why is cross-dissolve changing the color of the enclosed graphic?

Question

why is cross-dissolve changing the color of the enclosed graphic?

Hi folks!

I feel like this is another stupid questions, and yet FCP is pretty complex and I can't seem to find what is likely a simple answer to a simple question.

If you look at the GIF here, you can see that during the cross-dissolves, the color of this graphic is changing over time.

I don't want that. The original graphic is black. I want to change the black to more like a tan color, and I have to admit I don't understand the Color Curves and Wheels and Boards. I would just like a simple crayon picker or color wheel like the macOS uses to select font color (reminder that this isn't a font; it's a graphic).

But anyway, I got the color to something I like by playing around with the aforementioned tools, except that cross-dissolve seems to morph in and out of a purplish color. When I remove cross-dissolve, the problem goes away. If I change the CD to "Sharp", the problem goes away.

So I would love your expertise to answer two questions:

1) why is the color changing over time?

2) what's the simplest way for me to simply change the color of this graphic?

For (2), I'll add one more thing. I know I could go back to the original graphic and edit the color in Preview. But I don't want to do it there, because this graphic will overlay a video clip and I want to select the color in the context of FCP to complement the video. Plus, I frankly just need to know how to use the tools built into FCP.

I have isolated my issue into a tiny FCP library that I'll link here if you want to try it yourself:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ft4kbzddefk4c9ti3n2m1/ADt6YzLQl_9GYVqqg9vX4kk?rlkey=iuubts61hwtsrid3cs6q6zh3a&dl=0

(I don't think it's possible for me to attach it).

Thanks!!

Posted on Oct 19, 2024 7:20 AM

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Answer 1

fox_m

Level 6

12,511 points

Oct 19, 2024 2:10 PM in response to Dave Kitabjian

You **should** have an Effect called "Colorize". It's parameters look like this:

If you want to change a black color to a sandy beach color, use Remap Black To and pick a color from the beach. Your black color only PNG should not respond to the Remap White To parameter at all, but you can always drag the Remap Black color onto the Remap White color changing it to the same color to make sure. Make sure you set Intensity to 100%!

With it, you can do something like:

Change

To:

And its appearance about 3/4ths through a Cross Dissolve transition:

which you can tell is pretty much the same Hue and Tint becoming transparent.

HTH

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Answer 2

Oct 19, 2024 10:39 AM in response to BenB

Thanks, Ben.

I'm sure I'm going to have to learn Keyframes at some point, but I don't know that yet. But more importantly, I think the hue was just getting washed out by a high Luma before.

So now I'm left trying to figure out how to assign the color I want, and, having spent the last 5 hours working on it, I'm still coming up short. The manual says I should be able to use the eyedropper with the Color Curves feature as a way to set the color of my clip:

Use the Color Curves effect in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support

but after I click and drag, nothing changes. Here's a dumbed-down demo where I try to get this "PRESENTS" graphic (a PNG file) to have the same color as the beach sand. It's not working.

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Answer 3

Oct 19, 2024 11:12 AM in response to BenB

Thanks again, Ben. I did see your message skip passed me:

> Take it into Pixelmator Pro or Photoshop and change the color to white.

I got the trial, learned how to change my black to white, and tried again. You can see the eyedropper is still not pasting the sand color onto my "PRESENTS" graphic...

But the weird this it does do it turn all the graphs red. Very strange.

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Answer 4

fox_m

Level 6

12,511 points

Oct 19, 2024 6:41 PM in response to Dave Kitabjian

First: You're Welcome!

