Magic Bullet Looks

Tool Chain

The Tool Chain is the heart of Magic Bullet Looks, with various controls and parameters you can use to adjust various aspects of your shot.

How it works

Tool Chain: Tools are processed from left to right and can be applied from any of the Tool's categories, following the same path as light through a real-world cinematography workflow.

Delete a tool: To remove a tool from your Look, just drag the tool icon below the Tool Chain. When you release the tool, it gets deleted. If a tool is selected, you can also use the Delete (Del) or Backspace key to remove the tool. You can also right click a tool and choose to delete it.

Pin a tool: Sometimes you may want to apply an adjustment before browsing the presets. In order to be sure your tool does not get removed when viewing presets, you can pin it to the toolchain. To do this, Right click on your chosen Tool and select "Pin".

Input Is and Output Is: Depending on what sort of footage you are working with,  you may want to adjust the internal color handling done within the Looks Builder

• By default, Input Is assumes you are working with an sRGB profile. If you are shooting with a different profile, choose from one of the presets to prepare your footage for the Looks Library (e.g. if you shot in SLog3, select SLog3). The "Input Is" tool follows special rules, once you've made a change your settings will persist on that clip until it reaches the Output Is parameter at the end of the chain.
• Output Is can either process a different or the same color profile on the clip's way out of the Looks Builder.
  
  • You can use the Lookup button in the Info Bar to change the color lookup between your input and output stages, which will be reflected in the Preview Lookup section of the Output Is tool.

Reset: This control will remove all the tools in your Tool Chain. Letting you start fresh.

Save Look: Clicking the "Save Look" icon will bring up a dialog that will allow you to save your current Tool Chain as a Look. It will also allow you to choose a Look Name and a Custom Folder to store it in.

Bypass on/off switches

You can enable or disable the tools in the Tool Chain area by clicking the Tool Bypass icon. This icon is called the Tool Bypass Switch because it tells Magic Bullet Looks to 'bypass', or ignore, tools that are loaded in the Tool Chain. When a tool is Bypassed, the icon will turn red. Clicking on the red icon, will turn the tool back on.

Main Bypass: Turn on/off the entire Tool Chain with the Tool Chain button to the left of the Strength control. Turning the chain off shows a preview without any tools. The Main Bypass will not affect your "Input Is" or "Output Is" settings.

Tool Bypass: Turn on/off the individual tools with the Bypass switch at the top right of each tool chip. Turning off the icon shows a preview without that tool applied

Keyboard shortcut: The '' key is a new helpful shortcut for toggling the Main Bypass on and off. This keyboard command saves a lot of time when previewing your look.

Strength: The strength control allows you to adjust the global strength of all the tools in your toolchain. This control has a special link with the strength slider that is located outside of the Looksbuilder, allowing you to adjust it again once you return to your host. 

Cancel: Clicking on the "X" icon or pressing "Esc", will close the Looksbuilder without applying any of the corrections that have been made during the current session.

Apply: Clicking on the "Checkmark" icon or pressing "Enter", will close the Looksbuilder and apply the current look to your footage.

Add Tools to the Chain

There are a few ways to add a tool to the Tool Chain. When you drag a tool from the Tool Drawer over the Preview Area or Tool Chain, that tool will appear in the Chain with overlays and controls ready for editing.

• One, when you double-click a tool in the Tools Drawer, it will automatically load into the Chain.
• Two, you can drag-and-drop a tool from the Tool Drawer to the Tool Chain area.
• Three, you can drag-and-drop a tool from the Tool Drawer to the Preview Area and it will load in the Chain.
• Four, when you click a Look Preset in the Looks Drawer, the related tools will load into the Chain.

Tools are automatically positioned in the chain wherever it would normally get processed in its left-to-right processing, but you are free to move it anywhere in the chain.