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Helpful tips on common color problems in AE
Color Problems no more…
After Effects comes with a built in edge and halo remover for high-contrast, saturated colors. File->project settings, Linearize working space 32bpc. This works for image re-sampling, blending layers, motion blur, and anti-aliasing.
Most people wonder why After Effects makes their Premiere footage look darker, well, just change working space to (SD NTSC) or (HDTV rec 709) 32bpc and it will brighten up just as it looked after color correcting in Premiere. Your DVD’s will thank you.
“For HD video dailies, use the Color Profile Converter effect to “bake in” film looks and convert colors for accurate playback of those film looks on HD monitors.”
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4 Replies
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[Chris Wright] “After Effects comes with a built in edge and halo remover for high-contrast, saturated colors. File->project settings, Linearize working space 32bpc. This works for image re-sampling, blending layers, motion blur, and anti-aliasing. “
I’m sorry, but what do you mean by ‘edge and halo remover’? I’m curious because that’s not really a reason I’ve heard mentioned before for using a linearized profile.
[Chris Wright] “Most people wonder why After Effects makes their Premiere footage look darker, well, just change working space to (SD NTSC) or (HDTV rec 709) 32bpc and it will brighten up just as it looked after color correcting in Premiere. Your DVD’s will thank you. “
Also, while 32bpc may not hurt here, it is probably more than you need for most cases. 16bpc should be more than enough if you just want to reduce rounding errors.
Darby Edelen
Lead Designer
Left Coast Digital
Santa Cruz, CA -
16 bpc is definetely enough for SD but not HD color correcting. Try HD in 16. eww. As for Linearizing color, it blends color correctly so that you don’t get color artifacts. You only have to worry about this if your using high-contrast, saturated colors of widely different layers. Hope this helps answer your question.
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[Chris Wright] “16 bpc is definetely enough for SD but not HD color correcting. Try HD in 16. eww.”
I’m confused as to what the difference here is. Please explain further? I’m sure it doesn’t have anything to do with the different resolution, so is it an issue with the HDTV color profile? What is the issue exactly?
[Chris Wright] “As for Linearizing color, it blends color correctly so that you don’t get color artifacts. You only have to worry about this if your using high-contrast, saturated colors of widely different layers.”
It blends color linearly as it would be blended in the real world. I wouldn’t say there’s necessarily anything inherently ‘incorrect’ in blending gamma corrected colors. I’d say it’s definitely more of a matter of the demands of your project. Linear profiles are advisable for film projects and projects in which you’re attempting to more accurately emulate ‘real world’ optics effects such as lens filters. I definitely would not say that you will never get color artifacts however. And you really must work in at least 16bpc (32bpc preferred) with a linearized profile or you will get terrible color artifacts. Otherwise there aren’t enough code values to fully represent the darker colors that the human eye is more sensitive to.
Darby Edelen
Lead Designer
Left Coast Digital
Santa Cruz, CA -
[Darby Edelen] “Otherwise there aren’t enough code values to fully represent the darker colors that the human eye is more sensitive to.”
To clarify, 32bpc or 16bpc is recommended when using a linear color profile or linearizing the color profile (and I would rather say required than recommended). However, a linear color profile is not necessarily recommended when using 16bpc or 32bpc.
Darby Edelen
Lead Designer
Left Coast Digital
Santa Cruz, CA
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