Colorista

1- Noise is there in the demo mode. But, it's too much noise for me to work with in evaluating the product. Every time I nudge a control in any of the color wheels, noise jumps all over the place, and tons of it. It's so distracting I can't properly judge what I'm doing. Why not just use a watermark like everyone else? Especially when we're supposed to evaluate a product that does such sensitive color correction.

2- You have to enlarge the Viewer window to a HUGE size to see all the color wheels and controls. Enlarge the Viewer and grab the boarder of the Nav tab and pull it over to the right until you can see the full interface. Sean suggested creating a new Custom Window Layout for using the Colorista filter. That's just way too much work to use one filter IMHO.

3- Having to stack a second filter on to do keyframing, rather than just being able to keyframe the color wheels, well... Again, way too much effort for one single filter.

4- No secondary color correction really kills it for me. I do way more secondary correction than primary.

I'm sure Colorista is great for those who don't mind all the extra set up work just for one filter. But I'll wait until it matures a bit more. An interface that fits properly, a watermarked demo rather than enough noise to make it impossible to judge, secondary color correction, keyframable color wheels, and you'd have a great product on your hands. Heck, I can't tell what it's doing with all that noise jumping all over the place.

As for Conduit, I love it. Here's the author's blog, very interesting. Conduit, IMHO, really is for us geeky enough to learn it. But it is really nice, very powerful, some really neat stuff.

http://www.lacquer.fi/blog/
 
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I'm a little confused about Conduit.

According to dvGarage's site, it's for Motion 2, but I'm reading here that it's for FCP. I found no such discussion on the dvGarage site, last I looked.
I downloaded the demo and ran the installer and, indeed, it appears to be residing in my FCP effects, but not in Motion.

So, what's the deal?
 
As a commercial film director...who does most of his work with the best colrists in the world, with the best hardware, and the most upto date telecine suites, I would say that this 200$ plug in is bloody amazing. We are quickly arriving to an age where it is possible to do some great post work at home. Obviously not having the colorist himself is the biggest drawback to the tool. And, as you may have noticed in my other posts...not having the screen to go with the rest is the real issue.
Click to expand...

And what colorists would that be? What does that prove? Do you even know what a colorist has to do to achieve a look? Sorry man,but you clearly don't know what you are talking about... I have over 20 years experience in high end VFX for films, commercials and music videos, I think I should know.:beer:
 
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http://www.dvgarage.com/prod/prod.php?prod=conduit15

Conduit can run in Motion and FCP, it says so right there on the product page (URL above).

Why not pull off the Filter tab? Cause it still needs a HUGE window. Adding a window doesn't change that, and in fact, compounds the issue of having to reconfigure your layout to work with just one filter.

Like I said, I'm sure Colorista works great and a lot of folks will get good results with it. I, personally, have problems with it as it currently is. That's all. I just don't believe in having to bend over backwards for a single filter to work like that. It's just my personal opinion. For those who don't care about these issues, I'm sure Colorista will give great results. It would be nice to be able to really evaluate the product without every frame filling up with enough noise to make color correction, at least for me personally, basically impossible. That's all.
 
Ben, the sparkles are what makes the demo the demo. Sorry that wasn't more obvious. They go away when you register.

FCP defaults to giving us that skinny little window to work in, but you can easily expand it by dragging out that tab. Just click-drag the vertical line to the left of "Nav."

expandedUI.jpg


Note that you have to make the whole window wider to do this. I wish FCP would let us create a special tabbed window like they do for their 3-way, but sadly they reserve that priviledge for themselves!

johney5, which email address did you send you question to? Red Giant scoured their inboxes and didn't find anything from you.

Again, sorry for any confusion guys, we value the feedback!

EDIT: BenB, looks like you got this all figured out now. Thanks for the feedback and trust that RGS will work wth Apple to remove some of the annoying restrictions (window size, keyframing). We don't have those limitations in other host apps.

-Stu
 
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Hmm, I switched my dual monitor setup to my normal CC layout and could access the color wheels just fine.
 
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THX1138 said:
Hey, thanks Ben.
I must be f*cking blind.
Click to expand...

Six months ago I got my first pair of glasses, bi-focals at that. I keep trying to read stuff until someone says, "Um, dude, why don't you put on your glasses." Then I feel really stupid.

At least now I can blame it on my age...
 
Throwing noise into the picture seems to me a strange way to watermark a demo version of something you're hoping people will want to buy.
Why not just the word "demo" or something in the frame?
 
The sparkles annoy me too. They do make it difficult to judge quality of the product.

I much prefer the big RED GIANT logo I saw on the demo of Magic Bullet Editors.

So far I am sold. I most likely will buy it for my next project. Power Windows are just too good an advantage to pass up.
 
"And what colorists would that be? What does that prove? Do you even know what a colorist has to do to achieve a look? Sorry man,but you clearly don't know what you are talking about... I have over 20 years experience in high end VFX for films, commercials and music videos, I think I should know."

