it’s most likely due to subtle gradations and 8-bit rendering, and it may be getting compounded by compression.
when rendering sd to avid, i do recommend rendering to the avid meridien uncompressed codec. it will make importing easier than rendering to lossless animation and such. the meridien codec will retain the color space (rgb) and pixel aspect ratio to allow for no-brainer importing (it also supports alpha channels, and it will automatically reverse out the alpha for avid). if you render to other uncompressed/lossless codecs you will need to specify all that prior to import.
but to help with the banding when using 8-bit rendering, try to add some noise to the comp. there are 2 simple ways. one create an adjustment layer at the top of the comp and apply the noise effect. set it to monochromatic and adjust the amount until the banding goes away, it usually doesn’t take much. another useful method is to create a 50% gray solid at the top of the comp, set the blending mode to soft light (or hard light, etc), then add the noise effect, monochromatic. now you can adjust the amount of noise, opacity of the solid and blending mode to hide the banding.
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW