CC'ing in Vegas
- Thread starter Slimothy
- Start date
HorseFilms
Look ma no hands
My favorite thing to use is Color Curves. Just give it an "S" curve and you'll be amazed at how much life it adds. After that, I start with the color grading (using Celluloid or Magic Bullet).
HorseFilms
Look ma no hands
Basically, color correction is usually something to do with a white balance issue (it's a little too orange looking or something) and color grading is adding a whole new look to the footage (maybe giving everything a pale blue look or something along those lines). Someone else can probably word this better than I.
Color correcting: fixing a problem.
Color grading: artistic improvement.
So, Celluloid would be a color grading tool, just to pull a random example out of the air.
However, most people refer to both as "color correction."
Color grading: artistic improvement.
So, Celluloid would be a color grading tool, just to pull a random example out of the air.
However, most people refer to both as "color correction."
"Better" can mean a lot of things.
Celluloid's clear advantages are render speed, ease of use, and price, not to mention working with Vegas's own engines. However, the looks are not customizable.
Both Magic Bullet and After Effects cost you, and MB is famous for being a render hog. With AE, you have to go into a separate program. But you do have complete control and customizability over what you're doing.
So, pick what's best for your skill level and workflow.
Celluloid's clear advantages are render speed, ease of use, and price, not to mention working with Vegas's own engines. However, the looks are not customizable.
Both Magic Bullet and After Effects cost you, and MB is famous for being a render hog. With AE, you have to go into a separate program. But you do have complete control and customizability over what you're doing.
So, pick what's best for your skill level and workflow.
Simon Wyndham
Well-known member
It would be nice if Synthetic Apetures Colour Finesse was available for Vegas. One of my main gripes with Vegas is that it still works in 8-bit colour, even with its colour correction tools. A filter similar to CF with its ability to adjust all aspects (brightness, contrast, saturation and mucn, much, more) for the highlights, mid-tones, shadows, as well as overall completely seperately would be amazing. But Vegas needs to work internally at a higher colour resolution. You can really push things in CF without clipping.
Norm Sanders
Script Wrangler
I was just talking to an advanced user today who works with Avid, etc. and we discussed CC. He mentioned a vectorscope, or something like that (I know Vegas has it, just no idea what to do with it). Anyway, he said with this scope, he can see where the red levels are in one clip, and if he has to match another clip's colors to EXACTLY match the one he's working with, he uses this scope to get them to match exactly.
Any idea on what he's talking about, and more importantly to know how to take advantage of it within Vegas?
Any idea on what he's talking about, and more importantly to know how to take advantage of it within Vegas?
Vectorscopes are very useful tools and should be a primary tool for the colorist. The vectorscope plots the image data based on saturation and hue. It's basically set up like a color wheel. The farther from the center the data is plotted the more saturated and what direction the data is plotted will tell you what hue (usually there is an overlay with the primary and secondary colors labeled so you can figure it out easily). It also usually has markings to warn you when your signal has left 'broadcast safe' specs.
glenn chan
Well-known member
You can really push things in CF without clipping.
I find that if you are working in After Effects or Premiere Pro, their filter enginers are limited to 0-255 computer RGB color. So anything outside the 16-235 Y' range of video (i.e. DV) will get clipped when it gets converted from 16-235 Y'CbCr into 0-255 RGB color space.
I haven't played around with CF in other hosts.
2- Certainly you could argue for Vegas not having higher bit depth.
3- The split screen:
In the video preview window, there is a half moon icon. In its dropdown menu, you can set it to show the clipboard. Drag-selecting the video preview window will select the area for which the clipboard image shows. The clipboard icon will copy whatever's in video preview into the clipboard.
It can be very useful to compare two shots or scenes. Typically the right thing to do is to correct shots visually and make sure they match visually.
