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Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse
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Contents
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The Stats
- Developer: Synthetic Aperture
- Version: 2.1.12 (released March 16, 2010)
- Platforms: Windows, Mac OSX
- Compatibility with After Effects and Premiere CS4, Compatibility with Final Cut Studio 3, Compatibility with After Effects 7, Compatibility with After Effects CS3, Mac Universal Binary, Mac OSX Leopard Compatibility, Microsoft Vista Compatibility
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Purchase
- Color Finesse Boxed
- Color Finesse Download
- Color Finesse Upgrade Boxed
- Color Finesse Upgrade Download
- Color Finesse Upgrade from Color Finesse 1.5 or 2.1 PI
- Color Finesse Upgrade from Color Finesse 1.5 or 2.1 LE
- Echo Fire/Color Finesse Bundle
Download
Description
Now you can have telecine-style color correction that fits your workflow rather than imposing a new one. Color Finesse 2 gives you the high-end color correction and enhancement tools you need both as a plug-in for your favorite application—including After Effects, Final Cut Pro, and Premiere Pro—and as a standalone application. Because the standalone Color Finesse is not limited by restrictions imposed by a host application, it offers improved workflow, video handling, and project management.
Color Finesse 2 is cross-platform and works on systems from laptops to multiple-processor workstations, without the need for specific video cards or multiple monitors. Settings move smoothly from plug-in to standalone so you can work the way you want to.
Color Finesse gives you full creative control over the color, mood, and look of your images quickly, easily, and accurately. The difference is visible when you use the best tool for the job.
Color Finesse as a Plug-in - Above and Beyond Built-in Color Correction
The Color Finesse 2 PI plug-in works directly in After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, and other hosts. You get simple access to color correction directly in the host application as well as via the specialized Color Finesse user interface.
Most video editing software now has its own built-in color correction, but it's often limited in capability, accuracy, and performance. Often you'll need to combine several color correction filters to perform even simple correction. Each filter you add increases rounding error and image degradation. Color Finesse does all its color correction operations without needing to constantly convert formats and round, reducing errors and creating a pristine image.
Color Finesse offers more correction tools—including secondary color correction and curves—than are found in most built-in correctors.
Three-point color correction is a powerful tool, but not when you're stuck with fixed definitions of what a highlight, midtone, and shadow is. Those definitions need to change from scene to scene, so Color Finesse gives you a simple tool to let you decide on the definitions, making three-point correction more intuitive and more effective.
And Color Finesse is a true 32-bit floating point color corrector, not just "floating point capable" and not in only a few correction tools.
Color Finesse as a Standalone Application - Color Correction Without Limits
The Color Finesse 2 standalone application focuses on just one thing: being the best color correction tool possible. Create your own projects or import one from Final Cut Pro via XML. Perform your color correction and output your final footage, or export it back to Final Cut.
Color Finesse 2 plays well with others. It handles QuickTime movies as well as image sequences. It supports image types from JPEG to BMP to TIFF to Targa to Cineon to DPX. It can import and export settings in ASC CDL, Photoshop, Discreet, and Quantel formats. It can preview footage via video cards from AJA, Blackmagic, and others.
Color Finesse 2 HD+ handles footage of all sizes, from standard def to HD to film. For those whose needs are more modest, there is Color Finesse 2 SD, which works only with standard def footage.
Features
- Now available as both a plug-in and a standalone application.
- Uses 32-bit floating-point color space for incredible resolution and latitude.
- User configurable control over shadows, midtones, and highlights, as well as overall correction.
- Performs corrections in HSL, RGB, CMY, and YCbCr color spaces.
- Automatic color matching and black, white, and gray balance.
- Custom correction curves.
- Six channel secondary color correction for selecting and correcting individual color vectors.
- Reference images and split-screen wipe facilitate accurate color grading and matching.
- Smart chroma and luma limiting ensures that even extreme color changes stay within "legal" limits without harsh clipping.
- Waveform monitor, vectorscope, histogram, and correction curve displays give full visibility into the correction process.
