Managing colorspace in AE

[Walter Soyka]

If you’re trying to interoperate with Nuke, you should probably try qp Nuclear LUT [link] for Ae.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Sean Dunn]

That’s awesome, was scouring for something like that.

So workflow wise I would
1) Import footage
2) Set color management to correct color space (Slog-3) & set to linear
3) Interrupt footage to correct color space (if needed)
4) Use simulate output
5) Then use qp Nuke?

Or should I just import footage normally, and not worry about colorspace and just apply the qp Nuke Lut to a adjustment layer on top of the project?

-Thanks!

[Walter Soyka]

There are instructions on the bottom half of the page I linked to above. You need to be working 32bpc in a linearized space, and you need to use Preserve RGB in the footage interpretation for your assets to avoid Ae’s color management conflicting with qp Nuclear LUT.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Sean Dunn]

Ah, so the plugin is for viewing purposes only gotcha, that’s super handy! I’ve been able to do round trips before, but the luts were never pixel perfect, but this seems to do the trick.

Thanks!

[Walter Soyka]

[Sean Dunn] “Ah, so the plugin is for viewing purposes only gotcha, that’s super handy! I’ve been able to do round trips before, but the luts were never pixel perfect, but this seems to do the trick. “

It’s not just for viewing purposes — you should render with this. It’s just manual color management. You disable Ae’s automatic color management on both the inputs and outputs by telling it to Preserve RGB. This prevents Ae from trying to transform to/from the working color space. You use this on both the inputs and on the output in place of Ae’s CMS to handle those transforms.

And you are right about LUTs not being pixel-perfect. Although it says LUT right in the name, Christian has implemented the color transforms with functions instead of look-up tables, so you don’t get the quantization/clipping errors that a real LUT would produce. Working in 32bpc makes this reversible without penalty, so you can use it all the way through your workflow.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Sean Dunn]

Good call with preserving RGB! I’m trying to use it non-destructively, so I can’t render with the lut baked in because it’s only half way through our pipeline, but does it helps with the composite.
Thanks!

[Walter Soyka]

[Sean Dunn] “I’m trying to use it non-destructively, so I can’t render with the lut baked in because it’s only half way through our pipeline, but does it helps with the composite. “

Unless I misunderstand you, you can achieve non-destruction by converting right back to linear at the end.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Sean Dunn]

Possibly, color is a weird thing to describe. Essentially what I have is a

dpx sequence in LogC > imported to AE > Color manage To 32bit & linearize workspace > Preserve RGB on footage > Use qp Lut on adjustment layer > composite things > turn off LUT > export dpx with preserve rgb

That work flow is giving me 0 dataloss back in nuke