MAC / CS3 / DVCPRO-HD color shifting

[Jonah Walker]

Just tried rendering into ProRes and I get the Gamma Shift as well, so basically looks like I have to render to Uncompressed for the video to work correctly.

– Jonah Lee Walker
Video Editor, After Effects Artist
https://www.whaleofatale.net

[Daniel Ramirez]

Sorry for the short response, but I haven’t read the thread yet and wanted to at least let you guys know I’m going to look into it. Expect a response to this issue next week. (12/14-12/18)

Dan Ramirez
After Effects
QA Engineer

[Daniel Ramirez]

I just tried the following:

1. Import a 720p60 10bit uncompressed colorbar Quicktime movie into FCP
2. Export this file as DVCPROHD720p60 in FCP
3. Compare this file with the orignal source in FCP

Result: I get a gamma/color shift here. It’s very obvious

1. Import the original 720p60 uncompressed colorbar Quicktime movie into AE CS4
2. Export this same file as DVCPROHD720p60 in AE
3. Import this file into FCP and compare with the original 10bit source file

Result: No gamma or color shift
—

Is anyone else seeing that FCP can’t roundtrip with itself when ingesting an uncompressed source and exporting DVCPROHD? With an uncompressed source, I definitely wouldn’t recommend DVCPROHD as an intermediate editing codec because it looks like FCP has some issues there.

Now, I think the *real* issue here is when your original source is DVCPROHD and you want to roundtrip this with AE without a color shift.

If you’re working with 8bit, you should be able to RoundTrip ProRes just fine. QT-Anim is almost always a good choice, but as many have mentioned, it’s very big. QT-PhotoJPEG may be a better choice for smaller filesizes.

Is everyone experiencing this problem with DVCPROHD footage not rendered or captured in FCP? The fact that FCP can’t roundtrip uncompressed to DVCPROHD with itself is certainly problematic.

Dan Ramirez
After Effects
QA Engineer

[Stephen Withers]

I have this problem taking DVCProHD 720p60 files from my client who uses FCP when I output from After Effects CS4 – gamma is incorrect, blown out, etc. If I output a ProRes from AE using the original DVCPro file as a source FCP and Color interpret the ProRes fine.

As a VFX vendor, I’ve worked with the MXF DVCPro format with After Effects before and I’ve never had this problem, although the client at the time captured and edited in Premiere Pro, and I believe it was in Windows :\

[Paul Whishaw]

I am having a similar issue with sgi and targa files. When brought into AE they are super crunched in the viewer. If I export using Pro Res they continue to look very dark. If I export to Animation they look fine.

I’m using project settings: 8 bit with no working space.

I can’t post pics but I think everyone here knows what I’m talking about.

Paul Whishaw
PDVpro.com
“If it moves, We’ll Shoot it”

[Mark Hatch]

Paul-

What versions of AE are you using? Also, do you have any IO cards like AJA or Blackmagic?

Mark Hatch
Cosmic Pictures

[Paul Whishaw]

I am on the most recent version of AE and I do have a Kona 3. Not sure why a Kona would mess with AE. The tga files don’t go anywhere near FCP and are slammed as soon as the come into AE. If I export as Animation they look normal but in AE they look really dark. If I export a Pro Res movie it looks exactly the same as in the AE Composition window.

Paul Whishaw
PDVpro.com
“If it moves, We’ll Shoot it”

[Paul Whishaw]

What if I’m actually using the Kona to view stuff on an external monitor?

Paul Whishaw
PDVpro.com
“If it moves, We’ll Shoot it”

[Mark Hatch]

Dave, I believe you were correct in your first statement. I’m not sure what versions of After Effects are affected by this problem, but I know that with CS4 and AJA, there were gamma shifts (or something similar) when those AJA codecs are installed. As I recall, it affected the rendered files. We removed these codecs on several of our systems and it immediately fixed the issues. I’m a little hazy on all of the details, but it was fairly well documented.

Paul, your problem seems slightly different, but it could be the same issue. So you could try moving those codecs onto your desktop, then restarting after effects. I’m not sure if you need to restart the computer. So many variables on this issue…

Mark Hatch
Cosmic Pictures

[Jay Cordova]

I was hoping there would be a solution after reading this whole thread, but it appears not!

I may be having the same or a related problem.

I export DVCPRO-HD clips from Final Cut V6 into AE CS3. Things look OK on the computer monitor in CS3, but when exported from AFX the gamma is dark (as seen in QT as well as when re-imported into AFX).

Never had this kind of problem with digibeta footage or with any footage is SD for that matter.

I’m particularly perplexed that these things exported (rendered) from AFX have a darker gamma when imported back into AFX. I’ll post if I figure anything out.

Using AFX legacy gamma looked once like it made the round trip (FCP, AE, back to FCP) perfectly, but I can’t remember all of the other settings in place at that time and haven’t duplicated it again.

J. Cordova
Springboard Creative/Atlanta