CoreMelt plugins for Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express, After Effects and Motion

Updated: 9/9/08 after testing with latest red tools.

The key is that Final Cut Pro behaves differently if your sequence setting is for an RGB codec or a YUV codec. When a YUV codec is selected then Final Cut Pro can render in high precision 32 bit YUV, when an RGB codec is selected it will only render in 8 bit RGB. It's not always easy to tell so here's a list of which is which.

*These two codecs appear to be storing RGB data through a YUV wrapper, accordingly FCP is able to render them in high precision. I welcome any more information that could confirm this.

Pick any codec from the right column and Final Cut Pro is able to render in 10 bit YUV color preserving all your color information.

After selecting the codec for your sequence settings you need to change the rendering properties to be set to “Render all YUV material in high precision YUV”.

However that’s only the first problem, secondly, only a limited number of the built in transitions and effects in Final Cut Pro are capable of rendering in high precision color. Here’s the list taken from pages III-241 and II-389 of the Final Cut Pro 6 manual.

FCP built in Transitions that can render in high precision YUV:

Cross Dissolve (yes really that's it)

FCP built in Video Filters that can render in high precision YUV:

Thats it. If you apply any other transition or filter to your footage then FCP will render it in 8 bit YUV. What’s particularly nasty is that there is no warning about this, FCP will silently discard your 10 bit color information on the shot you apply it to as soon as you apply any effect thats not on the above list. This is obviously going to be a problem for all except the most simple online edits.

Hang on, it’s more complicated than this, Apple added a set of FxPlug effects to Final Cut Pro in version 5.1.2, which you get in FCP if you install Motion. Apple’s FxPlug fx from Motion can render in full float 32 bit color, so problem solved right? No..... Apple’s FxPlug motion effects do not cover all possibilities (there’s no transitions) and by default many of them are disabled or have identical names to the built in effects which can only render in 8 bit. As an example there is both a built in Zoom Blur, and a Core Image Zoom Blur, the Core Image Zoom blur can render keeping your 10 bit color but the built in one cannot. However, if you choose to view Apple’s recommended effects list then the built in one (which will truncate your color data to 8 bit) is enabled while the one which protects 10 bit color is disabled. How is an editor supposed to know which effects are safe to use to preserve 10 bit color? If you apply the wrong version of the filter then your color data is silently discarded with no warning. It’s possible to use the “Effects Availability” settings to disable all the built in effects and enable only FxPlug effects and those effects from the list above which are capable of high precision rendering. This will give you a workable solution, but there are some gaps in effects, the most obvious of which is the only transition you have is “Cross Dissolve”.

One solution is to use a set of third party plugins which can all render in high precision YUV instead of the Apple built in effects. Again there is another restriction here, any plugins which work through the After Effects API can only render in 8 bit YUV. You must use FxPlug or FxScript filters which have been enabled and tested to work with high precision YUV footage.

The CoreMelt Motion Pack, Editing Pack, PolyChrome Transitions, and Noise Industries Pro Pack altogether give you over 250 transitions, effects and filters, all of which have been confirmed to work correctly on 10 bit YUV video footage including ProRes 422 HQ 10 Bit, uncompressed 10 Bit codecs and footage from the RED camera.

By using these filters and transitions exclusively, you can ensure keeping your 10 bit color information throughout a Final Cut Pro online, giving much better results when it comes to a final grading stage in Color or another DI system even if the final delivery format is broadcast video (which is only 8 bit YUV).

For more information on a RED workflow for 10 bit color see my specific paper on this topic available here.

Please send any technical inaccuracies comments, feedback or requests for more info via the contact form.

RED, Red Alert and Red Cine are trademarks of the RED Digital Cinema company, nothing in this article should be construed as an endorsement of the CoreMelt plugins by RED Digital Cinema. Final Cut Pro and ProRes 422 are trademarks of Apple.