I really like Apple’s Ultimate Minimize Professional for enhancing—actually I wrote a chunk on how to edit faster in FCP some time again—however I’ve all the time despatched my edits over to DaVinci Resolve for coloration grading. The monitoring, masking, and coloration choice instruments in Resolve have all the time impressed me.
However Ultimate Minimize Professional lately launched some superior monitoring, masking, and coloration grading instruments, so I needed to see how properly they labored when mixed with a tough coloration adjustment. And I had simply the factor.
Just lately, I went on an offroading journey with some buddies and a fellow post-production professional introduced alongside his Jeep. So, after all, I shot some video of him zooming round a nook with my iPhone 14 Professional Max. Handheld.
It’s no Ford Bronco commercial, however it’ll function a fairly good “torture take a look at” of FCP’s color grading tools. Compressed iPhone footage, high-motion, and with objects passing in entrance of the topic. (Hopefully, most of your photographs might be a bit extra forgiving.) However after a few makes an attempt, I felt like I’d received the dangle of the brand new options in FCP and I used to be pleasantly stunned by the outcomes. Observe alongside and see what you assume.
Discover a body to start your monitoring
Our goal for this problem is to vary the colour of this Jeep from purple to inexperienced. A fast skim of the footage reveals that almost all of that is obscured and even completely outdoors of the body. So I’ve recognized a body the place it’s clearly in view and unobstructed.
Moreover, there isn’t a lot movement blur on this explicit body, so it’ll make a great place to begin. I put a marker on it (M is the shortcut) in order that I’ll know the place to seek out this reference body later.
Connect the tracker
With the clip chosen, we will head right down to the final part within the Inspector the place you’ll discover “Object Monitor”. Clicking on the icon provides a monitoring grid to the viewer, which we will then drag over the article we need to observe (the Jeep), resizing it with the handles.
You’ll see an Evaluation Methodology drop down menu with the choices Computerized, Mixed, Machine Studying and Level Cloud. On this occasion, I selected Machine Studying earlier than clicking on Analyze (within the prime left of the viewer). There are buttons to investigate simply going ahead or backward, however the default is each.
Level Cloud works properly if the article doesn’t get obscured, however on this case it does. I attempted each the Mixed and Computerized choices, too, however the grid received confused. Machine Studying, nevertheless, was surprisingly correct. So I’d advocate making an attempt every choice and seeing what works greatest for you.
Setting keyframes
Early on this clip there are a pair cases the place the Jeep is partially or totally offscreen, so I marked these frames and added a keyframe for the place of the tracker. To do that, you simply click on the keyframe button (proven in yellow) and transfer the tracker within the viewer to the appropriate spot. In case you have ever used Apple Movement, this can all really feel very acquainted.
Caption: Selecting the Machine Studying choice within the Object Monitor panel.
When the Jeep was off-screen I simply dragged the monitoring grid off-screen as properly (see under). The 2 icons to the left of the keyframe icon help you shortly navigate to subsequent/earlier keyframes. That is useful as a sanity test in case you’re seeing odd habits along with your monitoring.
Modify the Shade with a Masks
Now that we’ve got a great tracker, we have to establish the portion of the car that we wish affected by our coloration therapy. We’ll use the colour curves to perform this.
Within the impact panel choose the Shade part and scroll down till you discover the Hue/Saturation Curves choice. Double-clicking this can apply it to the presently chosen clip, and you may click on the colour spectrum icon (proven within the picture under) to see the curves. In the identical picture, you’ll additionally observe that I’ve beforehand utilized the HDR Instruments impact and set the Mode to “HLG to Rec. 709 SDR.” This maps the HDR iPhone footage over to a “regular” working coloration area.
Within the prime line of the Hue/Saturation Curves Inspector you’ll see an icon for a masks (proven under). Once you click on on this , it reveals choices for form and coloration masks. For this instance, we need to restrict the colour correction to the Jeep we’re monitoring, so I’ve chosen Add Form Masks to vary the form of the tracker to a circle.
You’ll be able to alter the form of the masks within the viewer and that may restrict the world of the colour correction. However we have to hyperlink the masks we created to the tracker, or it gained’t transfer with it.
On this shot I’ve zoomed in and adjusted the form of the form masks. The following step is to pick Tracker from the highest of the viewer. This lets you connect the masks to your tracker—ours is labeled with the default identify “Object Monitor.” Now our masks will observe the Jeep, which is mirrored within the default choice Pin to Tracker. You may as well play with the form and softness of the masks within the viewer in the event you really feel it wants refining.
Choosing the colours
Our subsequent step is to outline the colour(s) that we need to change inside the masks. We need to shift the purple to inexperienced, however there’s a variety of purple tones on the Jeep, which makes issues more difficult. Utilizing the eyedropper instrument on the topic will let you choose your place to begin. Then you possibly can drag the instrument to disclose a circle that permits you to develop the tonal vary to be adjusted.
Once you click on on a coloration, a dot seems within the Hue vs Hue curve. You’ll be able to see that dot in purple, within the purple part of the colour curve—which is definitely a straight line for the time being, as you possibly can see within the picture under. Hue vs Hue signifies that we’ll be choosing a selected hue (coloration), after which adjusting it by including to or eradicating from that hue.
Since we need to make our purple Jeep inexperienced, I’ll be eradicating the purple by dragging the purple dot downward.
Nice! Now we’ve got a inexperienced Jeep, however the leaves have change into far too vibrant. It’s okay, although. So let’s slender our coloration choice and cut back the impact our coloration alternation can have on the encompassing foliage.
By refining the portion of the Hue vs Hue coloration vary, we’ve diminished the impact on the encompassing areas. However we’re nonetheless seeing bizarre blue within the foliage (picture under). Time to refine our choice even additional.
On the prime of the Inspector, we will choose the Masks icon after which Add Shade Masks.
This provides a brand new masks within the Masks part of the Inspector. This may be mixed with our Form Masks to create a variety that tracks with the Jeep (Object Tracker), limits the portion of the display screen affected (Form Masks), after which additional limits the correction to a particular vary of Hue, Saturation and Lightness (the HSL test bins).
Mainly it’s a systematic strategy to narrowing the portion of the shot affected by our coloration grade.
Once you use the Shade Masks’s eye dropper, Ultimate Minimize will mechanically change the view to point out you precisely what’s being chosen. Drag the eyedropper to develop or slender your vary of choice. Moreover, you possibly can drag the marker triangles within the Inspector to regulate the vary of hue, saturation or lightness, and the softness of every.
With some superb tuning, we’ve received ourselves an honest key. The Jeep seems good, and the foliage isn’t being affected. Now the fact is that you could superb tune this grade till the cows come house. However I feel this represents super progress on the monitoring/masking/grading entrance for FCP.
Tell us within the feedback in the event you’ve had good/unhealthy experiences with this function, or if there are different Ultimate Minimize Professional instruments you’d like us to take a more in-depth have a look at. And in the event you’re nonetheless eager to study extra, take a look at this text on FCP’s audio tools, or possibly my submit on speeding up your work with Final Cut Pro metadata. It’s extra fascinating than it sounds!
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