Colour Correction: FCP 10.1.3 or DaVinci 11 Lite

Hi,

I'm learning Final Cut Pro X 10.1.3 and I need to decide whether to learn to colour correct/grade in Final Cut or in DaVinci Resolve 11 Lite.

This is for videos that will be posted to Vimeo and perhaps YouTube.

I'm open to both programmes (and have a good background in black and white film, Lightroom and Photoshop processing), but for learning curve reasons I want to commit to one or the other.

Advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks and cheers.

If this is for internet media: FCP X without any doubt. Resolve is overkill for your workflow and it has a much steeper learning curve.

One of the best places to start learning color correction in FCP X is by watching this series of free tutorials made by Denver Riddle of Color Grading Central:

www.colorgradingcentral.com/final-cut-pr...ng-table-of-contents

Denver is a professional colorist who knows what he's talking about. He uses Resolve and FCP X. Follow the tutorials in the correct order. The first ones explain the basics of color correction, using scopes etc..., the following ones go deeper and deeper into the color correction process in FCP X.

- Ronny

Totally agree with Ronny. I have bothered to get to about the intermediate stage with Resolve but to be honest, almost all I need to do is done as well, and quicker in FCPX. Even though roundtripping between the two is miles better, it's still not perfect.
A concrete example of when I assumed resolve would be better: last week I wanted an oval mask to darken some edges. Without thinking I sent an xml to resolve, did the work, sent it back. And then, just out of interest, dropped the same clip on the timeline, repeated the work in FCPX and compared the two. Amazingly, I liked the FCPX result better. I'm not stupid enough to say the FCPX colour board is better than resolve, but I am saying that since I've compared a few other grades, I personally (means this might only apply to me) get equal or better results from FCPX.

If you take the trouble to master the colour board you'll find it really useful. Of course, Resolve is a great grading app, especially considering the price of Lite! But for most jobs, it's probably overkill. IMHO.

I agree on X also.

You can go very subtle in your corrections if you use the keyboard to move the pucks with the arrow-keys, in combination with the built-in shape and colour masks you can make, it should be enough for most grading work. The quality of the output is high, and it renders very fast, especially when you work on Prores Media.

And if you need to track something, you can always use Slice X with Mocha tracking, if you have that.
Would be great if Apple added some extra features from Color (including the tracker, and a denoiser) in X.
And letting you name the corrections. But I'm getting off-topic.

The built-in tools as for now are very good actually, and should serve you well once you learn to use them.

Final Cut it is.

One more decision out of the way.

Thanks all.