colours messed up, cannot reliably match colours

[Zak Peric]

Watch my video on how to use colours in Apple Motion:
https://embryo.me.uk/wp/2010/05/24/best-colour-harmonies-in-apple-motion-video-tutorial/

[Mark Palmos]

Hi Zak,

Nice tutorial, but it does not answer my question.

I want a way to have a specific colour be identical after being input and output in Motion.

My client’s blue colour is 0, 175, 240 which is easy to create in Motion, but when I render it out, the colour is COMPLETELY different from their brand colour. Motion renders the colour and changes it.

Tx
Mark

[Zak Peric]

Firs thing is, are you using hex values. Use the link from the tutorial I gave you to download the Hex for Apple Colour. Install it. Then use it to get the correct colours. My tutorial was actually explaining this in detail. Anyway, you also need to tell me what codec are you using to render your animation. If I am you, I wold use Animation codec. As this is a codec that is uncompressed, if you are using h264 (MP4), then what your client wants is not possible, as the degradation of colour will occur due to the codec limitatios of H264 codec.

Also read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC

I hope this helps.
Let me know please..

[Mark Palmos]

Hello Zak

Hex values are just convenient, not better or more accurate than entering RGB or CMYK values.

I have entered the correct values. Exporting Prores 4444 or 422HQ or Apple Uncompressed all alter the colour upon export. If I bring the MOV back into the project it shows a different blue from what was originally there, so the problem is with Motion’s export.

Mark.

[Mark Spencer]

Here see if this is the problem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsiVZGNt-1U

—
Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net

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[Zak Peric]

Motion does have tenancies to get the colours wrong. As per Mark Spencer turorial. Hex values are very accurate and it is something you should use all the time in my opinion.

Can you please try to export again, this time use Animation codec not Apple Pro Res 444.
There is a difference in codecses, As far as I know 4444 is compressed while Animation codec is not.

If this does not work then copy all of your layers and paste them in a new Motion Document, save it, then re-render the animation.
You can also try as a last resort to delete Motion preferences, then render agin.

Let me know how you get on.

[Mark Palmos]

Hi Zak, thank again for the response mate,

On friday I had to match it by eye, using the same rgb values was way off (not even close!) I then rendered an uncompressed apple version and am now holding thumbs the client will approve.

I hope the motion team at apple know about this, it really isnt good enough to be used in a professional environment. It is embarrassing when they give me exact rgb values, and I give it back to them looking a different colour.

WRT the hex values, AFAIK, every rgb value has a hex value. the client supplied exact rgb values, so I would have to go with what they gave me, unfortunately Motion had a very different idea of what that blue colour should look like.

thanks again,
Mark.

[Mark Palmos]

Hi Mark, thanks for that, interesting, but not what I was experiencing.

The colours were a lot less similar to the ones in your example, which may have been accentuated by the bug you show here. Also the colour matching by picker is very flawed in my experience, because the picker in Motion will show different rgb values for the same colour, depending on which monitor I use the picker on!!! So it seems to pick a colour depending on what it looks like ON THE MONITOR rather than it’s real “computer value”.

Catch you later,
Mark

[Mikey Bouchereau]

If animation export is still doing a color shift, try using no compression at all. The Animation Codec is near lossless (and for most cases people will say its lossless, including myself) but like one of college professors used to say the only true lossless compression is to choose None as your codec, this will not introduce anything add a color shift.

Also I ran into a Color shift from AE and Motion when I had a AJA card installed by removing their uncompressed codec from my QuickTime folder it fixed the issue.

Mikey B!

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[Peter Heacock]

Mark,

I’m having a related issue. Where do I find the color values in Motion 5? I can’t right click below the view bank of controls. I’m trying to match the values of my blacks between layers.

Cheers!