FilmConvert

With the proliferation of digital video cameras, everyone has been trying to make them look more like film. Assuming that your camera shoots at the right frame rate and offers film-like motion blur and highlight handling, the rest gets down to grain and colorimetry. That’s where various software tools and filters come in. A new film stock emulation application is FilmConvert, from New Zealand-based developer, Rubber Monkey Software. They are best known as one of the early developers of processing and rendering software for the RED One camera, but have now expanded that expertise into tools designed for a wider appeal.

FilmConvert is available as a standalone application and as plug-ins for Adobe After Effects/Premiere Pro (Windows or Mac), Photoshop and Apple Final Cut Pro X/Final Cut Pro 7/Motion. The standalone FilmConvert Pro goes beyond just film emulation to include a powerful three-way color corrector and render management. The software works with QuickTime files and native RED .r3d files from a RED One or EPIC. It also supports roundtrips between FilmConvert and your NLE using XML and EDL files.

(Click any of these images for expanded views.)

Film stock emulation

At the time of this writing, only the film emulation module is available in the plug-in versions. (Rubber Monkey plans to add color correction to the filters in the near future.) To create the film stock emulations, the developers analyzed scans from a variety of color and black-and-white motion and still photo stocks made by Kodak, Fuji, Ilford and Polaroid. By shooting color charts with these various stocks, they were able to engineer custom color curves that enabled them to produce digital camera images, which closely resemble the same appearance as these scans. That color science forms the basis of each film stock preset.

FilmConvert Pro and the FilmConvert filters work slightly differently from each other. The standalone version allows you to set the initial color profile of the image as either a default sRGB or as StatusM Log – a flat setting similar to ARRI Log-C, BMD Film or RedLogFilm. If your camera file was already encoded with a flat gamma profile, then leave the viewer set to sRGB, so you don’t apply a log curve twice. Thanks to their work with the RED cameras, native .r3d files can be imported and are automatically detected, so that the “as shot” metadata may be applied. Native Canon and other specific digital cameras (GH2, Alexa, C300 and the Blackmagic Cinema Camera) are currently being profiled by Rubber Monkey engineers. The After Effects plug-in includes a pulldown menu to select the camera profile as a starting point for any adjustments, but log-to-video conversion must be done with other filters. There are no camera profiles in the FCP X version of the filter, yet.

The film emulation module itself includes the same controls for all versions. These break down to exposure and color temperature sliders, the film stock selector and a percentage slider for how much of the emulation colorimetry to apply. Grain is added by adjusting a percentage slider for the amount of grain and selecting the film type that determines grain size. 35mm Full Frame would be the finest level of grain, while 8mm would be the coarsest. You can zoom the viewer for a 1:1 pixel view, which will give you a better sense of how the grain will actually look on your image.

Color correction tools and RED in FilmConvert Pro

FilmConvert Pro includes a color correction toolset as part of the standalone application. The color correction module includes color balance wheels and luma sliders for shadows, midtones and highlights. There’s a saturation slider and a levels pane for black, mid and white points. Between the color corrector and levels, you get much of the same horsepower as the primary grade settings available in any high-end color corrector. FilmConvert comes with a series of presets, like “70s Home Movies” or “Matrix”, but you can also create and save your own. Any of these may be applied to clips on your timeline.

You won’t find the typical RED color science and debayer settings seen in Redcine-X Pro or some of the RED SDK importers. Rubber Monkey explains their approach this way, “For extract settings with .r3d, we choose the best extract settings for our emulation. If the user changes the extract settings then the starting point will be different and it will throw out the film emulation. If our film emulation is applied at 100% you get an sRGB film emulation, not a variation of a RED colorspace – so the actual input color space is not quite significant in this case. The .r3d debayer always uses the size that is greater than (or equal to) the size being rendered. So if you are rendering to 1080p, then we will render at 1/2 debayer. Basically we made it so that we are always scaling down, never up, but also going with the fastest debayer that would not sacrifice quality.” FilmConvert Pro also supports the RED Rocket card for hardware-accelerated rendering of .r3d files.

Render management

The FilmConvert filters work like any other plug-in, where the host application controls how the media is sent to the plug-in and then the subsequent renders. The standalone version includes its own render management tools. Render options include QuickTime (H.264, MPEG-4, ProRes or uncompressed) and image sequences (DPX or TIFF). The default export sizes can be up to 2048×1152 (or larger custom sizes) with fit width/fit height/stretch controls. This is great for RED projects that are rendered into HD or 2K formats.

