Secondary Color Correction in After Effects

Andrew Devis

©2010 CreativeCOW.net. All rights reserved.

Saving the Shot! In this second color correction tutorial Andrew Devis will show you how to apply the very powerful tool of secondary color correction using the free Synthetic Aperture plug-in 'Color Finesse' that ships with Adobe After Effects CS3, CS4 and CS5. Once applied Andrew will show you how to use layers within After Effects to ensure that the correction only happens in the area of main concern so that other areas with a similar color can be left untouched.

This tutorial is also available as a podcast.

Comments

•

Re: Secondary Color Correction in After Effects
by Andrew Devis

Hi Anton

It sounds like you need to use the three way colour corrector in Color Finesse where you colour correct the shaddows only.

Have a look at the luma range and see what is actually shaddow in your footage, and if it is mainly the shaddows you want to correct then you will find that this works very well. Otherwise, you will need to do some customisation of the range you want to affect.

Hope this helps
Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

•

Re: Secondary Color Correction in After Effects
by Anton Leis

Hello Andrew,
how can i achieve the real "film look", i mean the bluish shadows like in hollywood productions and blockbuster movies. when i try to color grade my shadows, the whole picture becomes bluish, but not the shadows themselves. hope you can help me, Andrew.

b.r.
Anton

•

@Secondary Color Correction in After Effects
by tim vanbrackle

both tutorials excellent. Thanks for the info!

•

@tim vanbrackle
by Andrew Devis

Hi Tim

Really pleased you've found them helpful - thanks for the comment :o)

Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

•

Re: Secondary Color Correction in After Effects
by Rob Fiedler

Thanks Andrew. Very helpful. I really appreciate the tips.

Rob

Rob

•

Re: Tutorial: Secondary Color Correction in After Effects
by Vibeke Eggesboe

I have been using Color Finesse a lot, and I think it´s a very handy tool in my everyday colorcorrection-needs. However, I´ve had a problem using the secondary color picker lately. (CF 3) It picks colors alright, but its the wrong colors. It is picking colors that I cant even find in the footage!
Has anyone else encountered this problem?

•

@Vibeke Eggesboe
by Andrew Devis

Hi Vibeke

I think you should probably be asking this question on this forum http://forums.creativecow.net/syntheticaperture as you will get the right people looking at the problem for you.

Hope this helps
Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

•

Re: Secondary Color Correction in After Effects
by Lj Simpson

Both tutorials were great starting points and just what I was looking for. Very clear, concise, and informative. On future tutorials, it might be nice to have the file available to work along with the tutorial. Thank you Andrew!

•

Re: Secondary Color Correction in After Effects
by David Schmidt

Thanks for this great Tutorial!

•

Re: Tutorial: Secondary Color Correction in After Effects
by Bob Currier

Nice work on both the Primary and Secondary correction tutorials.

Thanks!

Bob Currier
Synthetic Aperture

•

Re: Tutorial: Secondary Color Correction in After Effects
by Andrew Devis

Thanks Bob :o)

I love Color Finesse but from my own training I find that people don't tend to know about it or use it as much as they should - that's why the tutorials. I am looking at maybe doing some more tutorials explaining some more color corrections features that are under-used with Color Finesse - any suggestions or guidence would be warmly welcomed!

Thanks again
Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

Related Articles / Tutorials:

Adobe After Effects

Primary Color Correction in After Effects
Play Video
Saving the Shot! In the first part of this video tutorial series, Andrew Devis will show you how to access and use top quality color correction tools within Adobe After Effects by using the free Synthetic Aperture plug-in 'Color Finesse' which ships with After Effects CS3, CS4 and CS5. Andrew will start by dealing with a color cast problem with the hue offset wheels and then move on to use some automated tools to achieve an even better result. Once we have corrected the shot, we will then add a vignette to concentrate the viewers attention on the action and not on the background! The follow-on tutorial will look at the important tool of secondary color correction.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial

Adobe After Effects

Creative Fireworks in Adobe After Effects
Play Video
Rob Mize shares his techniques for using After Effects to create a variety of fireworks displays. All you need is CC Particle World, a few expressions and a reason to celebrate and you can light up your world with dazzling pyrotechnic effects.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial

