AAV COLORLAB

V1.0 RELEASE CANDIDATE 2 MAY 20, 2009

C ONTENTS
Installing Colorlab....................................................................................................... 1
Requirements...............................................................................................................3
ColorLab Effects ......................................................................................................... 4
Adjust ................................................................................................................. 4
6-vector .............................................................................................................. 6
Black & White .....................................................................................................7
Blur ......................................................................................................................7
Translab Transitions .................................................................................................. 8
Performance notes ..................................................................................................... 8
Whats new ................................................................................................................. 8
Thank you .................................................................................................................. 10

I NSTALLING C OLORLAB
ColorLab is a video plugin for Vegas, and is used much like any other video
effect. The steps below detail the installation of the plugin. (The images may
not correspond exactly to what you see.)

1) Download the appropriate version, 32-bit or 64-bit, depending on which

version of Vegas you want to use it in. (You can grab both, if you want.)
2) Run the installer .msi file. (double click it). You will see the license screen:

Unless you had planned to redistribute ColorLab or its source code, this
just informs you that ColorLab is under the GNU LGPL license. As a normal

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 end user you can freely use ColorLab for any kind of job. Click to accept the
license, then the Install button.

3) In Windows XP you may have to run the installation with an Administrator

account on your machine. In Windows Vista and Windows 7 you will see at
least one UAC dialog. If it asks you to provide an Administrator password,
do so. If you are asked just to allow the installation, click Yes.

4) The installation continues, and then finishes:

5) Done! If you want to verify that the install worked, start Vegas and add a
movie clip to your timeline. Right-click the clip and youll see a menu.

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 6) Click either Media Fx or Video Event FX to bring up the Plugin Chooser.

7) AAV ColorLab should show up in the list. Double-click it to add it to the

effect chain like you normally would.

NOTES
ColorLab is installed for all users on the machine, and installation requires
administrative privileges. On Vista and Windows 7, you may have to type in an
administrator password due to User Account Control. Using ColorLab after
installation doesnt require these privileges.

R EQUIREMENTS
A graphics chip with Pixel Shader 2.0 support.
An up-to-date graphics driver.
DirectX 9.0c.
.NET Framework 2.0 or above.
Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Runtime.

It is recommended that you get the latest graphics card driver from the
appropriate source, especially if you experience problems with ColorLab. Using
a new driver may also result in better rendering performance.

Typically, the newest graphics card driver can be found at the chip
manufacturer web site (www.nvidia.com, www.amd.com, www.intel.com).
Drivers aquired through your computer manufacturer tend to be older.

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C OLOR L AB E FFECTS
ColorLab has its own internal effect chain. This is separate from the Vegas filter
chain, and governs only what happens within a ColorLab instance. Using more
than one effect inside ColorLab is cheap.

Per f o r m a nce Ti p: P r ef er to u se fe w e r C o l or La b
i ns ta nc es , wi th m or e e f fec ts i n each .

The ColorLab effect chain is located to the left in the settings dialog. There is
one instance of each effect, and they can be enabled and disabled by using the
check boxes. The order in which they are applied to your video clip can be
changed, by selecting an effect and using the Up and Down buttons.

The effect chain is a list that goes top-to-bottom, unlike the left-to-right chain
in Vegas. However, the order-of-operations is similar. Starting from the top, the
first filter that has a checkmark will be applied. Then, the next filter with a
checkmark will be applied, and so on. Unchecked filters are not applied.

Typically, any effect parameter can be animated, but some parameters dont
interpolate. An example of this is a checkbox. On a given position in the
timeline, the state of the checkbox in the latest key frame will be used.

If you want to reset a single setting, right-clicking on the control brings up a

context menu from which you can Reset. If you want to go back to the default
settings for all settings in an effect, use the Defaults button in the effect title
strip.

A DJ U ST
The Adjust effect offers basic adjustments of video footage. This effect is
typically used first in the effect chain, to normalize the look of the video before
applying other effects. By default, the Adjust effect is set up to leave the video
unchanged.

