DVCProHD Gamma Shift in AE

I recently rendered a DVCProHD file out of Final Cut and opened the same file in After Effects CS3. For some strange reason, the footage is brighter than the original.
I've tried changing the project settings like Blend Colors and Match Legacy but nothing works, the footage looks like someone cranked up the brightness settings.
How do I get the footage to match 100% with the Final Cut Pro original?

Having the same issue.
Had this in the past before CS3. Used to have to do a curves adjustment on everything that went back out to FCP - but that's no good to get colors perfectly maintained. But as far as I remembered this fixed with CS3. However. All of a sudden I'm somehow stuck the same way it used to be in the past now...
Did you get this fixed?
-F

Similar Messages

Momentary gamma shifts in PS-CS6 composed image h.264 video

Before I finalize a bug report, wonder what others are seeing?
Having discovered the problem in a more complex scenario, I've narrowed down to a simple set of jpg images placed sequentially in a video group, and exported as an h.264 video from Photoshop PS6. All is on Windows 7 Professional SP1, all software involved completely up-to-date.
I first noticed the gamma shift using the 'High Quality' preset. It occurs with variations on Vimeo 29.97 and Youtube 29.97 presets. The gamma problem does not occur on HD 720p or 1080p 29.97 presets.
When I view the resulting video through Quicktime, I see a gamma shift for a moment on the first image, making it look washed out. After another moment, the gamma goes back to normal. On other players such as Windows Media or VLC, no such shift is visible.
Interestingly, the shift comes at 1 second when exporting to the Vimeo 29.97 preset, or 'High Quality', while at 3 seconds on Youtube 29.97. Similarly, the shift back occurs at 2 seconds, or 6 seconds for Youtube.
What the gamma shift looks like sounds like the now age-old Apple Quicktime fault on h.264. -- except it occurs only for one or a few seconds, then reverts to proper gamma, instead of continuing..
With the simple setup of single image (jpg) sequence, it occurs only on the first image. With a more complex scenario, some actual videos included, I've seen it occur on every jpg -- or on some -- in a sequence.
This is very repeatable here - 100%. Anyone else who's noticed it? I'm on the CS6 trial, and still thinking whether to purchase, or go on the Creative Cloud.
Regards,
Clive

We're seeing a worse issue when exporting in H.264 and playing in QuickTime 10.0 (Mac OS 10.6). We are using a custom size video to fit a spot on our website (398x498). When exported and played in QuickTime 10.0 the white inverts throughout the video (back and forth). The same issue is not seen when viewed in VLC or QuickTime 10.1.
This is how the video should look:
And this is how they are appearing:
But like I said, the issue is very specific to QuickTime 10.0 on Mac 10.6. VLC, Flash, Chrome, FireFox all play it correctly.

Gamma shift

hello -
I'm wondering the best way to deal with the gamma shift problem in Premiere (Mac). Clips appear differently delending on where you're viewing them, for example in the Program viewer colours are more saturated then when you open up the title window with the clip preview underneath. Likewise if I match frame and open a clip in the Source viewer, the colours are more muted than the identical clip in the Program window. If I export h264 and upload to YouTube, I get the more muted colours but if I upload the same file to vimeo, I get the more saturated version. I know this is a QuickTime problem but I'm wondering why Premiere shows identical footage in different ways and also wondering if anyone has solved this problem? Any advice will be appreciated!
thanks
David

It's unfortunate, but different players appear to interpret the same footage differently. Even if you knew how the viewer's computer monitor was calibrated, you still couldn't predict how the footage will look, if the viewer has a choice of players.
Other than correcting material on a properly calibrated HDTV, and ensuring that everyone who watches it also has an accurately calibrated HDTV, there's no way to get uniformity or predictability. Don't despair, however: makers of $100 million movies have exactly the same problem. How many consumers of Hollywood DVDs and blurays have accurately calibrated TVs?

