Contour v2.1.6 by Procolorist for DaVinci [Mac]

Contour

Here's how Contour helps you create beautiful looks that won't ever break, faster than any other toolset:

1. Contour uses unique color science that "listens" to what you want, then adapts the way it works in real time based on your creative intent

This ability to "listen" is the most significant feature of Contour, and you'll see it throughout many features of the plugin.

It allows Contour to quickly translate the creative decisions you make with each slider into a look that looks beautiful on every shot — and that won't break.

This ability to listen and build a stunning, unbreakable look based on your creative intent is like having your own color science team on every grade. Just like Hollywood's top colorists.

2. Contour makes sure you spend your time on the right things

Let's say you have 5 minutes to make a look.

If you only got one part of your look done in those 5 minutes, and the one part you got done was your contrast curve, then you'd have spent that 5 minutes well.

And if you were able to get two pieces done, and those two pieces were your contrast and split tone, then you'd have spent your time well.

This is Contour's approach to how it walks you through its modules: making sure you spend your time wisely instead of worrying about the proper order of operations for putting together the different parts of a look.

Contour's modules go in this order: Curve, Split-tone, Saturation, Density, and Hue.

If you spend your time for creating your look by going through these modules in order, you'll always have made the best look you could in the time you have.

3. Contour makes sure you won't break your clients’ images right in front of them during a grade, or have the DP calling you because the show LUT you built him broke on set.

Contour gives you ultimate creative control — but there's one thing it won't let you do: break your image.

This goes back to Contour's "listening" capabilities and being able to adapt.

Since Contour can understand what you're trying to create, it can change its math in real time to give you what you want while also making sure the operations won't break your image.

This saves you 2, 3, 4 hours (or more) of testing, and saves you the pain of looking like an amateur when your look breaks mid-project or on set.

4. Contour's toolkit lets you build everything you want, without any of the drawbacks, so you can push looks farther without ever "showing your hand"

Here's an example: Split-toning is one of your best tools for adding more depth to an image, but it's also one of the easiest ways to make things look weird or make your work as a colorist obvious.

Contour gives you tools to keep this from happening.

It uses advanced saturation masks to cleanly exclude neutral areas, letting you pump more split-toning without giving yourself away by making your blacks crazy blue and the whites of your subject's eyes yellow.

I'll share more about these options in the tools section later.

5. Contour keeps fresh ideas and inspiration at your finger tips

Contour has "profiles", which are editable looks you can load into the plugin. This can be used for inspiration, to learn from, or to give you a head start on your look design.

You can think of them as editable LUTs.

There are two ways to get a profile:

1. You can save your looks after you've created them so you can recall them later

2. You can get profiles from other colorists (I'm giving you six profiles with Contour to use, learn from, or be inspired by)

3. Contour makes it easy to be a master of your tools, making sure you always know how to work towards any look you wan't to create

Don't remember what a slider does? Just hover your mouse over it's name and a tooltip will appear reminding you how it works.

Want to go deeper and review the manual instead? Just click the help button at the bottom of the plugin.

7. Contour comes with in-depth look design education

With any annual or perpetual license, you'll get my new 2-day look dev course for free as a bonus.

Inside that course you'll further the master of your toolset and be granted insider knowledge for building any type of look your clients ask for.