Magic bullet looks

J

jkc123

Well-known member
Hi guys,

I'm wondering what the workflow is supposed to be when using this filter.

For example, do I CC in FCP first then apply the "looks filter" or do I apply the looks filter then tweak the look with the CC filter in FCP?

Or just forgo CC'ing in FCP and try and do it all in MBL?

Thanks.
 
Looks is - or can be - a replacement for the FCP CC. The two have nothing to do with eachother. You can open the Looks settings and do everything from there.
 
Ok,

My answer is not specific to FCP since I don't own it, but MBL plugs in to other NLEs in a similar fashion. This is just my opinion...

There is a difference between color CORRECTION and color GRADING. At least in my view there is. Color correction seeks to reproduce the tonality and color that was visible on set. This means the correction of color casts, under or over exposure, etc. I recommend that before going into MBL, these things are corrected in the NLE or a plug-in designed to do that kind of work. MBL is NOT designed to do that kind of work.

Once you have an accurate canvas from which to begin, you can go into MBL and begin to repaint your scenes. You can repaint the light, you can repaint the colors, and do all manner of other things in there from an artistic perspective.

Looks has some significant drawbacks that keep it from being an effective color correction tool which is why I don't recommend it for that purpose. Not the least of which are it's lack of proper scopes (though the RGB parade is welcome) and it's inability to output to a calibrated monitor while working. Those glaring omissions among others keep it from being a true tool for correction in my book, and seriously hamper it's use as a grading tool also. But at the price point, there's just nothing better.
 
Thanks for the replies folks.

PerroneFord- if I understand you correctly, you are saying that I should go into FCP CC tool first and get everything "legal" (whites, blacks, exposures, etc) then go into MBL and play around with the toolsets?
 
That is precisely what I am saying. You don't HAVE to do it this way, and sometimes I don't. But for something the length of a short, I'd rather not spend that time fooling around in MB Looks fixing every clip, and then applying a look.

The nice thing is that once you build a few looks you like in MB Looks for your movie, you can save them, and then add them quickly to your sequences.

For instance, if all of your indoor romantic scenes will be a warm amber color with a slight vignette, you can build that look, save it, and then simply apply it to any clip like that. If you've taken the time to CC every clip first, then you KNOW everything is going to be even toned, and applied correctly. But if your black levels aren't consistent clip to clip, or the color balance isn't exactly the same clip to clip, then you're going to have to tweak every clip in MB Looks to get it consistent. And that is a royal pain without scopes.
 
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