I'm not sure that this is a forum to start adding names and post houses. I live in paris, and work in color suites around the world that specialze in high end broadcast TV. From Nice shoes in NY, Digiimage, Mikros Media Lab in Paris, The Post in Bangkok, Optics in Hamburg, The Mill and MCP in London. I hope, Mr Somewhereinla, you know at least one of these places as a reference. But the point is, that yes, this two hundred dollar plugin, is a great tool for someone who doesn't have a million dollar machine at home. But more importantly, as a color suite often runs into the thousands of dollars an hour, it gives someone a chance to work on a look for a lot more time if they have a limited budget.
 
ProLost said:
Ben, the sparkles are what makes the demo the demo. Sorry that wasn't more obvious. They go away when you register.

FCP defaults to giving us that skinny little window to work in, but you can easily expand it by dragging out that tab. Just click-drag the vertical line to the left of "Nav."

expandedUI.jpg


Note that you have to make the whole window wider to do this. I wish FCP would let us create a special tabbed window like they do for their 3-way, but sadly they reserve that priviledge for themselves!

johney5, which email address did you send you question to? Red Giant scoured their inboxes and didn't find anything from you.

Again, sorry for any confusion guys, we value the feedback!

EDIT: BenB, looks like you got this all figured out now. Thanks for the feedback and trust that RGS will work wth Apple to remove some of the annoying restrictions (window size, keyframing). We don't have those limitations in other host apps.

-Stu
Click to expand...
I repled to your email directly now, and you still did not respond...maybe you have spam filters that are filtering out your clients?
 
Ok, more bad news. Ever since I installed Colorista Demo, my Viewer's Filter window is way out of proportion. Everything is way too big to fit in it, and I can't get to controls that I should see plainly. My system was NOT this way, and the ONLY thing I changed was installing the demo of Colorista.

So, anyone know how to uninstall Colorista? All I can find is a log file...

NOT happy with the demo at all, especially since it ef'ed up my FCP system, and Red Giant has no tech support I can call, at least nothing listed on the web site outside of "leave a message". How do I have faith in software I can't even get reliable support for?

Yeah, I'm in a very foul mood over this piece of garbage. I have serious "paying" work to do, and this garbage has interfeared with it!
 
Wow. I am not having that problem. And I have been playing with it all week (much to my wife's chagrin, I was in my office).

The thing to do is not apply Colorista until you are on the final stages of editng, so that your Viewer can be that odd size.

I know Ben, you are the Big kahuna here, AND a FCP teacher, so me telling you what to do..is...is...well, like I am treating you like a noob. That is not my intention. I am just saying that everything works for me thus far, other than the annoying sparkles.
 
Ok, got it fixed. Had to open the Colorista Log file, track down it's components, trash them (well, archive them for future study, being an old UNIX geek), restart the system. Everything is now fine. So, go figure.

Why is RG Software so hard to get ahold of? That just troubles me. I'm doing reviews for 2 mags, so much for a good one...

Hey, no matter how long you've been at this, no matter how much you've done, or how much you've studied, you always will run into something so frustrating, your hairline goes back another inch or so. I jump on forums all the time with questions. I don't post to the one's I don't have an reliable answer for, so, if you want to give me noob sugestions, go for it, I'm not above anything but the water line (southeast Louisiana, that's saying a lot).

Oh well, problem fixed, I just won't recommend this software until someone from the manufacturer contacts me to explain what the hell just happened.
 
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Installed colorista on FCP yesterday. Must say after a few hours of utilising all the adjustable elements I didnt come away thinking that the standard 3 way color corrector already in FCP was in anyway inferior. Think Ill save my pennys for something higher end, or pay a pro until such time, or in the case of work - leave it to the pros that do.
 
Okay after reading this post it seems that Colorista 1.5 will be great when they update.
1. Get rid of the sparkles and add watermark in demo.
2. Add secondary color correction
3. Add a FAQ section on there site specifically for colorista = cheap tech support
4. Make the interface scale around the plugin window or just put "drag to expand" in the FAQs and Help doc.
5. Preset for creating a new Custom Window Layout for using the Colorista filter.
6. keyframe the color wheels
7. video of Colorista VS other color correctors.
That Last one was for me. :)
 
Colorista Crashes FCP 5.1.2 on my intel iMac... Stu!?!

Colorista Crashes FCP 5.1.2 on my intel iMac... Stu!?!

FCP starts to load, but doesn't make it past the splash screen. Uninstall the plugin and all is well. I also tried the Motion plugin and it crashes FCP!!! Motion will run, but when you try to apply Colorista it crashes as well. I'm not the only one with this problem see NoahK's post re: his Mac Book Pro.

NoahK said:
Is this PowerPC only? I couldn't install without crashing on my MBP.

Noah
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