Also, the ReelPaks (for Celluloid and Ultimate S), in addition to all the advantages listed by Spot, have no resolution limitation, whereas you'll get error messages from MB above 1024x1024. If you can drop it into Vegas, you can apply a ReelPak look to it.

We worked pretty hard to make sure the ReelPaks included a wide array of popular film looks, and even managed some other popular looks (like those you'll see in the CSI series, for example) that MB doesn't offer -- at least not as specifically. Not to mention a few fun ones that use specialty Vegas effects which MB can't do, period.

My personal favorites are Colonial, based on that cool bleach bypass-type look from the new "Battlestar Galactica" series, and Double Sunset, based on the desert scenes from "Pitch Black," not to mention the Super-8 film look we call Zapruder.

Plus, you can combine looks to create customized looks of your own, and still have a significant render advantage over a single application of MB. If you apply more than one MB effect, wow, you might as well leave for the weekend once you start the render.

I have US2 and its included looks as well as MB Movie Looks that comes with Vegas. I had an underground garage shot that made the subjects look dull and lifeless. With some experimenting, I found that the "Diffusion 5" look in MB, dialed down a little, created a wonderful, natural looking result. Rendering was slow, of course, especially given it was Cineform intermediate 1440 x 1080.

There may be an equivalent look achievable more quickly with one of the Reel-Pak looks. But I love the MB Diffusion 5 look so much, I'm tempted to get an nVIDIA 7800 GT video card to speed it up.

Spot, can you elaborate on what differences your eyes might see comparing MB with Reel-Pak film looks? I'm trying to figure out if the more intensive rendering of MB produces visually noticeable benefits (to a trained eye, that is!)

Thanks

In some presets, when blown up to a big screen and converted to 24p, Magic Bullet might appear to be smoother, especially in really high contrast areas. On the whole, most viewers won't see the differences. That's the main benefit to the ReelPaks, is that because they're not as proc intensive as MB, you can get away with great looks with faster rendering times and obviously lower cost. But it's also not accurate to say that the ReelPaks combined with Ultimate S or Celluloid are as in-depth as Magic Bullet. Magic Bullet takes the processing outside of Vegas, while ReelPaks are totally internal.

David,

Magic Bullet Editors 2 claims to support "HD" and "HDV" which both would seem to exceed 1024x1024 pixels. For $395, it better...

It is also realtime [in SD] with a [pricey, hot and power sucking] 7800GTX graphics card.

Cincy, download the demo for each and check them out.

in my opinion unless every shot is lit and balanced the exact same, one preset from MB or whatever is not going to work, thats why I prefer deciding on a look I want and using curves, cc, and whatever other filters to try and have a consistent look throughout the entire video.

One of the easiest, and cheapest ways to make your dull video have life is do the follow (we do this all the time) - it will only work if your edit is sitting on one track in Vegas.

Once your edit is complete, duplicate the entire track.
Select the Track FX on the track on top.
Select the Gaussian Blur Effect (use the defaults for now).
Change the compositing mode of the top track to 'overlay'

You'll have a great, soft-filter effect, high-contrast image.

Select the Video Output FX, and add color curves to it. Bring up your Waveform monitor, and tweak your curves so your whites and blacks aren't completely blown out. You can do this as well, on a clip-by-clip basis to tweak individual shots.

To lessen the effect, drop the transparancy slider on the top track where you would like (we usually park it at around 25%).

From there, you can de-saturate the top track, saturate it, play with the color corrector - do all kinds of things to it that give you a very similar look to some of the MB plug ins. They render 10 times faster, and don't require any cash. Bring up the color correction effect, and you can tweak colors of shadows and highlights to further simulate film looks.

Play around, you can get some very nice effects that way. Render to 24p, and it looks great.

You can also simulate on-camera grad-filters in a similar way by using Vegas gradients, the mask generator, and changing the overlay types - you can simulate grad-sky filters, and sunset filters. As long as your sky is bright (like on an overcast day), it works really well... takes a bit of fussing, but the end result is pretty decent. Plus you can add multiple colors to the gradient as well, and get a more realistic effect.

I've played around with Magic Bullet Editors, and it works well - its VERY slow to render however. But, it requires little fussing - many of the presets are decent (some are totally useless). Quite honestly, you can get very similar looks within Vegas. What you spend setting up the effects, you'll probably save in rendering in the end.

Mike.

I've played around with Magic Bullet Editors, and it works well - its VERY slow to render however.

MB is pricey, but as previously mentioned, Version 2 is realtime with an nVidia 7800GTX graphics card, and accordingly slower with more modest graphics cards.

Great suggestions for doing it manually! This is the best for the ultimate individual look, but beyond the skills of many editors for some of the more unusual styles.

Mike,
I tried your suggestion on a scene that I filmed in a dark stairwell with the only light source high and to the right. What a difference this has made with me playing around for just a few minutes. I had tried several things but what I had was a harsh blotchy scene. It will probably take me a few days to nail down the look but at least it is taking on an appearance that won't embarrass me when people see it. Thanks,
Harold

I use this method. And it really paid off on a project I did for the VASST contest earlier this year.
There are specific settings and before/after examples on a tutorial I did. If your curious about this technique and want to see what another user did with it (and have a bit of extra time on your hands), check out:
http://www.matthewroddy.com/cathy-tutorial/