Matching colors from one comp to another

[Walter Soyka]

[TImi Boose] “Aftereffects is driving me mad! What an unintuitive program!”

Yes, AE is very hard to learn intuitively. It’s a powerful application, both broad and deep, and it’s hard to get anything done without a good grasp of the fundamentals.

If you’re new to After Effects, I’d recommend the following link, in which Adobe’s Todd Kopriva pulls together some important introductory materials:
https://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2010/01/getting-started-with-after-eff.html

I especially recommend the Video Copilot “Basic Training” series that Todd links to.

[TImi Boose] “There has to be a way to match colors. I’ve got title cards each as a separate comp nested into the main comp. They were originally photoshop files. I’ve tried to get close using Hue/Saturation – but can’t you just get the exact color somehow using the eyedropper tool? I’m sure there’s got to be a way.”

What does the title card look like? You can create solids [link] of any color you wish, picked with an eyedropper. You might also try the Change to Color effect [link]

Hue/Saturation, as you’ve found, is designed to change colors, not match from one to another.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Joseph W. bourke]

Timi –

As a graphic designer, I feel your pain. But you’ve got to realize that After Effects was made to take in just about any format, as long as it’s RGB. Many, if not most, logos coming in from agencies (in my experience), were in CMYK format, since most agencies are print oriented. There was always a caveat to anyone sending me a logo, and it went like this: if you want your logo colors to “match” in the video world, do the conversion to RGB on your end, and eyeball it to match.

And of course the second you start using lights and effects, all bets are off. With the pixel machinations After Effects does, you have to be the proofer, and get it as close as possible. Once something is lit, there’s no such thing as a color value anymore – it’s a range of color values. If your color matching problems are related to the CMYK/RGB conversion, one thing you can do is create a preset that adjusts your color values to as close as you can get, then use it every time a logo or color match comes in – at least you can make it somewhat painless. Just be prepared to work with the knowledge that NTSC means “Never The Same Color”, and you’ll be all set. You can get close, but once the production is out there, every TV or computer you view it on has a slightly different setup. It’s just not as accurate, color-wise, as print.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Timi Boose]

NTSC means “Never The Same Color” – haha – I’ll try to remember that, but they are pretty much telling us not to use NTSC settings anymore. ( I am taking classes at a community college.) I have to set this site so that it emails me when someone replies – thanks for your replies – I will see if i can figure some of it out the next time I’m in After Effects! (I’m in my Web Design class now! – don’t even get me started on that Pandora’s Box of Madness…)

File not found – Bad serial number – the problem could be this, that or the other…