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This video tutorial will walk you through on how to fix a shot like this using a combination
of Apple Color and Apple Motion.
In this tutorial you'll learn how to
Send a Sequence to Color
Use Secondary Color Correction within Color
Send a clip to Motion
and Stabilizing a clip within Motion
Sometimes you may have a shot that seems completely unusable.
Check this out.
Not only is the camera extremely shaky, but the sky is very dull.
Let's start by sending our shot to Apple's Color Software.
When sending files to Apple's Color software from Final Cut Pro, you must send the entire
sequence.
To keep things simple for this tutorial, I've got just one clip in my sequence.
Find your sequence within the Browser window and right click on it.
Then choose send to Color from the contextual menu.
Go ahead and give your Color project a name.
I'll add an extension of CC so I know it's color corrected.
The Color Application with then launch.
If you're already familiar with setting the render directory in Color, feel free to skip
this section.
If you plan on using Apple's Color software with Final Cut Pro, you'll want to adjust
Color's preferences ahead of time.
Otherwise, you risk having to relink and find media elements created from Color if you later
decide to archive your data.
Since most users will have their media from Final Cut Pro stored in a Capture Scratch
Folder, It may make sense to keep the render files from Color inside the same folder that
contains your Final Cut Pro Media.
When sending content from Final Cut Pro to Color, Color will automatically create a folder
that contains the new color corrected media.
Inside that folder you will see a sub-folder for every clip segment that's been color corrected.
To configure the default render directory within Color, click on the Setup tab at the
top of the Color interface.
Then click on the browser button for the render directory.
Set the directory hierarchy to its highest level.
Then double click on volumes.
You should now see a list of all the hard disk volumes.
For example, I'll navigate to this external Media drive volume.
Set default render directory to the same capture scratch location that you are using for Final
Cut Pro.
Then, repeat the same steps for the other two directories.
Okay, it's important to note that these settings only affect new projects.
If you want to change the render location for the current project, navigate to the bottom
of the setup window and change the tab from user preferences to project settings.
Then click on the project render directory button.
Again, you'll want to specify where you want the render files to go.
Now you'll have everything is the same place when it comes time to copy or archive your
project elements.
Remember, if you choose this route to keep things organized, you'll have to change your
Color preferences each time you create a new project within Final Cut Pro.
At the top of the Color interface, you'll see a series of tabs.
Each tab activates a different interface.
If you are already familiar with the basic interface windows in Color, feel free to skip
this next section.
If you are new to Color, here's a quick tour of the interface.
The large video scopes window represents your video content using a set of graphs.
The most common graphs are the waveform and vectorscope.
These two graphs represent the luminance values and color values of a video image.
For example, this waveform graph is showing that the white areas of this image have only
a a value of 60 IRE units, which means the video image is a bit grey.
There are also various tabs that display different areas of the graph.
You can view additional graphs right clicking within a graph area.
For example, you can display a histogram of colors, and then a 3D view of the color space.
The main interface window contains a set of tabs or rooms.
Each room serves a unique purpose.
The setup room is where you'll adjust preferences and access media content.
It's important to note that each room will have an additional set of tabs to access specific
functions.
For example, these tabs within the Setup room allow me to move between my shots and user
Preferences.
The 'primary in' room provides the main interface for color collecting individual shots.
These controls affect the entire video image.
The Secondaries room is similar to the Primary In room, but contains the added ability to
affect specific areas of the image.
There is also a Color FX room that's used for adding visual effects.
Within the Color FX bin, there are also presets you can use to apply a series of effect filters
with a simple double click.
The Primary Out room provides a duplicate set of controls that are found in the Primary
In room.
This allows a master adjustment that comes after all other processes.
The Geometry room is where you can draw shapes to protect areas of an image.
For example, I've drawn a quick shape that allows me to adjust the colors of the war
memorial without affecting the background.
The geometry room is designed to work closely with the Secondaries room.
The still store room allows you to compare your video content to various stills so you
can match the color space.
And finally, the render Queue room shows clip's that a ready to be rendered and sent back
to Final Cut Pro.
For this shot we'll be using the secondaries tab.
The secondary controls allow you to isolate a particular range of color.
You'll notice there are color wheels for adjusting shadows, mid-tones, and highlights.
Using these controls on their own will affect the entire image.
The three bars over to the right of each circle represent the various color values of the
color you are selecting within each color wheel.
To limit the area to particular color, you can shift click on one of these color swatches
or use the eye dropper to select a more precise color.
If you decide to use the the eye dropper move over to the preview display window to choose
a color.
This automatically activates the desaturated preview mode option.
Move back over to the HSL qualifiers.
Since the sky is a grey color there is no need to isolate any color values.
This means you can turn off the hue parameter within the HSL qualifiers.
Navigate over to the matte only preview button and activate it.
The idea here is to create a white matte so we don't affect too much of the capital building.
Lets start by adding a key blur.
Roll forward the mouse wheel within the key blur parameter until you reach a value of
around 8 in order to soften the matte a bit.
Holding down the option key will make the values move faster.
You might also experiment with adjusting the center range and tolerance sliders within
the luminance parameter of the HSL qualifiers.
After you are happy with your matte click on the final image preview mode button.
Navigate over the mid-tone color wheel and adjust the center point towards blue.
Based on the black and white matte you'll only be affecting the area within the white
area of the matte.
Notice how the dull sky becomes much more vibrant.
