Keyframing a color board correction?

[Mark Smith]

I have a particular look I want for an Image sequence of time lapse stills. I’ve got the look dialed in on the color board and now I’d like to key frame a transition either into or out of this look. I am stumped right now looking for a way to transition in or out of this look that I set on the color board. Is there some way to key frame a color board look? I can’t seem to figure this one out.

[Bret Williams]

Not at this time. Apple recommends you dissolve from one look to the other. Which can work but often the way the colors mix might not be acceptable.

[William Davis]

Unfortunately no. You can blade your clip, apply another color correction, and cross dissolve between them. Kind of a kludge. I’ve sent a feature request to Apple- I suggest you do the same.

Cheers,
Bill

[Jeremy Garchow]

You can also apply a color board effect to an adjustment layer (empty text layer) and transition to another adjustment layer.

Jeremy

[Mark Smith]

so how do I send a feature request to Apple ? I’ll definitely do this.

[Bill Davis]

I like the adjustement layer idea.

The color board is a simple way for adjusting a LOT of values.

Color, Saturation and Exposure for Three ranges (darks, mids, lights) across both positive and negative values with a fourth “global” adjustment control as well – all working in real-time with visual feedback for the user.

I’m not sure slapping a keyframe on one setting and calculating that toward another fixed value will get you particularly good results. What’s the PATH a color correction takes? Straight vector? Should it adjust to balance color or lumininance as it transitions from magenta to green – considering that it must pass through purple, blue and aqua to get between those two targets on the color board?

That all seems a bit dicey to me. But I’m not a color guru by any means.

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[Bret Williams]

Color correction tools, even in FCP 7, often allow you to choose which direction around the color wheel Keyframes travel.

[Bill Davis]

[Bret Williams] “Color correction tools, even in FCP 7, often allow you to choose which direction around the color wheel Keyframes travel.”

Thats kinda the issue.

X doesn’t use a traditional color “wheel” in the basic interface.

Instead, it uses a ‘color board” metaphor. Spectrum is spread horizontally red to red with the far right side value next door to the far left values. Spectral intensity is spread out vertically with both positive and negagive control. Then you are given “range pucks” for hightlights, mids and shadow – and one large global one that affects everything. So you select your emphasis range – and slide the pucks to achieve changes.

Even without any color theory background, the average FCP-X driver can “fix” poorly color balanced scenes by eye really fast.

It’s intuitive and doesn’t take much time to figure out by trial and error.

And like most of Apples’s interface stuff, hidden behind the basic controls there are a lot of fine control if you want to get into the full system where you can stack up layering grades on top of each other.

FWIW.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.