Magic Bullet Looks: Getting Started

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Comments

[Philip]

Stu-
The right side of the video is slightly cut off...

[Stu]

I know, sorry. Try here:

http://prolost.blip.tv/

[Tim]

It looks fantastic. I have to admit though, I'm a bit new to the game. Could you do a blog entry some time perhaps on how Looks works in tandem with Colorista?

It looks like you could just use Looks, or does colorista have capabilities that it does not (besides the interface being different).

Also, which order would you use the products in? i could see that varrying, and I coudl see, for instance Colorista "sandwiching" on instance of Looks.

Thanks.

[RGS Sean]

Colorista is a small subset of Looks. Colorista is perfect for quickly correcting footage to get white balance and exposure correct. Looks is used afterward to stylize the footage or add a consistent tone.

You can use the Looks tool exclusively if you want with the same tools as Colorista (lift/gamma/gain, Saturation, Exposure) all added in LooksBuilder in the Subject category. Then add a second instance of Looks and create the final Look. However, this is slower because you are moving back and forth between your host and LooksBuilder.

So you want to balance shots and create consistency between cuts with Colorista all in your editor, then add Looks on top of multiple cuts or whole sequence or comp to get a consistent mood.

Hope that helps...

Sean Safreed
Red Giant Software LLC

[mikehedge]

awesome! thanks for posting this!

[Mr B]

If I apply Colorista and/or Looks in FCP is it only giving me 8-bit color regardless of my timeline settings?

[Jack]

Neat product, now how the hell do I uninstall it???

Using it on a mac and it's stopping FCP from starting up with a little reminder to register the product every time. I've removed every possible trace of the Looksuite wherever I've found it and I am getting seriously irritated.

Red Giant Software has some neat products but the navigation of their site, the forums, the faqs, the demo pages leave A LOT to be desired. Actually, the site sucks.

I run into this problem every time I test out or buy one of their products. It's almost impossible to find anything, the support forums are on another site completely, the ONE contact number (for which the business hours are listed 9-5 PST) only ever goes tovoicemail after the message tells you that the business hours are really Eastern Time. ????

I have to go around in circles to get to the Looks info because most of the support and faqs still refer to the Editors suite. There's no information about how to uninstall anywhere.

Not impressed.

And I'd love it if someone could tell me how to get this out of my machine.

[RGS Sean]

To Jack:

Try emptying the trash after removing the components from the ~/Library/Plugins/FXPlug directory. Believe it or not I have run into numerous cases where Final Cut Pro was loading plug-ins from the trash directory, even though this shouldn't be possible.

If you still have problems then write to me directly sean (at) redgiantsoftware.com and I will get back to you promptly.

I would just like to point out that we offer free support via our support form and according to our statistics we answer this email in less than 24 hours consistently. John Kerr our main support rep will get back to folks within 24 hours as well when you leave a message.

Either way, contact me tomorrow and I can walk you through cleaning out the software.

Sean Safreed
Red Giant Software LLC

Finally, I agree that our current web site is badly in need of an overhaul. We have taken on a large project to redo the entire site. This will launch in Q1 2008.

[RGS Sean]

To Mr b:

Getting Final Cut to render in greater than 8 bit/channel is easy if you know how to look inside the nested tabs of the Sequence Editor.

In Final Cut Pro, you need to create or edit a Sequence Preset to get greater than 8 bit rendering.

Choose Audio/Video Settings... and click the Sequence presets tab. Now either click Duplicate to create a new preset based on the current or click Edit to edit the current preset. You get another dialog (argh!). Click the Video Processing tab and you will see the magical switches for getting more than 8 bit rendering.

Choose Render all YUV material in high-precision YUV. This will render any footage that is YUV in float format so preserve quality for any material greater than 8-bit/channel. Remember that some codecs like Photo JPEG are RGB based and will NEVER render in more than 8 bit/channel. If the high precision YUV options are grayed out this is because you have chosen an RGB based codec for the preset.

RGSSean

[Cosmo]

Hello,

after watching the tutorial I am wondering if there is some sort of motion tracking build in ? Otherwise if I highlight the girl as shown in a still image in the tutorial and she moves the look applied would change.

Cheers
Andreas

[Stu]

Hi Andreas,

No motion tracking in Looks, but it's a cool idea! In the meantime, remember that Looks has Colorista's Power Mask functionality that controls the application of the entire Look. So you can split a darkening exposure out as a separate application of Looks and then use a circular Power Mask to turn it into an animatable vignette.

As has been discussed above, you can also keyframe Looks to some degree.

