Rendering out 32bit and retaining the look

[Vishesh Arora]

Sam

You can export file in 32 BPC.

Click on Best Settings in render Queue and select 32 bits per channel in Color Depth.

Vishesh Arora
3D and Motion Graphics Artist
Films Rajendra

Blog:
https://digieffects.wordpress.com

Demo Reel(3D):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHPgIJU_BR8

[Sam Freeman]

Thanks Vishesh, I’m rendering another test now (using TIFFs) so I can’t check now, but I’ll look at that in a bit. Surely if it’s set to current then it should be automatically in 32bit (as that’s what I’m working in).

The Tiffs are looking good, but my concern now is turning those TIFFs into a deliverable format… I need to show this to the director and then deliver to the edit…

[Sam Freeman]

Ok, so I’ve got the TIFFs and they look great. I’ve found a workaround in that I go into photoshop, run a batch file convert on the TIFF to convert them into 16bit and remove the colour profile.

I can then turn these TIFFs into a ProRes file to show the client using FCP and it retains the majority of my look.

But surely this can’t be right? Seems a bit cluncky.

[Tero Ahlfors]

[Sam Freeman] “But surely this can’t be right? Seems a bit cluncky”

Those insane bit depths are pretty much only for post production or mastering. Broadcast and web is video is 8-bits so you still need to bring it down when you are making your deliverables.

[Sam Freeman]

I guess my main questions is how can I help retain the look on an output – I know it’s probably not possible to do it entirely accurately, but the benefits of working at this high depth seem vast in terms of how things look. So it would be great to try and use it more often – and that means getting it out of the program.

I know ProRes is only 10bit, but at least my offsite director can see that… :0) And it would be great to avoid working through photoshop to resample them to 16bit then ProResing them, but After Effects always seems to overcomplicate things!

Maybe I’m asking for the best of both worlds. But they are both so nice…

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

If it’s a matter of the “look” only and you need to get the same results in a 10bit or even 8bit file for final delivery most of the issues come from having linearize workspace “On” for 32 bit in your project settings. Turn that off and the “look” should be preserved in the final render(eg no more washed out colors or banding in glows or blurs).

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Darby Edelen]

[Sam Freeman] “Ok, so I’ve got the TIFFs and they look great. I’ve found a workaround in that I go into photoshop, run a batch file convert on the TIFF to convert them into 16bit and remove the colour profile.

I can then turn these TIFFs into a ProRes file to show the client using FCP and it retains the majority of my look.

But surely this can’t be right? Seems a bit cluncky.”

You should be able to do any adjustments you’re making in Photoshop within AE instead. Have you tried setting your output module’s color settings to something else? What you’re describing in Photoshop, for example, sounds roughly like “Preserve RGB” in the output module.

The benefits of 32bpc are not in the delivery. There are very few formats that allow you to store 32bpc (or equivalent) and most of these are intermediate or cinema formats (not video). The benefits of 32bpc are almost entirely in the latitude that it provides you while working with the footage: compositing and color correction.

Retaining “the look” shouldn’t be too much of a stretch of the imagination since the output on your display is already not 32bpc.

Darby Edelen

[Sam Freeman]

Thanks for all you input guys. I have been playing around with the various output settings and I do find that After Effects seems to somehow mash the picture – really crushing the black channel down and removing a lot of the colour hue. Whilst photoshop leaves the image reasonably the same. It’s like After Effects is being really smart, but doing more than I need it to…

I’ll keep trying various options in the colour output dialog and let you know if I see a way through.

Cheers
Sam

[Walter Soyka]

[Sam Freeman] “I have been playing around with the various output settings and I do find that After Effects seems to somehow mash the picture – really crushing the black channel down and removing a lot of the colour hue. Whilst photoshop leaves the image reasonably the same. It’s like After Effects is being really smart, but doing more than I need it to…”

Can you post some screen shots of your material, before and after, as well as your color management settings?

What you are describing is not at all typical or expected, so hopefully we can help you to correct this.

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

[Sam Freeman]

I’ve uploaded some example stills of what I’ve got going on.

5258_pictureassets.zip

There are 3 stills and a screengrab of my settings

Item 1: My output from a linearized colour space.What I want!
Item 2: A 16bit convert in photoshop and the colour space not embedded on save. What I want!
Item 3: An output from after effects with preserve RGB selected What I don’t want!
Item 4: Screengrab of settings when using colour management

I find if I bring the 32bit stills into AFX and export 16bit I get the result of item 3. If I go via photoshop I get Item 2.