There are two workflows to handle renders. The first is to simply import one or more clips into FilmConvert Pro, apply the look you want for each clip and set these up to render as complete, individual clips. The other option is to edit the footage first without effects in an edit system and then export an XML or EDL file for the completed sequence. FilmConvert Pro will import the file and locate the clips. In the case of RED camera files, you can choose to link to .r3d files instead of QuickTime .mov files that may have been used for edit proxies. Each clip is loaded onto FilmConvert’s timeline with markers for each section of a clip that was used in the edited sequence. Unfortunately, you can only apply one setting to the full clip. If it was an outdoor shot and you used a portion that was overcast and then a later section of the same clip where the sun came out, there is no way to split the clip in order to have two different adjustments.

When you render these clips as QuickTime movie files, the complete duration of the file is rendered, but images are only rendered for the sections that show up in the EDL or XML file. The rest of the file appears with a placeholder graphic. Rubber Monkey took this approach to maintain one media file when multiple portions are used in the edit – rather than to render separate, shorter clips for each portion. A single media file keeps the same file name and is easier for applications to relink. New, multiple media files require an additional naming convention – such as appending a numeric suffix to the file name, like .001, .002, .003, etc. – in order to preserve unique file names. The latter method is how Resolve, SpeedGrade and Baselight handle such renders. This requires the generation of new EDL, AAF or XML files so that the media can be correctly relinked in the roundrip back to the NLE.

Rubber Monkey promotes its render prowess and speeds were good on my 8-core 2.26 GHz Mac Pro. I don’t have a RED Rocket installed, so a 4K 16:9 RED file (exported as a 1920×1080 ProRes file) took about 20 minutes for a clip of 4933 frames (about 3.5 minutes of footage). By comparison, 1080p QuickTime files rendered at near-real-time speeds – some faster, some slower. In most color correction applications, you can specify the length of render “handles”, where the clip gets with an additional second or two of media at the head and tail of the exported clip. It appears that FilmConvert adds five frames to the head and six at the tail (24fps clips), but there’s no place to increase that or to set a custom length.

FilmConvert Pro doesn’t support i/o hardware like AJA or Blackmagic cards, so you are making color correction judgments by viewing the interface on your computer screen. By eye, I would say that the display within the FilmConvert interface looked a bit “warmer” and more saturated than an exported file viewed in QuickTime Player X (not surprising), but also as compared with FCP X. It tended to look closest between FilmConvert and FCP 7. If issues such as SDI monitoring and clip control are critical for your workflow, then one of the NLE plug-ins might be a better option than the standalone application, especially once this plug-in gains color correction controls.

I’m sure as the application matures, some of these missing features will be addressed – along with better documentation. Rubber Monkey is also working on an OFX plug-in to cover Vegas, Scratch and Nuke users. Whether a plug-in or the standalone version is right for you depends on your need. Do you just want to augment a few shots or build a pipeline around this look? The film stock looks are spot-on and if you want something vintage, then the Polaroid emulation is really nice. If you want your digital media to come closer to the look of film, FilmConvert is definitely worth the investment.

Originally written for Digital Video magazine.

© 2012 Oliver Peters

CalibratedQ AVC Intra Encode

Thanks to Apple’s product development directions, the current status of all things related to the Final Cut ecosystem has professional editors a bit rattled. One by-product of this is concern over whether it is wise to master final files in one of the ProRes codecs. This concern leaves the door open to other codec options, like Sony XDCAM or Avid DNxHD. One powerful solution is Panasonic’s AVC-Intra codec, a 10-bit, 4:2:2, I-Frame compression scheme based on the H.264/AVC family.

Calibrated Software is known for its range of products, such as MXF Import, which lets Final Cut Pro “legacy” users work with native MXF media by generating reference .MOV files. Many editing applications can natively read AVC-Intra files recorded by the wide range of Panasonic P2 products; but, up until now, you couldn’t easily encode AVC-Intra masters for archiving and portability. That’s changed with the introduction of Calibrated{Q} AVC-Intra Encode.

