[Nick West]

Hi Andrew,

I’m actually going out as 1080p H.264’s.

I don’t really have manu options straight out of AE’s exporter (as I’m on a Windows machine) so I am kinda forced to use AME here.

I’m not sure AME is actually changing the colour space because when I drop the exported file back into AE and switch between this and the original it looks identical.

Thanks again

[Nick West]

Got it, thanks again Andrew.

Here’s a new one for you (it never ends!) I’ve just done a few final exports to h.264/MP4’s via AME.
My exported files match up in various players (Windows 10 player, VLC, MPC etc) which is great, but one thing I did noticed was a very slight hue shift between my exported files and what I’m looking at in After Effects. It’s subtle but its there.

I did a test with an sRGB image as my ‘footage’. My AE project is setup for linear as we’ve discussed (32bpc, Linearize and Use Colour Management both enabled), I then exported to H.264 via AME and I can see the hue shift in the export across various players. I pulled the exported file back into AE and the shift doesnt appear to exist.

The only way I seem to be able to bring AE inline with my exported files is if to turn off ‘Use Colour Management’, disable ‘Linearize working space’ and change the Working Space profile from the stock sRGB oneto my monitor’s calibrated profile. Once I do that the colours in AE are identical to those in VLC etc.

I can’t quite get my head around what’s actually happening here. Any ideas?

Cheers

[Nick West]

Thanks Andrew, for some reason I completely missed EXR in the list of formats, I must be going blind!

Looks like that’s the way to go, but just out of interest is there any reason why I can’t seem to find ‘Preserve RGB’ when selecting TIFF? I’m using Media Encoder so I’m thinking this might be a limitation and I would have to use AE’s built in render queue dialog for this instead? ..either that or I’m looking right at it again.

[Nick West]

Perfect, thanks Andrew, I think I’m now on track!

Now for the next question, is it possible to export an image sequence and maintain the linear workflow or is the ‘working space’ always baked into the output?

Ideally I need to export an image sequence which maintains gamma 1.0 as I will be supplying this back to the 3D guy for him to use as a texture in his scene (extremely convoluted process, dont ask!)

So far I’ve only tried to output a TIFF sequence and it appears sRGB was backed into it.

Thanks again

[Nick West]

Thanks again for such a detailed response Andrew. It is very much appreciated.

So just to confirm, when working in linear space ideally I should have my project depth as 32bpc float with an sRGB working space and ‘Linearize’ enabled. Am I correct in thinking that my ‘Interpret Footage’ settings should be as follows for my EXR sequences:

Preserve RGB – Unchecked
Assign Profile: sRGB
Interpret As Linear Light: On or On for 32bpc

Im guessing ‘Assign Profile’ won’t actually do anything in this case as my working space is sRGB?

Thanks

[Nick West]

Thanks Walter, that was very informative and now makes perfect sense as to why AE only lists ‘float’ next to 32bpc ..which was going to be my next question.

I’m now just trying to wrap my head around the ‘Interpret footage’ settings for my EXR sequences.
So far I have observed the following:

1 – When ‘Preserve RGB (Disable CM)’ is checked, my viewport appears to be displaying the image as 2.2
2 – When the above is unchecked but ‘Interpret as Linear Light’ is set to ‘On’ my viewport appears to still display as 2.2
3 – When ‘Interpret as Linear Light’ is set to ‘Off’ mu viewport appears to then display the base 1.0 gamma image

So my question here is what’s the difference between options 1 and 2 or does it actuall make any difference when working in a linearized working space?

Thanks again

[Nick West]

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for the prompt and detailed response.

As far as I understand the CG artist is working to sRGB. By this I mean he is using a calibrated monitor and his 3ds Max viewport is set to 2.2. Renders are displayed as 2.2 in the frame buffer (V-ray) but this can be switched to show the true 1.0 gamma by toggling the sRGB icon on the buffer. Does this make sense?

I actually switched my AE settings ‘Interpret footage’ to ‘Preserve RGB – do not colour manage’ for the image sequence and I can now observe what appears to be gamma 1.0 in the viewport and gamma 2.2 when I toggle ‘linearize working space’ in my project settings. This appears to produce the same results as when toggling sRGB in the frame buffer of the render. Does this sound right?

Is it preferable to have my AE as 32bit? I only ask this because the EXR’s are only 16bit and I noticed that some effects do not function in a 32bit comp.

I have actually already calibrated my displays with an i1 Display Pro as you recommended.

To answer your question with regards to sRGB vs Rec709, I’m working to sRGB as final output will be for web only.