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FCP Eye dropper not sampling correctly
I’m trying to create a solid and match a color of an object in my canvas. When I select either Color or Color Solid (from the dropdown menu on the bottom right in the viewer) and I select the eyedropper, move the eyedropper over to the canvas, roll over the color I want and click, it selects a completely different color. I just tried sampling the color I want five times and it gave me five different colors, so it’s not even being consistent.
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9 Replies
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Is your media intra-frame?
jPo
“I always pass on free advice — its never of any use to me” Oscar Wilde.
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I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you mean. If you mean withinh the frame of the canvas, then yes.
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No, I mean is it a long-GOP format like HDV or H264, for example, from a stills camera?
FCP needs an intra-coded (whole) frame to generate meaningful data, so if you are in a long-GOP format, your eyedropper is going to the nearest intra frame and sampling that, not necessarily the frame you are parked on, so that if there is motion in that area, you are not seeing what you’re trying to sample.
jPo
“I always pass on free advice — its never of any use to me” Oscar Wilde.
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THe project I’m working on now was shot on an EX3, I used Log & Transfer to ingest the footage into FCP 7 and they appear in the FCP browser as XDCAM EX. I’ve tested Pro Res files as well and same problem.
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I know this is an old thread, but when people search “eyedropper not working” this is the first thread that shows up.
The problem is that the OSX Lion’s update kinda messed up the eyedropper tool in FCP. So it doesn’t work. But when you select the colour box in the viewer (where’d you’d manually select a colour), there’s a magnifying glass on the top left that works the same as the eyedropper tool. It was bugging me and I did a search as well. There were about ten threads without a clear response, so I thought I’d share my findings.
On another note, there are a lot of strange responses on this forum to relatively simple questions, it’s almost becoming the standard here. Instead of helping, people just respond with more questions to try to stump the person asking them.
Question: My eyedropper tool is completely inaccurate.
Answer: Was your furnace built during the weekend or a weekday?
Question: I don’t know. Why would that matter?
Answer: Well if it was built during the weekend, it will use up more electricity, causing a slight dim in your light during working hours. That dim will cause your eyes to adapt, and calibrate your monitor incorrectly. Over time, that improper calibration will burn its way into your monitor, and it will look like your eyedropper tool is faulty – it may not be. If you’re a real professional, YOU MUST KNOW THIS.
Question, 6 Months later: Okay I tracked down the original owners of the house, and the furnace was built on a friday. What do you think? Is that technically a weekend?
Answer: Depends if it was a leap year or not.
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Solved it! It’s due to the Automatic Graphics switching option that Lion introduced with newer Macbook Pros. Makes sense, since it controls which video processor is being used. So, for you fellow legacy FCP6/7 users on Lion/Mountain Lion MBP’s:
Quit FCP, go to the Mac’s System Preferences>Energy Saver and unselect (uncheck) the Automatic Graphics switching box. Then restart FCP, and the color picker should pick the right colors now.
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Thank you,
It really worked. -
Thanks for posting your answer to the problem!!!
Vinnie Urgo
Photo and Video Professional
vincenturgo@gmail.com -
Has anyone been able to fix this problem in Mavericks (10.9.4)? I cannot get the eye dropper in FCP 7 to work. Thanks.
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