zoostory
Well-known member
Hey guys, I just finished producing this:
http://www.cbs.com/ghost
I also did all the CC using Color (With an Apple Cinema Display calibrated to a 2.2 gamma with a Spyder 2 pro, and also constant DVD outputs. Too bad Color doesn't output via FW.. yet.
I wanted to give you guys my workflow, in a babbly post-esque form, because I think it will help the poorby like me out there make their indie flick look that much more better.
Anyway, we had to do a TON of revisions through a lengthy approval process for all 8 webisodes. In order to do this, we had to experiment with color to come up with the most flexible way to go back and forth between FCP.
Here are two processes we developed, both work, both have their plusses and minuses:
Version 1: EDL Master
1) Smooth your FCP timeline down to 1 track, ideally. Don't worry about baking in any flops, speed effects, or anything... you may want to STRIP all FCP CC for this though. Also, you should strip dissolves and add them back later.
2) Export a CMX2600 EDL, uncheck all sound, check only the tracks you need.
3) Export a Quicktime at native (or Pro-Rez, or uncompressed... depending on your project) of your whole time line. (Essentially baking the whole thing).
4) Quit FCP, load up Color.
5) Import EDL to color, check the edits (or something like that) checkbox in the color import window.
6) Locate the quicktime media.
So now you have a color project referencing 1 giant piece of media with everything baked in.
PLUSES: No oddities based on flips, flops, speed effects, etc. Everything will be reliable and render properly in color.
CONS: No handles, no real reconforming option - so make sure you are DONE or you will end up bandaiding a lot of stuff.
7) Render/Export from color, place color sequence back on top of original FCP sequence and reintroduce all dissolves.
Option 2 - 3 Guys 1 Drive*
*We call this 3 guys one drive because we have 3 of us all working via network with one poor little G-Raid 2 with two iMacs and my Macbook pro... I kid you not!
1) Dupe sequence. Smooth FCP timeline to one track.
2) BAKE IN all SPEED FX and MULTISCAM clips (No, using that seperate multiclip command in FCP is not enough, you gotta hardwire it baby). (Now is also a good time to make sure that you don't have any strange 3rd party FX going on, if you do, bake em). Don't worry about flops or resizes, FCP brings them all in ok after Color is done with them.
BTW, when I say bake, I mean, export clip, reimport clip, place back in exact place on timeline, replacing footage with speed effect with rendered file.
3) Export an XML File from FCP (DO NOT USE SEND TO COLOR).
4) Here's the fun part - now the editor keeps working, and via a regular 100baseT network, I network to the drive with the media and open the XML file in color.
You'll get a timeline, and all footage will open in color. We are editing 720p and I have only noticed a negligible drop in performance. Color is more a bottleneck than the network.
5) Do your magick in Color, make it look beautiful.
6) Go to Project Settings and change the render directory to a directory on the network drive (I call it ColorRenders)... That's right folks, you're gonna render to to the network volume!
7) Render away, go drink some coffee... and handles if you want to in prefs.
8) Export an XML file. Check the make sequence same format in FCP button.
9) Editor imports XML file to FCP. Viola, new sequence, on HIS drive, referencing the colorRender folder on HIS DRIVE. Everything looks great...
but...
The network says "more car in webisode 2"
So you have to go back and
10) Have the Editor spit out another XML file from the original sequence after he has made any changes (not your color corrected one).
11) Go back into your color project and select "reconform"
12) Color changes your color project to match his FCP re-edit, preserving as many grades as it can (if he used different takes, different file names, or deletes or adds clips you have to re-grade). Now you don't have nearly as much to do.
13) Tweak the 10 or so new shots, then, if you are fancy, select only those two shots, add selected to render, then render only those 10 new shots.
14) Spit out another XML file for your editor..
15) Editor opens in FCP, viola! You got your changes.
PROS: We have found this to be the fastest way to go back and forth without wasting a tone of media space. It works great for shabby networks and really gives you a lot of flexibility.
CONS: Make extra sure you bake everything you need to bake into FCP, because if you don't you will end up rendering every frame of the entire media clip for speed altered shots, and you will get weird bad takes for multiSCAM clips, etc. You may end up going back and forth a few times if you miss a thing here or there.
WISHLIST: Color is great, now, apple, take FINAL TOUCH HD and - make the xml work with multicam clips, I mean, come on. Speed effects, that too, I'd say there is no reason FCP can't have some feature to bake all speed effects upon export to color. DO NOT CHANGE THE INTERFACE - I read some review that people want it to look more like DVD Studio Pro. Please don't. It's fast, quick, the proper dark grey for CC. You can, however, be a pal and make the file browser in color have, at the very least, a favorites tab like Shake, so we can quickly get to repeated areas. Not all of us want to work in the Documents/Color Projects section of our computers at all times.
Ok, there's my tips. Go out there and make your stuff look rad!
BTW, one last thing... I NEVER, NEVER EVER normally buy online video tutorials. But I was short on time and had to learn color. I bought the ripple training series for 100 bucks (Don't get the content stuff)... if you are like me, and know AE, shake, and the basics of CC... then I highly recommend that series. I was up and running like a pro in a day!
http://www.cbs.com/ghost
I also did all the CC using Color (With an Apple Cinema Display calibrated to a 2.2 gamma with a Spyder 2 pro, and also constant DVD outputs. Too bad Color doesn't output via FW.. yet.
