Not sure what you mean Adam… 3d Equalizer exports an undistort and re-distort matchbox that you do use inside flame to undistort/re-distort the images (or renders).
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Syntheyes calculates distortion and spits out ST maps as well. I don’t want to speak for Adam, but it would be nice if the flame 3d tracker was able to calculate distortion and generate distortion maps. That being said, I work on a mac and just tabbing over to Syntheyes and then back into flame is pretty darn easy.
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@randy Do you mess with the “match” function in the curves tab in the color correct node? Sometimes I have to eye match to a reference when the client doesn’t provide the lut they used for their ref. The curves match really can do wonders. I also use it for white points and black points from time to time when I’m just comping a really disparate element. It can break really quickly if you get greedy with how many points you’re telling it to match, but it’ll get you in the ball real quick and then I’ll add another CC node after that and fine tune the mid ranges.
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@BrittCiampa I do! But you may be underestimating how totally awful I am at matching colors. It’s a constant struggle and anyday now someone will find out and I’ll be doomed forever.
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+1 for Gizmo and hybrid-node matchboxes. I may be going off topic, but I fantasise, also, in aid of beginners about having a process that can narrow the field for them and dull down the larger interface and shine a light on the part that they are in need of, without getting lost in the labyrinth. I wondered if some Python process might help to direct them through the interface in order to get a certain thing done (like having an Alexa/Siri-Grant helping in the here and now, from within the interface?!) but maybe there could be a matchbox that helps to tether some users to a more focused set of choices for a given task. I’ve always loved that Flame doesn’t present everything all at once, but some new users can still get intimidated by the openness of the interface and some “Ariadne’s Thread” matchbox set-ups might help to keep them on path, maybe with some voice hints from a virtual-Grant like computerised voice like those awful ads, with strange intonational emphases, that you get on Youtube that tell you that the Internet has gone wild over some new earwax scientists in Ireland that has the big earning ear industry panicking, and that you really really need to click on this link before big industry closes this down and you’re back to paying big bucks, schmuck?! In any event “voice help bubbles” instead of text bubbles that focus more on process might be a nice thing to hop into the matchbox paradigm?
Cheers
Tony
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There’s an md hue match shader - but I never got it to do what I wanted to which might be bc it’s not intended to do what I want to do. Dunno.
I would also love a better color matching tool. Though yes CC curves I use all the time for matching.
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Also, it may be a wild dream, but it would be great to see Mark Doney’s PostManVFX matchboxes rehoused and carrying on their good work. I bought the full set from him just before his sad passing a while back and really love them and their versatility and their spread of purpose. It is such a shame and it would be so good to see them. They were brought up in another thread in terms of grids and maybe somebody could reach out to his widow and ask for some kind of further usage of these or, better, using them as foundations to build out further?
Cheers
Tony
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@randy @GPM Have you all tried the AFX_ReverseGrade matchbox before? Let’s you pick white and black points to match front and back in the node. Just another handy one I thought I’d throw out there into the ether!
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Back in the day, Shake had a node called the color tracker. It was essentially a box (that could be moved around or fed track data) and it delivered the average color for each frame. You could then use that to easily apply lighting change, flicker, etc to another plate from
I’d envision it like the colored frame node, with the ability to track color from a plate and have it deliver a unique solid color each frame. You could then use that with layer operations to affect the lighting of another plate.
I currently stabilize a spot on a plate and zoom way in to get the solid color per frame. The color tracker was elegant because it could be used in expressions.
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From memory this used optical flow. I seem to recall @fredwarren saying optical flow is not possible in matchbox. Happy to be wrong.
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I’m the same…not good at matching colors, perhaps it’s from my years of working with a colorist in the facility. I have used Premier’s color match to do this, works pretty well.
Are you suggesting this?
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+1
Using his SurEye Matchbox for quality checking on masters now for years. But there could be some improvements; creating a completely new shader would just be against his work.
I never knew about these, glad i saw this. Looks like some good stuff.
Check your inbox.
Cheers
Tony
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Nuke’s curve tool has a mode which is similar to Shake’s pixel analyzer.
Both would be welcome additions, although Mat wasn’t it you that would constantly hack Sapphire flicker match for that purpose or am I conflating?
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Not sure I ever hacked sapphire, but I definitely use your method of tracking a blurred still and subtracting from the blurred plate to deflicker a plate. Better than any plugin I’ve used.
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I did a demonstration a long time ago, maybe 10 years, of using Sapphire Filcker Match to generate RGB value animation curves. I can’t find the video anymore, but it seemed cool back then. Probably not relevant anymore.
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There are decidedly few methods for procedurally sampling the image in flame so it still has relevance.
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+1 Curve tool!! I love Curve tool
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