I was just wondering if anyone knew how to Digitally make Day into night in final cut pro.

Start with the Color smoothing tool under effects/key/ color smoothing -4:1:1 for DV (4:2:2) is forbeta or better. Next go to color correction under video effects and work with the 3 way color corrector. The Overall tone your trying to add is dark blue. Just mess with the optical color pickers and see what looks best for your footage. Becasue your working with compressed video the more color correction you add the more jagged artifacting your video will end up. Try to keep it as minimal as possible. The color smoother will help but only so much. You'll also want to mess brightness and contrast in either the 3 way color corrector or seperately in video filters/image control/brightness and contrast. More contrast will help add darkness to your blacks and take out some of the washed out video look.



That is the short of it.

Colorists and timers in the industry make a real good living out of their art and there's a reason.

It will get you an effect but don't expect it to be perfect.

If you want more detailed color correction add new color correctors to the clip and work in small areas or on specific spots that you want to treat. It all depends on how much time your willing to put into it.


Try Creativecow.net for FCP help. They're a great resource.

You also won't have very good luck if you're showing the sky.. typically that will give away that it's a 'day for night' shot.

you can apply a gradient over the top of the image to darken the sky more if you did shoot it during the day...it'll help, but will still be somewhat visible.

General recipe is: raise contrast, lower saturation, push to blue. all can be done from the color corrector in both final cut pro and express.

Hey guys,
just wanted to give you a HUGE thank you because I've been straining to make my shots look like night. I could only get a rainy day effect, but now I have night on my side!! Thanks again!!

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Sadaka,
Wink Entertainment©

screen shot? Love to see before and after with settings.

Thanks for all the info. I was curious as well.

We're actually doing a big thing on this here right now... this thread is a bit older:

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=15480&page=4