Applying operations to the Sequence

Sequence operations let you apply color adjustments to your entire sequence at once, making them ideal for creating a consistent overall look or applying final refinements. Because they are processed after clip and group-level adjustments, they affect the fully composited image, giving you a clean, unified result. This makes Sequence operations especially useful for applying global corrections or stylistic treatments that tie your whole project together.

How Sequence operations work

The Sequence level of a grade lets you add operations that affect the entire sequence at once. It’s a fast way to apply Adjust or Style operations that make a corrective or stylistic change to all the clips in your program.

In the image processing pipeline, Sequence operations are applied after all compositing occurs to the affected tracks, so these color operations are added cleanly to the end result of all compositing (as compared to Custom Group operations that are added to each individual clip that’s a member of that group).

Sequence operations are always the last color operations in a grade. The advantage to this is if you add a Style operation that makes heavy modifications to the image (such as compressing contrast, significant desaturation, or squeezing the highlights), all operations you apply upstream using Clip operations (which are always first) or Custom Group operations (which come between Clip and Sequence operations) will be applied to the un-crushed image data as it appears before these intensive operations.

Otherwise, there’s nothing special about operations you use at the Sequence level. You can use the Plus dropdown to create either Adjust or Style operations, or you can drag already existing operations from wherever they appear now into the Sequence level.

Another way to think about how to use Sequence operations is as a way to make lowest-common-denominator adjustments that apply to the entire project, such as increasing contrast and adding a bit of warmth, or adding a touch of film-emulation color and contrast, while using Custom Group operations to add additional operations that will differ from scene to scene. Many refer to the type of operations you add via Sequence operations as a “show look.” However, this is a flexible workflow, and how you use these different levels of operational management is up to you.

Limitations of Sequence operations

Sequence operations cannot be masked or keyframed because they encompass multiple clips.

Using the default Sequence Style operation

By default, every new sequence has an unused Style operation, labeled “Sequence Style 1,” that appears within the Sequence level of the Color Controls panel. This operation makes it easy to immediately add either a Style preset or your own custom modules to create a “show look” that gives your entire program a starting point. You don’t have to use this operation; it’s empty by default, but it’s there if you want it.

Omitting video tracks from Sequence operations

You can choose to omit one or more video tracks at the top of your sequence from all Sequence operations. For example, if you have titles or graphics that you want to keep “clean,” you can edit them onto video tracks that Sequence operations don’t affect. By default, new sequences are set to Always Top Track, which means that all clips on all tracks are affected by Sequence operations.

To choose which video tracks are affected by Sequence operations:

After you’ve set a track position, an icon appears to the right of the track header in Edit mode that shows which track is the Sequence operation boundary. You can select the icon to choose another track from the menu, or to select Always Top Track if you want Sequence operations to affect all clips all the time. When set to Always Top Track, the icon disappears.