Magic Bullet Looks in FCPX

Apple's recent Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 update fixes a bug which now lets third party colour correction plug-ins function correctly. Here's my tutorial showing how Magic Bullet Looks works in FCPX.

More info at: www.redgiantsoftware.com

Getting Started in Looks 2 with FCPX from Red Giant on Vimeo.

Grade like a Master Artist with 30 new presets for Magic Bullet Looks

Film directors and cinematographers have long been influenced by the paintings of Master Artists, using the visual language explored by these painters to inform their own film and video work. Visual techniques like Chiaroscuro, Sfumato and the Impressionist style of capturing light, color and specular highlights have all been used to stunning effect in film and video.

Now you can replicate these techniques in your own films using Master Artists for Looks, a collection of presets I've created for Red Giant. Classical painters who spent their lives investigating light, color and form have taught us a great deal about composition, color and light in video. This collection of presets will give you the confidence to shoot and grade your footage like an artist.

This tutorial helps get you started in color grading with the Master Artists presets, and shows how each of the presets can be used to manipulate the colours in your video.

Get it here: http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/master-artists/

Update on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 5:17PM by Simon Walker

Since Apple have updated Final Cut Pro to version 10.0.3, they've fixed a bug which now allows Magic Bullet Looks to run in FCPX. Here's a tutorial showing how it works:

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/videos/getting-started/item/293/

Make your video look better!

Colour grading seminar in Dublin, 28th Jan 2012

An inspiring look at aspects of colour grading and colour correction for editors, film-makers, post production artists and producers. 

This one-day seminar will get you thinking like a colourist and is designed to give you the insight and tools you need as a film-maker or producer to capture the right look for your film, documentary, short, commercial or on-line video. During the seminar, I'll be analysing images and getting to the heart of what makes a successful grade, covering story exposition using visual language and I'll show how grading can change the mood and atmosphere of a film.

Cick here for more information and booking details

Free sessions at London Skills Week: 21-25 November 2011

As part of Ravensbourne's Build Your Own MA program, I'm speaking at London Media Skills Week in November, specifically about how to improve the look and quality of your videos when compressing for distribution:

 

Simon Walker will show practical ways to improve the look of digital video, strategies for reducing pixelation and noise as well as encoding recipes for making online video look as good as possible. Simon will be joined by a major post production company talking about the work flow on their latest films.

 

This session is aimed at Editors, Producers, Directors, Self Shooters, anyone involved with the shooting, editing and encoding and uploading of digital video.

 

Here's the link to book a free place (my session is on Thurs 24th): www.skillset.org/lmsw/book.html

 

 

 

London Media Skills Week is a one-off chance to access free training sessions and networking events at Skillset Media Academies across the city between 21-25 November 2011. Sessions are open to professionals with two or more years experience in the creative and media industries. For further information visit: Skillset.org/lmsw

Visual Storytelling at eDIT festival

 

I am off to the eDIT Film Makers festival in Frankfurt next week to give a presentation and to sit on a discussion panel. I'll be talking about visual storytelling and how to achieve the perfect look for your film, short or commercial using colour grading techniques.

 

"Colourist and trainer Simon Walker, will explore how colour grading techniques are used in film, and will provide practical demonstrations how to create moods, suggest genres, and to inform the audience of the motivations of on-screen protagonists without using dialogue."

 

It's a great festival with loads of interesting people and speakers attending so follow the link to see more:

www.filmmakersfestival.com/en/edit-the-filmmakers-festival.html

Colour Correction and Grading Sessions October 2011

I'm presenting at the Teltec conference in Mainz, Germany on 11th and 12th October  as well as IOV's Pro Video conference on 19th Oct at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, UK, and also at MacVideo's MacExpo on 18th October in London.

 

I'll be talking about colour correction and grading specifically for DSLRs using Adobe Premiere Pro and Magic Bullet Suite, here's the blurb:

 

Colourist and Adobe Certified Instructor Simon Walker will show how Red Giant's DSLR short film 'Plot Device' was graded, and will demonstrate how to create different genre 'looks' using primary and secondary colour corrections using Adobe Premiere Pro and the Magic Bullet Suite of plug-ins.

 

He'll also be showing how to create different filmic treatments with colour correction, demonstrating techniques to use when grading DSLR footage and will cover practical Premiere Pro tips for FCP switchers.  

 

 

And here's Seth Worley's innovative short film Plot Device, shot using DSLRs on a minimal budget, and which now has almost 700,000 views on Vimeo:

 

A young filmmaker obtains a mysterious device that unleashes the full force of cinema on his front lawn.

Tutorial | Working with Looks Presets in Magic Bullet Looks 2

Here's a new tutorial I've just finsihed for Red Giant, which shows how to use the presets in their flagship grading software Magic Bullet Looks.

For the update to version 2, Red Giant asked me to design new presets and to reconfigure the existing ones, so here's the video of what's new, what's changed, and how to use them, as well as some extra info if you're working in Lion (OSX 10.7)

Red Giant TV Episode 61: Working with Looks Presets in Magic Bullet Looks 2 from Red Giant on Vimeo.

In this episode, Simon Walker will go over the presets in Looks 2, giving you tips and techniques for getting the most out of them, while working faster. He’ll also look at some of the new features in Magic Bullet Looks 2 for getting better results.