H.264 gamma shift/washed out colours on export

I know this has been discussed before but I've been researching this topic for the past two hours and still can't find a solution.
I have .mov source files from a Canon 7D. Exporting them from PP CS5.5 (Mac OS X - Lion, 10.7.4) in h.264 or by 'matching sequence settings' results in a gamma shift/desaturated colours. Playing the resulting h.264 file in QuickTime Player, VLC, Elmedia all result in the same colour shift so this is not an issue with QT simply interpreting the gamma incorrectly.
Uploading to Vimeo and Youtube results in the same gamma shift. The monitor I'm using is not calibrated but when puling up a VLC window of the exported file next to the Program Monitor (on the same monitor) shows that there is a definite difference. Below is a screenshot.
Is there any way to produce an exported file for Vimeo use that reproduces the gamma as I see it in the Program Monitor?
Any help would be massively appreciated.
Thanks.

Did you use Quicktime's H.264 export option? Or just standard h.264 using the .mp4 container? If you used the Quicktime h.264 the option itself is flawed. Here are some links regarding the issue.
http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/cmg_blogs/story/brightness_issues_with_h264_quickti me_movies/
http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2008/06/fix-quicktime-gamma-shift/
http://imnotbruce.blogspot.com/2011/07/fixing-quicktimes-gamma-export-problem.html
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1358418?start=0&tstart=0
http://byteful.com/blog/2010/07/how-to-fix-the-h264-gamma-brightness-bug-in-quicktime/
https://discussions.apple.com/message/8551140?messageID=8551140#8551140?messageID=8551140
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2292530?start=0&tstart=0
If you read around the net a lot of people have had this issue with h264. A couple of the articles I posted are supposed to "fix" the problem although I haven't ever tried any of them myself. I've never experinced a gamma shift when using the standard h.264 format option in Premiere, however if you have already used that option and you're still having issues then I have no clue what is going on. However when I import ProRes files into Premiere they don't appear washed out, but when I play them in Quicktime or VLC they do appear washed out. I've always just assumed Premiere was somehow correcting it, because when I export my video to mpeg-2 for playback on our server it looks like it looked in Premiere.
From what I have read though the reason the Quicktime format does this when using the h.264 codec looks and looks washed out is because of a incorrect gamma tag. But Premiere isn't affected/fooled by this like most media players are. According from how they made it sound on provideo and the one other site I read it on anyways.

Quicktime X and After Effects CS4 - Unwanted Color / Gamma shift

Hello,
Upon the import of ANY video footage file into After Effects CS4, there is an immediate color (I am guessing a gamma shift) difference between how the video appears in Quicktime (both X and the older player) and how it appear in the After Effects composition window.
Footage appears to be darker in AE and lighter in quicktime, both before and after export. The gamma/color then appears roughly the same when being compressed via h.264 and uploaded to the web (the same in Safari, much darker via Firefox).
My main concern is simply getting AE's color to match Quicktime's so that I can have as close of a match between the color I think I have created in AE, and the actual color that appears in my final output to the web.
I have tried using all of the fixes to be found relating to gamma shifts via .h264, prores, etc. but nobody seems to have this problem with every codec, even animation. I have tried assigning color profiles in AE, matching quicktime legacy formats, etc. All of the options available in AE to no avail.
My monitor is calibrated fine, I am using Perian, All of the latest software updates. Any advice much appreciated!

Hi, thanks for the link. While helpful I am still having problems!
I tried using the method described with Automator to assign a color profile to a test Animation file, created from scratch in AE and rendered out as an Animation with no color management (previously it made no difference to the quicktime gamma shift as to if I had assigned a working color space or not within AE).
Automator only gives three color profile options, HD, SD, or PAL. I tried using HD as this is the size of video I normally work in (although I am also working in PAL), and ran Automator. I also tried using PAL and got identical results. It took about 30 seconds to finish and the result indeed looked much better in QT, and opened up in AE looking identical to a copy of the same .mov file with no color correction.
However, there is *still some change in the image quality as it appears in QT from how it (and the original) appears in AE*.
Original created / displayed in AE: What I am trying to maintain
Rendered out, Automator color profile HD assigned, and opened in QT: Gamma looks good but colors slightly more saturated than original in AE.
Rendered out with no color profile: Original problem with large gamma shift making everything bleached/washed out.
I have a screen shot I can show you to illustrate this here:
http://www.yousendit.com/download/THE0ek9xa0RxRTNIRGc9PQ
While the difference is subtle you can look at the RGB numbers and see the middle example is indeed more saturated.
Perhaps I need to use another color profile when working with the animation codec for animations created from scratch in AE to avoid this saturation shift, other than HD or PAL? Would you know of how to do this?
Also, would you know of how to change this, and perhaps a way of changing qucktime's interpretation rules for all animation files per se, so that I do not need to go through every .mov with the animation codec and assign profiles to them?
Many thanks for your time and sorry for being so long winded!