AVC-Intra Encode is a QuickTime component that enables any QuickTime-compatible application to encode (or export) .MOV files with one of the 50Mbps or 100Mbps AVC-Intra codecs. This includes encoding applications like Adobe Media Encoder, Apple Compressor and QuickTime Player Pro, as well as NLEs, including Avid Media Composer and Apple Final Cut Pro. Simply install AVC-Intra Encode to add the AVC-Intra codec options to each application’s output choices. AVC-Intra is a cross-platform codec and both Mac OS X and Windows versions of the Calibrated{Q} encoder are available. Since this is only any encoder, you’ll need other software to play the new .MOV files. Normally this capability would be installed as part of FCP 7, FCP X or Media Composer (5.5.1 or higher); but, Calibrated software also makes an AVC-Intra Decode solution for purchase, if none of these other applications have been installed.

One unique feature is the separate Calibrated{Q} AVC-Intra Encode Options application. This is both a license manager and a tool to embed metadata into the .MOV file. MXF formats, like P2, include camera-generated metadata (clip name, reel ID, etc.), which is contained in a sidecar .XML file. Calibrated Software has included a dummy .XML file, which can be opened and modified in any text editor. Using AVC-Intra Encode Option, you can merge the customized .XML file and the .MOV file to embed that data into the .MOV file. This is compliant with Final Cut Pro X, so that when this file is imported into FCP X, any data you’ve entered, like a scene number, is displayed in the inspector window as part of the clip’s settings. Unfortunately there is no way to batch multiple .MOV and .XML files for an automated process.

Originally written for Digital Video magazine (NewBay Media, LLC).

©2012 Oliver Peters

Magic Bullet PhotoLooks 2

Red Giant Software launched the preset-based “looks” market, when it originally released the browser version of Magic Bullet Looks. Visual effects director and software designer Stu Maschwitz overhauled the original product to create a self-contained color correction and “looks creation” interface, where tools were grouped according to how they fit into the flow from in-front of the camera to post. Magic Bullet Looks ships with tools and a number of presets, which can quickly be previewed on an image. The software is built as a separate application that is linked into most standard NLEs and compositors as a plug-in. This design spawned a still photography version, called PhotoLooks, which uses the same basic engine. For still photography, PhotoLooks installs as a plug-in to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom and Apple Aperture.

Last year Red Giant Software brought out Magic Bullet Looks 2.0, which is also sold as part of the Magic Bullet Looks Suite 11. This featured a more streamlined Looks interface and additional tools, like Cosmo (a skin smoothing tool), but the PhotoLooks version was stuck with the old skin. Now the two have parity, with the recent update of the suite and PhotoLooks 2.0. Purchase PhotoLooks separately or get it included with the suite. Once again, both Magic Bullet Looks (for video) and PhotoLooks (for stills) feature a consistent appearance and a common set of tools and presets.

Magic Bullet PhotoLooks 2.0 is available as a plug-in to Photoshop, Aperture or Lightroom, but may also be accessed by launching the PhotoLooks application. When you use it as a plug-in, you gain the benefits of round-tripping between the applications. In Aperture and Lightroom, both before and after version are saved, to guarantee that the process is non-destructive. If you open PhotoLooks separately, you can import JPEGs, PNGs and TIFFs, but the adjusted image can only be saved as a JPEG. Custom looks can also be exported for use elsewhere.

Along with the new interface and Cosmo, other new features include four new scopes, faster GPU-enabled processing and 3-way color correction tools based on Magic Bullet’s popular Colorista filter. Creating an original look is as simple as dragging a tool into one of the categories (subject, matte, lens, camera, post) and then tweaking the setting to your liking. A tool isn’t limited to a specific category, so “post” tools can be applied in the “subject” position, as well as the other way around. You are simply creating a chain of filter effects, much like audio engineers do with audio filters. Once you get the desired result either save that as a new preset or exit back to the host program, where the image will appear with that look applied to it.

Originally written for Digital Video magazine (NewBay Media, LLC).

©2012 Oliver Peters

New Plug-ins for 2012

Plug-in developers have had their hands full. Not only are they rolling out refreshed versions of their products, but they are having to adapt to a range of new hosts, including Apple Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5 and updates of Avid Media Composer and the Adobe Creative Suite applications. Here’s a look at some of the newest options.

Boris FX – Boris Continuum Complete 8

Boris Continuum Complete is truly the Swiss Army Knife of filter packages. At NAB, Boris Yamnitsky (president of Boris FX) pointed out that the focus of the BCC8 upgrade was not simply to add more filters, but to improve the quality of all the filters, such as adding 3D depth to effects like lens flares. Filter categories have also been slightly regrouped into more logical combinations. The Boris Continuum Complete package includes categories that cover a wide variety totaling over 200 filters.