I wanted to give you guys my workflow, in a babbly post-esque form, because I think it will help the poorby like me out there make their indie flick look that much more better.
Anyway, we had to do a TON of revisions through a lengthy approval process for all 8 webisodes. In order to do this, we had to experiment with color to come up with the most flexible way to go back and forth between FCP.
Here are two processes we developed, both work, both have their plusses and minuses:
Version 1: EDL Master
1) Smooth your FCP timeline down to 1 track, ideally. Don't worry about baking in any flops, speed effects, or anything... you may want to STRIP all FCP CC for this though. Also, you should strip dissolves and add them back later.
2) Export a CMX2600 EDL, uncheck all sound, check only the tracks you need.
3) Export a Quicktime at native (or Pro-Rez, or uncompressed... depending on your project) of your whole time line. (Essentially baking the whole thing).
4) Quit FCP, load up Color.
5) Import EDL to color, check the edits (or something like that) checkbox in the color import window.
6) Locate the quicktime media.
So now you have a color project referencing 1 giant piece of media with everything baked in.
PLUSES: No oddities based on flips, flops, speed effects, etc. Everything will be reliable and render properly in color.
CONS: No handles, no real reconforming option - so make sure you are DONE or you will end up bandaiding a lot of stuff.
7) Render/Export from color, place color sequence back on top of original FCP sequence and reintroduce all dissolves.
Option 2 - 3 Guys 1 Drive*
*We call this 3 guys one drive because we have 3 of us all working via network with one poor little G-Raid 2 with two iMacs and my Macbook pro... I kid you not!
1) Dupe sequence. Smooth FCP timeline to one track.
2) BAKE IN all SPEED FX and MULTISCAM clips (No, using that seperate multiclip command in FCP is not enough, you gotta hardwire it baby). (Now is also a good time to make sure that you don't have any strange 3rd party FX going on, if you do, bake em). Don't worry about flops or resizes, FCP brings them all in ok after Color is done with them.
BTW, when I say bake, I mean, export clip, reimport clip, place back in exact place on timeline, replacing footage with speed effect with rendered file.
3) Export an XML File from FCP (DO NOT USE SEND TO COLOR).
4) Here's the fun part - now the editor keeps working, and via a regular 100baseT network, I network to the drive with the media and open the XML file in color.
You'll get a timeline, and all footage will open in color. We are editing 720p and I have only noticed a negligible drop in performance. Color is more a bottleneck than the network.
5) Do your magick in Color, make it look beautiful.
6) Go to Project Settings and change the render directory to a directory on the network drive (I call it ColorRenders)... That's right folks, you're gonna render to to the network volume!
7) Render away, go drink some coffee... and handles if you want to in prefs.
8) Export an XML file. Check the make sequence same format in FCP button.
9) Editor imports XML file to FCP. Viola, new sequence, on HIS drive, referencing the colorRender folder on HIS DRIVE. Everything looks great...
but...
The network says "more car in webisode 2"
So you have to go back and
10) Have the Editor spit out another XML file from the original sequence after he has made any changes (not your color corrected one).
11) Go back into your color project and select "reconform"
12) Color changes your color project to match his FCP re-edit, preserving as many grades as it can (if he used different takes, different file names, or deletes or adds clips you have to re-grade). Now you don't have nearly as much to do.
13) Tweak the 10 or so new shots, then, if you are fancy, select only those two shots, add selected to render, then render only those 10 new shots.
14) Spit out another XML file for your editor..
15) Editor opens in FCP, viola! You got your changes.
PROS: We have found this to be the fastest way to go back and forth without wasting a tone of media space. It works great for shabby networks and really gives you a lot of flexibility.
CONS: Make extra sure you bake everything you need to bake into FCP, because if you don't you will end up rendering every frame of the entire media clip for speed altered shots, and you will get weird bad takes for multiSCAM clips, etc. You may end up going back and forth a few times if you miss a thing here or there.
WISHLIST: Color is great, now, apple, take FINAL TOUCH HD and - make the xml work with multicam clips, I mean, come on. Speed effects, that too, I'd say there is no reason FCP can't have some feature to bake all speed effects upon export to color. DO NOT CHANGE THE INTERFACE - I read some review that people want it to look more like DVD Studio Pro. Please don't. It's fast, quick, the proper dark grey for CC. You can, however, be a pal and make the file browser in color have, at the very least, a favorites tab like Shake, so we can quickly get to repeated areas. Not all of us want to work in the Documents/Color Projects section of our computers at all times.
Ok, there's my tips. Go out there and make your stuff look rad!
BTW, one last thing... I NEVER, NEVER EVER normally buy online video tutorials. But I was short on time and had to learn color. I bought the ripple training series for 100 bucks (Don't get the content stuff)... if you are like me, and know AE, shake, and the basics of CC... then I highly recommend that series. I was up and running like a pro in a day!
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