Tools

Slugline. Simple, elegant screenwriting.

Red Giant Color Suite, with Magic Bullet Looks 2.5 and Colorista II

Needables
  • Sony Alpha a7S Compact Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera
    Sony Alpha a7S Compact Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera
    Sony
  • Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GH4KBODY 16.05MP Digital Single Lens Mirrorless Camera with 4K Cinematic Video (Body Only)
    Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GH4KBODY 16.05MP Digital Single Lens Mirrorless Camera with 4K Cinematic Video (Body Only)
    Panasonic
  • TASCAM DR-100mkII 2-Channel Portable Digital Recorder
    TASCAM DR-100mkII 2-Channel Portable Digital Recorder
    TASCAM
  • The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap (Peachpit)
    The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap (Peachpit)
    by Stu Maschwitz

Entries in Adobe After Effects (83)

Thursday
Jan042007

Premiere Pro Back to Mac

Adobe Production Studio To Be Available for Both Mac and Windows

Yay!

I've been a Final Cut user since its first release, and it's great. But when I got my MacBook Pro I decided to quit cold turkey and learn Premiere Pro, for the simple reason that its integration with After Effects stands to create some kind of Voltron-like super robot of editing and effects capability. I haven't been sorry—and now I'll be able to enjoy the Production Studio goodness Macside.

I'm filing this under The Guide because a seamless path between NLE and AE is a big part of the workflow. FCP users will either require Automatic Duck or some serious time on their hands (I've done both myself).

Way to go Adobe. Welcome back where you belong Premiere!

Monday
Dec182006

Why Colorista?


Why did we make a 3-way color corrector to sell to people who, with the exception of After Effects users, already have a built-in 3-way CC tool? Six reasons:

Correct Like The Pros
Colorista works like Final Touch, Da Vinci, Discrete Lustre, iQ, and other professional grading systems that use the industry standard color model of Lift, Gamma and Gain. The ASC is even working towards codifying this into a system that can be communicated as universally as an EDL. Lift/Gamma/Gain allows you to correct highlights, midtones and shadows, respectively, but without the need to define the value ranges, which means you spend more time color correcting and less time fiddling with controls. In other words…

Fewer Controls, More Power
Colorists need to work fast and efficiently, so having fewer knobs is a good thing. We took the most-used aspects of professional grading systems and packed them into an efficient, easy to use package. Colorista does more than most built-in 3-ways, and with fewer controls.

Power Masks
Isolating areas of the frame to correct is one of the power tools in the colorist’s kit. What can you do with piddly little circles and squares? Ask a Da Vinci operator. Sure, sometimes you need deeper masking, but for that you can jump into After Effects. Face lights, vignettes, and spot corrections should be fast, easy, and render in realtime.

Realtime?
Depending on your hardware and video resolution, yes! Works especially well in host applications that lead the market in realtime operation, such as Apple Motion and Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0.

Grade, Don’t Degrade
In After Effects 7, Colorista is a 32-bit floating-point plug-in. Stack as many of them on top of each other as you want, you cannot hurt your image. Finally, a tool you can use to effortlessly color correct HDR images.

Three Rings to Rule Them All
Just when you started to master Levels, you need to do some color work in Final Cut Pro. Just when you learn to produce decent results with FCP’s 3-way, you take a freelance gig using Avid. Colorista works the same in every host application, meaning that you can learn it once and use it everywhere. And one seat of Colorista licenses you to use the plug-in in every one of the host applications, on Mac or Windows.

The music on the demo is Color My Rainbow Black by The Quintessentials.

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Friday
Dec152006

Colorista!

I'll blather more later, but here it is:

Magic Bullet Colorista

You know you've always wanted to have a three-way.

Thursday
Dec142006

Three Rings to Rule Them All

Wanna know a secret? I've been working with Red Giant Software on a new color correction product. It's going to be wicked awesome, something every reader of this blog will want.

Stay tuned!