Effects and colour
Colour correction, blur, grain, vignette and warps on any clip, and adjustment layers that grade every track below them.
Every video clip can take effects: colour corrections, filters and warps, stacked in order. They grade the whole clip, its footage and pictures and its titles and shapes alike, so a title over a graded shot matches it. An adjustment layer carries effects of its own and grades every track below it while it plays.
Description
The AI trailer in Edit with the bin open, the Shapes snap shot picked. Clicking Black and white under the bin’s Effects drains its colour, and its Mix is dragged back to about half in the clip inspector. New adjustment layer puts one on the top track at the playhead; with it picked, Vignette darkens the edges of everything below it, titles included.
- Pick a clip, then click an effect in the bin's Effects (or drag the effect onto the clip on the timeline).
- Its controls are in the clip inspector's Effects: drag them, switch the effect off and on, move it up or down (effects apply top to bottom), or remove it.
- New adjustment layer in the bin puts one on the top track at the playhead, five seconds long. Pick it and add effects: everything below it is graded while it plays. Trim it, move it, and fade it in or out like any clip; its opacity sets how strong its effects are.
The effects
| Group | Effect | Controls |
|---|---|---|
| Colour | Brightness | Amount |
| Colour | Contrast | Amount |
| Colour | Exposure | Stops |
| Colour | Saturation | Amount (−100 is black and white) |
| Colour | Vibrance | Amount (lifts dull colours more than strong ones) |
| Colour | Hue | Shift |
| Colour | Temperature and tint | Temperature (warm to cool), Tint (green to magenta) |
| Colour | LUT | A .cube file, Mix |
| Filter | Blur | Radius |
| Filter | Sharpen | Amount |
| Filter | Grain | Amount, Mono |
| Filter | Pixelate | Cell size |
| Filter | Edges | Mix |
| Filter | Black and white | Mix |
| Filter | Invert | Mix |
| Filter | Posterize | Levels |
| Filter | Vignette | Amount, Size |
| Warp | Bulge, Pinch | Amount, Radius |
| Warp | Swirl | Angle, Radius |
The colour effects grade everything in the clip. Filters and warps work on its footage and pictures; flat colours,
text and shapes take their colour part only. Curves is also available from the agent, the CLI and the API (add: "CURVES" with its points). These are the same adjustments a picture layer takes in Design.
LUTs
A LUT applies a colour look from a .cube file, the format DaVinci Resolve, Premiere, Final Cut and most
grading tools export. Add LUT from the bin's Effects, then Load .cube… in the clip inspector. Mix blends
the look with the original. Only 3D LUTs work. A LUT larger than 33 points a side is resampled to 33, which keeps it
small in the file and looks the same. On an adjustment layer, one LUT grades the whole sequence.
Track mattes
A track matte cuts a clip out using the clip on the track right above it. Pick the clip to cut out and set Track matte in the clip inspector, or right-click it:
- Alpha matte: the clip shows only where the clip above draws. Put a title on a transparent frame above a shot, and the shot plays inside the letters.
- Luma matte: the clip shows where the clip above is bright, and fades out where it is dark. A white shape on black, or a black and white video, makes a soft-edged window.
The clip above becomes the matte and is not drawn itself. Animate it (a title that scales up, a wipe) and the cut-out follows. A V1 scene can take a matte too, but not during a transition into it.
Description
The AI trailer in Edit, the Shapes snap shot on V1 picked under a title on V2. Track matte set to Alpha matte in the clip inspector: the shot now shows only inside the title, which is no longer drawn itself. Back to None, then a LUT effect from the bin and a cool film .cube file loaded into it grades the whole shot teal.
From the agent, CLI, REST API and plugins these are the effects, matte and addAdjustment edits: see
Agent, CLI, API and plugins.