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Automated color grading
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  • any news or updates on this? i tried to download the medifire files from several post back but required a password. can't everything we need to do this but put into 1 .rar? It seems like this has a lot of scattered pieces or am I crazy? lol

  • I downloaded the files, and had some problems installing them-- it seems to hang when installing Visual Basic, or somesuch. I won't bug you about fixing what's probably my problem. But I'm afraid I won't be able to try this out and give you feedback. I'll follow the thread and stay informed, tho.

  • Okay, I have my new graphics card (nVidia Geforce 670) and I can probably give this system a whirl. I'm very much a novice at color grading, so I hope that any feedback I have will help users at my skill level. Could someone get me a link to download the project?

  • Many thanks @under1979 for your helpful report. This is the kind of feedback I'm looking for.

    So far I'm really struggling to port everything into AE: meaning rewrite everything from scratch including the ready made programs available in the former development environment. If any of you are interested in having a look at what could be the interface look of the plugin in AE (only the interface, no actual computations involved), and have already used the app, please send me a PM. I need to nail this part down before going any further: as with the first version there will still be the need to precompute the color transform before applying it otherwise the rendering times would take forever. This means generating a pixel bender file or (new) a 3D LUT table. So there will remain the inconvenience with the pixel bender file to have to close and reopen AE. I attribute this to an AE feature, because in Photoshop any new pixel bender file is ready for use in the Pixel bender gallery without restarting the app. The 3D LUT solution overcome this problem, but is less convenient (no tweaking is possible). There is a third solution involving true AE pluging development: if anyone has any experience with that and wants to share its knowledge, please send me a PM.

  • Ok guys, i've been doing some internal tests, although i need to do more testing here's what i got so far...

    .Strange behaviours are due to the color noise and/or artifacts present in original image sources. My guess is to keep original as clean as possible: no color bnading, no color noise patterns, etc... (a bit blur will help on this). So, basically, a ripped bluray poor quality footage won't work most of the times.

    .Same thing on target footage in order to avoid this kind of weird behaviours when possible. Any filmic noise should be post applied. Also, target footage must as FLAT as possible as well: huge differences here... pretty useless with GH2 footage for instance in my experience (...but will see...)

    Regarding the feature requests: well, it would be awesome of course to be this algorithm seamless included into AE as a effect external plugin. One of the main reason for this is that i think this "trans-color" thing is useful NOT to complete the full color grade but as a very first global step (mixed weight) and to be tweaked and fully complete afterwards with some custom minor curves/effects.

    That said, i'm still in awe how powerful this algorithm can be; i'm really glad with the tests done so far. Keep up this wonderful work PWC and many thanks for your efforts so far... Looking forward for any AE integration/Update.

    ...will keep doing more tests on this.

    EDIT: About another feature request, @pwc: do you think it would be possible to be able to control the range/mask around the preservative colors (skintones, sky, custom, etc.) visually and in real time? That would be awesome as well.

  • @duartix: Thanks, but not right away. I'm waiting for a new video card, and I'd like to wait until I get that before delving into color grading again.

  • @Brian_Siano : I can make it available through PM, but first you must agree to give feedback here. That's the price @pwc is asking! ;)

  • The download links don't seem to be working. I'd love to try this out.

  • Just starting my first tests - so far I've noticed the initial results seem to be good if the source video's white balance is as neutral as possible.

    Having said that, the results are sometimes unpredictable, not always in a good way! Still need to continue testing - comparing actual film stills with moviebarcode images etc

  • Thanks a lot for the update @pwc. Awesome news ;)

  • That's good news! ::) I hope the development goes well. I found it to do exactly what it was set out to do and did it in spades! Integration is very very welcome.

  • @everybody

    Sorry for those requesting the files: they were available only for a limited time to give time to those interested to test the concept a give me serious feedback for improvement as I am not a color grading specialist. So far I received very little feedback. I'm also working on a new version which will be much more integrated into After Effects, but it will take time. I will keep you posted.

  • Much more than that:

    It can be a great way to level consistent color profiles from different captures. :)

  • Could be a great way to color balance different "A" & "B" camera's output....

  • Guys, send him PM.

  • Great work!!! Please reupload

  • Yes, please upload the installation files!

  • @pwc Any chance of reuploading the installation files...? I have some spare time now for testing it ;) Thnx a lot

  • result

  • I love the tool!! Just rendering a small video of friends in my garden with the "Aliens" Barcode. Nice.

  • YouTube now offers automatic color correction and image stabilization, haven't tried it but it may be a harbinger of the future as the algorithms improve http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2012/03/improving-video-awesomeness-with-one.html

  • @StudioX You can download the app. Ii is mainly targeted to After Effects but since the output is a Pixel Bender filter file it is compatible with Photoshop CS5 and the workflow is the same.

  • @studioX : DynamicPhotoHDR has a similar feature.

  • @pwc is there anyway i can get my hands on a version of this for photo app/photoshop. i would love to test this out. Thank you in advance.

  • Agree. Of course, it works very well in AE now - two steps involved but that's pretty easy. @pwc I can absolutely see that (if you can get it so you can choose a source frame within AE and then generate a correction to apply straight away on target footage) people would pay for it. It's such a good idea.