• Adobe After Effects

  workflow problem

  Posted by Jef Huey on November 22, 2009 at 5:35 pm

  Hi All,

  I am doing some workflow testing for a large HD project and have hit a snag. Sorry in advance for the long post, but the devil is in the details.

  First my system specs: Mac 2×2.8 Quad Core, OS 10.5.8 10G ram.
  AE 8.0.2.27
  QT 7.6.2
  FCP 7.01
  Avid MC 4.0.2

  Ok, on to it. I want to test color accuracy and quality for elements created in AE and passed to other systems.

  To start I created a 1280×720 29.97 16 bit color comp (not color managed to start) with a black solid onto which I placed the basic 4-Color Gradient. I put a small scaling move on it.

  I rendered this out with several codecs and brought them back into AE for comparison. The codecs were as follows:

  dnx145
  dnx220x
  avid1-1x
  prores
  proresHQ
  tif image sequence

  To compare, I placed the imported files on separate layers above my original image. A rectangular mask was placed on the imported layer in the middle 50% of the image to allow a quick visual comparison. An adjustment layer was placed at the top of the comp with a curves effect set to crush the gamma to amplify any differences. I also did a difference matte comparison between the imported and original element.

  The results were disappointing at best. In order of good to bad with respect to levels the list was:

  tif image sequence – imperceptible level difference, perceptible banding increase on some areas.

  avid1-1x – imperceptible level difference, much greater banding increase on the whole image (almost as if it were not 10bit).

  dnx220x – perceptibly darker overall, banding similar but in different areas than original.

  dnx145 – perceptibly darker overall, banding a bit more severe.

  proresHQ and prores – significantly brighter overall (something must be wrong!), could not tell banding difference to due brightness increase.

  Looking at the difference matte showed some interesting results, but as I am not totally comfortable in what it is telling me yet, I will ignore that for now.

  But to the heart of the matter. Why are the ProRes levels so far off? I did some web searching and based on that I turned color management on to Rec 709 for the project and interpreted all imports as Rec 709. No difference.

  I feel I must be doing something wrong in my workflow here. Any insight?

  Thanks,

  Jef

  Mark Walczak replied 16 years, 9 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Mark Walczak

  November 25, 2009 at 5:51 pm

  This seems like a pretty advanced post – well over my head. You may want to post this over at fxguide (https://www.fxguide.com). I know that Stu Maschwitz is heavily involved with color profiles/etc, so you may want to stop by his site (https://prolost.com/) and shoot him an email…

  Hope this helps!

  What makes you explode?
  http://www.explosivegraffix.com

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