Changing Color in FCP
 

I'm currently editing a music video in Final Cut Studio 2, this is my first time using the software so I'm not real familiar with it yet. Anyhow, I am trying to change the hair color of my subject... it is currently black. I have messed with the color corrector and the limit effect and I find that it works great when changing a color such as green to red or blue to yellow, but when trying to change black into another color it is not working good at all. I have tweaked what seems to be every possible setting and still can not get anything that looks close to acceptable... it either doesn't change all of the hair color or it does too much and bleeds into her facial area. Also, since her pupils are black, it is also changing her eye color.

Anyone have any advice for a better method?

Either get really good at secondary color correction which is going to be tough since the color you are trying to narrow down is in everything. You could also do a frame by frame rotoscoping in after effects or color. Basically you will make a selection of the hair like using the lasso tool in photoshop except since this is video you have to change the selection every frame according to the movement of your subject. Very tough stuff no matter what.

Black isn't a color.

And that is the problem. Which is why I think rotoscoping is they only way to do it.

You could try a luminance key and use a garbage matte to isolate the parts of the shot you don't want to key.

Post a sample
 

If you post a screen grab or still from a movie that uses the effect you want, it might give people a clearer idea of what you are trying to do so they could help you better.