Okay, we're ready to send the sequence back to Final Cut Pro.
First, we need to render the clip by making sure it's selected.
You can then use the keyboard shortcut option A to add the clip to the render queue.
Notice how a yellow bar appears within the color grade of the clip.
This indicates this particular clip has been sent to the render queue.
You can see clips that have been sent to the render queue by clicking on the render queue
tab.
Within the render queue tab you can also add additional clip segments to the render queue.
You can also remove them.
Finally, press the start render button.
Now you can see the render progress.
When the render progress is complete, you'll see a green bar within the color grade for
each clip that's been rendered.
Again, to keep things simple I only sent one clip from my Final Cut Pro sequence.
Otherwise, you would see several clip segments within the Color timeline.
Next, navigate to the file menu and choose save.
Then navigate to the Send to Final Cut Pro menu.
When you're back in Final Cut Pro, look for a new sequence that shows it is from Apple
Color.
Double click on the sequence from Apple Color and now you can now watch your changes.
If you play the sequence, you'll notice it's now color corrected.
The next step is to analyze the image by sending it to Apple Motion.
Navigate to your clip in the sequence and right click on it.
Choose send to Motion Project from the contextual menu.
A dialog box will appear prompting for a project name.
Name the project and press the save button.
Now, to keep things simple I'm going to save this project to the the desktop.
However, it's important that you manage where you are saving things when using the various
Final Cut Studio applications.
If you're already familiar with organizing projects from Final Cut Studio, feel free
to skip to the next section.
Since Final Cut Studio allows you to work with several applications, it makes sense
to create individual folders for the individual assets that each program creates.
The strategy is to create some organized folders ahead of time.
Start by creating a folder called Final Cut Pro project.
Then create folders for Motion Projects, Color Projects, and SoundTrack Pro.
If you plan on authoring a DVD, go ahead and create a folder for your DVD Assets.
You can even assign each folder it's own unique color by right clicking on it.
After you've created all your folders, can use them as templates each time you start
a new job.
The last step is to take all your folders and place them inside a Master folder that
also contains your media from Final Cut Pro.
For most of us that's going to be inside a Capture Scratch folder based on the name of
your Final Cut Pro project.
Okay, so now each time you're ready to save or export an element, you can send it to a
common place.
So for example, if I'm saving a particle effect from Motion, I'll navigate through the hierarchy
of folders to save it in the correct place.
This makes things easy when you go to backup or archive all your project elements.
After Apple Motion opens, click inside the Canvas window to select the background layer.
If you are already familiar with the basic interface windows in Motion, feel free to
skip this section.
Since Final Cut Studio allows you to work with several applications.
It makes sense to create individual folders for the individual assets that each program
creates.
The strategy is to create some organized folders ahead of time.
Start by creating a folder called Final Cut Pro project.
Then create folders for Motion Projects, Color Projects, and SoundTrack Pro.
If you plan on authoring a DVD, go ahead and create a folder for your DVD Assets.
You can even assign each folder it's own unique color by right clicking on it.
After you've created all your folders, can use them as templates each time you start
a new job.
The last step is to take all your folders and place them inside a Master folder that
also contains your media from Final Cut Pro.
For most of us that's going to be inside a Capture Scratch folder based on the name of
your Final Cut Pro project.
Okay, so now each time you're ready to save or export an element, you can send it to a
common place.
So for example, if I'm saving a particle effect from Motion, I'll navigate through the hierarchy
of folders to save it in the correct place.
This makes things easy when you go to backup or archive all your project elements.
Apple Motion has five major components.
First, let's start with the Utility window. You'll see that it has three tabs.
The File Browser allows you to ingest media into Motion. I'll grab a clip here and throw
it into the Canvas window.
The Library is where you'll access all the content that Motion generates. To demonstrate,
I'll grab a particle and move it into the Canvas window.
The Inspector is where you'll make adjustments to the content. So, I'll make a quick change
to the color of the Aurora particle.
And of course, you'll see all this content and changes that you make within the large
Canvas window.
The third main component, contains the Toolbar, which provides an easy way to create and edit
elements within the Canvas window such as text and shapes.
The toolbar also has buttons for replicating objects, along with the ability to add particles,
filters and behaviors. And finally, there's a camera button.
To demonstrate, I'll add a camera and make a few adjustments.
The next main window is called the Project Pane, which is activated by navigating to
the window menu. It's main purpose is to show you all the layers and associated content
within your project.
The last main window is called the The Timing pane, which is also activated by navigating
to the windows menu. It is similar to the timeline window within Final Cut Pro. It provides
a visual reference for elements in time.
Navigate to the Add Behavior button at the top of the Motion interface.
Choose Motion Tracking, and then Stabilize.
To see the controls for the stabilize behavior click on the Inspector Tab
When stabilizing an image, you will see adjustments for rotation, scale and position.
Since the video image isn't rotating, or scaling, we only need to stabilize its position.
Then press the analyze button to begin the stabilization process.
After the video image is analyzed, you can see how Motion moves the frame around in order
to keep it stable.
To eliminate the black edge, you'll need to change the borders control to zoom.
Now if you back up and play, you'll see the video image is stabilized.
After it's stabilized, all you need to do is save your project in order to send it back
to Final Cut Pro.
After you've saved your project, you can use the keyboard shortcut Command H to hide Motion.
When you're back in Final Cut Pro, the timeline will automatically update to reflect the changes
you've made in Motion.