Color Finesse in FCP 5

A

alumna

Active member
Is Color Finesse all that it's cracked up to be? Is it a color correction vehicle or a color grading tool? Or both ... and more?

How does it perform in FCP for those of us who've used it or seen its results? I've heard that it is far superior to FCP's 3-way color corrector or any other program out there ... sans Da Vinci. It is projected to yield highly desirable results as far as color grading in an artistic realm is concerned.

How does Color Finesse compare with other color effects programs such as Magic Bullet, Digital Film Tools and other high end color grading software?

Appreciate your thoughts on this.
 
There's a demo available for Color Finesse if I remember right. It handles a bit weird in FCP mainly because it doesn't allow preview on an external monitor because FCP won't free the FW port and it doesn't seem to support Decklink output. I think they will come out with a new version soon, I hope it fixes that. It looked awesome from what I saw but the workaround for getting a decent preview were just too much for me to really get into it.
 
CF is a great color correction tool, but I've always felt it's very limited in FCP.
I use it in AE and can't imagine working without it.

It's definitely superior to FCP's 3-way color corrector, but like I said I've found it a bit clunky to use within FCP. In my opinion the best way to get the most out of CF is to use Automatic Duck to open your FCP timeline in AE, then color using CF (that is until CF supports Motion).
 
I echo Luis. I use it in AE and it's a workhorse for me. So much control and power in there. Drop it into AE and color away.
 
Thanks for sharing your views on CF.

So essentially you're saying don't bother spending the $600 to buy CF for FCP.

Luis and Kai - Are you just dropping the FCP timeline into AE to edit an entire sequence? Is it really that simple a workaround? Can you do this without using Automatic Duck or will that not yeild optimum results? And does CF have the potential to be the same workhorse in FCP as you feel it is in AE?
 
I would say that CF as it stands today is not worth using in FCP alone. Once the new version comes out it might be a different story (this is just my opinion though, I highly recommend you download their demo and try it out).

You can't just drop the FCP timeline into AE (unless you dropped an entire quicktime in as one file, which is a pain to work with). Automatic duck is a fantastic program that will allow you to export your project as an OMF file from FCP, and then import that OMF to AE...essentially it rebuilds your FCP timeline into AE (with each clip being a separate layer). I don't know of any other way to do that without Automatic Duck. Automatic duck costs about as much as CF on it's own, so it's not exactly a cheap package.

CF has the potential to be the same workhorse in FCP as it is in AE, but like I said I would keep an eye out for the new version (CF2) and see if it's changed at all. It has the potential, it's just not there yet in my opinion for FCP.

But the day it is I'll be a happy guy.
Either that, or support for Motion. If they can get CF working in motion then Automatic Duck woudln't be needed at all (because you can already export your FCP timelines into motion).
That would be ideal.
 
Luis - Thanks for that excellent in-depth explanation. It was very helpful. Based on your insight and experience, I'm going to hold off on the CF purchase for now.

I do hope they get a CF2 version out soon with full support for FCP. Meanwhile, I'll keep my eyes wide open for any changes.
 
Alumna,

I'm glad you found my feedback useful, but keep in mind that these are my opinions and my needs may differ from yours. If you haven't done so already I would really recommend downloading the CF demo and trying it out in demo mode. The demo has all the functionality of the full license version but renders a watermark on your footage. Check it out before you write it off, at least that way you know what you're missing. You may not find it to be as much of a problem in FCP as I did.

http://www.synthetic-ap.com/downloads/index.html
 
Luis - You are kind and gracious.

Thanks for including the download link. I'll try it and see how it works out.

Just saw your response in the new Magic Bullet post by Kai. Too bad it's not real time in Mac ... I'm in the same minority. Do you have others like MB you would direct me to for good color grading/correction results? Or are you happy enough with the FCP 3-way CC?
 
Thanks for that link to Final Touch.

It ain't cheap ... but looks like it's one sweet color corrector. Have you tried this stuff? If so, what's your personal experience been like?

Too bad the Silicon Color didn't show examples of clips using its product.
 
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