- Fully optimized for multiple processors and AltiVec (Velocity Engine) on PowerPC and SSE/SSE2 on Intel processors.
- The plug-in now has a simplified interface giving you access to the most commonly used color correction controls directly in the host application.
- Scrub through the clip you're correcting and preview your work with realtime playback.
- Direct communication with video preview hardware without additional software. Supported hardware includes FireWire/DV (Mac), Blackmagic (Mac/Windows) and AJA (Mac).
- Preview lookup tables (LUTs) allow for accurate previewing.
- Supports Colorociter Colorist's Workstation for tactile hardware control surface.
- Includes User's Guide in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.
Highlights
Much of the work Color Finesse is called upon to do is subtle and nearly invisible in the finished product, which is as it should be.
But just because it's not obvious that color correction has been done doesn't mean it's not important to the final result.
We've collected samples from a number of recent projects where Color Finesse was used. Included are color corrected stills as well as some screen shots and "before and after" images where you can see Color Finesse in action.
Anything Anymore
Wanting to achieve the highest quality images while staying within their budget, Writer/Director/Producer Gene Celso and Director of Photography Justin Chin elected to shoot their short Anything Anymore using a Canon XL-1 with a PS+Technik Mini-35 adaptor for 35mm cine lenses, and perform their color grading using Color Finesse.
Bend It Like Beckham
For the hit indie sleeper Bend It Like Beckham, Visual Effects Supervisor Scott Billups was faced with the task of putting the head of a teenage girl onto the body of a six-foot-tall soccer player, and making it look convincing. Complicating matters was the fact that some of the footage was video and some was film.
Billups used Color Finesse's Color Match feature to make sure that skin colors matched so that the mix of film and video was invisible to the audience. Billups says "Color Finesse greatly aided our Bend It Like Beckham work" and that it has "the most sophisticated set of color tools this side of a da Vinci."
System Requirements
Macintosh
Power-PC G4- or G5-based, or Intel-based Macintosh. Color Finesse 2 is a Universal application, but plug-ins will run under Rosetta emulation if the host application does not support Universal plug-ins.
- Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther), 10.4.x (Tiger), 10.5.x (Leopard), or 10.6.x (Snow Leopard)
- A 1024x768 (or larger) display
- QuickTime 6.0 or later
Host Compatibility for Color Finesse PI
- Adobe After Effects 6.0/6.5/7.0/CS3/CS4
- Premiere Pro CS4
- Apple Final Cut Pro 5.0 for PowerPC-based systems
- Apple Final Cut Pro 5.1.2/6.0/7.0
- Discreet Combustion 3.0/4.0
Host Compatibility for Color Finesse LE
- Adobe After Effects 6.5, 7.0, CS3, and CS4
Windows
Intel Pentium III or later, or AMD Athlon XP or later, processor with SSE instruction set support. Pentium 4 or Xeon class processor strongly recommended.
- Windows XP 32- or 64-bit, or Windows Vista 32- or 64-bit.
- A 1024x768 (or larger) display
- QuickTime 7.0 or later
Host Compatibility for Color Finesse PI
- Adobe After Effects 6.0/6.5/7.0/CS3/CS4
- Premiere Pro 1.5/2.0/CS3/CS4
- Discreet Combustion 3.0/4.0
Host Compatibility for Color Finesse LE
- Adobe After Effects 6.5, 7.0, CS3, and CS4
Updates
Color Finesse® 2.1.12 is now available for download. This update includes the following changes:
- Corrects a problem under Windows 7 where the Gallery items would be permanently disabled.
- Eliminates a situation where saving User Presets under Windows would fail.
- Fixes a case where Color Finesse would not be applied to some frames when using After Effects CS4's multiprocessing feature under Windows.
- Fixes a cosmetic issue where a partial frame would briefly appear when launching the full Color Finesse UI on the Macintosh.
- Color Finesse 2.1.12 is available as a no-charge update for current licenses of Color Finesse 2.1.x from the demo downloads section of our web site.
