8 bit or 10 bit

[Chris Smith]

For 10 bit pipeline, use the 16 bit project. It will just “downconvert” on render out back to 10-bit. Yes 8 bit will kill your bitdepth. However, make sure you have at least 10 bit all the way through your process. One bit of 8 bit will downgrade the whole lot.

Although I’ve seen arguments that Digibeta is 8 bit running through a 10 bit pipe. Don’t know.

Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com

[Rich Rubasch]

Also, be sure to check your renders after you run them throug AE, especially if you are just fixing part of the shot and don’t want to change the overall color balance. There was a thread a while back about how AE handles 10 bit color space and in my experience it brings up the blacks and overall luminance. Not good. I simply brought a 10-bit clip into AE and dropped it into a new comp and rendered it to the 10-bit codec and it was definately not the same clip. No solution except to export it as 8-bit.

Wonder now how using a 16-bit comp might have worked.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Chris Smith]

Rich, I would repeat your experiment but see if it was the bit depth change or a possible YUV-RGB-YUV conversion that changed your color values. Color space conversion will definitely shift things around, but I question if bit depth would.

Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com

[David Go]

Thanks everybody for the info. I’m a little surprised there isn’t a 10-bit option, but if the 16-bit covers that then I guess it’s not necessary.

I have noticed a slight colour shift, but I just make sure that I put the entire shot through AE and then the entire shot has the same colour shift, which is pretty minor anyway.

Thanks.