CMYK

[Steve Roberts]

Nope.

[Amit Zinman]

darn

[Steve Roberts]

I’m wrong, sorry Amit. It can import CMYK.

Use common practices and settings for users of both Photoshop and After Effects, which share color management workflows. CMYK files can be imported and are color managed.

[Amit Zinman]

Sure, it can be imported. But can I work with my regular AE comps in CMYK space?

[Steve Roberts]

Good question. It probably converts to RGB in the color-management stage. If I were at the CS3 station, I could confirm your suspicions.

“So what good are ya, Steve?” 🙂

Anybody else?

[Curious Turtle]

Um… sort of.

You can import CMYK files (in CS3), you can even use Walker Effects Color Space to work in a CMYK space.

But you won’t be able to output CMYK files, and even with Walker Effects I don’t know what’s happening internally in the move between the different gamuts.

I think I’ve asked this question before today, but what are you trying to do?

If you’re trying to apply effects to certain channels in CMYK then Walker Effects should do that. If it’s something else, let us know.

Cheers,
Ben

Curious Turtle Professional Video
Training | Editing |Support

http://www.curiousturtle.com

[Rhett Robinson]

Are you asking because most of your source material is CMYK? I worked in printing for a LONG time, so I have that issue as well… Everything should import fine, which is okay for the vector art (generally), but not so good with photos. It’s not as severe as what use to happen when an RGB image, was printed in color without converting it with color management (most RIPS will automatically convert to CMYK), so you can expect a pretty wide color shift. In most cases it’s easy to fix (set up a photoshop or illustrator action with correct color management settings).

[Adam Taylor]

i don’t think you will be able to import the individual layers in a CMYK Photoshop psd. I had exactly this problem yesterday – AE simply flattened it all into one layer then imported that.

I had to convert the psd to RGB in Photoshop before i could import a psd with all layers available. One thing to be aware of is that doing this will often mean that adjustment layers will get lost, as it seems they cannot be converted between the two colour modes.

I got around that by making a dupe of the layers affected by the adjustment layer and merging them with the Adjustment layer – that way, in AE you will have both the affected version and unaffected version of those layers.

adam

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Amit Zinman]

I am working with 3dmax renders, previously composited for an animation series. Now, instead of animation, I get fresh renders of single larger frames for printing of a book. So instead of doing the whole thing over in Photoshop I enlarge everything with AE and export to Photoshop for some final touches. But of course in Photoshop I can’t change the color of individual objects in case there’s a problem, so the whole process is cumbersome and time consuming