How to fix colour differences between AI-generated clips

Colour drift between AI-generated clips is easiest to fix with colour match in Video by Zaweba. Pick a clip whose look you like as the reference, then colour match the others to it. The app measures a few frames of each and nudges brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth and tint towards the reference by adjusting an ordinary colour grade, so every change it makes stays editable in the Inspector.

Each AI generation is made more or less from scratch, so the same character in the same room can come out warmer in one shot, flatter in the next and a touch green in a third. Cut together, the episode flickers between looks. Colour match was built to even out exactly this kind of drift.

Matching shot by shot

Choose a reference. Find the clip that looks most like the episode should look: a good skin tone, sensible brightness, nothing odd in the colour. This is the shot the others will be nudged towards.

Match the others. Select a clip that looks off and colour match it to the reference. Video by Zaweba measures both and sets the clip's grade so it sits closer to the reference.

Check the result in context. Play across the cut rather than looking at the clip alone. A match that looks right in isolation can still jump at the edit.

Fine-tune by hand. Because the match is an ordinary grade, open Inspector > Colour and adjust exposure, contrast, temperature, tint or saturation if something still looks off.

Repeat through the episode. Work shot by shot, matching each to the same reference, so everything converges on one look.

Tools for the last few percent

The comparison view, in the View menu, shows a reference frame beside the picture, which makes small differences easier to judge than flicking between clips.

Scopes give numbers. View > Scopes has a waveform, RGB parade, vectorscope with a skin line and a histogram. If two shots of the same face sit at different places on the vectorscope, their skin tones differ.

The colour page brings it together. View > Colour page shows the clips along the top, a big viewer with histogram and RGB parade readouts and a before and after split, with only the colour controls at the side.

Copy and paste helps when several clips drifted the same way. Once one clip is fixed, its grade can be copied and pasted onto similar clips.

Adding a look on top

Matching makes clips consistent; a look makes them stylish. Keep the two jobs separate. Match every clip to the reference first. Then put the creative look on an adjustment layer above the whole section, from Graphics > Adjustment layer, or use a LUT or one of the twelve built-in looks there. The look then sits evenly over matched shots rather than fighting each clip's own correction.

If you build episodes with the Episode Builder, a series template can store the dream look along with captions, music and export settings, so the style stays the same from episode to episode.

Where colour match falls short

Don't pick an extreme reference. A very dark or very saturated shot pulls everything towards it.

Don't expect miracles from very different shots. Colour match nudges overall brightness and colour. It won't change the lighting direction or turn a night shot into day. If one generation is far off, a fresh generation may be quicker.

Don't grade twice by accident. If clips have their own match and an adjustment layer adds a look, remember which layer does which job before changing either.

Video by Zaweba is free software that runs offline on Windows, with no account, so your clips and their grades stay on your own PC.