Magic bullet or Color for color grading?

[Michael Gissing]

Color is a serious step up from the 3 way CC. It is powerful therefore there is a learning curve. If you are familiar with other grading systems it is not difficult. If you intend to go this way, FCS3 with Color 1.5 is a big improvement in stable round tripping with FCP but do your homework before upgrading to FCS3.

I haven’t used Magic Bullet so can’t comment on a comparison.

[Shane Ross]

Magic Bullet COLORISTA. Plugin works right there in FCP like the 3-way, but offers better control over the colors, and the ability to use it as a secondary. Color is superior, but a bit more complex. And you need to do a lot of prep work and things need to be just right.

If you are getting started color correcting, I recommend Colorista.

Shane

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[Kent Beeson]

Thanks for the thoughts – I use FC Studio 3 but have never played with COLOR, at all…guess I’ll have to get some tutorial on it… it’s another $200 to spend, but I am just beginning to color correct so maybe Colorista is better for me.

Thanks

K
http://www.effectivevideo.net

[Rafael Amador]

And after Colorista, Color.
Let MagicBullet for the end.
After learning Color, you will manage much better any coloring tool.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Michael Gissing]

You already have Color so why not try it. Make a short sequence and try the round trip.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Kent Beeson] “Need to do better quality color grading on my stuff than just using 3-way color corrector…so do you favor Magic Bullet or Apple’s color? Which is easier to use?”

I favor Color because, well that’s all it’s designed to do and prior to becoming Color, it was Final Touch 2k with a price tag of $25,000. so it’s a very serious color corrector and in reality, it’s quite easy to use. What throws people off is the interface.

Colorista, as Shane notes is very easy to use for folks familiar with the FCP 3 Way CC as it works pretty much the same way, but with the addition of a mask control and the colors render much cleaner.

But we got seriously burned with Colorista in the past after an upgrade from Red Giant software. After Colorista was updated, it did not recognize the color grades from previous episodes and previous projects. So when we opened a project that was graded with the previous version of Colorista, we had to start all over again from scratch. After that, we stopped using it regularly and we just use it sparingly when the FCP 3 Way won’t do.

So which is the best one? Color by a landslide. Which is easier right off the bat? Colorista.

Of course the tool doesn’t mean anything if you don’t properly understand what you’re doing with color grading and color balancing.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

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[Alan Okey]

Lately I’ve run into several people who are using Magic Bullet Looks who swear by it. I’ve never seen it or used it, but the people I’ve encountered who are using it tell me that they’ve found Color’s workflow requirements too stringent or they’ve had problems trying to use Color in conjunction with Media Manager. I’ve had no issues with either.

I briefly checked out the Looks website and it seems a little cheesy to me, not like a professional grading tool. That surprises me, because the people I’ve encountered who are using it are pros – not professional colorists, but very talented editors.

Maybe I’m just an elitist snob, but I’d rather learn a deep program like Color and figure out how to build a look from the ground up than just slap on a preset filter and tweak it.

Thoughts? Anyone familiar with Looks?

[Walter Biscardi]

Looks is a more in-depth tool than Colorista and not as in-depth as Color. It’s a good tool, though I have found it will crash more often if you go in and start tweaking and changing the presets. So you have to be sure to always save your Project before you open up the main Looks controls. But it is a very nice tool.

Bob Sliga has now come out with Scone Looks which essentially gives you the exact same type of deal in Color. You can just apply looks to your shots in Color without having to take the time to learn the software. This is also a great way to learn the app more in depth by reverse engineering what he has created.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
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Biscardi Creative Media

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[Alan Okey]

[walter biscardi] “Bob Sliga has now come out with Scone Looks which essentially gives you the exact same type of deal in Color. You can just apply looks to your shots in Color without having to take the time to learn the software. This is also a great way to learn the app more in depth by reverse engineering what he has created. “

I see the value in reverse engineering, but I guess I just have a personal aversion to using canned effects. I realize that presets can save people a lot of time, but the control freak in me finds them distasteful for my own work. Perhaps I’ve seen one too many trite, overused color treatments slapped onto poor work in a vain attempt to make it seem “edgier.”

In any case, it’s great that professionals like Bob are willing to share their talents with everyone in an effort to demystify and democratize the process. Perhaps extreme looks applied in bad taste will be a passing fad like lens flares and light rays…

[Kent Beeson]

Thanks for all the good advice – I’ll at least have a look into MB’s LOOK – yes I have COLOR but at first approach have had trouble even properly importing a mov file to play with – I need to learn this thing from maybe Walter B’s DVD, we’ll see.

Thanks

K
http://www.effectivevideo.net