PP CC 2014 – adjustment layers flickering problem

[Rob Viscardis]

I am getting this issue on two machines. One running Magic Bullet, the other not. Tried moving the effects from the adjustment layer to the clip, applying a mask, rendering native and compressed, changing sequence settings, importing sequence into new project, sending to speedgrade, and it still won’t go away. So annoying!

[Matías Cibanik]

I’m having the same issue. I have installed magic bullet on premiere cc 2014 and trying to export a one hour film that was shoot with differents cameras. I had to turn off the plugin and make the corrections with tridirectional color tool for make the flickering dissapear. Anyone has found what is the problem?

[Adam Banks]

Just started working with Premiere CC 2015 and got this same problem. Random flickering, like the Adjustment Layer’s effects are dropping out in certain frames. I’ve tried turning options on and off, makes no difference. Will keep trying but it seems crazy that this has been happening for so long without being fixed – makes it a gamble to use Adjustment Layers at all.

EDIT: I tried moving the fx from the Adjustment Layer to the clip itself and it didn’t help. So the Adjustment Layer wasn’t the problem after all. Turned out to be Auto Color that was causing the flicker, used in conjunction with other fx.

I’d thought twice about using Auto Color because of the obvious problem in something that analyses each frame and adjusts accordingly, when what you want is the same adjustment applied through the clip (or sequence). To address this, Auto Color has a Temporal Smoothing option that spreads the analysis over multiple frames. Don’t try setting this to the length of the whole clip: when I tried 5 seconds the preview render estimated several hours to complete, on a clip barely more than 5 seconds long in total. Crazy.

Anyway, when I set it to half a second it fixed the problem (slowly). But I think the moral is don’t use Auto Color. The only direct way I can find to achieve the same effect is to manually adjust the white and black points for each RGB channel individually in a Levels fx. The UI for this is horrible, and there’s no option to set the sliders automatically based on the current frame in the scope, which surely would be trivial. It would be great if you could do that, actually, because then you’d have the speed and pop of Auto Color with the facility to tweak, rather than overlaying other fx to get the resulting colour to where you want it.

If I’m missing an obvious better quick way to fix clips where the RGB parade is off kilter, advice welcome. I generally fix black and white points using Fast Color Correct but there’s no way to separate the channels.

[Matías Cibanik]

I find a solution.
I exported the whole film without the effects (not only unchecked, all the clips clean) in the final format i wanted. Then imported the Clip and i cutted it to separete scenes and just then u apply the magic looks.
Hope this work for you.

[Fidel Echeverria]

Hi!
My solution was to apply de anti flickering filter (movement section inside de clip effects panel)with a value between 0.10 and 0.30.this wasenought to get the flickering out without makeing images blurry. Any way, some people pointed Auto shoulder as problem cause.

[Stephen Henderson]

I’ve had a similar issue with the Red Giant Universe: Finisher effect, especially when it’s on adjustment layers.

[Cristina Baciu]

I did the same and solved the problem!
I had an adjustment layer with Brightness & Contrast blended with the video track wich had much more effects (MagicBullet Looks, Lumetri color, Warp stabilizer, etc.) and in some cases some masks.
I’ve almost panicked since I’ve workded all day at this color correction and my director was expecting a sample.
Worked just fine after I selected Remove flicker.
Thank you so much!

P.S.: I have Premiere CC 2015 on Mac 15′ Retina Display

[Dian Zagorchinov]

Struggled with this for a week until managed to solve it by clearing all Media cache, Previews and setting “Use Maximum Bitrate” in the sequence settings.

Using Magic Bullet Looks 3.0, tested on both PP 2014 and 2015 (Win 8) gave the flickering on long exports.

[Thomas Brecheisen]

MY FIX (ie. workaround):
I simply added my sequence (with the adjustment layer on top) into a nested composition. It seems the issue is when the actual adjustment layer is on top. The nested sequence doesn’t have the adjustment layer on top (it’s embedded in the nested clip on the timeline) and the problem doesn’t exist for me anymore.

I know it’s not a fix, but a workaround. I hope this helps someone.