Correcting Complexion

I was searching through forums and someone raised the issue of fixing skin imperfections in FCP. He brought up the fact that HD cameras show every unflattering detail in a person?s face such as wrinkles, pimple, and so on.

Shane Ross recommended Sheffieldsoftworks.com?s Electronic Make-up plug in. I downloaded the demo and was very impressed.

I am thinking about purchasing it but want to make sure it?s one of the best (If Shane recommends it, it probably is). Funds are tight, so if I am going to be ordering a plug-in such as this, I have to get it right the first time. So, I figured I would ask the LA crew if they knew of any others that would trump Sheffields?

Digital Anrchy?s Beauty Box was also thrown out there. They say it works well with FCP and After Effects. I haven?t downloaded the demo yet so I can?t say.

Electronic Make-up does work well. I've seen it. As to beauty box it will be demoed at lafcpug Jan 27 and here is a review of it. Its brand new so no idea how it works but the review is good.

[www.lafcpug.org]

In fact both Patrick and Jim will be at lafcpug Jan 27. They usually give out really good deals on their software on night of the meet. In meantime download the demos and play.

Michael Horton
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Great read Michael! Thank you.
I would love to go to the meeting but I am on the east coast.

I wonder how the analyze feature would work on two people on frame? One person closer to the camera than the other? Or maybe one person looking at the camera, the other is a profile?

We had a lady that wore foundation on her face but didn't cover the lower part of her neck with it. I couldn't smooth out the lower part of her neck with Electronic Make up. I'm curious how beauty box would do.

I have to download the demo and play.

You are talking color correction here as well as skin retouching. Best to play around or get a CC artist to help you.

Michael Horton
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>I wonder how the analyze feature would work on two people on frame? One person closer to the camera than the other? Or maybe one person looking at the camera, the other is a profile?

The plugins target SKIN TONE, so it doesn't matter how they are standing, if skin is showing, it finds it.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

It also helps to just put a bit of gaussian blur on the blue channel. Trick taught to me by a wedding photographer.

how do you do that in FCP, Jude?
oh.. i see..
Channel Blur

Yeah, just on the blue - and don't go too far or you'll get jaundiced talent.

CoreMelt plugins also have something in their Editor's Toolkit section called Dewrinkler - smoothous out wrinkles - blemishes etc... does a very nice job

Oh yeah. That one works great too.

Michael Horton
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Great Tips! I like the blue channel idea, nice!

The reason I mentioned the profile shot is because in the article Michael shared, it mentioned that it can be tempermental on frames that doesn't show the full face. The article gave the example of one frame that didn't show enough of the person's lips. That's just the analyze button though.

I have been trying out the Beauty Box. Pretty nice! The analyze feature is a time saver. That fact that it works in After Effects too is a big plus. Love it when we all get along

I am going to try CoreMelt next. Thanks Andy!

I just got a message about Beauty Box. Looks good:

[www.digitalanarchy.com]

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Hi Jude,

How do you get on the blue channel to do this? Could you do a step by step on what to do? For some reason, my color correction doesn't happen on the fly. I move everything around, but nothing changes.

Thank you!!!

Try Core Melt:

This works pretty well for me:

From the manual

Blurs the highlights of the image and mixes them back over the image creating an effect similar to a diffusion filter or shooting video through a stocking.

Unique Parameters:

Diffuse Width:
Controls the strength of the diffusion filter.
Diffuse Mix Over:
controls the percentage bleed of the diffusion over the original image.

It's not in the colour corrector - its a blur filter. Add channel blur, then blur only the blue channel. Like I said, if you go to far you'll start getting yellows, so use a light hand if you want to use this one.