Color Finale update is out!

I'm a daily spectator but thought I'd join the clan with some great news about FCPX. Just received my link to download the update to Color Finale. Works wonderfully now that we can now see LUTs in a gallery. Happy grading everyone!

Sugarhill wrote: .. now that we can now see LUTs in a gallery. …

<cough> does do coremelts LUTx from version 1.0, incl. a splitted before/after

And read about a new 'tracking' feature in CF?
<cough> coremelt again, SliceX anyone ... ?


But good news for Finalists anyhow!


And Welcome, Sedley, to fcp.co

...

Have downloaded and installed, but haven't tried yet. Watched the demo video though and to me it looks like LUTx and the free mLUT have sleeker preview systems already. But still a great improvement!

EDIT: So now I have tried it out a bit... The Color Finale LUT gallery is so primitive feeling compared to both LUTx and mLUT. Can't see myself using Color Finale for applying LUTs, that duty will be done by LUTx and/or mLUT.
I actually prefer mLUT of the three, even though you can't see a preview with your footage. If they'd fix that it would be my clear favourite.

Hey Sedley, welcome to the public side of the forums and thank you for posting this information. Color Final is an excellent grading tool and it's good to see them further develop the application.

- Ronny

Upgrade FAQ emailed to Color Finale users:

F.A.Q.

Q. Ran update where is the 'Open' button when
I click triangle dropdown?

A. Close FCP X. Then be sure to double click
to run Color Finale from the main /Applications
folder. Reopen FCP X.

# # #

Q. Where is the X-Rite ColorChecker???

A. X-Rite color checker is now in the CMS (color
management system) section. This is the gear
icon in the Color Finale window.

# # #

Q. Why are the 'Use CMS' options 'greyed' out?

A. This feature will be enabled when you upgrade to
the Pro version which we're looking at an August
release.

# # #

Q. Why won't LUT Gallery work when I click the
'LUT Gallery' checkbox in LUT Utility?

A. You have to have Color Finale effect highlighted/
selected over in the inspector under the "Effects"
section.

# # #

Q. Is this a phishing/spam email with the subject line
"NEW Color Finale activation code"; in the from field
"Gradng" of Grading is misspelled?

A. No it is a legitimate email from us, just a typo. But
it is important because it contains your new activation
code.

# # #

Q. In that same email with my NEW activation code
where the new code should be I'm getting:

<h1>Internal Server Error</h1>

How do I get my license?

A. If you're getting this just please bear with us
and we'll send out a followup email with your
activation code. We have a list of those that got
this error message. (Please give us 24 hours).

This shouldn't stop you from being able to run the
new Color Finale 1.5 because you should have been
migrated automatically. The automated email is just
for your records.

The LUT Gallery function is only a minor portion of what Color Finale offers.

I can live with a 'primitive' preview of a potential LUT choice, as long as CF offers an extremely robust set of color grading tools that eliminates the need to either apply multiple plugins or round trip to other options in order to achieve the final result.

Color Finale has been a tremendous boon for me when it comes to streamlining my FCP X workflow.

I really appreciate the update to utilize +z to Undo adjustments.

It's a pretty useful update, overall.

Its a great tool. However I ended up with Colourist 3, which is more expensive, but does offer a few strengths of its own.

Who knows, with the inclusion of Color Finale to the short list of color tools for FCPX it could help drive the competition and get the others to offer competitive features as well.

It certainly seems to happen with NLEs.

Color Finale is a big help to me in grading in FCPX. Really like the new LUT gallery - and the X-Rite colorchecker. What would be handy is if there was a way for rough grades done in FCPX with ColorFInale to be exportable to Resolve for finessing. I know I'm dreaming, though...



One thing I think is happening with it which isn't good is when grading footage from my Ursa the highlights get clipped when using color wheels and/or levels. Not at my workstation today to check that but I'm sure it's happening. Anyone else noticed anything similar?

I'll confirm that behaviour, however, I only get Clipping/clamping with Levels, not wheels. I'm using c300 footage, but it happens with everything I use. The moment you start using levels, it will prevent you from going above 100 ire and below 0 ire. Generally I'll use either the wheels or FCPX colour effect before I start using levels for that reason. Denver mentioned that once in a video, I believe it is something that they wanted in the program, I don't quite remember the reason they gave though.

Aah. Glad someone else has noticed it. Maybe it was just levels. I'll make adjustments first in the wheels before using levels then. Thanks

FernKraft wrote: Denver mentioned that once in a video, I believe it is something that they wanted in the program, I don't quite remember the reason they gave though.

I can't be sure, but it sounds like they wanted to leave the option there so people could opt to blow out their whites if they thought it brought something creative to their grade.

Maybe but the issue is that using the levels feature chops off the details that are captured in the whites above the legal levels automatically so you don't have the ability to pull them down to where you want them - causing areas to be blown out unnecessarily. Some cameras, such as the Ursa, work best exposing to the right (i.e. into the whites) and hold a lot of detail there. I'll have a look and see if there's some kind of checkbox I'm missing as it would be handy to be able to use the levels feature with my main camera

You are able to retain highlights, you would just have to pull them down to "safe levels' before you start tinkering with curves. so if you did expose to the right, just pull it down before you start using the levels. It is all about what order you layer your grade.

You can think of the levels as having a built in broadcast safe filter. So long as you make it safe before you apply levels, or an actual broadcast safe filter, you will not clip or clamp your image, and retain all the nuance of your image.

Which Ursa you do you have Robertdee? I'm curious to know your thoughts.

I found the video about the levels and the clipping. they mention it at 15:50.