Adobe After Effects

GenArts Sapphire 7: Must-Have VFX Plug-ins for AE & Avid

Frequent COW Contributing Editor Kevin P. McAuliffe reviews the latest version of GenArts Sapphire plug-in effects filters for both Adobe After Effects and Avid AVX versions, with ratings for current and new Sapphire users. Kevin also observes Sapphire's ability to plug into other NLEs and finishing systems, and takes a closer look at its licensing options, including purchasing, monthly rental and site licenses. You'll definitely want to see the latest and greatest of what this must-have software package has to offer.

Review, Feature

Adobe After Effects

AE - RE:MATCH Non-matching Cameras in After Effects
Play Video
In this tutorial, Andrew Devis demonstrates a relatively new plug-in by RE:Vision Effects called RE:Match and how it can very quickly and accurately deal with the very common problem of non-matching cameras in After Effects. A typical approach to dealing with say a white balance issue would be to apply Color Finesse 3 and work with that which can be a slightly convoluted process, while RE:Match deals with the whole thing in a couple of clicks! This very powerful effect can save a great deal of time for an everyday problem and so earn its cost back very quickly as well as giving excellent and fast results. There is another tutorial showing how this effect works in Premiere Pro as there is a slightly different way the two applications deal with reference images.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial

Adobe After Effects

IK Character Animation: Walk to the Beat 1: Finding the Beat
Play Video
This tutorial is both a follow-on tutorial to Andrew's previous tutorials on IK controllers in After Effects and a helpful stand-alone tutorial showing how to define a beat range to use as a guide to animation in After Effects. To start with Andrew shows how to use a simple expression to deal with a potential problem of controllers scaling your objects. Then Andrew shows how to find and download sample music which can be used to base your animation on. He goes on to discuss the difficulty of matching frame rates with audio sample rate and then shows how to get a reasonably close 'loop' in both After Effects and especially in Audition.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial

Adobe After Effects

Pushing AE - And Myself

Bill O'Neil helps celebrate 20 years of Adobe After Effects with his story. Bill reveals his secret, "I learned how to use AE by making promises to my clients I didn't know I could keep."

Editorial, Feature

Adobe After Effects

AE: Inverse Kinematic Character Animation
Play Video
Standard character animation in After Effects uses a process called 'Forward Kinematics' in that we animate down a linked chain - for example, upper arm linked to forearm linked to hand. To get animation we need to move the items down the chain one at a time. Inverse Kinematics creates a link back up the chain such that moving the hand would also move the forearm and the upper arm without breaking that link. This is a simpler and easier to control form of animation often used in 3D programs such as C4D and 3ds max etc. and allows us to control the animation for the complete chain through a single controller.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial

Adobe After Effects

AE: Inverse Kinematic Character Animation PT 2
Play Video
Standard character animation in After Effects uses a process called 'Forward Kinematics' in that we animate down a linked chain - for example, upper arm linked to forearm linked to hand. To get animation we need to move the items down the chain one at a time. Inverse Kinematics creates a link back up the chain such that moving the hand would also move the forearm and the upper arm without breaking that link. This is a simpler and easier way to control animation and is often used in 3D programs such as C4D and 3ds max etc. and allows us to control the animation for the complete chain through a single controller.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial

Adobe After Effects

Creating Reflections in After Effects WITHOUT Plug-ins!
Play Video
In this tutorial, Steve will show you how to give your text or logos the appearance of having reflections that interact movement! And you can do all of this in After Effects without using any plug-ins!

Tutorial, Video Tutorial

Adobe After Effects

Advice To Editors: LEARN AE!

Kevin McAuliffe's experience has been that all editors need to know Adobe After Effects at least as well as their NLE. His own experience has been that anything less than intermediate to advanced knowledge makes it impossible to actually get anything done. Even working with the compositing power of Avid Symphony, Kevin is in AE all day, every day. Here's the story of how he got there.

Editorial, Feature

MORE