Sony and Magic Bullets - big disappointment

[Chris Barcellos]

I'd really like to see a comparison/competition on a clip a MB user corrects versus same look and attempt by those working in Vegas and/or Cineforms Lightworks. Anyone game for a test which would include explanation of what was done ?

I would say MB user does the look they way it is wanted, then non-user attempts to match.

[Nicholas de Kock]

Great idea Chris I've actually been thinking we need some examples to showcase what can be done. Grading is somewhat of a personal taste/art so it won't be an entirely scientific test however a good write up about each grade to motivate what & why something is done will help, accompanied by an ungraded & graded full hd jpeg. I'll try to pull out a few older projects when I get some free time and post them here.

[Gerald Webb]

Ok, upload a still twice,
One with a MB look of your choice, and the same pic in its virgin state.
Ill have a crack with First Light to match.
Bear in mind that Vignette or Tilt shift etc will require some other tools from Vegas as well.
Can it be done?
Dont know. Always fun to have a go though.
:)

[Chris Barcellos]

Good, I would like to try it too. I think this is a challenge about whether MB is a unique thing, or can the same thing be accomplished with other tools available in Vegas.

Interestingly, there is a Webinar just noticed for the 28th of July from Vegas re color correction. Probably not right on point here to the goals of making something look like an MB look, but could have some bearing.

[Edward Troxel]

Doing a comparison of different methods to achieve the same look would be VERY interesting.

But, seriously... everyone who want MBL supported on Vegas (both 32 & 64 bit) need to contact Red Giant and tell them! If there's enough market there, they might reconsider. Also remind them the new OpenFX api should make the process easier and works in Vegas Pro 10 and the new Vegas Movie Studio 11!

[Gerald Webb]

further to this topic,
‪Apple Color Vs. Magic Bullet Film Looks - Film Look Experiment‬‏ - YouTube
I think I prefer the Color ones more,
but,
I dont think there is a "look" here I wouldnt be happy to say "I did this".

Bring on the testing :)

[Gerald Webb]

and if you really want to be humbled,
‪Anatomy of a Grade - Ep 03 - Underexposure Correction with RED RAW‬‏ - YouTube

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I want to know.

[Buba Kastorski]

MB Looks is a great tool, it is overused in most cases, but I'd love to have it, it's just too bad that guys from Red Giant decided to drop Vegas support, I guess there is a lot of politics involved,

[Chris Barcellos]

Okay, since no one has posted anything yet, does someone want to try to grade the image below using Magic Bullet, so that others can try to match it with Vegas stuff.

[Gerald Webb]

Heres a few,
make requests if you want.
Tried to do some subtle ones, if you want the extreme ones done let me know.

[Sean Seah]

I made an attempt on PPro this week, and it just kills me on how simple stuff done in Vegas is THAT difficult in PPRO! If not for the loads of plugins available to PPRO I would not even want to go near!

I used to depend on MB Looks but it was so slow that i was forced to learn how to grade manually. Fortunately for me i managed to master sufficient skills for my requirements. I can now work on 64bit as well.

Its a pity Red Giant decided to dump Vegas but I'm glad to see folks like Twixtor coming to Vegas now. Its a great move that Vegas is now offering ofx. Hang in there, the glorious days may come very soon!

[Chris Barcellos]

I did all five of these with close matches using Vegas to grab frames. I actually just took the photo and rendered to a 5 second Cineform .avi. I then took the clip in Cineforms First Light. I looked searched through the various preset .luts and was able to come up with a very close match on all of these. I woulld select the .lut. go to Vegas grab a frame, select another .lut, and grab, etc. Took all of about 15 minutes.

[Marc Salvatore]

The still above is a good shot to begin with but has anyone seen the latest features of Magic Bullet Looks? It goes far beyond color grading. You can actually relight a scene with spot and grad exposures very easily. While you could do something similar in Vegas it would take multiple masks on many duplicate clips to accomplish what you can do very easily in MBL. There are many other specialty tools in MBL as well. It's like a video repair / custom look toolbox. Works in AE very well and very fast even in 32bit float. Hope to see it return to Vegas some day because nothing compares in my opinion. Also has eternal monitor out now and works great with Intensity.

You can view some demo videos here: Red Giant - RGTV - Getting Started Videos (The what's new video shows some pretty cool new tools)

Marc

[Martin Wiosna]

I too would like to see Sony add something like MBL in their FX choices.

Since Red Giant won't offer support Sony CS should add the presets. I bet rendering would be much faster if it was a Vegas FX vs MBL.

I got my MBL Quick Looks for $50 to use with Vegas 10 and I don't have any complaints. I know a 5 minute video will take almost 2 hours to render but that's the price you have to pay.

[Chris Barcellos]

With all thats available in Vegas, you can make your on Filmic presets. Eugenia did this here:

Eugenia's Rants and Thoughts Blog Archive Sony Vegas color grading presets