored in the scanned DPX or Cineon frames you're relinking to. The
correspondence between film frames and timecode is created during the first telecine
or datacine transfer session.
How Is Film Tracked Using Timecode?
A marker frame is assigned to the very beginning of each roll of film, at a point before
the first shot begins (typically before the first flash frame). A hole is punched into the
negative, which permanently identifies that frame. This marker frame is assigned the
timecode value of XX:00:00:00 (where XX is an incremented hour for each subsequent
camera roll being transferred), creating an absolute timecode reference for each frame
of film on that roll. Each camera roll of film is usually telecined to a new reel of videotape
(each reel of tape usually starts at a new hour), or datacined to a separate directory of
DPX files.
73Chapter 2 Color Correction Workflows