logo colors don’t match: Illustrator & Motion

[Mark Spencer]

Can you post the file?

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

[Matt Campbell]

Sure.

OS 10.5.5, Mac Pro 2 x 3 ghz quad-core intel xenon, 9 gb ram, with BM Intensity Pro card

[Matt Campbell]

Not sure if I uploaded this correctly the 1st time. So I tried it again. I guess I’m supposed to post the link to it?

491_creativecowtest.zip

Hope this works

OS 10.5.5, Mac Pro 2 x 3 ghz quad-core intel xenon, 9 gb ram, with BM Intensity Pro card

[Mark Spencer]

Looks like a conversion issue before getting to Motion – in Illustrator, the colors are Panatone, you’d need to covert everything to RGB before brining into Motion…I generally don’t work in CMYK so I may be missing something…

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

[Matt Campbell]

First off, thanks for the response. I’ve been testing and troubleshooting here myself. the AI file is RGB and I created new Pantone color swatches in RGB and re-filled my logo. I then updated the Motion file and the colors appear correct now but the numbers, althought different from before, still don’t match up. I’ll keep trying things out. Thanks again.

OS 10.5.5, Mac Pro 2 x 3 ghz quad-core intel xenon, 9 gb ram, with BM Intensity Pro card

[Mark Spencer]

How are you evaluating the RGB numbers in Motion? There are two ways:

1) Right-click in the area above the Layers tab of the Project Pane and select Colors – now anything you mouse over will show the RBG values

2) Bring up the OSX Color Picker (for example, by making a new shape and choosing a color) and then using the magnifying glass

You will see you get very different values with each of these approaches – I believe the built-in Motion sampling is more accurate.

Btw, how do you tell your Illustrator file is RGB? When I go under the View menu, the Proof Setup is set to Working CMYK.

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

[Matt Campbell]

1.) i sampled the blue color from the logo with the eye dropper in the shape tab. thus giving me the same fill. but those numbers are not the same as the ones in AI. 0, 71, 135 shows up as 32, 69, 132. Those are the moused over values from the above the project pane.

2.) tried this too. i give the new shape the proper values of 0 71 135 from the OSX picker and it doesn’t match the logo.

I can’t figure out how I’m to get the logo to match the background.

regarding the RGB set up. I used the HDTV 1280 preset and went from there. Under doc color mode, in the file menu. I’ve changed the proof set up under the view menu as well, to view it in MAC RGB.

I’ve also tried creating new plain RGB swatches in AI. still doesn’t match the motion color. very odd.

OS 10.5.5, Mac Pro 2 x 3 ghz quad-core intel xenon, 9 gb ram, with BM Intensity Pro card

[Matt Campbell]

Do you know to get a proper conversion from AI to Motion? What should my AI logos be set up as in order to get the same values in Motion?

OS 10.5.5, Mac Pro 2 x 3 ghz quad-core intel xenon, 9 gb ram, with BM Intensity Pro card

[Mark Spencer]

I got the background to exactly match the arrow (the arrow disappears) just by sampling, even though the Colors readout shows different values.

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

[Matt Campbell]

My apologies Mark, maybe I wasn’t clear in my question or description. I was also able to get the background to match by sampling as well but my problem is I need those colors to be accurate, value wise. There is a visible difference in the 2 files. I know my monitors and playback monitor need to be accurate and calibrated but that still doesn’t explain why the RGB values are different.

I just don’t understand why those colors shift when imported into motion. Do other programs have issues like this? i.e. After Effects, FCP, etc… How would a big production studio or post house handle this?

OS 10.5.5, Mac Pro 2 x 3 ghz quad-core intel xenon, 9 gb ram, with BM Intensity Pro card