• Adobe After Effects

  AE/Avid Express Pro Import/Export Issues

  Posted by Konk Michaels on December 1, 2005 at 4:49 am

  I’ve had this problem ever since I’ve had my system…..If I want to export a clip from AXP to work in After Effects…I’ll export it as a QT ref movie (no Avid codec)….and then import it into my After Effects Composition….NTSC DV 720×480, Pixel Aspect Ratio-D1/DV NTSC (0.9) Frame Rate 29.97, Full Resolution

  I’ll then render the Comp using “Best Quality”, “Full Resolution” with Animation Codec….

  When I then try to import this rendered QT into AXP..the black levels and color shift dramatically darker and more saturated.

  I’ve tried importing back into AXP with all kinds of combinations… “601, non-square”..”maintain, non-square”…”RGB”…”RGB Dithered”…or “601”…and the result is always the same…crushed black levels and too much saturation.

  If I try to import the original QT reference back into AXP..everything is fine…there is no loss in quality…the problem appears only with the rendered QT from After Effects…

  I’m using DV25 footage digitized from DVC Pro and BetaCam SP.

  Running AXP 4.1.1 with MOJO, OS 10.2.8, AE 6.0 Pro, and Quicktime 6.5.3

  I’ve been able to work around this problem for the most part by rendering graphics with Animation Codec and Million+ alpha chennels and importing them into AXP …however there is still s slight crushing of blacks (although less noticeable) on the graphics…but at least my background video remains unscathed.

  I used to use this method all the time with my old AVR 77 MC Express and AE 4.0…with no problems…but this has been a problem since the move to AXP.

  I’ve been having this problem on my home system, so I tried to do the same thing on my office systems today….One is a 2.5 ghz Dual running 10.3.6 with AXP 4.3 and AE 6.0….installed from the same disk as my AE at home…and the other system is our Adrenaline running on 10.3.6…I experienced the same problem on all three systems using the same media and diferent media as well…anything rendered in AE seems to be crushing my blacks and over saturating the colors….this is leading me to think I have an improper settiing in my Render Que or import menu back into AVID after rendering.

  Again..if I export a QT ref out of AXP or Adrenaline and import it right back in ..it is seamless…but if I add graphics and render using Animation codec in AE….everything gets crushed.

  Any suggestions on what to try next?

  Am I missing a setting somewhere along the way in either AE, or AXP…or is this the result of a known bug in 4.1.1 or AE 6.0 that’s subsequently been addressed? Since it seems to be happening on different workstations with different AVID versions…I think I might be having a problem with a setting in AE.

  Any input is appreciated.

  Thanks.

  Nicholas Toth replied 20 years, 8 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Nicholas Toth

  December 3, 2005 at 4:31 pm

  get the avid codec and drop it in your codecs folder —
  mmmmmm meridian

  I’ve had a thousand problems with the same thing. I found that if you stick with the avid_uncompressed meridian that the quality is alright and pretty consistent — and its very avid friendly. This is coming from a 3d/ae guy too — so it might work — or it might not.

  best of luck!

  Nicholas Toth
  Freelance Animator
  nicholastoth.com

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