Is Magic Bullet worth getting?

[Plamen Petrov]

Ok, but why don't I see any difference between raw frame (1.) and MB frame (4.) ?!?

[Ian Stark]

Yeah, I agree, they do look similar.

I think you would see the difference more easily if you compared them side by side at full res rather than the thumbnails. You'll see obvious diffusion, the blacks are ever so slightly darker, the contrast difference is also very noticeable in the hair on the guys in the bottom left of the frame, the yellows/reds aren't quite so vivid.

It is also much more obvious when you see it on the Vegas timeline, but I do agree they are similar in the thumbnails!

I'm not trying to suggest this is anything like a realistic film look - just that it lifts the image slightly, without any effort. In a real situation, you probably wouldn't want to use the preset straight out of the box, of course.

[Jeff Harper]

Originally Posted by Plamen Petrov

Please, do it, because I am really interested in the results of what MB Looks would do to the same video. Also, anybody else can do the same so that to share the way of his own processing.

Plamen, if you are REALLY interested to see what MB Looks can do, YOU should download and try the FREE demo.

I see now, Ian where he did say his card won't support, my bad.

[Edward Troxel]

Personally, I didn't like #2 OR #3. I took #1 and dropped the new NewBlue Color Fixer Plus plugin on it and like the results I got there MUCH better than any of those images. But, I guess it's whatever look you're going for.

[Ian Stark]

Originally Posted by Edward Troxel

Personally, I didn't like #2 OR #3.

Me neither! But in fairness, the test was to see if Plamen's look could be approximated in MB Looks, not to come up with the prettiest appearance.

In my case, I separately tried an instance of VM's Soft Contrast on the clip (without Looks) and for me that beat everything hands down, using only the 'soft moderate contrast' preset. As you say, it's what you're looking for.

Be interested to see the result of Color Fixer Plus. Any chance of a still for comparison? Strangely, having installed the Video Essentials pack, Color Fixer Plus isn't appearing for me. Odd!?

Jeff, I think the issue with Plamen is that his video card won't support MB Looks. Plamen, please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Jeff Harper]

You are right, Ian, I missed it. Thanks for catching and pointing that out...

[Edward Troxel]

Ian, it should be listed under the Effects as "NewBlue VE Color Fixer Plus"

Here's a Q&D version:

[Ian Stark]

Yep, I like that, Edward. Not dissimilar to what I got with the VM filter.

For some reason my Color Fixer Plus is called Autobalance - just checked it out - same functions in both. Could be because I was a beta tester? Just updated to 1.1 - still Autobalance. Weird!

Well, this has been an interesting thread!

I think that regardless of everything that has been said above, you are NEVER going to get video to look like film because a) the colour information is not there in the first place and b) the resolution is so much lower. You can simulate certain characteristics of film to an extent, but that's as far as it goes.

But that doesn't prevent us from achieving a more pleasing look than plain video through using the filter(s) of our choice, be they native or third party.

And I still maintain that the tools in the latest MB Looks provide us with a number of new creative choices that we didn't have before!! ;-)

[Jeff Harper]

I agree with all that Ian has said.

I would also like to say again to Plaven: the look you achieved was very nice, as I said before...it did have a real film-like quality. So since you cannot use MB yet, it appears you have found ways to create nice effects on your own. Good work.

[Edward Troxel]

Ian, that should change. Vegas apparently caches some information so even though the name changed it takes a while to be recognized.

It's nice having multiple tools available. Magic Bullet is good at what it does and is definitely another option people can use.

[Plamen Petrov]

Originally Posted by Edward Troxel

Ian, it should be listed under the Effects as "NewBlue VE Color Fixer Plus"

Here's a Q&D version:

Edward, I have NewBlue VE Color Fixer Plus. But I wouldn't use it, at least in this case. You've just auto balanced the color of my look. The question is "WHY?" Yes, there is a lot of literature about that matter and you did it really good. But what would happen if we start to correct the color balance of "Sin City", "Saving Private Ryan", "Lord Of The Rings" and many many many more movies?!? I don't think that they forgot to do that, right? Same about my conception in this case - I applied such a look exactly because that is what I was looking for. As I said earlier, I choosed the formula of Apple - Movie Trailers - watching and comparing helped me too much about my opinion. And MB didn't help me at all. Meanwhile, I used every version of MB looks and editors before and whatever I tweak the parameters, the result is so far from what I focus to...

[Edward Troxel]

I agree, I applied a DIFFERENT LOOK to the snapshot. I also agree that if #2 is the look you're going for, you hit it and I wouldn't change it on your project. From the single snapshot, I really didn't like that "look" as well as the other one. But I don't know how that single snapshot fits in on the rest of the project. It's all about options, getting the look YOU need, and ending up with results you're happy with.

[Brian Boyko]

I put up some MBLooks examples up on YouTube.

YouTube - Magic Bullet Looks Experiment

If you CAN do this with a plug-in chain or with Apple Color, by all means, do, but MBLooks really is catered towards the non-pro who wants some nice effects without spending months studying Color or hiring a colorist. It really is an amateur, rather than pro, tool. Rendering took forever but designing the looks took minutes.

Then again, as I -am- an amateur...

[Ian Stark]

You might upset a few Looks-using pros with that statement, Brian! ;-)

[Brian Boyko]

Originally Posted by Ian Stark

You might upset a few Looks-using pros with that statement, Brian! ;-)

Then let me qualify it.

Magic Bullet Looks is for amateurs to color grading; this can include anyone of any professional level at filming, editing, etc. but just doesn't have the time to learn color grading at the level of a full-time colorist.

If you ARE, however, a full-time colorist, MBLooks probably isn't going to be the first choice - it doesn't give you quite as much control over what you need to do as something like Apple Color would. But for most of us, we don't need that fine level of control.