Apple Prores 4:2:2 output is darker than QT Animation?

[Del Chapple]

sounds like a gamma issue. export color bars from FCP as reference in both codecs, then monitor them via FCP in the video scopes compared to the original generator to see which one is not so truthful..

del

you cant hear my inner voice scream… can you..?

[Del Chapple]

i just did some tests and now for some reason my prorez gamma export is funky across both 422 and rgb colorspaces. I’d trust animation for now.

del

you cant hear my inner voice scream… can you..?

[Tapio Haaja]

I just recognised that since last update AE handles all the RGB-material with gamma 2,2. And this is only case with Intel-based Macs. PPC Macs still assume that RGB-material is gamma 1,8. Maybe this is a bug? I don’t know.

So when you export with Animation Codec it renders it out with gamma 2,2. And if you import that file to FCP for example you must change the source gamma to 2,2 from browser (by default FCP assumes everything is made with gamma 1,8, default gamma of Mac OS X).

You should also notice that now adays AE imports all the RGB-material with gamma 2,2 (if you don’t have color management turned on). I just noticed some of my old projects looked different than before… I think Adobe did this because they want AE projects look same on Mac and PC. This has not been the case in past.

But if this is the case ProRes should be right looking versiont. And if you want your Animation files look right in Quicktime Player you can but there adjustment layer with gamma 0,824 before rendering out. This changes gamma from 2,2 to 1,8.

[Del Chapple]

I had a little time to day and was able to confirm that from fcp on an intel macpro that the gamma or “gama” ala “Dumpster” on a Proz rez qt file render was definately 1.8 (1.798ish). I’ll give AE a shot tommorrow and see whats up. Something is afoot…

del

you cant hear my inner voice scream… can you..?

[Jonathan Kempe]

Thanks for your help.

But I really do not get a grip of this. Its so confusing. I tried to change the color settings in After Effects… in Projects settings/ color settings I changed to 16bit color, then the video output became lighter, but when I render to quicktime animation, that file looks even much more bright than the video output in After Effects.

I want the video output in After Effects to look the same as the quicktime animation file I render from AE. It seems to be inpossible??

[Jonathan Kempe]

I´ve also tried to set the color working space (in project settings in AE) to for example PAL/SECAM. But when render out in qt animation codec the profile does not seem to have any affect at all.

So the best I can do for now is to work in AE 16 bits color space and before I render I revert to 8 bits color. Then the quicktime file looks almost as in AE?

[Del Chapple]

This is bugging me also. On older QT files i can find the gamma value. but i just exported a RGB animation from CS3 on a mac pro intel and there is no gamma flag in the quicktime file. its simply not there. I guess apple is assuming rgb gamma levels which is causing pc encoder issues for me..

del

you cant hear my inner voice scream… can you..?

[Jonah Walker]

I am finding the same thing with an Animation Codec coming out of After Effects. I see no Gamma Tag.

I am personally having an issue going from AE CS5 on Snow Leopard to AVID MEDIA COMPOSER 4.0 and everything is getting much darker when imported into Media Composer. I am thinking this has something to do with the 2.2 and 1.8 gamma’s, but that does not help me fix it. The same thing happens with Animation Codec, AVID DN HD, AVID 1-1 and Uncompressed 8 and 10 bit! WTF! This is driving me nuts!

– Jonah Lee Walker

Video Editor, After Effects Artist
https://www.whaleofatale.net