Premiere Pro to Vimeo gamma workflow woes

[Ivan Myles]

There are several potential causes within the workflow, or it could just be the media player. Where do you first see the difference compared to the original AE composition:

– QT Animation file
– Premiere Pro sequence
– H.264 file exported from Premiere/AME
– Transcoded Vimeo file viewed online
– Transcoded Vimeo file downloaded and viewed offline

Here are a few recommendations for your workflow, but they are based more on best practices and might not resolve the issue:

– Set bit depth to 16-bpc or 32-bpc in your AE project
– Create a dynamic link between Premiere Pro and the AE composition instead of exporting a QT Animation file
– Render from Premiere Pro using the standard AME H.264 codec rather than QuickTime H.264
– Compare files by importing into Premiere Pro and viewing with the Y-Waveform and RGB Parade scopes

[Walter Soyka]

How are you encoding the video on Adobe Media Encoder? Are you using one of the Vimeo presets?

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

[Chris Shaw]

Hi Ivan I’m away for the week but I will try it when I’m back home, thanks for the advice.

Walter, I have tried that but I’ve also encoded it via a custom h.264 setup on Adobe Media Encoder

[Ivan Myles]

I exported an H.264 test file from Premiere Pro and uploaded it to both Vimeo and YouTube. There were no significant issues when comparing all the files to the original Premiere sequence. The only observable difference was a loss of edge definition attributable to 4:2:0 chroma subsampling in the H.264 files. In addition, the first frame was repeated in the transcoded Vimeo video. There was no change in black or white points after export from Premiere Pro or after transcode by Vimeo/YouTube.

Please refer to the following images. It is easier to compare by opening each link in a new tab.

Composite Video:
– Premiere Pro sequence
– Exported H.264 file
– Vimeo transcode
– YouTube transcode

All Scopes:
– Premiere Pro sequence
– Exported H.264 file
– Vimeo transcode
– YouTube transcode

So going back to the original post, it would seem likely that the issue is occurring during the AE to QT Animation to Premiere Pro transfer, or the software you are using to compare the files is not accurately representing the color.

[Walter Soyka]

[Chris Shaw] “Walter, I have tried that but I’ve also encoded it via a custom h.264 setup on Adobe Media Encoder”

How are you comparing the two in the image above? In other words, how are you viewing the before and after to see this difference?

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

[Chris Shaw]

The top image is from Premiere and the bottom is in Vimeo. I’ve compared the Premiere screenshot to the Animation exports from After Effects and the colours are almost identical. I know I could have used the Dynamic Link functionality but I was too busy getting to grips with Windows and I had a few issues with Dynamic Link. I’ve been using it since though 80% of the time.

[Chris Shaw]

Also, just to put the cat amongst the pigeons, here are some more comparisons. The top left one is the Animation codec after the export from AE. The top right one is the transcoded file from Premiere (h.264 Quicktime codec) and the bottom one is EXACTLY the same file as the top right one but in Windows Media Player. Now I know there are issues with graphics looking washed out when you play h.264 in Quicktime but why would it look as washed out in Vimeo if it plays fine in Windows Media Player?

[Ivan Myles]

[Chris Shaw] “why would it look as washed out in Vimeo”

Please clarify. Your previous comment stated that the clean (bottom) image is from Vimeo:

[Chris Shaw] “The top image is from Premiere and the bottom is in Vimeo.”

If the Vimeo image is clean and the H.264 file in WMP is clean, then this is simply a case of QuickTime H.264 color shift. The Animation file will look OK in QuickTime because the issue only occurs with H.264 files.

[Chris Shaw]

Sorry my original comment said the bottom image was in Vimeo but my last comment stated the bottom image was WMP. I’ll label the images in the future.

[Ivan Myles]

It is understood that you were referring to different images on the bottom of different posts. The part that is inconsistent is whether the Vimeo image was clean or washed out.