Targa gamma shift

Has anyone ever come across this: I've been using the same targa sequence output module and render settings in CS3 for the last 6 months without issue, and now all of the sudden my post house is telling me they're getting a gamma shift on my renders, that the blacks are lifted and everything is a little milky. I don't see any problem on my end--when I compare my render to the original sequence they gave me there is no apparent difference.
Even weirder is that I had a totally different post house on a different show with different targas tell me the same thing, and I was using CS4 for those shots. So it's gotta be something on my end, but what it is I have no idea.
Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure, but this sounds like they are simply not importing them correctly. Maybe they misinterpet the Alpha and it makes the color fade and when whatever editing suite they use fills the transparency, colors wash out. Apart from that - Targas will always use whatever default Gamma your program has and directly encode the skewed color info, which in a computer environment is anything from 1.6 to 2.2 or in case of 3D programs, the Gamma you define in the render settings. Beyond that the format is completely agnostic of color profiles or additional calibration meta data. Maybe you simply mis-tweaked you monitor?
Mylenium

Gamma shift when exporting MP4

I know this is a known issue, but I have yet to see a viable solution.
Working off PC and exporting via Adobe encoder.
When exporting H.264 in an mp4 container, there are significant gamma shift issues that void several hours/days of color correction work. It really washes out the color. I have viewed these exported mp4's in quicktime and VLC on multiple computers and the issue is still present.
Quicktime MOV exports seem to be fine, it is only when exporting H.264 mp4.
Some have mentioned changing the NVIDIA settings which seems to be an internal fix for that monitor, but I am exporting video's that will be going on the web for distribution. I really need consistency across all media platforms.
This is a very big deal that needs attention and hopefully a fix is in the works if it is not already out there.
Thanks,
Austin

Gamma shift once clip starts
Pure black before clip starts
Thanks for the reply!
The above demonstration is the same in VLC as well.
We exported black for a few seconds and then faded into a jpg image using the generic fade in effect.
All that was used in this clip was a jpg image at the end that we faded into. For this test we used no video.
Running Premiere Pro 8.1 Caravan on a Dell Precision T5610 Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2620 v2 @2.10 GHz 32gb RAM
Working off a Synology diskstation ds1513 20TB 4GB RAM
Only third party installed effects are film impact transitions, but they were not used in this clip.
Let me know if any more info is needed.
Thanks

Gamma Shift with Encore Transcoded Material

Hello,
I use Edius as my NLE and have always noticed that if I let Encore CS4/CS5encode my assets the gamma of the resulting DVD or BD is higher resulting in a grey, milky look to the footage.
1) Does anybody else see this?
2) What is causing this? Color space issue?
3) Can it be avoided?
This issue has baically stopped me from ever using Encore beyond a compiler of assets. It has been there since CS 4 for me.
Any ideas would help and might save my lowered opinion of this software.
Thanks

Hello,
Thank you for the tip about using AME. I thought Encore CS 5 used the media encoder in the background automatically.
The gamma shift is gone and I am happy to be using Encore in a more prominent role going forward.
One thing, it seems a bit odd regarding transcode settings. I can not find a way to enter AME through Encore to make presets.
Are the presets in Encore the same as AME?
Any help about this proceedure would be appreciated!

Gamma shift with LStar-RGB profile

Hi everybody
I have a problem with gamma shift when I import a picture which has the LStar-RGB profile embedded. Anybody else with this problem? Any solutions?
If I open the same image in Preview or Safari everything is fine.
Thank you
Marc

Hi Marc,
I have had a similar problem using the eciRGBv2 profile which I believe is the same as LStar-RGB. In my case when I exported images to an external editor they would open up dark in the editor. After work on the images they would return to Aperture and open up too light. I have also noticed that existing images that use this profile display too light in Aperture; the preview is fine but when the image finishes loading it is light. I thought this was some exposure issue as there seemed no effect on colour (although all of my images are black and white conversions) but gamma shift would sound right.
I noticed this problem after simultaneously upgrading to Mac OS 10.6.7 and Aperture 3.1.2 so I am not sure which is the source of the problem. Apple engineers are currently working on the matter but I wonder myself whether this is an ICC version 4 profile problem. All the images I have had problems with use the version 4 profile. I have tried using the ICC version 2 profile and this works okay. You will know (or can look up in ColorSync Utility) if LStar-RGB is a version 2 or version 4 profile, and depending on the answer to that you could try to use the eciRGBv2 profile in its ICC version 2 guise.
I hope you find an answer soon as I realise how frustrating this is.
Phil

