Color Grading

[bugsbunny]

Hey guys,

I was planning on buying Discreet lustre to do some color grading. It's supposed to be a great tool to do CC for projects.

http://www.autodesk.com/lustre

Here's my question. I already own Apple Shake and that has been great tool for CC for my projects. Most times I just CC in After Effects. I want to know if I should invest in LUSTRE or should I just continue to CC in After Effects and Shake. I like using Shake and After Effects but I think if this tool is designed just to do stuff like CC it might be a good investment.

Please let me know what you think about it.

Thanks

[bugsbunny]

BTW, they used LUSTRE on:

Sin City
King Kong
March of Penguins
Pirates of the Caribbean
Veronica Guerin
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Polar Express
X-Men 2

and much more...

I've played with this product at a convention and I was amazed at how easy it was to use and the great results I got. I just didn't know if it was worth it to invest in.

[rightfrog]

Is Lustre available for the mac or is it PC only?

[bugsbunny]

Is Lustre available for the mac or is it PC only?


I think it can only be run on a Windows or linux system.

I know :furious3: (I love my mac)

but I want to get it and use it on one of my Personal computers. I can just install it on a PC and away I go. PC computers aren't nearly as expensive as mac.


I really like the idea of what they boast about molding lights in the computer and color adjustment.

[bugsbunny]

I don't know if anyone gets Millimeter magazine in the mail, but here's a link to an article they wrote on Lustre last year.

http://millimeter.com/mag/video_discreet_lustre/index.html


I saw the wolves footage by Barry for the HVX, it made my mouth water. Now I want an HVX and before I didn't understand the big deal about it. I can only imagine what pairing footage like that up with a tool that can adjust lighting and colors could do.


___________________________________
Computers can do that?
--Homer Simpson

[Shaw]

Lustre is an amazing piece of software. They used it on Lord of the Rings too in fact. I'd love to get my hands on a copy myself. Isn't it only available in custom turn key systems though? I don't think they sell the software itself do they?

Really though do you know enough to use it? Are you working on 2K or 4K images?

[surf]

and what are the films cc-ed with AE?

[kai]

Lustre is a very very high end system. You won't be able to just buy a copy to throw on your PC.

You're looking at $100,000+

[ChuckS]

Yeah, if your hoping to save money buying an HVX and looking at Luster, well you'd be better off purchasing a used DaVinci 2K and a couple of tape machines and doing tape-to-tape color correcting.

Last time I played with Luster it was well north of $100K, more like $200K.

[bugsbunny]

Thanks guys,

That settles it I am not going to buy Lustre. Shake will do for now. I'm going to download the free macros from this site for CC.

http://www.highend3d.com/shake/downloads/macros/color_correcting/


Shaw-

I am not sure if Lustre was used but I know for a fact that they used Shake for Lord of the Rings. I thought I saw on the DVD of the second movie in the behind the scenes that they used Shake for Color Grading. Not sure I might have to take a look at that again.



I guess I'll get the DVD's from the Gnomon and CmiVfx. Those guys have great knowledge.

Surf-

I don't know what films have been color corrected with After Effects. I think After Effects is still mainly used for broadcast work. That doesn't mean it can't be used for film. Just look at the type of looks this guy was able to develop with After Effects.


http://www.videocopilot.net/fmpsamples.htm

http://www.videocopilot.net/filmmagicgallery.html

Use whatever tool you can afford. I cannot afford Lustre but I have Shake and After Effects so I will put those to use.


----------
100,000 that is too much in any currency.

[Anders Holck]

Well, you should look into Final Touch. Runs on the mac, only $4995 and optional 3 trackball interface is $2999.95. 32 bit floating point and hardware acclerated thru OpenGL. Very High End.

[surf]

thanks bugsbunny

[oneinfiniteloop]

After Effects has been used on many movies. It was one of the primary compositing tools on The Day After Tomorrow, as well as being used on Hellboy, Shark Boy and Lava Girl, and others.

Color Finesse in AE is an awesome CC tool, as well as a lot of the tools in Shake.

[surf]

I see. so big names are here too

[BEENYWEENIES]

Maybe I'm just typing to hear myself type, but I don't think you need a lustre to do amazing CC, and in fact the amazing CC you see in those films has less to do with Lustre and more to do with the operator's knowledge of color. Obviously it's all about the right tool for the job, so Lustre's ability to handle 2k/4k files in 32bit is why they use it.

Places like the Orphanage do most of their color correction work right in After Effects, using Levels. Sounds ghetto, but hey man, it doesn't have to cost a fortune to work. With the new 32bit features of After Effects (which are very, very nice to play with) you should be able to do just about anything a Lustre can do. Maybe a bit slower, but you can pull it off just the same.

[bugsbunny]

Sweet! If the Orphanage who makes Magic Bullet use After Effects it can't be that bad. After Effects 7.0 looks real nice, thinking about upgrading from 6.5. I might go with color grading in that instead of Shake. The one thing I like about SHake is that they mean it. You shake the nodes to detach them. LOL!

Day After Tommorrow and Hellboy. Two great looking films. I appreciate the feedback. This confirms to me that After Effects and Shake are just as good as the fancy systems designed only to CC.

I have to check Color Finesse out. Looking up the Final Touch now. I always want to learn how to improve. thanks again

[oneinfiniteloop]

The effects and compositing that were done in The Day After Tomorrow and Hellboy were done by the Orphanage in AE. Mark Christiansen (AE compositor on Day After, worked on Star Wars and others) wrote a book called After Effects 6.5 Studio Techniques about using AE for vfx. Probably one of the best books I've ever read on the subject. Stu Maschwitz and Brendan Bolles also contribute a chapter each, which are awesome additions.

Go check out Stu Maschwitz's blog, he is one of the guys who wrote Magic Bullet, I think he created it for his movie, THe Last Birthday Card. He has some great info there about float, CC, and other techniques.

http://prolost.blogspot.com/

[bugsbunny]

He has some great info there about float, CC, and other techniques.

http://prolost.blogspot.com/

Sweet!

Thanks for the link. I am going to get that book.

[JazzNET]

Final Touch (Silicon Color) is a pretty powerful tool - especially if you have a proper controller. Certainly worth taking a look at - the tools and rendering quality are all there. A bit more work on their end tightening up the workflow, another rev of faster machines from Apple and I think most colorists would find it a really solid system for a fraction of the price of Lustre. If they would just add handles for the XML exports from Final Cut Pro and an audio reference track, it more than does the job right now. A faster machine will just be gravey.

[jpbankesmercer]

Awesome great link. Got lot's of reading to do.
Jp

[surf]

a book called After Effects 6.5 Studio Techniques
yes, as oneinfiniteloop said, you should have read this book

[Dogtops]

Has anyone tried the Color Finesse system?
Looks pretty promising.
http://www.synthetic-ap.com/press/pr060419sa.html

[kai]

Ya it's been mentioned here before. Very strong system, I use it all the time

[Yardsale]

oi! watching that demo reel for lustre was incredible...

edit: the plug-ins for Film Magic Pro look pretty snappy, I Might have to pick them up