True keyframable Looks is a popular feature request though!

[Jack]

Thanks Sean. Finally figured it out.

Good to hear about the site redesign. RG's software is great and it deserves a robust web source for easily navigable info and support.

[Mr B]

Sean, thanks! That is great information. I am looking for a CC solution until I have the hardware (on 15" MBP right now) and the bugs are sorted out for Color. I was gong to get Looks anyways, but it sounds like getting the bundle with Colorista would be smart.

Stu, I know we can figure it out on our own. But any plans for a new demo showing the best practices for using multiple Looks on a single shot to be able to take advantage of the power masks? And along the same line, using Looks and Colorista in conjunction?

Again, of course I will experiment own my own but I am new to this suite :P

[360media]

How do I step through the frames in my clip in LooksBuilder without having to go back to AE? Also anyway to move the looks window to the right side of the interface by the tools as it flies out over the image?

[Benji]

I've been using looks from the day it was released on a 20min 24pDV Wedding project (www.lastingweddings.com).

I've been using it in combination with colorista on adjustment layers, trying to follow the DV Rebel's method...I use colorista for the initial adjustment because i can't get a live preview out to my calibrated monitor as i scrub values in Looks...this is an important feature that is lacking
...Color finesee 2 has the same problem, it'll give you an update on an extra monitor, but not through Firewire to an external NTSC monitor like AE does.

Also i have 8gigs of RAM and a quad core at 3.3GHZ Win 64bit and I keep getting out of memory errors on the Wedding project, even when i scrub the memory cache way down to 35%, I'll inevitably run out of memory and have to restart AE...This doesn't happen on any other projects...only of i have lots of instances of colorista and Looks.

I know its a big project but i assumed Looks was designed for those working on larger projects and/or feature films.

One more observation is that if i'm working in Premiere and some clips have Looks applied and then i switch to AE to work on a Dynamic link, Looks will freeze on launch...or visa versa, if i'm working on looks in AE first then switch to Premiere to work on a Look it won't load...I'm guessing you can't open two instances of looks at the same time even if they're in separate programs...but in trying to do a true multitasking workflow with dynamic links this can be frustrating.

Anyway, I still love the product.. these are just some observations I wanted to point out since I've been using Looks on a semi-beefy computer and on a larger project.


benji

[nick rivero]

im not quite sure as to where you find the LooksBuilder by itself? I currently own MBE but haven't seen just LooksBuilder. Anyone know where i can find it? Thanks

[Stu]

Nick, when you install the Magic Bullet Looks demo you get the fully-functional Looks Builder standalone.

[Philip]

Stu-

On windows, the standalone LooksBuilder application doesn't put a shortcut in the program menu. I had to hunt for it and found it in c:\program files\looksbuilder. Then I dragged a shortcut out to my desktop. I'm using a purchased/activated version, but I assume the same happens with the demo. Other than that, the new version is FANTASTIC. It fixes everything clunky about the old interface. Nice work!

[Stu]

Hi Philip, thanks for the kind words and that's a totally great bug report—I hope you've contacted RGS about it!

I've gotten a few comments here that should be directed to Red Giant Software support. Installation issues, memory errors, etc. I'm not going to publish any more of these comments because this isn't the right place for them and my fear is that they could get lost in the shuffle. If you're having any troubles with Magic Bullet Looks, please contact RGS directly!

[Philip]

Yeah, I let RGS know. It's really a minor issue, but I think it may trip some people up initially. I may have more comments after I get some more time with it, but I'll keep them more in the realm of design and use. ;-)

[Eugenia]

No Vegas support. :(

[Stu]

Not yet anyway. From the FAQ @ RGS: "Support for Vegas will be available in 2008, no date has been set at this time."

If that's important to you, please let them know.

[Eugenia]

Where is the Vegas version? :(

And I hope that this version is accelerated via DirectX for both ATi and GeForce cards! Even for Intel cards would be useful to be.

[Eugenia]

I just saw your reply Stu, sorry for the dupe. Thanks.

Yes, Vegas support is important for me, I use an old unaccelerated version of Magic Bullet for color grading and I actually try to "advertise" the app via http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/category/filmmaking/" REL="nofollow">my video site as it has proven to be really good.

I also asked RedGiantSoftware for a review copy some time ago (for an older version) in order to write a review at www.OSNews.com or FreshDV (which are popular tech sites) but they never replied to me...

Rgds,
Eugenia

[Stu]

Blip.tv has new embed code, so here's hoping the formatting is a bit better now.