Color Basics
FilmCraft’s color tools work in the order a colorist works. All grading happens in linear light, 32-bit float, and the waveform and vectorscope scopes are computed from the graded frame.
The Color workspace
Switch to the Color workspace to see the Program monitor with live scopes beside it.
The grading panel (top to bottom)
- Basic Correction: temperature & tint, exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, saturation.
- Creative: eight built-in looks with an intensity control, plus faded film, sharpen, and vibrance.
- Curves: an RGB curve editor (no overshoot), plus hue-vs-saturation, hue-vs-hue, hue-vs-luma, luma-vs-saturation, and saturation-vs-saturation.
- Color Wheels: shadow, midtone, and highlight wheels, each with its own lightness control.
- HSL Secondary: key a color by hue/sat/luma, view the key as a matte, and correct only what you selected.
- Vignette: amount, midpoint, roundness, feather.
A quick grade
- Start with Basic Correction — set white balance (temperature/tint), then exposure and contrast.
- Recover detail with highlights/shadows.
- Add a Creative look for style.
- Fine-tune with Curves and the Color Wheels.
Reading the scopes
The waveform shows brightness top-to-bottom; the vectorscope shows color direction and intensity. Use them to keep skin tones natural and avoid clipping (hitting pure white or black).
Try it yourself
Open the Color workspace, correct exposure and white balance on a clip, then apply a Creative look at half intensity.
Course on media.sacaa.org — free for any visitor, no login required. Work through lessons in order.