The colors you see, the colors you "control" use the RGB color model/space where red, green and blue values are 0-1 (or 0 - 255/#RRGGBB hex). However, when you use the eyedropper/color picker, the OS is showing Rec. 709 or whatever your project's color space is set to — almost all monitor color spaces have a **much** wider "gamut" (beyond the 0-255 limits of RGB and use a different "gamma") than the old fashioned RGB color space. It's ***maddening***!!! Just be confident that the color picker IS picking the same color even if it looks a little different numerically. After all, the colors *prepared* in RGB are being displayed in Rec. 709, 2020, or whatever... :P

For example, the center color (smaller rounded rectangle) is created by a Motion template with the RGB model setting of R = 0, G=255, B=255 (or "pure cyan"; Hue = 180º, Sat = 100%, Brightness = 100%). The color on the left is a Shape Effect placed in FCP and the Color Picker eyedropper used to select the center cyan color (created by the Motion template). It's color results are R = 116 G = 250 B = 252 (Hue = 184º, S = 54%, B = 99%).

... they look the same. Don't lose any sleep over it!

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Answer 5

Oct 19, 2024 7:37 AM in response to Dave Kitabjian

I am not sure what you would expect to happen here.

A dissolve simply graduately decreases the opacity of a clip (and if transitioning to another clip, increases the opacity of this second one).

As you lower the opacity, the perceived color changes - that is normal.

AFAICT, that it what is happening here.

Try an experiment: add a solid background beneath the text, and see how you then perceive the change in opacity.

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Answer 6

Oct 19, 2024 8:28 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks for the reply, Luis! A few updates:

"As you lower the opacity, the perceived color changes - that is normal."

I think brightness or even saturation might change with opacity, but not hue. Having said that, I have a some more observations:

1) I apologize, but I have been experimenting with the library I linked, and since FCP auto-saves, what you now see may not match what I originally saw.

2) I noticed that if I UNCHECK the "Preserve Luma" checkbox at the bottom of the Color Curves panel, the change in hue issue appeared to go away in the sample project I uploaded. However, in my original project where I copied that clip from, colors morph from purple to true red. So it has some impact, but is not the solution to my issue.

3) revisiting my GIF, which is frozen in time, as well as the original project, and also doing some more experimenting, I think what I might have been perceiving as beige was just a brighter(?) high-luma(?) saturated(?) version of the purplish color. So when opacity went down, the underlying hue came through. So I like your idea of trying a solid background, but I think this explains the perceived effect.

So now I'm left with my much simpler question, which is how do I make a simple color change to a solid graphic like this? Trying all the tools, I can't find a simple "beige". I know some of them have eyedroppers, which would be great, since I'm actually trying to match the color of the sand on a beach video. But any attempt to use them to sample the sand has no impact on what the color tools are displaying.

Thanks again, in advance!

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Answer 7

BenB

Level 6

12,535 points

Oct 19, 2024 10:06 AM in response to Dave Kitabjian

OK, you're using a black image, coloring it with the Color Board, so yes, what you see is perfectly normal for an odd color change as you're doing it. Coloring black is going to be full of headaches, that's just life.

Take it into Pixelmator Pro or Photoshop and change the color to white. Then you can fade it all you want and you'll have no issues.

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Answer 8

Oct 19, 2024 4:03 PM in response to fox_m

> You **should** have an Effect called "Colorize"

Oh my goodness, this is perfect! Why there are 1000 other color-adjusting features under the "Color Inspector" and this one is hiding under Effects, I don't know. But THANK YOU.

This has an eye dropper that actually works, it has a simple RGB / CMYK / Crayon Picker, the works. I max out intensity, and then back down opacity, as needed.

I tested it in my test project, and it's perfect.

I did try it in my main project, and the colors in the color picker didn't match what showed up in the viewer. My only guess is that the original file there doesn't have "true black"? Not sure. But since I did find a way to get the colors I want in my main project, I'm not going to mess with it right now.

But this tool is definitely going to be my go-to for this type of work going forward. Sounds like it might save me paying for Pixelmater Pro when my trial runs out!

It's still a mystery to me why the eyedropper doesn't work with the Color Curves, but I'm going to have to sleep tonight without figuring that problem out.

Thanks again to all of you! You're the BEST!

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