Photoshop includes a useful filter called "Average" which " ...finds the average color of an image or selection, and then fills the image or selection with the color to create a smooth look." FCP7 has no such filter and it's trouble to export an image sequence from FCP7 to Photoshop for the filtering and then rebuild the clip.

Somewhere in the bowels of OSX is the Core Image operation "CIAreaAverage" which "returns a single-pixel image that contains the average color for the region of interest." This doesn't help me.

Is there an FCP7 plugin that does some version of averaging?

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

[ it's trouble to export an image sequence from FCP7 to Photoshop for the filtering and then rebuild the clip. ]

I haven't worked with image sequences yet, I'm primarily in under-2K workflow, but I recall the Photoshop (Extended version) animation timeline allows for one or more adjustment layers, similar to still layers. Can the Average filter be applied to that? You then export in the appropriate format and colorspace?

- Loren

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Image sequences are not difficult.

In FCP7, File > Export > Using QuickTime Conversion > Image Sequence. TIFF; Best Depth. For a 10 minute 25p clip this gives you 15000 still images. (I don't know what happens to interlaced clips.) Put the image files into a folder.

In Photoshop CS4, open one of the TIFF's. Then Window > Actions. New Action. Name it "average". Then press "Record". Then Filter > Blur > Average. Then press the stop button. Now, File > Automate > Batch. Choose Action: average. Source: Folder. Choose your folder. Destination: Save and Close. OK.

Back in FCP7, import the Folder. Lay it in the sequence. Render. Export a QuickTime (or just save the render file).

The trouble with this method is in its treachery. Unexpected changes to color and contrast are possible at each stage: conversion to tiff; manipulation in Photoshop; rendering back to video. The first alone stage is horrible. Exporting a clip to tiff corsens 10-bit gradation to 8-bit. Tiffs are capable of high bit depth, but the QuickTime conversion produces an 8-bit tiff. This is evident from the uncompressed 1920x1080 tiff being only 6.2 MB. Exporting a clip to tiffs also clips off its sub-blacks and super-whites. When the tiffs are rendered back to video it is possible to add super-whites by selecting "Process Maximum White as: Super-White" in the Video Processing tab. But these are not the super-whites of the original. These new super-whites come from pumping up the remaining tones to a longer range. I.e., they're a distortion the image contrast.

Expert use of the method at each stage might avoid such troubles. My particular use for averaging a nearly uniform grey area could endure them.

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

[Exporting a clip to tiff coarsens 10-bit gradation to 8-bit]

So under Options, the "Millions of Colors +" setting is just adding an alpha channel at 8-bit?

- Loren

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With "Millions of Colors +" selected instead of "Millions of Colors" the tiff size is 8.3 MB instead of 6.2 MB. One might think this indicated 10-bit per channel instead of 8-bit per channel. No such luck. In Appletalk "Millions of Colors +" means 8-bit color plus alpha. There are no 10-bit per channel tiffs per se. One wishes for a (padded) 16-bit per channel tiff that captures the whole 10-bit per channel information from the video. It would be about 12.4 MB.

If FCP7 can't export an image sequence with 10-bit graduation this practically disqualifies it for such professional work as DCP making.

There's a trick for getting 10-bit quality out of an 8-bit filter using FCP7. Make four copies of the 10-bit original, each time increasing the code values by 1. Subject all four copies to the filter. Give each outcome 25% opacity and sum them in a 10-bit line. I can't make the trick work with the image sequence.

A LUT to increase 10-bit code values by 1 is here. A LUT to decrease them by 1 is here.

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

Thank you Dennis, but OMG. It's not something I'd do to arrive at 10-bit. Shouldn't somebody can this as a processing app? What about using Resolve?

- Loren

Today's FCP keytip:
Boost or lower clip audio by 3DB with Control-] or [ !

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