Apple Color 1.5 - Manual (Page 23)

About Importing Projects and Media into Color
To work on a program in Color, you must be provided with two sets of files:
• Final Cut Pro sequence data can be sent to Color directly using the Send To Color
command. Otherwise, the edited project file (or files, if the program is in multiple reels)
should be provided in a format that can be imported into Color. Compatible formats
include Final Cut Pro XML files, and compatible EDL files from nearly any editing
environment.
• High-quality digital versions of the original source media, in a compatible QuickTime
or image sequence format.
Project and media format flexibility means that Color can be incorporated into a wide
variety of post-production workflows. For an overview of different color correction
workflows using Color, see
Color Correction Workflows .
About Exporting Projects from Color
Color doesn’t handle video capture or output to tape on its own. Once you finish color
correcting your project in Color, you render every shot in the project to disk as an alternate
set of color-corrected media files, and you then send your Color project back to
Final Cut Pro, or hand it off to another facility for tape layoff or film out. For more
information, see
The Render Queue .
What Footage Does Color Work With?
Color can work with film using scanned DPX or Cineon image sequences, or with video
clips using QuickTime files, at a variety of resolutions and compression ratios. This means
you have the option of importing and outputting nearly any professional format, from
highly compressed standard definition QuickTime DV-25 shots up through uncompressed
2K or 4K DPX image sequences—whatever your clients provide.
Image Encoding Standards
The sections listed below provide important information about the image encoding
standards supported by Color. The image data you’ll be color correcting is typically
encoded either using an RGB or Y
′
C
B
C
R
(sometimes referred to as YUV) format. Color is
extremely flexible and capable of working with image data of either type. For detailed
information, see:
• The RGB Additive Color Model Explained
• The Y
′
C
B
C
R
Color Model Explained
• Chroma Subsampling Explained
• Bit Depth Explained
23 Chapter 1 Color Correction Basics