A RGB-Contrast-Plugin
 

I just wrote a plugin for FCP, which changes contrast and gamma similar to Photoshops contrast-feature. A s- and e-curve are utilized for getting a smooth film-like look.
You can download it here:
http://www.dominik.ws/DominiksContrast.fxplug.zip
Just extract that zip-file to your ~/Library/Plug-Ins/FxPlug folder. If that folder doesn't exist, create it.

Btw, the function used for gamma basically is an exponential-function, and the one for contrast is the logistic function. The formulas can be seen here:
http://www.dominik.ws/dc/formulas.pdf

Some examples, what kind of perfect high-contrast you can get with my plugin in a few seconds without any clipping or saturation-anomalies because of yuv-processing:
http://www.dominik.ws/dc/e1.mov
http://www.dominik.ws/dc/e2.mov

I wrote this plugin, because there are no rgb-curves or anything comparable in FCP, but I missed it a lot and couldn't find any alternative.

I hope you people soon realize, that this is the plugin you always have been waiting for. ;)

i will try it and get back with comments.

Thanks a lot for sharing this!!!!

Here are some more examples:
http://www.dominik.ws/dc/e3.mov
http://www.dominik.ws/dc/e4.mov

Thanks Dominik

very nice, especially the timelapse clouds. altho, I really liked the look of the "before" water in e3, which was lost after the effect was applied. thanks for givng this out.

sorry for the stupid question but, how i install it?
thanks a lot

~ is your home-directory. It should also work in the global Library-dir.

You are the man Dominik!!!!!
Great plugin!!!
I´ve been playing around with it and very soon i realized the beauty of it. Gives a lot of control and can make very extreme tweaking without loosing any detail.
Thanks a lot. Please continue making this kind of great plugs!!!!

Nice work, Dominik, THANKS.

If you get another moment of genius, I miss the 6-way color tool available as a 3rd party plug-in for Vegas... :)

If you make a way to accept contributions, let us know.

Neither I use Vegas nor I know any 3rd party plugins for it. Can you explaing, what's that plugin (exactly) doing?
I don't think you can contribute time. ;)

?? Looks great ""
 

This plug will not install in FCP 4.5 and above on a Leopard machine.
oooorrrrrr will it?

I don't know. Definitely it works with FCP 6. (I use the fxplug-sdk 1.2.3.)

I'm pretty sure FxPlug support starts with FCP6.

it starts in FCP 5.1 but newer versions of the SDK expose newer functions that are only supported in the later versions of FCP

Thanks, Andy. I stand (somewhat) corrected...

Dominik,

Am I missing something? When I extract the zip file I get a folder called "DominiksContrast.fxplug" (rather than the plugin file expected). I've dropped it into my home directory fcp plugin's folder, but can't find it in the effects tab.
I'm on fcp 6.0.5

you might have dropped it in the wrong plugins folder Alnoor, FxPlugs live in the /Library/Plug-ins/FxPlug folder or the ~/Library/Plug-ins/FxPlug folder

I have Final Cut 5.0.4, and dragging DominiksContrast.fxplug to my Fxplug folder doesn't work. I thought Someone on this thread said it works with 5, but I guess it starts at 5.1 -I didn't know that existed, why would apple upgrade .1 and not allow me to upgrade?
Too bad, I bring my footage into after effects just to use it's levels sometimes, this would have been perfect.

Andy,

Thanks for the clarification, but it still doesn't work...

I had erroneously put it in ~/Library/Preferences/Final Cut Pro User Data/Plugins with my other plug-ins, and have since tried both suggested locations, but it doesn't show in the effects list when I search for FxPlug filters.

Have double checked spellings...

The only FxPlug folder I found on my system was Library/Application Support/ProApps/Internal Plug-Ins/FxPlug, and it doesn't work in that either.

Are you using it with fcp 6? Which Effects bin does it live in? I'm expecting it to be named or described DominiksContrast.

Ta,
Alnoor

It must be Library/Plug-Ins/FxPlug/
If it doesn't exists, you have to create it.
I mentioned that already in the start of this thread.
(Of course, if there's no "Plug-Ins"-folder in that place, you have to create that, too.)
Correct.

Dominik,

I've tried putting it in Library/Plug-Ins/FxPlug/ but it doesn't show !!!

I'm really puzzled why. Other FxPlug filters work fine on my system (fcp6.0.5/OSX10.4.11/PowerbookG4)

I don't know, what's going wrong, but in FCPs effects-menu there's an option called "show preferred effects only". Perhaps turning that off helps. Another issue could be absent read/execute-permissions of the plugin-directory and its inner files.

Thanks,
will try repairing permissions...

I don't think that the repairing-permissions-operation of the harddisk-utility will help.
I thought about manually set them in Terminal like this:

chmod -R 755 /Library/Plug-Ins/FxPlug/DominiksContrast.fxplug

Wow, thanks Dominik! It's very nice "levels like" plug-in! This is something I was missing so much coming from Vegas. Glad you took the time to do it. It's one of those quick little corrections I always like to add to make the video pop. Much easier with your plug-in.

Dominik,

I've tried your repair suggestion, but still no luck.
Curiously I glimpsed the name of the filter loading up on the splash screen at start up, but it doesn't show in my effects. ("Show All" pref is selected, as suggested).

Maybe I've got a cranky system, as I've just upgraded from fcp5... Will try an complete uninstall & clean install of 6.

Many thanks,

Tried these fixes, your folder is in the requested location (with other fxplugs that are working on my system) and I still don't see your fxplug under filters.

I'm on osx10.4.11/qt 7.5.5/fcp 6.0.5 G5 DP2.0

Suggestions?

was very excited about this seeing the effects on my monitors, but when I render the filter out, FC crash...
OS 10.5.x
Fcs2
8-core mp

OK, Dominik,
I'm a little slow. I finally installed your plug and it works great.

Here's the link for the 6-way color corrector. For example, I'd like to reduce just yellow a bit on a clip. This plug-in can do it.

See if you can get the idea from here: AAV ColorLab


thanks again.

Hi Phillip,

Just worked through this snag myself. I've been using the contrast plugin for a while and all of the sudden I couldn't render without a crash. I figured out it was because I was trying to render in 10bit mode. Changed it to 8bit and rendered. I'd love to see this filter work with 10bit...

Works a treat, thank you most kindly! / Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team

Hi!
I fixed the bug, which caused the crashing (it was a problem with 32bit-pixels. FCP converts 10bit-pixels to 32bit floating point). Also I build an installer-package, because it seems that people have a lot of trouble with manually copying the plugin into the right directory.

Here's the current release:
http://www.dominik.ws/dc.dmg

The installer will automatically install it into /Library/Plug-Ins/FxPlug.

Puzzle Page
 

Dominik,

What's with the puzzle-page you created at your website home-page? I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before, being able to randomly move around web-based objects. Is it just for fun or is there a hidden action? Whatever it is, I like it.

Just curious.

Requires 10.5

Thank you!!

This is by far my most-used filter. If I WB correctly this filter is all I need to tweak the look.

It is just for fun. ;)
Yes.