I mp o r ta n t: Ma ke s ur e yo u a re re al l y l o o ki n g at th e
o ri gi na l vid e o i n th e pr evi ew win d ow b ef o re usi n g
Adj us t. F or i n sta nc e , if C o l or Lab i s us ed i n Me dia F X , a nd
ot h e r fi lt er s a re a p p lie d in Vi de o E ve nt/ Tr ac k /Out p ut F X,
th e Adj u st c o nt r o ls ma y n ot d o wh at y o u e x p e ct, r es u lti ng
i n di st o rt e d re s ul ts !

Here is an example of how to use Adjust, in numbered steps:

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1) W H I T E B A L A N C E
If the video has a color cast, e.g. from being shot with improper white balance,
this tool can help.

Click the neutral color eyedropper: . You will see that the mouse
cursor will change to a cross.
Point to and click on a pixel in the preview window that you want to
be neutral gray.

The tool will compensate the entire picture based on making this color gray.

For instance, if you pick a yellow-tinted surface, the video will be made bluer
overall. This tool is similar to the complement color picker in the primary
color corrector.

Wh e n pi c ki ng a n e utr al co l o r, u sin g a ve ry b ri ght o r v er y

dar k sh a de ma y di st o rt the re s ul t. If this hap p en s , u se a
mi d -t o n e i n st ea d .

2) I N P U T
This tool is used to adjust the RGB levels to use after white balancing has been
performed.

The levels slider lets you set the minimum (black arrow) mid (gray arrow) and
maximum (white arrow) overall RGB to use from the input video. Any colors
darker or lighter than this min or max respectively will be clipped away.

After this min/max range is determined, a gamma curve is applied to the video
based on the gray arrow (middle). This lets you set where mid-gray should be
taken from in the input video. By default, the gamma is 1.0 (no adjustment) and
the gray arrow will be exactly in the middle between the black and white
arrows.

In addition, eyedropper buttons can be used to simplify the selection:

White eyedropper: Shortcut for the white arrow on the input slider. Click
this, then point to and click the brightest color you can find in the preview
window. The arrow then takes on the maximum of R,G,B of the color chosen.

Gray eyedropper: Shortcut for the gray arrow on the input slider. Click
this, then point to and click a mid-bright color in the preview window. The
arrow then takes on the Luma of the color chosen.

Black eyedropper: Shortcut for the black arrow on the input slider. Click
this, then point to and click the darkest color you can find in the preview
window. The arrow then takes on the minimum of R,G,B of the color chosen.

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 Some handy built-in settings are also available by clicking the Preset button:

Reset: This takes black from RGB input value 0 and white from 255
(default).
Convert to Studio RGB - Both: This takes black from RGB input value
16 and white from 235. Its quite often the case that video imported into
Vegas looks washed out, and Video Scopes indicate that RGB values
stay between 16 and 235. In that case, use this option to stretch the
range to the full 0-255.
Convert to Studio RGB Black only: This takes black from RGB
input value 16 and passes through white at value 255. Some DV
imported into Vegas, when looked at in the Video Scopes, show black
at 16 but white is at 255. This preset will correct such video without
crushing the whites further.

It i s i m p o rta nt t o l o o k at th e Vid e o S c o pe s wh ile adj us ti ng

le ve l s, t o ma ke s ur e y o u ar e nt l o si ng a ny d et ail i n th e
i ma ge .

4) O U T P U T
The output range lets you specify how colors are mapped before leaving this
effect.

Most of the time this should be left at the default. If you dont know exactly
what youre doing, this can leave your video looking washed out.

Some handy built-in settings are also available by clicking the Preset button:

Reset: This maps RGB black to 0 and white to 255. (default)

Convert to Studio RGB: This maps RGB black to 16 and white to 235.

