AVID Effects and Colour Correction

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• AVID Effects and Colour Correction
• Anne Tilling

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Lecture plan

• Introduction to Effects
• Dissolves
• Keyframe effects
• Saving effects
• Colour Correction
• Set up
• Correction tool
• Monitor options
• Waveform monitor
• Colour cast removal

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Introduction to Effects

• variety of effects
• easy to apply, customize, and/or remove.
• because Avid is a complete editing workstation,
  it is impossible to complete many videos without
  some kind of effect.
• better off limiting their use for very specific
  tasks.
• saw tooth wipe for every transition becomes very
  distracting from the content.
• effects are always great until they call too much
  attention to themselves
• sometimes less is more when it comes to effects.

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Adding /Removing dissolves

• The dissolve isn't as much an effect as it is a
  basic transition such as a cut or a fade to black
  
• Can create dissolve 2 ways
• Quick Transition button on timeline
• Open effects palette
• Place timeline at area
  of required dissolve
• Remove by placing timeline over
  dissolve then selecting remove
  icon

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• Add effects by dragging and dropping from the
  effects palette
• When you add any effects to your sequence, they
  start with default parameters
• If you apply any transition effect from the
  Effect Palette, it defaults to centered on
  transition with a 30-frame duration
• If you apply a segment effect such as Mask,
  you'll notice nothing happens to the clip. These
  are the default settings, which are attached to
  each effect
• Once an effect is applied, you can edit its
  attributes with the Effect Editor

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Adjustment sliders
Keyframes
Effect editor
Timeline over clip with effect on it
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Keyframe effects

• Some effects move over time and can be keyframed
  to do so
• A keyframe is a specified point at which certain
  parameters apply
• For example, with a Resize effect, you can start
  the effect at zero and have the clip grow to 100
  size. Keyframes appear as small triangles
  underneath the record window when you are in the
  Effect mode

Effect static in window until rendered
Keyframes
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• Kaleidoscope effect becoming increasingly more
  popular
• Very simple to use
• Keyframe

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Picture in picture

• Can layer video on top of video
• Example News reader with video news footage
  playing next to head
• Select new video track from Clip menu
• Drag news reader footage on to lower track
• Drag news footage video onto upper track
• Enable top track for viewing and use the picture
  in picture effect

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BEFORE MANIPLULATED
AFTER MANIPLULATED
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Superimpose
Alter transparency level
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Save effects

• Drag the effect icon from the effect editor
  window in to the open bin
• Can now drag this effect directly from bin onto
  clip to use

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Colour Correction

• The process of correcting or enhancing the colour
  of an image
• Most major editing applications now feature
  colour correction tools at varying levels
• range from simple gamma and brightness
  adjustments to the full separate channel control
  in Avid Express.
• When needed
• Problems with captured images
• Different cameras used
• White balance forgotten
• Lighting poor
• Interior shots and exterior shots combined
• Particular effect required

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Special effect
Enhance image
Fit in
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Colour Correction set up

• Move timeline over piece to be enhanced
• Select Toolset gt Colour Correction
• Or Select ShiftF8
• 3 main enhancement windows Chroma wheels

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Colour Correction tool

• The Colour Correction tool contains two group
  tabs
• HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) group tab
• Within HSL group are two tabs on the left side of
  the tool that subdivide the controls for that
  group.
• Curves group tab
• The Curves group has no subdividing tabs

Group tabs
Matching colour information
Enable effect buttons
Tools
Colour adjustment sliders
Subdividing tabs
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• Curve for the Red Green and Blue elements
• Useful for removing colour casts which occur when
  filming under different lighting and colour
  temperatures
• The graphs are mapped so the input and outputs
  are matched to their opposite colours, for
  example, green is mapped against magenta
• Master curve deals with luminance

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Monitor options

• In Colour Correction mode it is possible to view
  Waveforms, Vectorscopes and Histograms relating
  to the colour information in the images
• Make relevant monitor active and move mouse to
  source option on a different monitor (for drop
  down menu)

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Waveform monitor

• Basic purpose of waveform monitor is to ensure
  the luminance levels are 'legal
• The levels can vary for different broadcasters
  but are generally between 7.5 and 100 IRE
• The left hand side of the scope relates this to
  the 16 and 234 limits of YCbCr component video.
• Legal levels show on the monitor in green,when
  the threshold is crossed the waveform turns white
  and needs to be adjusted.

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• Waveform can also be used to enhance the
  brightness and contrast of an image
• The horizontal position of elements in the image
  correspond to the horizontal axis of the waveform
• The vertical axis is not shown however as the
  scope uses the vertical to display the luminance
  information.

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Horizontal information detailed in Waveform
monitor
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Under exposed
Over exposed
Acceptable image
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Auto balance / Contrast

• Auto balance and Auto contrast buttons

• Waveform more uniform utilising midrange values

• Curves automatically altered

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Dual split window

• View before and after effect
• Select dual icon from composer window
• Drag corners to view different areas of image

Dual split icon
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Colour cast removal

• Occur when shooting under different lighting
  conditions and colour temperatures
• Usually more apparent when filming indoors with
  natural light, or mixing natural and artificial
  light
• example of correction where the original white
  balance was not readjusted, changing from
  artificially lit shot into an angle that had a
  lot of natural light causing the blue cast on the
  image

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• Blue cast removed by shifting the curve towards
  the yellow
• natural skintones are recreated
• Secondary correction performed with chroma wheels
• Adjust shadows, midtones and highlights

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Saving colour correction

• Can save settings in bins
• Alt Click (C1, C2, C3 or C4)
• Drag effect icon from C1 to bin
• Default name given
• To use from bin
• Open up Colour correction tool where settings
  used
• Drag onto window

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Tutorial sessions

• Work through the Avid effects tutorial on the
  website
• Effects introduction
• Colour Correction examples
• www.filmtechnology.info