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
It’s also important to make sure that the stills you use in your Final Cut Pro project aren’t
any larger then 4096 x 2304, which is the maximum image size that Color supports. If
you’re using larger resolution stills in your project, you may want to export them as
self-contained QuickTime files with which to replace the original effects.
To optimize rendering time, Color only renders a single frame for each still image file.
When your project is sent back to Final Cut Pro, that clip reappears as a still image clip in
the Final Cut Pro Timeline.
Important: If any stills in your project are animated using Scale, Rotate, Center, or Aspect
Ratio parameter keyframes from Final Cut Pro, these keyframes do not appear and are
not editable in Color, but they are preserved and reappear when you send your project
back to Final Cut Pro. For more information, see Exchanging Geometry Settings with
Final Cut Pro.
Make Sure All Freeze Frame Effects Are on Track V1
All freeze frame effects need to be on track V1 for Color to correctly process them. After
rendering, freeze frames continue to appear in the sequence that is sent back to
Final Cut Pro as freeze frame clips.
Important: Freeze frame clips on any other video track will not be rendered, and will
reappear after the sequence is sent to Final Cut Pro as the original, ungraded clip.
Make Sure All Clips Have the Same Frame Rate
It’s not recommended to send a sequence to Color that mixes clips with different frame
rates, particularly when mixing 23.98 fps and 29.97 fps media. The resulting graded media
rendered by Color may have incorrect timecode and in or out points that are off by a
frame. If you have one or more clips in your sequence with a frame rate that doesn’t
match the timebase of the sequence, you can use Compressor to do a standards conversion
of the mismatched clips. For more information, see Rendering Mixed Format Sequences.
Media Manage Your Project, If Necessary
If you’re delivering a Final Cut Pro project to a Color suite at another facility, you may
want to eliminate unused media to save disk space (especially if you’ll be recapturing
uncompressed media), and consolidate all the source media used by your project into a
single directory for easy transport and relinking. This is also a good step to take prior to
recapturing your media, to avoid recapturing unnecessary media.
Recapture Offline Media at Online Quality, If Necessary
If the project was edited at offline quality, you need to recapture all the source media at
the highest available quality before you send it to Color. Be sure you choose a high-quality
codec, either using the native codec that the source footage was recorded with or using
one of the supported uncompressed codecs. For more information on which codecs are
supported by Color, see Compatible Media Formats.
98 Chapter 4 Importing and Managing Projects and Media