You can get some information on matching shots at
http://glennchan.info/matching/matching.htm
I find that if you are working in After Effects or Premiere Pro, their filter enginers are limited to 0-255 computer RGB color. So anything outside the 16-235 Y' range of video (i.e. DV) will get clipped when it gets converted from 16-235 Y'CbCr into 0-255 RGB color space.
I haven't played around with CF in other hosts.
2- Certainly you could argue for Vegas not having higher bit depth.
3- The split screen:
In the video preview window, there is a half moon icon. In its dropdown menu, you can set it to show the clipboard. Drag-selecting the video preview window will select the area for which the clipboard image shows. The clipboard icon will copy whatever's in video preview into the clipboard.
It can be very useful to compare two shots or scenes. Typically the right thing to do is to correct shots visually and make sure they match visually.
You can get some information on matching shots at
http://glennchan.info/matching/matching.htm
glenn chan
Well-known member
Explanation of why I wouldn't find a vectorscope that useful in this situation:
In Vegas, create a color gradient.
Point 1: 0 R 100 G 0 B
Point 2: 154 R 255 G 154 B
If you look at this on a vectorscope, they will have exactly the same chroma values! However, visually you can tell that the darker color is more saturation (as in more pure, vivid) then the lighter pastel color of #2. If you simply look at those numbers, you see that #1 is as green as you can get while #2 is not.
A vectorscope could be useful in helping you spot changes in hue.
If the luma values of the two colors you're trying to match are roughly equivalent, then a vectorscope could be useful in that case. However, there are sometimes some surround effects that will alter the appearance of that color. So you can be better off just eyeballing the colors.
The math:
Vectorscopes display the color difference components of a video signal.
The basic math is this:
Suppose you have a R'G'B' signal coming from the camera.
This signal is converted into component video- a Y' component ("luma"), and two color difference components ("chroma").
The formulas are:
Y' = 0.299 R’ + 0.587 G’ + 0.114 B’ (Assuming Rec. 601 numbers)
B' - Y' = B' - Y'
R' - Y' = R' - Y'
If you crunch these numbers, you'll see why the gradient has the same chroma throughout.
In practical implementations, the color difference components (B'-Y' and R'-Y') have scale factors and offsets to them. This explains why colors will land in different places depending on what the vectorscope is looking at (Y'CbCr, Y'UV).
2- The general process for using the vectorscope is to look at the trace/blob. As you manipulate the color, you see parts of that blob move around. Basically, you want to put the corresponding blobs from both shots in around the same area on the vectorscope.
In Vegas, create a color gradient.
Point 1: 0 R 100 G 0 B
Point 2: 154 R 255 G 154 B
If you look at this on a vectorscope, they will have exactly the same chroma values! However, visually you can tell that the darker color is more saturation (as in more pure, vivid) then the lighter pastel color of #2. If you simply look at those numbers, you see that #1 is as green as you can get while #2 is not.
A vectorscope could be useful in helping you spot changes in hue.
If the luma values of the two colors you're trying to match are roughly equivalent, then a vectorscope could be useful in that case. However, there are sometimes some surround effects that will alter the appearance of that color. So you can be better off just eyeballing the colors.
The math:
Vectorscopes display the color difference components of a video signal.
The basic math is this:
Suppose you have a R'G'B' signal coming from the camera.
This signal is converted into component video- a Y' component ("luma"), and two color difference components ("chroma").
The formulas are:
Y' = 0.299 R’ + 0.587 G’ + 0.114 B’ (Assuming Rec. 601 numbers)
B' - Y' = B' - Y'
R' - Y' = R' - Y'
If you crunch these numbers, you'll see why the gradient has the same chroma throughout.
In practical implementations, the color difference components (B'-Y' and R'-Y') have scale factors and offsets to them. This explains why colors will land in different places depending on what the vectorscope is looking at (Y'CbCr, Y'UV).
2- The general process for using the vectorscope is to look at the trace/blob. As you manipulate the color, you see parts of that blob move around. Basically, you want to put the corresponding blobs from both shots in around the same area on the vectorscope.