What bit-depth are my exports?

[Todd Kopriva]

You can specify the color bit depth of exported items in the output module settings. Note that many formats impose limits on color bit depth.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Anders Carlsson]

Does that make;

– Millions of colors = 8-bit
– Trillions of colors = 16-bit
– Floating Point = 32-bit

If so, does that mean when I choose the cineon format I can only export 16-bit DPX – since I only have trillions of colors as an option.

[Todd Kopriva]

> Does that make;

– Millions of colors = 8-bit
– Trillions of colors = 16-bit
– Floating Point = 32-bit

Yes (though you’ll be well served to always specify ‘bits per channel’ to avoid confusion with ‘bits per pixel’).

> If so, does that mean when I choose the cineon format I can only export 16-bit DPX – since I only have trillions of colors as an option.

The Cineon format is specified to use 10 bits per channel. When you render and export from After Effects to this format, you choose 16 bits per channel (Trillions Of Colors), since After Effects only has color bit depth options for 8, 16, and 32—and a 10-bit color value can fit into a 16-bit slot in the rendering pipeline, but not into an 8-bit slot.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Anders Carlsson]

Thank you for your help Todd 🙂