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Colorista and FCP 3 way CC
I’m trying to decide which tool to use for CC on an upcoming 26 episode series that will be posted using prores HQ at 1080i. I know a lot of people out there really seem to like
Colorista, but can I get the same results using the FCP 3way?
I know you can do a bit of spot correction using shapes in Colorista but I don’t think I will need that. I just want to do simple contrast and color cast fixes.
I like the fact that in the 3way I can put the cursor over each slider and then use the wheel on the mouse to adjust the levels without any clicking. I should be able to work a lot quicker that way. Is there a way do this using Colorista?
Is there any quality difference between the two?
I want to stay away from Color because of the stability and render time issues. -
9 Replies
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I have found it helpful to use both at times, depending on what your working on.
But if you have to choose one or the other know this:
Colorista will blow out your whites if they are at or above 100%
(use the ProcAmp in FCP to lower them a bit first,before applying colorista)- It also requires rendering.The FCP 3-way CC cannot do inky blacks. It will add blue
noise which most detest. Thats why Colorista was made, to
get true inky blacks with excellent delineation. It does not require rendering which can be a great time saver. -
[Editguy69] “I know you can do a bit of spot correction using shapes in Colorista but I don’t think I will need that. I just want to do simple contrast and color cast fixes.”
Colorista is cleaner. Though you knock off the high whites first. Anything above 100IRE gets clipped by Colorista. I have used the FCP CC tool to bring down the whites before applying Colorista, but someone on this forum recommended the Proc Amp for this and that actually does work much easier.
I’ve graded complete episodes of Good Eats using Colorista and it’s a great tool. I also use the 3Way for some shots, but mainly it was Colorista. Right now I toggle back and forth between Color and Colorista.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
[Editguy69] “can I get the same results using the FCP 3way?”
Depends on how FAR you push the colors. Too far and the 3-way starts “acting up.” The colors begin to NEON out. Colorista does a MUCH better job. I use the 3-way for minor things…Colorista for the major work.
[Editguy69] “I just want to do simple contrast and color cast fixes.”
Then the 3-way should be fine.
[Editguy69] “I like the fact that in the 3way I can put the cursor over each slider and then use the wheel on the mouse to adjust the levels without any clicking. I should be able to work a lot quicker that way. Is there a way do this using Colorista?”
The saturation and exposure, yes. But not the Black, Mids and White levels. Gotta have the mouse for that.
[Editguy69] “Is there any quality difference between the two?”
YES. I find that Colorista handles the colors MUCH better.
Shane
Littlefrog PostGETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD now for sale!
http://www.lfhd.net -
Ok, thanks everybody.
So I guess I can stick with the 3 way for most gamma and
white level adjustments, but if I really want to darken blacks
then I’m better off with Colorista. I guess I’ll just have to get used to the controls in Colorista…too bad, I really liked using the scroll wheel on the mouse to adjust levels. -
IT’s not as intuitive, but you can use the Colorista (Sliders) version of the plug in if you want more scroll wheel control. They have a free demo.
Jeremy
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I forgot to add that the white clipping in Colorista is a bug they intend to fix. (Shane R. brought this up last week)
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And the “Exposure” control is a real advantage over the 3W-CC.
rafaelPPC G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM/BlackMagic SD/PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM
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[Chris Borjis] “I forgot to add that the white clipping in Colorista is a bug they intend to fix. (Shane R. brought this up last week)”
And hopefully soon as I talked to them about this 6 months ago. I think it’s more of an Apple issue though as Peter Wiggins mentioned he was having a similar issues with a plug in he was developing.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
And a really annoying bug at that. It seems to clip whites when making adjustments and then when you render, it unclips or something because I’ve been getting strange results with Colorista and FCP 5.1.4. I’m on the 1.0.1 version, so it’s not a versioning thing.
Anyone here tried Look Suite yet? It’s pretty interesting. I’ve only used it a few times so far in both FCP and After Effects.
Steve
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