Gamma shift from Capture & Log

I'm getting this dramatic gamma shift from my Capture & Log window. When I hit Capture Now, the preview image is a lot lighter.
Any way I can get the two matched up?

No. It is just a reference so you can see what you have. It isn't in any way a TRUE representation of the image you have. FOr that you use an external broadcast monitor connected via a capture card/device. The computer monitor is the LAST place to judge quality.
Shane

Gamma shift from After Effects

Hi,
We had to apply graphic work over a QuickTime Uncompressed 8 bit footage from Final Cut Pro.
The graphic work was done in After Effects.
The After Effect output was done using QuickTime Uncompressed 8 bit, the very same codec.
...but all the footage has a gamma shift ( upward ) and a slightly increased color saturation...
What's wrong ?
If we export Uncompressed 8 bit from FCP and reimport in FCP, there is NO gamma shift. ...so it seems to be an After Effect setting (or problem).
thanks !

Well I must specify that we haven't had any problems with gamma when working between After Effects and FCP in Mac OS X. It's just if you bring some material from PC to MAC you might notice that graphics are too bright, because FCP thinks all the RGB material is made with gamma 1.8. So FCP maps RGB colors to YUV (television colorspace used by DV, Uncompressed 8-bit etc.) with gamma 1.8.
BTW FCP doesn't collaborate with color management in OS X. So it doesn't make any difference how FCP handles RGB material if you change OS X gamma to 2.2.
FCP works in YUV and After Effects in RGB so that's why you don't see gamma problems when exporting material from FCP. I think you should first check from Apple Software Update you have the newest Pro Applications Update. I remember Uncompressed 8-bit codec had this kind of gamma problem with After Effecs couple updates before.
G5 DP2.5 (3.5GB RAM) Mac OS X (10.4.5) FCP 5.04, AJA Io, XSAN 1.2

Snow Leopard Prores 4444 Gamma Shift Nightmare

I've run into a nightmare with significant gamma shifts wrecking a lot of work we're trying to export using the Prores codec and After Effects CS3 (and CS4).
I found this supposed fix, but it has not solved my problems: http://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2009/12/prores-4444-colors-and-gamma-s.html
I appended suggested xml edit to the last line before </MediaCoreQT...> in both CS3 & CS4 files. Same infuriating darker gamma result after both edits.
Scenario: large targa sequence we've been working on for months, established pipeline of compiling the targas in AFXCS3 (OSX 10.5.8), Project Settings/Color Settings/Working Space = none, exporting sequence as Prores 4444, gamma set to automatic. Colour matched targas perfectly.
Now we're trying to use new Macpros we've bought specifically for this job that are run up as 10.6.2. Prores 4444 compiles are now coming out much darker! I've tried the XML edit (both CS3 & CS4), adjusting system gamma to 1.8 from new 10.6 default of 2.2, adjusting legacy gamma setting in project settings, etc... The colour is wrecked!! WTF?!?!?
Really don't want to have to revert to "Animation" settings. Deadline looms. Any help would be enormously appreciated!