New features include improvements in the particle effects, lens flares, glows, lights and image restoration tools. There’s better integration with After Effects and support for 32-bit floating calculations. Best of all, BCC8 adds eight new filters including videoscopes, film glow, a 3D particle emitter, 3D lens flares, wild cards, organic strands, stage lights and flicker fixer.

Boris FX was one of the first companies to include particle effects inside an NLE and the performance and responsiveness of all of these filters have been greatly improved. Running BCC8 in After Effects on my Mac Pro with an ATI 5870 graphics card is a joy. The effects are easy to manipulate, particularly those that are more taxing, like distortions, particles, strands, extruded 3D text and glows. The Continuum filters use a set of custom on-screen controls that make it easy to tweak parameters either in the filter control panel or using the widget overlays.

The engineers have put effort into improving such basic effects as film glows and the 3D lens flares, giving these a very organic look and maximizing the level of control. Even though there are a lot of sliders to play with, each effect comes with a set of presets to quickly test out the looks – simply step through the presets from a pulldown menu. If you can only afford to purchase one set of third-party filters, then BCC is a great choice, because it’s so versatile.

RE:Vision Effects – Twixtor

Mention time-ramping effects, a la the movie 300, and RE:Vision Effects’ Twixtor immediately comes to mind. The most sophisticated version, Twixtor Pro, is available for Adobe After Effects, but for more casual users, RE:Vision released the standard Twixtor plug-in for Avid Media Composer and Apple Final Cut Pro X.

Twixtor technology is particularly effective to slow a clip down, because it interpolates new frames in-between existing frames to eliminate visible stepping in the motion. It calculates the direction of motion within a clip and predicts where pixels should be. This data is used to create new frame information for the in-between frames. Naturally, these calculations aren’t always perfect, so the plug-in provides controls to fine-tune the parameters. Twixtor Pro (available in After Effects) gives you the ability to separate objects into layers to improve the accuracy of motion tracking.

Edge detection is a key part of how Twixtor does its magic. This means chroma and contrast play a role. If you try to apply Twixtor on a “log space” flat clip from an Alexa (Log-C), RED One (RedLogFilm) or Sony F3 (S-Log), you’ll often have some image artifacts, such as smearing or unnecessary blending. Instead, first bake in a LUT to color-corrected the clip and then apply Twixtor for significantly better results.

Twixtor tends to work best on clips when the object of your attention is reasonably isolated from the background. A skateboarder doing a jump against a blue sky will yield better results than if that background is the more complex architecture of a building. In the second example, the interpolation will tend to include the structure of the objects that intersect the skateboarder, causing them to warp and morph as you advance frames. This is where Twixtor Pro in After Effects gives you more control, but nevertheless, by being selective and doing some of your own masking, you can minimize these issues when using Twixtor in FCP X or Media Composer.

Irudis – Tonalizer|VFX

Final Cut Pro X has encouraged new plug-in developers to enter the NLE effects market. One such company is Irudis with their Tonalizer|VFX color-correction filter. It’s a slider-based filter designed for the FCP X interface and comes in a PRO (paid) and LITE (free) version. It’s billed as using photographic-style color correction and, in fact, Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture users will feel right at home.

Tonalizer|VFX LITE provides a number of basic controls for contrast, brightness, chroma, etc. You need to bump up to Tonalizer|VFX PRO for the full level of control. Some of the key features are color correction based on warmth (color temp) and tint, highlight rescue, detail enhancement and noise reduction. Its strongest feature is the ability to dig out detail from seemingly overexposed skies and blocked up shadows. It also includes adaptations, which is a localized contrast control that will add more “punch” to an image. Best of all, I found it to be one of the least taxing color correction plug-ins available for X.

Noise Industries – FxFactory

Noise Industries is another company throwing full support behind FCP X. Not only are their existing FxFactory partner developers becoming X-compatible, but Noise Industries has busily been adding partners to the mix. Some, like Nattress and Sheffield Softworks, created popular FxScript filters built for the original FCP effects API. These have been newly re-written for FxPlug and are now offered as part of the FxFactory installation. In most cases, these filters are also available to all the other supported hosts, including After Effects – a first for Nattress and Sheffield.

