The Simple Things

Flame Flame Questions
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Dear all,

Long time reader, first time poster.

Short introduction. My name is Jef Grosfeld, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I co-own a postproduction facility; Pixmix Studios. I have considered myself a colorist primarily the past 17 years (and I honestly try not to f*ck up great comps, mattes etc delivered from vfx). For my color work I am working in SGO Mistika Ultima. The CentOs based turnkey solution. It kind of resembles Flame here and there but obviously quite different at the same time.

The postproduction landscape has seen (and is undergoing) some heavy changes at the moment, at least in my part of the world. So I have been rethinking our strategy quite a lot lately. Not jumping to conclusions, I have been running Flame trials the past few weeks, both on Mac and Linux. Trying to find out if the current state of Flame would suit to not only take on the grading of our projects (not wanting to ditch my profession), but also do finishinging and some VFX. Surely, our VFX team is running Nuke and 3D apps, but I think for client attended sessions, Flame would absolutely do for quite a lot of jobs. I have a healthy interest in VFX and think I will find my way around along the way.

To the actual question than (that clarifies the title of this post):

I have watched 10.000+ hours of Grant Kay (great), Logik.tv videos, FXPHD stuff etc etc. It’s all been of great help to get me started. But (conforming a test commercial) for the life of me I cannot figure out how to apply a simple crop in the TimelineFX environment to accomplish a splitscreen needed. So I’ve put 2 clips on top of each other, wanting to reposition each and apply a crop so they line up correctly to match the offline. How is this done? I think I remember from the Smoke days a CRP effect available in TimelineFX. All I can think of now is using the 2D transform or resize tool. But I cannot get the right behaviour.

Also, for the grading of the project; what is the “correct” or “best” method to grade using the image node workflow, but apply a LUT after that node, covering the entire timeline? I can think of using a GAP with colourmanagement applied. I can set that up, but having trouble to keep seeing the final output result (including applied lut), whilst working in the image nodes applied in the layer below.

All of these being pretty much n00b questions, it’s great to see Flame has such an active user tribe on the internet. Looking very much forward to explore the software and see where it could take me and my business. Thanks for reading all!

Cheers,
Jef

3 Likes
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I use a combination of Gmask tracer and action on the timeline. I set the crop line to match the reference, and move the picture around with action. The trick to making this work is to have the gmask downstream of the action (on the right side of the action button on the TLFX tab,) and comp turned on.

EDIT: Use Back must be enabled in action.

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I would strongly suggest the timeline compare workflow. You can select your offline as the secondary track and apply an action TimelineFX to do all your repos. You should turn off the Resize TLFX, and the action will take the original clip resolution as its source.

Best of luck, getting out of our comfort zone is what pushes us forward.

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I’ll 2nd @ytf ’s answer re: gmask tracer and action. It may feel like overkill at first but it’s consistently the easiest way to do any split screen/PiP stuff.

Also, these are not noob questions at all! You’ve already got gap LUTs figured out, and you’re comfortable with the image node, you’re further along than I am!

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You can also add a Color management matchbox inside the image node to apply your LUT…now whether that’s the correct or best method is the never ending question.

EDIT: Also, since you mentioned the issue of viewing the lut in context, that opens the door to Flame’s Color Management which helps with issues like that (tagging footage and viewer rules)…but there’s a decent learning curve.

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Welcome Jef!

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Hey @Jef welcome!

and long time no see… :wink: !! Hm seems like you have already got some great answers to your question. But great to see you here, cool that you are exploring Flame!

Ok talk soon maybe and catch up! :slight_smile:

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Robert!

Great to find you on here. Yes, I am slowly wandering into the Flame world. Would be cool to exchange things related and catch up. Cheers!

Jef

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Hi Jef!

yeah we should catch up! I’ll send you a DM on whatever social channel :slight_smile:

Merry Xmas and Happy NY for now,