Are there any options at at for using low cost, real world secondary color correcting in MC3?

1. Colorista Plug-in Doesn't seem to work on MC3.0.

2. Color Finesse through Boris (anyone using this?)

3. After Effects via Automatic Duck?

4. Online on a Final Cut Suite via Color?

What are people using if they need more than basic color correction?  Sending the projects up the Avid chain?

It depends on how complex you want it to be. You can achieve Secondary-CC with layered effects and the use of things like Spectramatte, AniMatte, etc...

I've not tried any third-pary CC tools with Avid, so that rules out 1 and 2 for me.

I'm not sure I'd want to tackle grading in AE, although people do so with success.

That leaves Color - I am far from convinced. I've become pretty familiar with Color and it's workflow is flakey enough with FCP, I really doubt the practicality of using Color with an Avid edit. It lacks the ability to do things like dissolved grades that make tape-based grading practical in things like DaVinci. The closest I figured out was to capture the master into FCP, use EDL Mirror to cut the master clip, then apply dissolves or other basic transitions over the top of existing transitions, then take that into Color.

 Color Finesse using elastic gasket to interface it into Avid, there after works like any other effect.

On my system it is almost real time, only a few dropped frames on unrendered playback.

You have to run QT in safe mode to get full graphic user interface to work in Avid.

Unfortunately you only get output to monitor in the basic avid interface and not when promoted to full GUI.

You could give 3 Prongs ColorFix a shot.  I think you can download a demo of the plug to see if it'll get the job done.

Sycophant:

It lacks the ability to do things like dissolved grades that make tape-based grading practical in things like DaVinci.

It has the ability to do this very thing. You just put a keyframe on each side of the dissolve...

Sycophant:

The closest I figured out was to capture the master into FCP, use EDL Mirror to cut the master clip, then apply dissolves or other basic transitions over the top of existing transitions, then take that into Color.

You can export a quicktime that Color likes (10 bit Uncompressed for example) and use the "use as Cut List" function with an EDL in Color.

EDIT: Remember to set a correct offset in the import dialog since the EDL will have the Avid Sequence TC and the exported Quicktime will start at 00:00:00:00.

Ask any Color questions at the site I am the admin for: www.coloruser.net

 BCC Color shift?

rebusfilm:

It has the ability to do this very thing. You just put a keyframe on each side of the dissolve...

What I mean is in the situation where you have a transition of some sort in the video, in DaVinci you'd apply a grade on each side of the transition and then could use a SMPTE wipe or a dissolve betwen them. In Color you can't preview the dissolve either, so even if you can use EDL as a cutlist (something I had problems with in my tests) it's a bit tricky. You can, of course use keyframes, but if you've applied an EDL as a cutlist there will be two seperate events, meaning you have to keyframe partially on the outgoing side, and then match the keyframing on the incoming side.

Color is certainly a possability I guess, but in my experience it isn't even perfect with FCP, my estimation of it's integration with Avid is that it could be pretty difficult, especially for the uninitiated.

Color???

Why would anyone using MC go through the migraines and additional expenses of moving a project over to FCP for color grading ?  Moving the project to Symphony would be far more efficient.  The basic color correction could be handled in MC, allowing more time for color grading in the symphony suite.  The original poster is trying to control costs.

I don't know what expenses you are talking about. I just exported a Quicktime from Avid and an EDL as CMX3600. I imported the EDL into Color (Use as cutlist) and all cuts are there. It literally took me 5 minutes.

I converted a DNxHD timeline to ProRes as a test for future workflows for colorgrading Red footage (I don't like Final Cut Pro for editing). Exporting an uncompressed 10 bit 4:2:2 would be a better choice if space and harddrive speed is of no concern.

Sycophant is correct that you can't dissolve between grades. I misunderstood what he meant.

Keyframing the dissolve can be accomplished but takes more time than what it should. But it works - just put edits (inside Color) at the dissolve start and end and put incoming and outgoing room keyframes at these points. 

Given that this is the PC forum and Lowrider is on a PC the work flow would be more time consuming than your Mac based work flow.

I agree. The Mac based workflow is more efficient.

Thanks for all the discussion.  I'm leaning towards doing basic color correction in MC and then moving the project to an Avid DS Assist station for grading and color work.

The current version of DS 8.4 doesn't keep all the MC color corrector info intact.

However DS 10 (ships in September) is supposed to include a Symphony style color corrector.  You might check with the facility or ask in the DS forum here about transferring the MC color correction.  I'm hoping that DS 10 makes the process transparent.  good luck