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mpeg4 compression help
hi im sure this has been discussed a dozen times im just unable to find the answer i need, i hope someone can help me…
basically i have a composition in after effects cs3, the color is fine in the comp window, im rendering the video as a quicktime mov with mpeg4 compression, the color is desaturated now, i dont understand it, its brighter and not as colorful, this is the way its been with any comp i do in after effects but i could never figure out what i was doing wrong all i need is for the color to stay the same could someone help me please, i have a client screaming down the phone at me! thank you in advance -
3 Replies
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Simon, I sooo feel your frustration.
There just aren’t a lot of color settings on the MPG4 output. Also, the codec by design tries to compress the color information. The workaround I came up with at my last job was after the project was done to create an adjustment layer with a brightness/contrast and HSV on it. I spent half a day messing with the settings to make it darker and get the saturation up. It looks like dogcrap in preview (hence why you wait until your done before you try it), but then add the adjustment layer to render.
Tip: DON’T FORGET TO SAVE THE PLUGINS YOU USE AS A FAVORITE (that way you only have to do this once for all your MPEG4s… just add the favorite to an adjustment in the future.
Good luck!
Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium
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ty thank you so much thats a good tip! can i ask what is the best compression that people are using, im sure there is a post about this i just havent seen any yet,
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For quicktimes, I rarely use the actual “mpeg4”. I usually use H.264 instead. True, it is also a flavor of mpeg4, but I get better results with it. Also, it depends on your target player. Mpegs (although very space efficient) are also GPU intensive. So, say for instance you’re outputting a 720p 30, and you want a decent quality. You’d better be sure that the player has a decent video card. Otherwise, you’ll want to use prores 422. 422 uses a bigger file (by about 20%… eek!), but instead of the GPU, it uses the CPU to uncompress, so most CPUs made in the last 5 years can play it no problem.
Good luck!
Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium
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