I Think (but dont know) that I have found an explanation to this problem.
It has to do with colorsync on OS X (cant talk windows as I dont use that)
Scenario
1) Encode any non-ProRes 4444-source to ProRes 4444 using Compressor(Only encoder able to provide accurate result)
2) Be sure so DISABLE - Final Cut Studio color compatibility in the QT7 Player Preferences
3) Open source.MOV and new output.MOV in Quicktime7 -> Set view of both to half size (So you have overview) and place them next to each other
They should look/be identical
sometimes placing them next to each other will lead you to believe that they are different. If so, place them on top of each other and flip back and forth via the Window menu to make sure that both movies are indeed identical-looking.
4) Open OS X System Preferences
5) Click 'Displays' and select the color tab
Now, toggle through various color profiles. You SHOULD see the colors adapt on BOTH movies.
Create new AE Project and make sure that your Project is set to NOT color-manage your workflow
6) Create new AE composition and drag the Compressor-created ProRes 4444.MOV into it.
7) Add to render queue and select the ProRes 4444 as output.
8) Render out.
9) Open Compressor-created ProRes 4444.MOV and new AE-created ProRes 4444.MOV in Quicktime7 -> Set view of both to half size (So you have overview) and place them next to each other
10) They should look identical but they dont.
11) Open OS X System Preferences (in case you closed it)
12) Click 'Displays' and select the color tab
Now, toggle through various color profiles. You SHOULD see the colors adapt on BOTH movies.
They DONT. They ONLY adapt in the Compressor-created ProRes 4444.MOV not in the AE-created ProRes 4444.MOV
And that even though color-mangement has been turned off.
Turning color-managemen ON will have no different effect that leaving it off. The AE created movie(Color Management set to OFF) WILL not allow being color synced in OS X.
The Expected behavior IS:
1) when color management is set to OFF in the AE project settings and output module that the AE-Created movie would adapt to any color-profile change made within the OS X System Preference, COLOR Panel.
2) when color management is set to ON in the AE project settings and output module that the AE-Created movie would NOT adapt to any color-profile change made within the OS X System Preference, COLOR Panel.
As of NOW... There are no differences between above.
I hope this helps to solve this nuisance !!!
If I have missed something VERY obvious then please disregard my post and tell me what I seeing incorrectly !!!
PS - ON my computer - this last part of my post looks ridiculously small and that even though I have done NO font editing.
I find that posting and editing in this forum is as hard as getting Adobe products to encode correctly

*YET ANOTHER* Prores Gamma Shift Thread

There is a gamma and color shift, rendering Prores4444, 422HQ, 422, LT, and Proxy out of After Effects CC 2014.0.2.
It is apparent when viewing the renders from the Finder, Quicktime, or Premiere Pro CC 2014. I'm on OSX 10.8.3.
I followed these instructions to deal with it, but they didn't help:
http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2009/12/prores-4444-colors-and-gamma-s.html
I can get the footage to almost perfectly match by applying a gamma adjustment of .97, a blue gamma of 1.02 and green gamma of .98.
When I render to TIFF or JPG, the render matches the AE viewport.
My project's Working Space is set to None. If I set it to REC709, the Prores still have a gamma shift, and so do the JPG exports.
Setting the "Match Legacy Quicktime" checkbox doesn't help either.
The gamma shift doesn't just happen with motion graphics, but with regular footage too.
It also happens when rendering out of Davinci Resolve, which tells me it may be an Apple problem, not an Adobe problem.
This has been a problem with Prores for years.
Is it fixed in OSX 10.9? How about in Yosemite?
Is this just a fact of life for Prores? Should I switch to DNxHD?
If I'm going to use Prores, should I render everything with an Adjustment Layer that cancels out the gamma and color shift?
Thanks!
Eric

This isn't really an answer, but FWIW, I love 10-bit 220 DNxHD; I don't render anything out to ProRes anymore unless a client or subcontractor specifically asks for it. DNxHD is still limited to specific resolutions, but if you're working in HD or FHD, it's pretty great.

Canon 5D h.264 files to Prores introduces gamma shifts

I can convert these files with QuickTime Player fine. But using the Compressor 3.5 preset for Apple Prores 422HQ Introduces random gamma shifts in the file - when viewed with QuickTime Player or FCP.

Why are you transcoding them in the first place? Doesn't FCP work with H.264 natively?!

5.1.1: there's still gamma shift from AE with uncompressed codec

O.k. - this issue has annoyed me for years and has caused me to come up with all sorts of silly workarounds. I saw that with 5.1.1 and the pro app update we were promised a fix for this:
Uncompressed 422
Uncompressed 422 delivers a fix for changes in color-space and/or gamma when moving clips between Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects and addresses a codec issue leading to drawing errors in 16bpc After Effects projects....
However, i still get the identical gamma bump as before with this $49 update. . . is this update working for anybody yet?

Sorry, I don't use that specific codec. I export footage to AE in the format I am working with, and back in the same format, typically DVCPRO HD. And I see no gamma shift.
Try the Animation codec?
Shane

DVCProHD Gamma Shift in AE

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