Click on the icon for a quick preview of the exercise and the result.

Looking at the “5_Gladiator_for_CC” shot, we see that it lacks contrast and we that could also highlight the talent’s face a little bit to make it stand out against the back of the scene.
To achieve this, we will duplicate the shot: the duplicate layer will be used to mask out only the talent’s face and color correct only that specific area.

1. Continue with the timeline used in the previous exercise, this timeline should have two layers.
If not, add another layer by clicking L+.
Timeline options should be: Ripple End and Snap Closest.
Also, deactivate Trim.
2. Press ESC to see the Player.
3. Select the "5_Gladiator_for_CC" shot on the timeline.
4. Hold F and drag the shot directly up.
5. Select the clip on the top level and make sure the focus point is also at this level.

To move the focus point, use the (UP) and (DOWN) Arrows.

We will create a mask around the talent’s face. A wipe soft effect is an easy way to create a mask as a soft effect. Although the default behavior for the wipe effect is a basic left-to-right wipe, we can change it to a new freeform shape.

1. Enable the Wipe Soft Effect.
2. Deactivate Autokey animation (A).
3. Click the Editor Button (E).
4. Choose All Nodes from the selection box and click Delete and Confirm to delete the default wipe shape.
Note: These controls are at the right corner of the interface.
5. Make sure you are at the first frame.
6. Choose Preview FX display mode.
7. Select Full Res display.

8. Create a new shape; start by clicking Add (next to Geometry).
9. Draw a shape around the gladiator’s face by clicking around it.
To close the shape at the end, click on the first point or click on the Close button (next to Geometry).
10. Fine-tune the shape, using operators to modify the existing shape:
Move point or SPACEBAR+M, Delete point or SPACEBAR+D and Add point or SPACEBAR+A.

Note: If you’re getting a black shape, this is probably the preview mode is set to No Preview, which will not show the result of the current effect by default. If this is the case, switch the preview mode to Preview FX.

Once we are happy with our shape, we can check the matte that it has created. The edge of the matte is hard edged and this would probably be very apparent when we color correct through it. So we will soften the matte next.

1. From the View menu, choose Matte, or press F3.
2. Drag the Offset value to the right.
This applies a uniform amount of softness, either inside or outside of the shape.
In this case, this is not what we want; we will apply an “Advanced Gradient” instead.
3. Undo the offset, press BACKSPACE.
Note that you can also CTRL-Click on the Offset field to reset it to default value.
4. Switch the Softness button to Advanced Gradient.
This enables you to make some areas of the falloff wider and some areas narrower.
5. Display the Result view, or press F4.

6. Choose the Scale mode in the operator list (default is Move).
7. CTRL-Drag a selection box to select the topmost points.
8. Zoom in if necessary, the Zoom hotkey is ALT+SPACEBAR and drag.
9. Drag the outer row to the right to offset the points closer to the center.
10. Drag the inner row closer to the center.
You can see that you get a more defined edge along the helmet.
11. Toggle between the Matte F3 and Result F4 views to preview the matte.
12. CTRL-Drag a box around the bottom points (along the chin).
13. Make the falloff wider so that we don’t see a hard edge on the neck.
14. Select the Move mode again, SPACEBAR+M.
15. Click outside of the shape to deselect points.
16. If necessary fine-tune the shape by moving points individually.

The result is a wide gradient at the bottom and a very narrow soft edge at the top.

We have a nicely fitting shape but when you scroll the positioner, you see that there is a problem: the shape does not follow the motion of the gladiator. To address this, we will use the Tracker tool to animate this shape.

1. Still inside the Wipe Soft FX; make sure you’re at the first frame.
2. Set the Stabilizer’s Rotation and Scaling parameters to ON.
By enabling these options we enable two-point tracking. Since the talent moves and rotates his head, these options will make sure that we have the most accurate tracking possible.
3. Enter the Stabilizer module by clicking on its button in the tool bar.
Note that the Stabilizer module is used to either stabilize or track shots as seen in the Tracker UI tour.
4. Tracker 1 is selected. Reposition it and drag it on the edge of the left eye.
Note: You can pick the tracker by the middle to move it, or hold CTRL and drag next to it.
A magnifying glass effect helps you in properly positioning the tracker.
5. Select Tracker 2 and CTRL-Drag it to the edge of the other eye.
6. Change Selected to Gang mode to make sure both trackers share the same parameters.
7. Increase the Track Width and Height setting a little bit (around 20).
8. Click Analyse. The trackers step through every frame and create two tracking paths.
9. RETURN to the Wipe effect and scrub the shot.
We can see that the shape precisely follows the talent’s face.
10. Exit the Wipe effect.

If the trackers get lost near the end of the shot, fix them: Scroll back just before it gets bad and disable the Fixed option, which means that the trackers will update their targets at every frame. Click (Analyse) to re-analyze the frames from that point on.

Now that we have isolated the face of the talent with a tracked mask, we can color correct only this selection.

1. Display the Timeline Player, press ESC.
2. Make sure the top clip is still selected.
3. Enable Colour Correction by clicking the CC soft effect.
4. Deactivate Autokey animation (A).
5. Enter the CC Editor (E).
6. Switch CC to CW to access the Colour Warper.
7. Switch to the Overlay UI for a bigger image, press CTRL+ESC.
8. Adjust the contrast of the talent’s face:
Lower the Black point.
Raise the White point.
9. Drag the Midtones Trackball about ten units towards Magenta.
This removes some of the green tint that persists due to the fact that this was shot on greenscreen.
10. Raise the Saturation to get a little bit more skin tone out of the gladiator.
What is nice here is that we have only affected the talent’s face and we have managed to add a lot of highlights to it. Feel free to experiment with your own settings.
11. Press Exit.
12. To check your result, click on the CC LED to toggle the Colour Warper’s result on and off.
13. Feel free to color correct the background layer.

You can create a container to collapse both of these layers into one. A virtual container is very convenient to simplify the timeline by grouping multiple clips into one segment which you can edit or effect with Soft FX.

1. Make sure that the focus point is on the topmost layer.
2. CTRL-Click both clips to select them.
3. Click on Container (bottom-left of Timeline).
This will place both selected clips into a virtual container and collapse them into one clip.
4. Select the clip and click Process.
5. Press T to replay the shot in the full screen player (CTRL+ESC).

Now that several layers or segments are grouped in a container you can, for example, apply a global color correction on it. To modify the layers included in a container, double-click the container segment on the timeline, or click on the (Container) editor (E). Click on (Exit) to exit the container and go back to the timeline.

As previously mentioned, it is recommended to save your work regularly at every important step.

1. Choose Record Area in the Item Box.
2. Be sure that your “Smoke_Essentials” library is selected in the Library box.
3. Press Save.
4. Enter a name for the new Record Area folder, such as “Essentials_Record_05”.
5. The Record Area is saved in the currently active Library.