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Some Computers “Interpreting (ProRes 444) Footage” as TRILLIONS
Heres what is happening:
ProRes 444 Footage is changing brightness (gamma i assume) when we toggle between 8bit and 16bit modes in the project
Heres what we have deduced:
We have a few dozen mac pros with After Effects CS4 installed. When we bring in a ProRes 444 piece of Alexa footage (12bit) some of the computers say its “Millions” of color in the Project Tab, and some of the computers say its “Trillions” of colors in the Project Tab.
I am almost positive its supposed to be interpreted to “Millions” of colors. I can not find a way to “Re-Interpret” the color depth. I have looked in the Interpret footage dialog.
I know there was this problem with ProRes being interpreted as sRGB instead of Rec709 and the solution was to modify the File AE uses to set those on input. Here is that thread:
https://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2009/12/prores-4444-colors-and-gamma-s.html
I assume its a the same situation but with bit depth instead of Color Space; Anyone Know how to change how After Effects sets the Color Depth on the import of ProRes 444 Footage so that it gets set to Millions of colors instead of Trillions?
There is a XML file labeled “MediaCoreQTDepthRulesCS4” Here:
[hard drive]/users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/
Could this be it, if so what would need to be added to get AE to interpret ProRes 444 as “Millions”
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3 Replies
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Millions is 8-bit color. ProRes, being 10 or 12 bits, should be interpreted as Trillions of Colors.
Do you have up-to-date versions of CS4 and Quicktime on all those machines?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Do you know that for a fact or are you just guessing?
If open up the footage on in Quicktime Pro and bring up the Media Info window it states its “Millions” (on any and all computers). Since ProRes444 is 12bit it seems to make sense that it would be in “Millions+” category, but not in the “Trillions” of colors since I think you could lump anything from 8bit to 15bit into the millions Category and 16bit is where it becomes Trillions. But that is a reasonable guess which is only partially substantiated from what I have read elsewhere on the web.
Quicktime and CS4 are all up to date
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[Frederick Ross] “Do you know that for a fact or are you just guessing? “
I know that for a fact. You can’t fit more than 8 bpc in Millions of Colors. 10-bit video requires Trillions of Colors, though it will not use the entire 16-bit depth.
Why QuickTime reports Millions, though — that one I can’t explain.
[Frederick Ross] “Since ProRes444 is 12bit it seems to make sense that it would be in “Millions+” category”
The plus sign indicates the presence of an alpha channel.
Do all these computers have FCP installed? If so, are they on the same version?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events
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