Avid Gems 6

OK, this won’t be a sexy tips week, but it’ll be useful. Sometimes sexy sells, but in economic times like these, sometimes you’ve got to say “Damn! Workboots, a flannel shirt and a pair of jeans is just what I need today.”

Creating Custom-shaped Vignettes in Apple Color

This video tutorial is one of more than two dozen video tutorials I created for the revised edition of “Color Correction for Video” which I originally wrote with Jaime Fowler back in 2002. The revised edition will be out in December and is almost completely re-written. I’ll be posting one of these tutorials each week.

We’re not really going in any specific order with these tutorials. I did a series of Primary color correction tutorials. This is actually a tutorial about creating custom user shapes in Apple Color to do secondary color correction.

Subscribe to the RSS feed if you haven’t already. And if you have questions or specific video tutorials you’d like to see, let me know. Just add a comment below to the article.

Avid Gems #5

Many of you know me from various listserves, and hopefully I have a reputation as someone who’s willing to help out people with problems.
 
Today’s Gem #1 is something I learned when I tried to help someone with a problem that I THOUGHT was going to be pretty easy to solve, but it turned out that I needed to learn some new tricks before I could be on any help at all.

Color Correction Video Tutorial

The latest in my series of color correction video tutorials is a brief departure from art to get to the nuts and bolts of installing color correction hardware.

If you are doing a lot of grading, there is no way to keep up with the “real” colorists doing work on dedicated systems like da Vinci unless you invest in a “panel” or manual user interface for Color or Color Finesse (or any of the other “software” color correctors).

The main two companies manufacturing units like these are Tangent Devices and JLCooper. They actually have very similar install setups. When I wrote “The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction,” I went around the country and sat in on sessions with the nation’s top colorists. For those sessions, I brought along a Tangent Devices CP-100. That unit was about $25,000. If you’re not quite that flush with cash (and who is today?) then you could try their CP-200BK or various combinations of smaller Tangent Devices boards that are meant to work together. Each of those boards runs about $6000. Tangent is also soon to release their even lower-cost unit, The Wave.

JL Cooper has the Eclipse CX, which is about $7,000 which delivers about the same functionality of the $25,000 CP-100. Originally, I was not a big JLCooper fan. The first versions I tried seemed rough and almost gritty. But the Eclipse I’ve been using for the last few months is a huge improvement over previous versions. The unit is good looking, feels solid and is a pleasure to work on. Also, with the new software it can be configured by the user to get the most efficiency from the way you like to work. I’ll try to get into that user customization of the JLCooper in another tutorial soon. But first, I’d like to show you how easy it is to get set-up and working with a new unit, fresh out of the box. You should be able to have this up and running in about the time it takes to watch this tutorial, especially if you have someone who knows computer networking. If you don’t have someone like that, don’t panic. This video will show you everything you need to know.

This video tutorial is on the upcoming revised edition of “Color Correction for Video” which I originally wrote with Jaime Fowler in 2002. The release will be out in December of this year on Focal Press. Please subscribe to the RSS feed to receive future video tutorials in this series.

Avid Hidden Gems 4

OK, so you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!
 
While the previous installments of Avid Hidden Gems have all been from memory – basically just some cool power user tips – today, I actually dove into the manual itself to:
 
1) find things that are completely new to me
2) rediscover things that I’d forgotten
3) remind myself about things that I use all the time, but others might not have discovered.
 

Color Correction Video Tutorial

This is another in what will become a series of two dozen color correction tutorials that will be in the revised edition of Focal Press’ “Color Correction for Video.” This episode shows how to balance a severely mis-white balanced camera chart using the Advanced Tab in the Primary Room of Apple’s Color.

Last week, I balanced the exact same image using the color wheels. Next week, I’ll balance the same image using the Curves, which is similar top using the Advanced tab, except that you have more specific control (instead of just three tonal ranges) and it is more intuitive for those who like to visualize what they are doing.

Other color correction tutorials will include setting up a JLCooper Eclipse CX color correction panel and doing corrections in Color with secondaries, the geometry room, the still store and the Color FX room. We’ll also explore color correcting in FCP, Avid and Synthetic Aperture’s Color Finesse inside of Adobe Premiere and After Effects. Make sure to sign up for the RSS feed so you don’t miss an episode.

Avid Hidden Gems #3

Here are some more gems from the Avid Media Composer user’s manual, though today includes at least two REALLY hidden gems, because they don’t seem to be mentioned in the manuals at all (based on searches on the Help menu.)

Color Correction Video Tutorial

This is the second in a series of more than two dozen color correction tutorials that will be part of the upcoming revised edition of “Color Correction for Video” from Focal Press. This tutorial shows how to use the color wheels to eliminate a color cast. Future tutorials will show how to do the same thing using Color’s Advanced Tab’s RGB sliders and Curves.

The tutorial is an H.264 file about 4 minutes in length and 18 Megs.

Other tutorials to come include secondary color correction tutorials, “creating looks,” using the Color FX room in Color, color correction in Avid, color correction in Synthetic Aperture’s Color Finesse (used as a plug-in in Adobe products and as a stand alone) and more. Make sure to add this as an RSS feed so you don’t miss a single tutorial.

If you have questions or need clarifications or have an idea for a tutorial you’d like to see, add a comment to this article.

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