6- V E C TO R
This is a six-vector color corrector (as found in the old Aav6cc plugin). A nice
complement to primary and secondary color correctors, this effect splits the
image into six basic colors: Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. You
can then adjust Hue, Saturation and Lightness independently for each of these
colors.

The Invert checkbox is for advanced use, but is a quick way to adjust
everything but the selected color. For instance, if you set Red saturation at 0,
all the reds in the image will become gray. If Invert is checked at this point,
all colors except red will be gray instead.

N ot e th a t a l l cha n n el s can be a dj us te d i nd e pe nd e nt ly , f o r
fr ee .

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B L A C K & W HI T E
This tool lets you create a grayscale image using a mixture of the primary and
secondary colors in your video clip. In addition to this, a fixed contribution is
added from the unsaturated colors. By default, with the mixer color sliders at
zero, only the unsaturated parts of the image are visible. Typically, this result
isnt very pleasing. Pull the sliders to get the mixture you want.

Th i s w o r k s be st o n hi g h q ua lity vid e o a nd sti l l i ma ge s . D V

and h ea vi ly c o m p re ss ed vid e o m ay e xhi bit pixi l atio n a n d a
ge n era l ly di rty r es u lt . B esi de s c o m pr e ssi o n , an oth e r
rea s o n i s t hat chr o ma i s o ft e n s t or ed a t a l owe r r es o l uti o n
th a n l u ma .

BLUR
This effect applies Gaussian blur to your video clip. The amount of blur can be
set independently in the horizontal and vertical directions, or linked together
(Link H/V).

Select Chroma mode to only blur the color information in the image, leaving
pixel luma alone. This can be a useful pre-filter for the 6-vector and Black &
White effects.

There is a Glow effect that can be enabled, but this feature is experimental.

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T RANSLAB T RANSITIONS
TransLab is included as a bonus and contains transitions that can be used in
place of the built-in Vegas ones, for improved rendering performance. The
standard fade as well as additive and subtractive transitions are currently
implemented.

To use TransLab, right-click a transition on the timeline, go into Transition

Properties, then select AAV TransLab. The transition type can then be
selected from a dropdown-box.

P ERFORMANCE NOTES
HOW TO GET THE BEST PERFORMANCE :
Get a fast GPU. A real graphics card suitable for gaming is recommended.
Certain workstation graphics cards may also perform well.
Read all the performance tips throughout this document.

WHAT TO AVOID:
Interlaced video requires ColorLab/TransLab to be called twice as often
as with progressive video. Because there is overhead in the way Vegas calls
plugins, this may have a definite speed hit. Your mileage may vary.

W HAT S NEW
V 1.0 RC 2
ColorLab: Support for 64-bit Vegas. (separate installer)
http://code.google.com/p/colorlab/issues/detail?id=5
ColorLab: Disabled effect blending. This will be removed in v1.1.
ColorLab: Fixed ColorLab failing on Intel GPU
http://code.google.com/p/colorlab/issues/detail?id=1
ColorLab: Fixed uninstall not cleaning up everything in the registry.
ColorLab: Fixed System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException
http://code.google.com/p/colorlab/issues/detail?id=2
ColorLab: Fixed out of range levels slider:
http://code.google.com/p/colorlab/issues/detail?id=6
ColorLab: Fixed engine shutdown and D3D cleanup when closing Vegas.
ColorLab: Fixed duplicate D3D resource creation.
ColorLab: New installer package, hopefully better.
ColorLab: Improved logging.

V 1.0 RC 1
ColorLab: Fixed blend slider in Blur effect affecting B&W.
ColorLab: Fixed gamma in Adjust. Was being applied after output levels.
ColorLab: Fixed eyedroppers so the mouse cursor remains a cross no matter what
window you point at, until the left mouse button is clicked.
ColorLab: Added experimental chroma option to Blur, will perform chroma blur
and leave luma alone (this is done with respect to the BT.709/HD definition of
YCbCr).