These new additions add a number of color correction tools to the kit. For instance, Nattress curves and levels, Sheffield Softworks filters and Yanobox Moods fill a huge gap in X’s built-in color grading capabilities. You also get the same on-screen overlays in After Effects, such as Moods’ color wheels and Nattress’ curve schematics. So if you are running FCP X, Motion 5 and After Effects, a single installation of FxFactory will enable the filters for each application.

One of the newest FxFactory associations is with Ripple Training for a series of FCP X title effects branded as Callouts. These are useful templates that are a godsend for anyone doing instructional video of any type. It’s a series of animated arrows, lines, circles, thought and speech bubbles and more. As FCP X templates (based on Motion projects under the hood), these come with easy on-screen widgets for size/position adjustment, text entry and animation direction.

Another new member to the family is UK edit boutique Tokyo, who has been developing a number of FCP X-specific plug-ins, since its launch. Their first outing with FxFactory is the Tokyo Split Animator. This is a series of split-screen animation templates, which can be easily customized for interesting on-screen image collages. Design variations include shapes, sizes and angles. The user can make modifications of animation entry points, size and screen position, borders and shadows and more. The Tokyo Split Animator is a very cool way to add screen dynamism using a very simple concept.

DigiEffects – Damage and Delirium v2.5

DigiEffects has been going through a refresh of the Damage and Delirium filter sets, which I’ve tested in a few hosts, including Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects. I wasn’t thrilled with the performance in FCP X, but they are more in their element inside After Effects, which I still regard as the best effects architecture of any of the common desktop tools. Between these two packages, you get several dozen filters in a range of categories encompassing particle effects, film and TV damage and overexposure.

These filters can be used to distress images or to add particle-based effects, like fog, fireworks, electrical arcs and more. They still don’t seem to be as responsive as other filters are in After Effects – though the 32-bit effects respond better than the 16-bit effects – but they do add some unique looks to the toolkit. For example, their skew effect is quite different from other grunge, TV interference or analog glitch effects – complete with controls for ghosting, distortion, noise, glow and vertical hold.

Digital Film Tools – Film Stocks

Digital Film Tools has developed a number of stylized image products, including Photo Copy, Tiffen Dfx and their newest – Film Stocks. All of these have just gone through a round of updates to be compatible with Final Cut Pro X and the Creative Suite 6 applications. With Film Stocks, DFT has combined the various film stock emulation and film processing categories from the other packages into a single “film looks” filter application. Like the others, it’s available for a wide range of film/video and photographic hosts.

When you apply the Film Stocks filter to a clip on the timeline in a host like Avid Media Composer or Adobe After Effects, you can access numerous sliders for direct adjustment inside the usual effects control panel. Or click the button to launch the external Film Stocks application, which uses its own custom interface. This is consistent with the other DFT products, as well. (The exception is the FCP X implementation of Photo Copy. There, you have a series of presets available with adjustable slider controls, but no link to the standalone application. )

Once you’ve launched Film Stocks, simply choose the category, like motion picture films – browse the presets within the category, such as various Fuji or Eastman stock emulations – and tweak the settings to customize the look. The film/video plug-in works on a single layer. Some parameters, like film grain, will be animated, which affects rendering performance. For example, enabling grain with animation values will take longer to render than without grain.

In Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom or Apple Aperture, the plug-in sends you directly to the external application. You have the ability to create and blend layers into a composite, much as you would with Photoshop layers. This is an especially useful tool for digital photographers. Want that touch of Kodachrome 25? Simply bounce out to Film Stocks, apply the preset and you’re done. If you are looking for a convincing mimic of film, then without a doubt, Digital Film Tools’ Film Stocks is the best film emulation product on the market.

 GenArts – Sapphire Edge V2

Sapphire Edge is a preset-based set of filters and transitions running the same effects engine as the traditional Sapphire filters. It uses a preset browser application to search and preview looks and styles. When you purchase Sapphire Edge, you also get a one-year subscription to FX Central, a subscription download service to expand to your preset collection on a monthly basis. Sapphire Edge V2 plug-ins have just been released, which include updates for Final Cut Pro (7 and X), After Effects/Premiere Pro CS6 and Sony Vegas. Nine new filters (rays, glare, glint, kaleido, soft focus, etc.) and four new transitions have been added. To date, there are over 575 presets based on 31 effects and transitions.

