Exporting Motion Graphics and animation from After Effects CS5

Question

I find that exporting from After Effects is problematic when using a ramp or working with anything that has a gradient of some kind. Always banding and artifacts.
Any insight into how to achieve good result with projects such as this?
Thx in advance.

Answer 1

I find that exporting from After Effects is problematic when using a ramp or working with anything that has a gradient of some kind.
...then don't! Sorry, but this is the same old thing: Simple computational math dictates that between points A and B only so many discrete color levels can exist in 8bit color and that any distance beyond 1024 pixels will result in duplicate pixels of the same colors to be adjacent, commonly referred to as banding. Or in other words: You are looking to fix a thing that can't really be fixed, even more so when compression reduces the available color range further. Yes, you can use all sorts of tricks like adding noise or adjusting gamma to minimize this, but it will never go away. The ugly harsh truth is, that it all starts with a flawed design approach and any of that is merely trying to fix things at the wrong and. As I said in my initial sentence, don't use gradients that cover such large distances along just one axis or uniformely colored areas. Ad structure by adding more gradients perpendicular/ at an angle to the main gradient, use subtle color variations, add vignetting or generally use "busy" designs that have more elements or textures that would allow to forego large uniform areas....
Mylenium