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 ColorLab: Input levels in Adjust are now a three-arrow slider. The middle handle
controls gamma, by setting the desired mid-level. Removed gamma edit box, but
still showing the gamma value for reference.
ColorLab: Output levels moved to the end of the Adjust effect. Gamma performed
just after input min/max mapping.
ColorLab: Added Preset menus to Adjust, for ease of use.
ColorLab: Freshened up UI and fixed various inconsistencies.

V 1.0 B E T A 6
ColorLab: Fixed saturation control in Six from being BT.601 (SDTV) based to
BT.709 (HD/computer).
ColorLab: Suppressing CCD/sensor noise in the dark areas (R, G and B < 16), while
doing internal saturation calculations in B&W and Six. This helps against
amplification of error in such dark shades.
ColorLab: Fixed black/white input level eyedroppers in Adjust, was using BT.709
Luma internally. They now use pure RGB and wont clip based on the color you
pick.
ColorLab: Fixed the way the channel mixing works for B&W.
ColorLab: Fixed B&W, the secondary (CMY) color controls gave the wrong results.
ColorLab: Improved the B&W user interface with color coding. The bars are
ordered according to the color spectrum, and a bar marking the Unsaturated
contribution was added.
ColorLab: Fixed key frame being added when user just selected a different effect in
the chain.
ColorLab: Fixed Reset not working for final adjustments sliders in Adjust.
ColorLab: Fixed issue causing projects created with beta 4 and earlier giving .NET
error and/or showing bad settings in the dialogs.

V 1.0 B E T A 5
ColorLab: Many bug fixes to user interface and backend.
ColorLab: Renamed Levels effect to Adjust.
ColorLab: White Balance new function in Adjust!
ColorLab: Added gamma control to Adjust.
ColorLab: Blur - new effect! A fast Gaussian blur, with optionally independent
horizontal and vertical amounts. Additionally, supports a Glow effect based on
the blur. Experimental.
ColorLab: Removed individual R/G/B Levels control for now.
ColorLab: Removed luma standard selection from B&W effect.
ColorLab: Massive enhancements to the user interface. New sliders, eyedroppers,
and made some things easier to use.
All: Fixed some extraneous key frames being created.
All: Added dynamic allocation of video card resources.
All: Added simple garbage collection of video card resources.
All: Fixed possible crash due to threading model misbehavior.
All: More stability checks.
Installer: Fixed issue with multiple Windows users. ColorLab was only installed for
currently logged in user at time of install.

V 1.0 B E T A 4
All: New installer, hopefully fixing dependency issues and COM registration.

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 All: No longer installing files into users Application Data, should help installing for
"All users".
All: Rewritten backend for stability and performance.
All: Minor fixes.

V 1.0 B E T A 3
All: Aav6cc is now named AAV ColorLab.
All: Brand new settings interface written in .NET.
All: Fixed rendering bugs by implementing proper thread synchronization.
All: Improved pipelining for added performance. Should help out when you have
multiple instances of ColorLab/TransLab in the timeline.
6-vector: Added new "show mask" mode (lightness influence).
6-vector: Fixed so that "show mask" is turned off
6-vector: Lightness is now weighted again.
ColorLab: Effects can be enabled/disabled individually.
ColorLab: User can change the order of effects.
ColorLab: Can "blend" in each effect 0-100%.
Levels: New effect, much like the stock one.
Black&White: New effect, much like the one in Photoshop.
TransLab: New sub-plugin mimicking a few of the stock transitions but much
faster.
Fade: Just like the default stock transition when you overlay clips or make fade
in/outs.
Additive/Subtractive Dissolve: Just like the stock ones.

T HANK YOU
...for using AAV ColorLab! If you have questions, ideas, wishes, bug reports, etc,
contact me at: carl.adahl@gmail.com or by writing a comment on the blog:
http://aav6cc.blogspot.com.

Carl dahl (the author)

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