With V2 you can now save your own presets. Each implementation of these filters includes a set of slider adjustments in the host application’s effects interface. You can launch the Edge browser, pick an existing preset from a series of thumbnails that are previewed using your source clip, and then apply it. Back in the NLE, simply adjust the sliders until the look is right for your clip. At this point you have the option to save the adjusted version as a new preset.

As part of saving the modified preset, Sapphire Edge will let you tag it with category and name information to facilitate future searches in the browser. You can only save and recall new presets within similar products. For example, presets saved in the FxPlug version of Sapphire Edge V2 will not appear in the After Effects/Premiere Pro version; however, custom presets developed in Premiere also show up in the Edge preset browser if you apply that effect in After Effects.

Sapphire Edge V2 is GPU-accelerated with NVIDIA CUDA cards, although I found performance to be close to real-time in Premiere Pro CS6 running with my ATI card. Simply put, Premiere Pro CS6’s performance with these various filters is amazing. Sapphire Edge and the Digital Film Tools products run incredibly smoothly with timeline playback set to half-resolution. Unfortunately, comparable playback in FCP X is glacial. That’s pretty much true of all complex filters in the new Final Cut, especially those using an external application to build the effect, including GenArts Sapphire Edge, Magic Bullet Looks and the various Digital Film Tools products.

Red Giant Software Magic Bullet Looks 2 and Looks Suite 11

To keep up with the various NLE changes, Red Giant Software has recently refreshed Magic Bullet Looks and some of the other applications included as part of the Looks Suite. Looks is now compatible with all of the Avid, Adobe and Apple software. The Suite package includes a collection of software designed to solve a variety of post situations. Unlike other “suite” filter packs, these are actually different tools, not a set of categorized filter groups. These include Looks 2, Colorista II, Grinder, Mojo, PhotoLooks 2, Cosmo, Denoiser II, Frames and Instant HD. The Suite offers a great bang-for-the-buck. All of these tools – especially  Colorista II – have loyal fans, but the biggest “go to” application within this suite is Looks. If that’s your main focus of interest, then the Looks 2 software is probably the better purchase over the suite.

Magic Bullet Looks 2 runs as a plug-in that – when launched – opens into its own external application. The plug-in acts are a conduit and takes care of proper color management between the two. Magic Bullet Looks isn’t simply a group of presets or a set of photo-style filters. The Looks tools include a range of color correction tools, lens-style filters and more. These are grouped according to Subject, Matte, Lens, Camera and Post. The idea is to create a series of filters, whose combination mimics the chain of real-world processes from in front of the lens through to post. The interface includes tools, presets, scopes and a viewer for an all-inclusive image adjustment environment. The change from the original Magic Bullet Looks to Looks 2.0 involved streamlining the interface, as well as the addition of Cosmo – a skin softening filter.

The most recent change has been the introduction of Magic Bullet PhotoLooks 2, which is available separately or as part of the Looks Suite. This is a photographic plug-in that works with Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture. Even after the Looks 2 interface was released, the PhotoLooks version had retained the previous style. Now, PhotoLooks 2 uses the same consistent interface and new tools, such as Cosmo.

These filters are great for creating stylized images. As with the other suites, real-time performance in Premiere Pro CS6 is vastly better than in Final Cut Pro X. You’ll definitely need to render there. Otherwise, Magic Bullet Looks 2 is a great option. If  can only make one purchase of a comprehensive “looks” filter, then Magic Bullet Looks is the one to start with.

Originally written for DV magazine / Creative Planet / NewBay Media, LLC

©2012 Oliver Peters

FCP X tools, Part 5 – filter suites

Ever since Red Giant Software introduced Magic Bullet Looks, a growing trend in effects packages has been filter suites. These install as plug-ins, which are built around presets that can be previewed and adjusted in a separate browser application launched from the filter interface. A representative frame has to be sent from the host application to the preset browser in order to preview the desired look or effect with your image instead of a template image. This was a missing element at the launch of Final Cut Pro X, but has been fixed with the 10.0.3 update. Two suite sets are currently available for FCP X – Magic Bullet Looks 2 and GenArts Sapphire Edge.

