Friday
Oct192007
Magic Bullet Looks Released
Friday, October 19, 2007 at 10:30AM 
Not that you'd notice by looking at Red Giant Software's site, but Magic Bullet Looks has been released! Download the demo and try it out, and see if you can discover the secret feature.
Reader Comments (11)
Stu, looks seems awesome! Don't ask me why it took me so long, but I finally upgraded from MB Editors 1.0 to 2.0 less than 2 weeks ago! I was told that if I upgraded to 2.0 now, that the upgrade to 3.0 would be free when it comes out, but the redgiant website says Editors 2.0 is now MB Looks. What should I do?!?!
I bought looks...but what is the secret feature?
wow stu, this looks pretty darn good. Must admit i've never looked int magic bullet, so i don't know how much of this is new (regarding what i saw on your demo video), but it's just like the stuff i saw on the LotR making of dvd's when they were color grading the movies with shake if i remember correctly. This looks really easy and fun to use.
-George
I've bought it yesterday. Used the Beta (being on of the testers) and loved it. I bought the whole suite. Checking Colorista and instantHD right now.
Like it. Good Stuff. Fits my needs exactly.
This Piece of Software will be a great piece of the Cake for my upcoming feature.
Thanks for designing it.
Quickie Review:
I. Awesomeness
1) Love that LooksBuilder is free for anyone to use. The fact that anyone can import a still image and work on a look makes sharing and collaborating on looks so simple. That, and it's just fun!
2) HDR support is a very welcome feature. Big thanks for this one.
3) The Tool Chain is a great metaphor for working on looks. Makes working on looks very simple and organized.
4) Previewing the clip with effects applies is indeed quite fast. Pretty much as fast as when previewing clips with no effects applied (with NVidia 7900GS)
II. Bummers
1) HDR support does not span across multiple instances of Looks plugin applied to a single clip. (Example: Apply Looks to clip, increase exposure to blow out highlights, apply 2nd instance of Looks to clip, decrease exposure, highlights are still blown-out). Would love to apply multiple instances of plugin and enjoy HDR support (ala Colorista)
2) No keyframing of look properties. This would make Looks super-awesome. Would love to be able to apply tracking data to properties such as spot exposure like we can do in the big boy toys (not to say that Looks is a kiddie toy by any means).
3) Looks preview window only shows source image. No other effects are applied. Makes it a bit hard to preview the final effect of the look we’re working on (although we can always precompose in most of the host apps)
4) No Sony Vegas support (yet). This is a great NLE and would love to see it invited to the party. Truly hoping that development to get Looks working with Vegas continues.
I think the secret feature is...'Love'
Thanks for all the comments guys!
S,
I 1. You have discovered the secret feature—the Looks Builder standalone application works withut a license. You can use it on still images, trying out, designing, and exchanging Looks, all for free.
II 1. Actually this does work exactly as it does with Colorista, but only when the host app supports floating-point color. In a 32bpc AE project, for example, one Look can recover overbrights from another.
II 2. It's not qquite true that there's NO keyframing of Look properties. It's hardly ideal but you can set keyframes for Looks. If you only change animatable parameters, they will interpolate between keys. But RGS knows this could be a lot better.
II 3. Sadly this is a limitation of AE as a host. You'll notice that Color Finesse has the same problem. Definitely a bummer.
Yes! That's a really good secret feature. You should tell more people about it! (Thankfully, the intro vid on the RGS website tells this secret for all to hear).
Hmmm, then I must be missing something really simple. I was doing my testing in AE set to 32bpc. I applied looks to a layer, added Exposure to Subject and set it to +5 stops. Then added another instance of looks to the same layer, added Exposure to Subject and set it to -5 stops. None of the detail of the original was brought back, the detail was still blown out, just darker.
Re: keyframeable parameters: So is it RGS we should be contacting to lobby for new features, or you? What is the best route, as I think a feature such as this would be killer.
Wow. Really. Wow.
I've been using Looks for a couple days now, and I'm truly impressed!
Here's my quick infomercial-ish sounding (but true) story...
I've been trying to create a certain look for over a week (using Magic Bullet Editors & the impressive Colorista). Each time I sat down, I'd fiddle the Magic Bullet sliders a little, eventually get frustrated, and then just walk away. With 'Looks', I was able to get the exact look I wanted in under 10 minutes (after learning how to use it for a few hours).
This puppy was worth the wait.
Thanks Stu!
-Taz
Hello Stu,
im a big fan of your look! i have a question nobody else seems to be able to answer. why did MB change some of the preset looks from MB EDITOR to MB LOOKS, for instance BASIC WARM MAX and BLEACH BYPASS are 2 of my all time favs, but in MB LOOKS DEMO, they look nothing like the original presets from MB EDITORS - i loved the MB EDITORS LOOK WAY BETTER on those 2 filters, seems like they left BASIC the same though, why is that and is there a way for me to get that identical BASIC WARM or BLEACH BYPASS look in MB LOOKS?
I´ve had the chance of using hardware based system like Davinci, while looks is in no way comparable to hardware based real-time grading systems, it definitly goes a long way towards them, I color corrected my latest project on it and had a lot of fun doing it I must say. Brilliant app.
bastienfrancois(dot)com