Comments

stateofgracie wrote on 12/13/2003, 1:28 PM
If you have a software that is compatible with After Effects plugins, you can try Color Finesse yourself - there's a fully-featured demo that you can get from Synthetic Aperture's web site.

My opinion on Color Finesse is that for a start it's severly hampered by the AE plugin architecture. To work around this, CF does not use the common AE user interface (where you can mainly set values with sliders). Instead, it opens its own window which takes over the screen. To get back to the underlying application, you have to close the window. This means that you get a modal user interface, which is not great. You also can't play your video from within CF.

Technically, CF is quite good. You can get good and clean results from its primary and secondary colour correction tools.

CF gives you a more extensive set of colour correction tools which are all combined in its user interface. This means you can work quickly with it, but it can be cumbersome if you try to do things like use two secondary colour correctors. Although it offers more than the standard tools in most applications (including Vegas), the user interface is not very innovative and far from perfect.

Well, and you can't use it with Vegas. It's an AE plugin only.

PS. The example of two secondary colour correctors is bad, since CF does allow you to have six secondary correctors between which you can switch via tabs. However, even though six correctors should be enough for most things, I find interfaces that restrict you in this way problematic.
I won't try to give another example (better be safe), but I guess one can imagine that with a plugin interface that takes over the screen (to the point where if you minimise the CF window, the window of the original application behind it does not update at all, it just stays white), doing something that requires switching between the application and the plugin a lot can be cumbersome, especially for someone used to the Vegas interface.

PPS. Another serious problem with CF is that you can't see the result of your correction on your TV monitor until you close the plugin window, at least on Windows. On the Mac, it claims to do live preview in connection with Echo Fire from the same company, which, of course, you'd have to buy separately.
snicholshms wrote on 12/13/2003, 3:18 PM
Thanks for the insight Stateofgracie.
filmy wrote on 12/13/2003, 7:17 PM
Actually it is not "just" an After Effects plug-in - the plug-in claims to support Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, Discreet Combustion, Boris Red and Pinnacle Commotion. Notice I said "claims" - more in a bit.

I really like Video Finesse, I guess you could call it the 'other' SA tool for color correction. I find it extremely easy to "white balance" with it. And because it sort of has this suite feel to it there are individual plugs for things such as a skin softener. keep in mind I have an older version than what is available now so there is bound to be some improvment in some areas. I would recomend it, however it is not available for VV so it is sort of a mute point.

Having said that - Color Finesse - it has some 35mm Kodak film presets. Wooh ho. ;) Beyond that - In testing it with RedGL in VV - all it does is crash VV before anything can happen. Same with Premiere 6.5. I also tried it 'native' with RedGL - same thing. Load up the Color Finesse plug and RedGL crashes. 'Native' in Premiere 6.5 nothing happens, drop the plug onto a file and...nothing. In After Effects it loads up fine. I don't have Commotion, Combustion or FCP though seeing how it doesn't work well in Red or Premiere I have my doubts.
craftech wrote on 12/13/2003, 8:44 PM
I seem to recall from the Cow forum that Spot has used it or owns it.
stateofgracie wrote on 12/14/2003, 1:43 AM
It still is an After Effects plugin. The applications you mentioned claim to be compatible with the AE plugin architecture. I can confirm that Color Finesse does work in Premiere Pro and in Combustion. From the reviews it also seems to work in FCP.

Color Finesse is definitely geared towards serious colour correction work. There is currently a trend emerging towards software-based colour correction, as opposed to the hardware-based systems that are now still prevalent (such as DaVinci, Pogle). It is also obvious that this topic is taken more and more seriously by the DV NLE manufacturers (although Premiere Pro still doesn't have a secondary colour corrector). The Vegas plugin architecture is nice because it allows you to create a graphical user interface for the plugin. I wonder how many people would be interested in the possibility of doing more serious colour work in Vegas. Although it would really need to have proper masking capabilities for this.