Color Finale 2

[Michael Gissing]

Looks like a good tool and I get the desire to stay within one NLE. I was interested in your comments about it looking and feeling a bit like the old Apple Color. I presume it doesn’t have a limit of 7 layers however.

I’m surprised they don’t use nodes. So much easier to reorder and copy paste individual nodes between clips. I suppose layers are easier and less scary.

For me nodes and the ability to apply group and timeline grades in Resolve are just so much more powerful.

[Oliver Peters]

I work with Resolve on a regular basis and IMHO, it’s still pretty rough around the edges as an NLE. Plus there are tons of gotchas buried in its complexity. For example, I hit a really weird one today, which was that some Alexa clips would get blown up by about 300% or more when I played or scrubbed the source clip or the timeline. Turned out to be an optimization setting in preferences. Automatic (the default) wasn’t working right, so switching to manual and turning off one option fixed it. That cost me a couple of hours. Naturally every NLE may cause a bad day like that, but things like that can really can you.

But more on-topic and related to your question, from what I can tell, implementing nodes in FCPX might pose some issues with the UI. I believe the developer’s background involves experience with Filmlight (Baselight) systems, which also don’t use nodes. So it might simply be a preference issue. I haven’t stacked layers too terribly deep, but I don’t think there’s a limit, except in what the GPU will handle. It’s probably also an issue of where they are placed.

https://vimeo.com/382097059

In this video, I used several layers on each clip and then an adjustment layer on top of that. The adjustment layer also had CF2Pro applied and it also had several layers. So then as an experiment I compounded the clip and added yet another instance on top (last section of the video), which included a Koji film stock LUT. I tried the same thing with one of their presets, which consist of several layers within each preset. At that point the 2013 Mac Pro’s GPUs started flaking out. I don’t think it did that because of the number of layers, but rather because of the convoluted video pipeline I had created.

The comment about Color was partially layers and partially quality of the look. I always found Color’s layer methods to be very fast – faster, in fact, than copy/pasting specific nodes in Resolve. I also liked the grade I got there. In fact, I’ve had to work on a sequel where the original was graded in Color and the sequel in Resolve. There were certain stylized looks I had done in Color that I simply could not match in Resolve.

I do find that Resolve is good for really digging in and grading a shot within an inch of its life, but it’s also a bit harsh for my taste at times. Subjective, I know, but that’s why I feel like the look I got out of Color – and to some extent in Color Finale – gives me a more pleasing result.

Nevertheless, I’m happy to grade in either depending on the job.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Michael Gissing]

The limiting thing with layers in Color was getting the order right. It did achieve a nice grade and worked well with my Tangent Wave, actually better than Resolve with the same panel.

[Oliver Peters]

[Michael Gissing] “The limiting thing with layers in Color was getting the order right”

And, of course, its 2K resolution limit.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Michael Gissing]

Plus stills, speed changes…etc

[Brett Sherman]

[Oliver Peters] “My review of Color Finale 2.0 over at FCPco.”

As cool as this is, I really struggle with software registration. If I get a new computer it can take nearly a whole day to deal with registration issues. So, I’m really into either simple serial number registration or something like App Store or FXFactory where you just have to sign in to your account.

I understand why software developers make it more complicated to prevent piracy. But, for me, it has to do something REALLY special for me to buy it anymore. I’m not sure CF 2.0 is there.

[Brad Hurley]

I found the software registration process pretty painless, actually. I get that software registration needs to be considered in context: one registration is no big deal, dozens of them take time when you switch to a new computer.

I just copy the email with the activation instructions to the MacOS (and iOS) Notes app, which is where I keep all my serial numbers so they’re easy to find when I need them. Notes has a fast search function, so I can find anything very quickly.

I’m impressed with Color Finale 2; it comes close to convincing me to use Final Cut as an all-in-one solution, but Resolve still rules when it comes to color correction and grading. I love using Resolve Color Management, which eliminates the need for camera LUTs, and my footage (which is all from Blackmagic Design cameras) just looks better in Resolve. But Color Finale comes pretty close and definitely does a better job for me than Final Cut’s built-in color correction/grading tools.

[Scott Thomas]

Thanks for the article Oliver. It’s arrived precisely at a moment where I’m trying to help some editors with color grading.

Is there a place to download the ungraded Philip Bloom video? The WeTransfer link I found is long outdated. ☺

Scott Thomas

[Oliver Peters]

He must have taken it down. It’s several years old.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

BTW – Here’s an earlier version I did of this video using Hawaiki Color.

https://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/hawaiki-color/

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com