Color correction pre-process

AFSDMS wrote on 2/1/2005, 6:48 AM
I've put together a rough cut of an interview. Because of camera and lighting difference I applied color correction (CC) in Vegas for a great match. However, each time I make a change and render the project I know the CC is eating up a lot of time.

I was thinking I might be ahead by applying the final CC to the clips and rendering back to .AVI files and using those in my final project.

Two questions:

1. As long as I render to a relatively lossless (.AVI or whatever) file, am I going to suffer much loss in quality by going this route? (This assumes that I will not be applying any video tweaking later in the project.)

2. I have about 60 clips to which the CC needs to be applied. What I'd like is some sort of batch process that loads a clip, applies the CC and then renders out to the same file name with a CC suffix or maybe the same name in a different folder. The only way to do this that comes to mind is very manual, loading the clips into Vegas and rendering each clip and manually assigning the name.

Any suggestions?

Wayne

Comments

Bill Ravens wrote on 2/1/2005, 7:22 AM
I just completed a 5 minute promo, extracted from 7 hours of a 3 camera shoot. Two DVX100's and an XL2 were color matched before the shoot, however, the final video from one of the DVX's cameras was significantly different. I save color timing for the last step and, as you can imagine, it was a nightmare. In the future, I plan to color time each entire reel ahead of time. After color timing, I 'll render to HUFFYUV and use the HUV renders to edit with.
Also, FWIW, the master audio tape recorder failed during the shoot and I was forced to use the audio from each camera. Audio normalizing was a nightmare, too.
logiquem wrote on 2/1/2005, 10:36 AM
My own workflow to check/preprocess many files or cut from long run interviews is the following:

1. drag everything in a track
2. use regions to identify cuts (you can use the "event to region" script to do this automatically, btw...)
3.apply the CC filter or others on the video track (and audio track)
4.use Batchrender pro to automatically render all the regions to corresponding separate files with same names than events (you can also select an other naming option from Batchrender).

This way, i get more controll on the batch processing. For example, you can drag events needing a different fx setting on a 2nd track and apply a different fx. Sure, you can also make selections on your material or anything else in the same move.

I have used Batchrender pro many times and the process is really fool proof in Vegas.

Hope this help...
GaryKleiner wrote on 2/1/2005, 10:57 AM
Do your edit first, then color correct afterwards.

There are a few different approaches that come to mind:

If the correction is consistant for multiple events, just put those shots on a different track and apply the correction at the track level.

If there are two or three base settings you need, create an FX chain which you can easily apply as needed to individual events.

If the correction is consistant accross a media file, you can apply it in the media pool or you the Appy Effects Wizard in Neon to apply FX only to the same source media accross your project track.

Gary
AFSDMS wrote on 2/2/2005, 11:56 AM
Thanks for sharing the workflow. Sounds like Batchrender pro would be worth the $15.

BTW, I already have named the clips and they are separate .AVI files, so my workflow may be different. All the clips from a camera need the same CC/'Timing' correction so that part is simple. Now, if Vegas will only give the Region the same name as the filename of the event. . .looks like I will still be doing some manual typing. Or maybe what I need is what you are getting at in #4?

I don't think doing the editing before I do the correction is what I need in this case, because that is what I really am doing now. Each camera is on it's own track and the correction is applied to the entire track.

Something else just came to mind. I was looking for the fastest way to open and edit, meaning trim, an AVI clip. It's seems overly complex to load it into Vegas and render back to an AVI or a lossless format, but maybe that is the only way to do it. I'd just like to avoid any quality loss through unnecessary processing.

Thanks again.

Wayne
AFSDMS wrote on 2/2/2005, 11:59 AM
"If the correction is consistant accross a media file, you can apply it in the media pool. . ."

I don't need it this time, but I'm going to have to check out what you mentioned above. Sure sounds like it might be useful and I can see times where it would have been.

Thanks.

Wayne
logiquem wrote on 2/2/2005, 1:40 PM
The default name for an event is the event source file name and Batchrender will name the rendered file exactly the same...
craftech wrote on 2/3/2005, 4:30 AM
Wasn't there a problem I read regarding Batchrender Pro not rendering AC3 files in certain instances? I think it was posted last fall on the WWUG.

John
Bill Ravens wrote on 2/3/2005, 7:57 AM
Apply it in the Media Pool?!!!!

Cool...I never thought of that!!
vitalforces wrote on 2/9/2005, 2:47 PM
I'm finishing up a long-form DV feature project and saved a set of "movielook" FX presets which I assign through the FX button over the Preview window--which applies the effects to everything that's output. From there my remaining CC is more like tweaking individual events, which leaves much less potential to "color drift" as your eyes get tired. Some sets of events, of course, are simply two or five or ten cuts on the same shot (half of a shot-reverse shot series), so for those I apply the FX 'tweak' to the underlying clip in the media pool so that I don't have to plod through every event.

I'm sure you know this, but you can also save an FX chain for audio and assign it to different buses. This was handy for me when assigning one bus to outdoor shots, another bus to a noisy HVAC system, another to an echo-ey sound stage.