Simon Ubsdell
6
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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[Robin S. Kurz] “I’d be very curious to better understand the confusion.”
See my post to Bill above. I hope that explains it.
Again I can’t stress strongly enough that this is not a bug or a mistake. It’s a feature.
I just find it a little curious. But that’s just me.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
Thanks, Bill, and others who have kindly sent me extracts from the Facebook discussion.
I’d like to make it clear right up front that, despite how some people have read it, my video was not suggesting that there is a “bug” here, let alone a mistake.
Apple are using a different color model to the one that I think I and most other casual users were expecting up front. And more importantly they are using a different model to the one they followed for the Color Board. Both of these things call for comment, I think, but since I don’t want to add to the confusion I have withdrawn the video.
The beauty of the conventional Lift/Gamma/Gain method is that it directly leverages the almost magical power of two numbers: one and zero.
If we multiply zero by any number you care to choose, the result is always zero. And that’s what a conventional Gain control does – it’s a simple multiplication. And Lift is a simple inversion of that.
Similarly and even more amazingly, if we raise either zero or one to the power of any number you care to choose, the results will always be zero and one respectively.
A conventional gamma correction uses a basic power function to raise or lower the midtones without affecting absolute black or absolute white.
These processes are not only beautifully simple, they are also beautifully effective, as I tried to show in the video.
When you are raising your whites (Highlights), you don’t want your blacks going milky. And that’s what the conventional Gain method guarantees.
When you are raising your blacks (Shadows), you don’t want your whites to start clipping. And that’s what the conventional Lift method guarantees.
When you are lowering your whites (Highlights), you don’t want your blacks to start clipping. And that’s what the conventional Gain method guarantees.
When you are lowering your blacks (Shadows), you don’t want your whites to start going grey. And that’s what the conventional Lift method guarantees.
And when you are raising or lowering your midtones, you don’t want the whites and blacks following along, you want them to stay at the points you have already set. And that’s what the conventional Gamma method guarantees.
As I showed in the video, the Color Board adheres to these fundamentally useful basic principles.
But the Color Wheels do not – because of the different model that they have adopted.
Instead of delivering the built-in protections of the Lift/Gamma/Gain method, the Color Wheels deliver something rather different, raising and lowering the very values that need to stay in place.
Again I want to stress that Apple have not “done anything wrong” here and it’s not a bug. It’s a choice they have legitimately made.
But it’s a slightly odd one, in my view.
In Hawaiki Color, the first ever color wheels solution for FCP X, we chose to use the conventional Lift/Gamma/Gain method, so you can see that I am prejudiced ????
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Bill Davis] “Keep an eye on your email.”
Thanks, Bill. I appreciate it.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
And a Happy New Year to you too, Bill!
I’m afraid I don’t do Facebook on a matter of principle so I’m not sure how to access the discussion you mention.
I’d love to hear a bit more about the color science if you’re able to give some details, but at the same time I’d really like to get a handle on some more general questions here.
a) Why did Apple deviate from the maths of the standard model? (The line of least resistance would have been to stick with the Color Board system but they chose to go a different route.)
b) Why did they adopt one model for the Color Board and a completely new one for the Color Wheels?
c) Is the Color Wheel model preferable to the Color Board?
d) If so, in what ways? Is there a particular aesthetic that we can benefit from?
I’m hoping you can help shed some light on these questions given your intimate knowledge of the software and your insight into Apple’s game plan.
https://hawaiki.co/color.html
https://hawaiki.co/automatch.html
https://hawaiki.co/autograde.html
https://hawaiki.co/hawaiki.analyzer.htmlSimon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Chris Orcfilm] “Keying the blue saturated area from the grey unsaturated area regardless of lightness.”
Your problem is that despite what it may look like to the naked eye, your image is almost entirely blue.
Here’s a map of where the blue is greater than either red or green. Only the few black areas are where another channel is higher than blue.
Even a very good HSV keyer isn’t going to be able to identify the areas you are seeing as “not blue”. And Ae doesn’t have a good HSV keyer.
Edit: That said, you might want to try tweaking the image slightly with a Curves before applying the keyer, reducing the blue in the highlights. You can start to get a more reasonable result that way.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Erik Swanson] “After messing with fusion for a few days I had the silly idea to use it for a paid gig – but I figure that is the best way to learn.”
I reckon you’re absolutely right – it can be a very hairy way to learn certainly but it’s the best way of learning a lot very quickly.
Pleased to be of help.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[greg janza] “Even pro res can be created on windows but I’ve found that the need for anything quicktime related has evaporated due to there being equal if not superior alternative delivery options (i.e., DNxHD).”
An interesting development of course is that Blackmagic have fully licensed ProRes for Fusion 9 which opens up options for Windows users as never before.
As you say, there’s really nothing to choose between ProRes and DNxHD (which of course was on the scene quite a bit of time before ProRes ever appeared) – other than that a lot more clients still seem to want ProRes as a deliverable.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
That’s all really interesting and useful info, thanks very much.
We invested in an Asus ROG gaming laptop a while back for using Premiere on the road and it’s working ridiculously well – even if it looks a bit ridiculous ????
We certainly seem to have a lot to thanks gamers for in terms of machines that also work for us.
[greg janza] “I think the biggest surprise after having been a dedicated mac user for over 20 years was how much I like working in the Windows environment.”
I think the one thing I will miss though is all the little ancillary utilities that I use everyday without thinking I’m even using them, and which are not always easy to replicate outside of the Mac world.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Mickey Grant] “I easily can re-install Premiere 2015 but can’t figure out how to roll back to 2017.”
If you go to your Adobe Desktop application and choose Apps and then click on the disclosure arrow next to Premiere Pro, you will see the option to install “Other Versions”.
This will allow you to install 2017 v.11.1.4.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[greg janza] “I made the switch just over a year ago with no regrets. “
Hi Greg,
I’d be really interested to hear how you have chosen your system, what types of media you are typically working with, and what if anything you would do differently if you were to do it today. Or not.
And are there applications that you use apart from Premiere that have give you issues?
Thanks in advance.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki
