Adding color to black and white videos

Hi there, I am trying to figure out a way to add R G B separately to either the black or white parts of a video loop. I like to work with black and white because they are lighter and adding color afterwards brings lots of possibilities. Much thanks

Hi Mauren,

Currently, the way to add colour to other video content is by using the Mask blend mode, or by using the Keyer.

You can change the blend mode in the Extender device. Once you put a track on Mask, all previous tracks are masked by the content of that track. An example of two tracks with blend modes and their content:

Track A Track B
Normal Blend Mode Mask Blend Mode
Color content Black & White Content

The result will be that all white pixels from Track B will be ‘filled’ with the content from Track A.

Note that Track B will mask all previous tracks, which is not that useful when using multiple mask tracks. So in that case, you would want to group Track A and B. When grouped, these tracks are masked inside the group track, but the group track itself will blend without masking with the other tracks in the set.

Alternatively, the Keyer can be used to achieve the same effect, but has some additional functionality. The black and white content of a track can be filled with content from other tracks. The track on which the Keyer is put acts as the matte. The threshold defines the brightness that divides the white and black parts of the matte. Then, you can choose what content should be visible inside the white or black parts of the matte, by selecting the Fill (white) and Back (black).

Hope this helps!

Best,
Hidde

Thanks so much, I’ll try that ; ):sunglasses:

Hi Mauren,

Just wanted to let you know that with the new ColorControl plugin in 0.8.2 you will be able to add color to the black and white parts of a video!

Cheers,
Hidde