Exports have a colour cast

[Tom Morton]

is it just your screen? Get the exported version up on your screen side by side with AE (on the same screen), do they look different or the same?

If the exported version looks different to what you’re seeing in AE, then your export settings are probably at fault. However, if they look the same then it means that AE has exported accurately, but your screen has probably got different color settings to your editors / graders.

[Tom Morton]

Ah sorry, just seen that you’ve said your renders look the same as the edit. Tell us what machines and operating system you and the editors are using – and are you all using different screens or same screens?

The most likely cause is that you’re all using different graphics cards and different monitors, and all the colours are being interpreted differently.

One solution would be to make sure everyone’s screens are calibrated to the same standard using the same equipment.

Are you actually doing any colour correction / grading in AE yourself? If so, you need to be using scopes and not relying on your screen to produce accurate colours, this way you can be sure you’re avoiding any color casts. If you’re not doing any color correction, have you tried comparing some source files to the render on your editors machine and see if they look different?

[Andy Kiernan]

Hi Tom, thanks

No simply ingesting a clip from editor, then rendering it out from AE, send back to edit and it has changed the cols. So as you say itll be colour setting, but im not sure what, generally if we have a mis match between AE and NLE settings, (say, linear/ non linear) we can see a gamma shift but not a colour shift/ cast.

Its odd that it didnt used to do this, our workflow hasnt changed.

[Tom Morton]

It’s possible Adobe have changed something – I have a bugbear about this, but I keep all my auto-update settings firmly turned to “OFF” in Adobe products – I never update unless I have to because a lot of Adobe software tends to be buggy, especially new updates. Good to have something to blame anyway!

What format is the source footage in? Are you able to attach before and after files to look at?

[Andy Kiernan]

Yer, i may try re install, and not copy settings. I generally dont update until i have to aswell.

I cant share this footage, but I will see if I can get some other footage and test/ upload.

The source is footage from Alexa 35, MXF-Prores 4444XQ

Thanks for your help Tom, I rely on this place as ive no one else to ask!

[Tom Morton]

Ok no worries.

So just to check something: you import MXF-Prores 4444XQ footage into a new comp on your PC, export it as Prores4444 – am I right in thinking that the source and rendered export look identical on your PC, but they look different on the editors PC, with the export having a color cast?

Interested in this point so let me know… But I would also try exporting in some different formats as a test to see if it’s something to do with the codec. First thing I would try is to render it with Media Encoder with and without GPU acceleration. If the GPU is at fault, then rendering with Mercury engine only should show that up.

Also try an export with slightly different color settings in your project settings: change 3D interpolation to Tetrahedral if your gpu supports it, color space to “none” and working gamma as “Rec.709”. By default AE compositions use Rec.709 color space so this may help in preventing color conversions.

Lastly, try right clicking on the footage in the project panel of AE, go to “Interpret Footage” and click on the preset that’s being used (I use the default one called “Main”) and then go to the color tab – just make sure there’s nothing weird setup in here. I’ve attached a screenshot of my settings for this to compare against.

Let me know if any of this changes things?

[Andy Kiernan]

Hey man, I just wanted to say I am being pulled around on jobs at the mo and then on leave so ill be picking this testing back up in new year, I didnt want to disappear and seem ungrateful for you help. So again thank you hope you have good festives!

AK

[Tom Morton]

No problem Andy, I know what it’s like to jump between different jobs, always glad to help. Enjoy your xmas too!