Adobe Lumetri CC! A prototype for a Professional Color Grading App
Since 2015, Adobe stopped upgrading their professional grading software Adobe Speedgrade, and started working on an in-app solution, the Lumetri panel in Premiere Pro and After Effects.
In the beginning, we directors & editors loved this concept, it sounded like an easier and faster workflow, something like what resolve users already has.
But what really happened, is that adobe instead of creating a full page or interface dedicated to color grading, they just added a very simple panel that only capable of doing some basic color correction (not Color Grading!).
They tried to mimic Light Room tools inside Premiere, to make the process easier for all type of users, and to be honest it did, a lot of people are now able to edit and color correct their footage even if they are not professional colorists, using few sliders and LUTs.
However, Videos are not like photos, and color correction is just the first step in color grading, a lot of tools were missed from Adobe’s Lumetri panel and still missing although they keep updating it every six months or so.
Over the years the concept proved its failure, and we “professional colorists” started to departure Premiere to Resolve to do our grading, some even left Premiere for good since Resolve updated their editing tools and now their Audio tools also.
So, this concept & prototype comes as an answer to this dilemma, it's not here to replace the Lumetri panel, it's here to extend it.
Users can still color correct and simply grade their footage inside of Premiere, but if they wanted to take their grading to the next level, they can easily continue their work inside Lumetri CC.
The Workflow and concept were taken from Adobe Audition CC and its dynamic link with Premiere, you can edit and mix your audio tracks inside Premiere, you almost have the same tools and plugins, but if your project is complicated or if you want to concentrate on your audio work you just send your project to Audition and continue their.
And because Audition is a standalone software, it can be used by a wider range of users and for multiple tasks, you don’t need to know Premiere to level or clean a voice over! this made Audition the number one software used in Radios around the world.
Same story here for our Prototype, because it's a standalone app, colorists don’t have to know how to use Premiere or any editing Technics, the only thing they need to do is to import a Premiere project file inside Lumetri CC app.
The app can also be used to grade individual clips, and since its a standalone app, it can be used by DITs on set, to quickly grade dailies, or by social media’s influencers to stylize their videos.
The Concept
Before Resolve, I used to color my videos using After effects, and honestly except for the real time playback lack, After Effects is the most powerful grading software ever in my opinion! The reason is the ability to add effects as much as you want, layer them the way you want, full control over the footage, Crop, duplicate, precompose, masking & Tracking tools, mattes, blend modes to overlay effects like leaks or flairs, and of course the ability to add and composite elements like dirt, smoke or particles.
But and I as mentioned above, the lack of real time playback and the limited time I usually had to deliver my projects made me move to Resolve, and what an amazing app for grading! its simple, light, fast and powerful, the problem is that I have to leave adobe’s ecosystem, go back to the XML workflow and the fact it misses the layers system I love!
This is what gave birth to Adobe Lumetri CC Concept, a combination of After effects power and layer system with the simplicity and tools of Resolve.
The Interface
The Interface is divided into seven main areas:
01. Project Panel:
Like all Adobe’s applications, here where you can import your media and create new projects & Timelines, but what makes this application special, is the ability to drag and drop a Premiere Pro project file directly in the Project panel to work on it dynamically with Premiere using Adobe’s Dynamic Link! Any edits you do in Premiere will reflect instantly in Lumetri CC, Exactly the same how Adobe Audition is working now with Premiere.
Of course, you can also work directly with your media if you are not coming from Premiere, just import your footage and create a “LUMETRI TIMELINE” from them and start coloring.
02. The Viewer:
Here you can preview your work and playback your media.
You can play and loop the clip you are working on, or play the whole Lumetri Timeline.
Also here you can take Snapshots of your work, to share, save or use it as a reference. and from here you can Split the screen to compare with other clips and reference images, or use the Match colors button to match colors between clips or reference images.
03. Vector scopes & Snapshots:
In the Vector scopes Tap, you can evaluate your work using the industry standards scopes.
The Snapshots Tap is where you store Snapshots from your work using the Snapshot button in the Viewer.
These Snaps stores with them all the “LUMETRI LAYERS” structure so you can add them to another clip later, also the snapshots can be used as a reference to compare or match with and can be exported as still images or as a LUT file.
04. Lumetri Timeline:
Lumetri Timeline is where the clips are stored, here you can select the clip you want to color grade (Blue Outline with triangle), discover which clips are graded and which are not (Blue Outline), Select multiple clips and group them (Orange Outline).
When working with imported video files (Not a Premiere Pro Timeline) clips can be dragged and dropped to re-arrange.
05. Lumetri Layers Panel:
Lumetri Layers Panel is where you create Lumetri layers to start color grading, it has 3 Taps:
Clip Tap is where you add Lumetri Layers to the selected single clip. You can also create multiple grading versions per clip and switch between them.
Groups Tap is where you add Lumetri Layers to a grouped clips, you can select which group you are working on and also create multiple grading versions.
Timeline Tap is where you add Lumetri Layers to the whole selected Lumetri Timeline.
* Lumetri Layer
Lumetri Layer is the core of Adobe Lumetri CC, its the equivalent to Resolve’s serial node, using it you can add and manipulate all the color grading tools from color wheels to masks and effects. You can add and layer as much as you want from them.
06. Properties Panel:
Properties Panel is where all the work and art is happening, placed in the center of the workspace and divided into six pages and you can switch between them using the panel’s top six icons:
A. Camera Raw & Color Checkers page:
When a Clip is selected in the Lumetri Timeline, while no Lumetri Layer is selected you land on the first page, The Camera RAW & Color Checkers Page, here you can adjust the RAW settings and match the colors using Color Checkers grids.
B. LUTs page:
In this page, you can import and visually browse LUTs and control their intensity.
C. Color Wheels / Bars
The third page contains two sub-pages, the Color Wheels, and the Color Bars, along with many other sliders here you can do your primaries and develop your look.
D. Curves page:
This page contains six sub-pages: RGB Curves, Hue vs. Hue, Hue vs. Sat, Hue vs. Lum, Lum vs. Sat & Sat vs. Sat, here you can do secondary grades and finesse your look.
E. Masks & HSL Color Selector page:
In this page you can create masks using parametric shapes or by freehand drawing, and you can isolate specific color using the HSL Color Selector, combine both the Masks and HSL Selector to get the best isolation.
F. Effects page:
In this page, you can sharpen / Blur your image, reduce noise and add third-party plug-ins. Plug-ins used in an imported Premiere Project will be found here.
* Keyframes Timeline & Mini Timeline
At the bottom of the Properties Panel sets the Mini Timeline, which shows the selected property’s keyframes and allows fast access to them.
The Mini timeline can be expanded to become a full Keyframes Timeline where you can edit keyframes simultaneously.
07. Clip Transformation
In this panel, you can transform the selected clip, Pan, Tilt, Scale, Rotate, Flip, Crop and change the Opacity to fade in and out.
When importing a Premiere Pro Timeline, all clips transformations will be imported with it and applied to this panel.
Export & Delivery
Using the File > Export Command, you can export your Lumetri Timeline or specific clips using Adobe Media Encoder, or you can just save and return to Premiere to find that all of your clips colored and ready.
Conclusion
Adobe Lumetri CC is what we as professional Colorists, Editors and DITs are waiting from our beloved Adobe, a color grading app that keeps us inside Adobe’s ecosystem and completes the Creative Cloud video and audio package.
I hope this will help Adobe to understand our problems and needs, and if you like the idea please vote for it on Adobe’s feature request site here.
Thank You.
Created & Designed by: Bilal Alsurri, Nine Productions
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +385,662 people.
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