Simon Ubsdell
6
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Try this really great free plug-in from Rob Mackintosh:
https://www.fcp.co/forum/colour-correction/10962-free-fcpx-effect-wvl-rgbbalance
Or for lots more control check out his excellent commercial plug-in Color Precision:
https://lawnroad.co.nz/color-precision.html
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
I removed this because Apple’s Motion 5 version of Motion Blur isn’t Motion Blur at all, but just Directional Blur with a rotational control.
Here’s a sort of motion blur that’s OK-ish, which is basically the Motion 5 Wide Time filter republished:
https://tokyo-uk.com/fcpxeffects/Quasi_Motion_Blur_WideTime.zip
Might be useful in some instances – better than directional blur anyway.
Click the download link, unzip the archive and put the resulting entire folder in your User/Movies/Motion Templates/Effects folder.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Charlie Austin] “So in the current replace from end or start, there’s a target timeline clip range – even if you only select an I or O point the range gets completed to the tail or head , and a source clip range. And the first or last frame of each clips range is the “anchor” when replacing. But it seems there’s some voodoo required if you want the playhead to be the anchor…”
That does seem likely, for sure, but hey, what do we know?
😉
[Charlie Austin] “On a related note, Don’t know why I didn’t think of this, but I just realized that there’s a dedicated Motion feedback page as well, so I’m bombarding that with Keyer feedback. :-)”
Actually I’ve just posted a few more things you can bug them about in relation to the keyer in my reply to Jeremy elsewhere on this thread 😉
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Jeremy Garchow] “Fix the edges in the keyer.
The edge of the frame should not be part of the light wrap (edge crop), and the edges of the resulting matte after the key need to be more natural and less processed, especially on more difficult keys with subjects that have hair. Some of us have to key more than bald men.”
Indeed. But on top of all that, they really should look at two further areas:
Firstly, the matte tools are not suitable given the harsh automatic key that’s extracted.
If you try to pull some edge detail back using the only possible control that might get you there, namely the “Bias” (actually just a gamma control with a fancy name), you won’t get much detail back but worse you will make the matte’s solid black backing uniformly non-transparent. Not a result you could live with. No idea what’s going on there to produce this but it means the matte tools are functionally next to useless.
EDIT: You’d have thought you could pull this non-transparency back into line by using the Black Level control, but no matter how hard you push it, the result stays the same.
Secondly, they really need to rethink the spill suppression. The method they are using looks pretty crude – the results don’t look good and again the tools they supply to “finesse” the result are simply bizarre and mostly just inappropriate. Tint?? Contrast?? Very strange. (Actually I suspect Tint just over-drives the spill suppression, since it’s not a tint in the sense of a color that the user can influence.)
Lots more control needed over the spill suppression to enable a halfway decent result. Spill suppression is a totally critical component of a decent keyer – even if you can pull a great key, if you can get the spill suppression right you’ll never get a workable result.
More work to do all round, for sure.
I just hope they don’t fix it too quickly and too well … 😉
FURTHER EDIT: With a lot of work I was able to get a result that wasn’t too bad, but the issue of the non-black backing is insurmountable and really a deal-breaker. If you are extremely careful and know what you are doing you can get an OK result with the spill suppression, but there is no meaningful latitude.
And that’s the major issue throughout – you just can’t control the plug-in to get the results you want because it’s all fixed into one rigid method, which is not nearly subtle enough to start with.
If there’s one thing you need in a keyer above all, it’s the ability to finesse every aspect, for the simple reason that no two green(blue) screens present the exact same challenge. But in Apple’s world it’s one size fits all – which is the fundamental issue.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Charlie Austin] “They need to update the definition, and turn the damn thing on! (which is what i just wrote in the feedback form)”
One does have to wonder, after all this time of not turning it on, whether it’s really just a matter of flicking the switch on an already developed feature.
I’d really have to think that there are some fundamental design problems that have prevented them from implementing this up to this point.
Which, if true, would be interesting …
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Marcus Moore] “I wonder if FXPlug3 support means that a plugin like Particular would be easier for VideoCopilot to migrate to Motion now.”
Trapcode (which developed Particular) is a computer technology research and development company based in Stockholm, Sweden. The focus is on creating groundbreaking and robust software for graphics and audio.
Trapcode was started in 2001 by Peder Norrby. It still today is basically a one-man operation and this is made possible by partnering with publisher Red Giant Software that handles sales, tech support and some engineering so that Norrby can focus on creating new technologies.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Charlie Austin] “In fact, I’m gonna go submit the same request again. For the millionth time”
And I’ll do the same right now. Somehow you’d think there’s a way of getting through to them on this 😉
The workarounds just don’t begin to cut it if you have more than a couple of shots to worry about.
And as I say, it’s about a whole lot more than eye-matching – although eye-matching is still a massively important task for a lot of users in certain editing environments, like Chris’ for example. You need to be able to shortcut it, not be obliged to take the long way around.
For me though, the inability to do quick playhead sync edits is a serious bugbear creatively. You must have this too with the kind of work you do.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Chris Conlee] “king on Once Upon A Time at ABC, I have to eye-match sometimes as many as 800 or more VFX shots per episode, so this lack of functionality would be a deal-breaker right there. I didn’t know this, but if true, it simply doesn’t meet the needs of people doing VFX heavy shows on a tight deadline.”
Yes, indeed.
For eye-matching VFX shots this is also a serious headache. I don’t do it that often these days, fortunately (!), but I can’t imagine how I’d go about it in X if time was tight.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Charlie Austin] “The magnetic timeline isn’t perfect by any means… -playhead match replace anyone? 😉 – X has lots of imperfections. But the ability to do what your example is illustrating isn’t one of them.”
The magnetic timeline isn’t perfect but it’s fun to use – which in some circumstances is enough.
But it really amazes me that the lack of common or garden Replace Edit doesn’t have us all storming the gates of Cupertino calling for our demands to be met.
In Media Composer, FCP 7 and Premiere, Replace Edit – the real thing, not Apple’s Pepsi version – is the edit command I probably use more than any other, because in so many cases it’s by far the fastest way to work, even if you don’t require playhead sync editing.
If you do the kind of editing I do where the timing of the pictures to music and sound design is absolutely crucial and not an occasional action, the lack of this functionality really makes FCP X feel like something from the dark ages.
If you’re also faced with jobs where you have to eye match footage, the absence of this feature is ridiculously painful.
And in terms of eye-matching the lack of gang sync falls into the same category of essential missing features.
It’s astonishing that after all this time, Replace Edit has not been “replaced” – we’ve had all sorts of fun timeline innovations like dancing dots and what have you, but it beggars belief that Apple haven’t addressed this.
Or have I been the only person actually submitting feedback about this? I can’t believe that I am.
There are plenty of cosmetic enhancements that it would be great to see and everybody has their list – but this is not cosmetic.
This is editing 101.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
And if I wanted to do an actual replace edit as it is commonly know, that would be easy, right?
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com