When I first started working in the industry, the concept of color grading video was relatively new. I loved going into grading suites and watching the colorist work through each shot and tweak them into life – it seemed like magic. Processing film had included a color timing stage for decades, but during the 1990s the technology emerged to color grade images from video tape in real-time.

As digital post production became more powerful, it became feasible to do more than just tweak colors. While individual shots can be color graded, and enhanced with compositing techniques such as depth-of-field, various effects can also be used to add an overall look, or visual style. From a technical perspective, the techniques demonstrated here are applied to adjustment layers that sit on top of the entire timeline.

In this video, I go through a range of effects and techniques that can be used to give videos an overall look:

Creating these types of videos / tutorials is always slightly frustrating, because on one hand I’m trying to show a wide range of different techniques – but on the other hand, it would be very unusual to use all of these techniques together!  In total, I think the video demonstrates more than ten different effects that can be applied, but outside of this demonstration you certainly wouldn’t need everything shown here together. If you’re thinking of jumping to the end to see an amazing before/after, then I’ll save you the disappointment. Because I’m stacking up things here in a way that I wouldn’t normally do, just as a demonstration.

For example, on a real-world project you probably wouldn’t crush the blacks down but then use another plugin to raise the gamma and brightness. And you probably wouldn’t use Lumetri to add a creative style, and then overlay colored solids on top.

So please bear in mind – the video is really just taking you through a range of techniques, but I’m certainly not suggesting that you should use everything together! Just play around with them yourself and see what you like.

There’s a few things that are worth noting, after putting the video together.

Firstly, one of the techniques I demonstrate involves using the extract filter to isolate shadows, then using the CC Composite plugin to multiply (or screen) the original layer back on top. However while recording the demonstration, I realised that the CC Composite plugin doesn’t work with the Glow effect on another layer. The problem is that the Glow effect, with the larger values I’m using here, expand the boundaries of the layer and the CC Composite plugin isn’t designed to work around this. The solution, if you’re wanting to use both techniques together, is to make sure the extract layer is underneath the glow.

Secondly, I mention a few 3rd party effects, although I try to keep them to a minimum.  Magic Bullet looks is available here, while aescripts+aeplugins have a range of plugins for chromatic aberration, including the FT Lens Distortion bundle. They also have products to generate a ZDepth matte from video.

Finally, the video demonstration was made in regular 16bit mode in After Effects, using rec.709 ProRes files. However I do briefly mention HDR video, and highlight recovery. For more information on why you should consider working with HDR / 32bit video, check out this video on why HDR just looks better! And if you want to get started with color management, you can start the entire series here. HDR is a complex topic, and one problem facing anyone new to 32bit mode is that not all plugins are compatible, and blending modes can work differently.

In the video I show the After Effects “add grain” effect, as well as using the noise effect.  The reason I use the noise effects is because it’s 32bit compatible, while the add grain effect is not. And if I’m working in 32bit mode, then I’ll always use the add blending mode, and not screen.

I’ve been publishing After Effects articles here on the PVC for about 15 years. If you’re looking for more After Effects content, then check out some of my more recent articles.