Magic Bullet Looks 2 may be purchased separately or as part of the Looks Suite and is available as a plug-in for a variety of hosts, including other NLEs, After Effects, Motion and photo applications, such as Photoshop, Aperture and Lightroom. In FCP X, you access the Magic Bullet Looks browser application through the on-screen overlay button. Once launched, controls are the same as when used with any of the other hosts. Looks itself is a collection of filters that mimic various tools used in production and post, such as diffusion from a lens filter or color correction used in post. A newly-added tool is Cosmo, which is a video noise cleaning effect that’s ideal for smoothing skin textures.

Looks are created by stringing together a chain of filters into a single effect. Any of these can be freely modified within the interface. A wealth of presets is installed with the plug-in. Any custom looks you’ve created yourself and saved are added to your library. Additional “guru” packages of presets may be purchased from Red Giant Software. Any preset look that has been installed or custom looks that you’ve created are available to other hosts, as well. For example, you could create a look in FCP X and have it available in After Effects, too. Once you build and apply a look and return to FCP X, you still have the ability to mask the area where the effect is visible from the effects control panel. Naturally, the look you’ve created can be copied and pasted to another clip without relaunching the custom browser interface.

A new competitor in the world of effects suites is GenArts with Sapphire Edge. The 10.0.3 update also enabled it to work with FCP X. Sapphire filters have always been extremely powerful, high-quality effects, but some users might find the control options daunting to dial in just the right effect. They are available for nearly every editing and compositing host, but tend to be among the pricier offerings in the market. These two factors led GenArts to develop Sapphire Edge, which is designed around presets selected via a preview browser. The effects collection is based on four Sapphire filter styles – Film Damage, Film Style, Lens Flare and TV Damage. The package installs plug-ins into both the effects and transitions palettes of FCP X. Edge is less expensive than a full set of Sapphire plug-ins, thus more in line with the price structure of FCP X itself.

The Sapphire Edge preview application is launched from the effects pane and like MB Looks, opens with the reference frame that you were parked on. Unlike MB Looks, you can only apply a preset look, but you can’t tweak it and save a new preset from inside the browser. Since there are a lot of presets with Edge, the preview browser lets you search by genre, mood or style. When you return to FCP X though, there are a number of sliders in the control pane to make adjustments to the application of the effect, which means you have latitude to customize it to your liking.

Purchasing Sapphire Edge includes a year’s subscription to FX Central, the GenArts online preset store. Edge installs a collection of over 350 presets, but additional monthly collections may be downloaded and installed with the FX Central subscription. I’m not really wild about this model, but it is one that GenArts is applying to other products, notably Sapphire 6. Frankly, I prefer working with the standard Sapphire 5 filters in After Effects over using the Edge browser in FCP X. On the plus side, the browser approach lets you quickly check out a lot of looks more quickly then you could ever do by tweaking sliders using the regular filter set. Two different approaches for different mindsets and the Sapphire Edge preset approach is a good fit for FCP X.

One notable missing developer in the FCP X effects suites mix is Digital Film Tools. Their Film Stocks, Photo Copy and Tiffen Dfx packages are superb and available in most of the hosts, except FCP X. I feel that the implementation of FxPlug in X is a bit flakey, so some filters show up in the X palette, even when they don’t yet work with X. On my system, PhotoCopy shows up in the effects palette, complete with preset options, but they don’t work in X.  The DFT filters use a separate browser application to preview, adjust and apply filters, just like MB Looks and Sapphire Edge, so I presume they have similar issues integrating into the FCP X effects architecture. Ironically some of these show up in Motion, but not FCP X. Although the performance in Motion is not terribly stable either. Maybe we’ll see that in a future update.

The good news is that we now have more options from some of the most popular suppliers, but the bad news is that performance is poor. All of the suite tools are taxing on the system and don’t particularly playback well in real-time without rendering. I also found some issues with interaction. For example, if you test out certain filters in Motion ahead of applying Magic Bullet Looks, it will fail to load. That can only be fixed with a relaunch of the app. As I’ve mentioned all along, Apple’s own built-in filters and the ones people have created as Motion template are the smoothest when left unrendered. I tend to treat these complex look effects as icing – best saved for last. I’m not big on using these as the sole place to do grading work. Tackle it that way and the rendering hit won’t be much of an issue.

UPDATE – The FCP X 10.0.4 version released on 4/10/12 “broke” MB Looks and Sapphire Edge. Both GenArts and Red Giant Software released updates on 4/13/12 to correct this issue. Please make sure you download the update if you run into any issues.

(Note: click on the images above to see enlarged views.)

©2012 Oliver Peters