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!

Similar Messages

  • Dynamic Link for Premiere and After Effects CS4 with Titles

    I've created a Rolling Title in Premiere Pro CS4.  I'd like to create a Dynamic Link to bring the title into After Effects CS4 to add effects that will show up in Premiere.  I've watched a few video tutorials on Dynamic Link and read the documentation and tried a variety of permutations but can't seem to get this done.
    Also saw something in these forums about problems using Dynamic Link with Titles (as opposed to regular clip??)
    And something about Premiere and After Effects projects being saved together ??in same folder - is that correct?
    So, could someone explain if this can be done and the right way to do it?
    Thanks

    Thanks Mylenium - appreciate the quick and focused reply.
    I would like to keep the benefits of the Premiere Pro Titler (to play with the length of time by stretching or squashing the Title block on the timeline; to type in time to stay on screen at end; ease in and out etc . . .).  If I do render out a png / tiff / or psd sequence with alpha, and bring that into AFX to play with.  Will I still retain the ability to use the Titler features in Premire Pro, or do I essentially have to convert it to 'regular footage' on reimport as opposed to a 'Title?"
    Thanks

  • Dynamic Link Premiere and After Effects CS4

    I am new to owning the whole suite, so I did not realize that you could use dynamic link. I figured out that I could import premire projects into AE (without linking) I just imported them and assumed I would create my effects and render out the project only to import the rendered video into Premiere. Now, I realize I could have just right clicked on a clip in Premiere and used link.
    Now, my question is can I get those effects prjects from After Effects into premire? If so, then how? i have tried dymanic link and I just get a linked sequence in premeire . . .
    Am I blind or stupid or both?? Please help!

    You can export a Premiere Pro project from After Effects, but the results are usually pretty messy. Because of the different way in which tracks in Premiere and layers in After Effects work (ie. you can have multiple clips on a single track in PPro, but only one clip/item per layer in AE), you can end up with an unmanageable number of tracks in Premiere. Still, it's an option to explore.
    Note that AE-only effects won't come through to Premiere, and certain project items will be recreated in a way you might not expect.

  • Premiere and After Effects CS4 Dynamic Link "glitches"

    I am no longer able to use dynamic link when I try to link to multiple AE compositions from Premiere.
    What happens is, when playing the sequence back in premiere, there are random frames in the dynamic link clip that are out of order. For example if I have two compositions, A and B, each 1 second, and they are in my Premiere project, the playback might do something crazy like this:
    Should be (frames):
    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
    Really:
    AAABAAAAAAAAAABBAAAAAAAABBABABABABBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
    I'm not sure if there is any pattern to it, but dynamic link is just not working. I thought this might be a preview issue, so I tried rendering it and I got the same incorrect sequence as the preview. I've tried things like removing and adding the compositions again, or deleting the media cache, but this always randomly comes up.
    My only option has been to export in AE (and when doing uncompressed that can use a lot of disk space).
    Any ideas as to how to solve this? Or is dynamic link just a broken feature?

    Well that was stupid. I had to rename the compositions (they were created from Premiere so the automatic names had a trailing number). Then I had to reimport the comps and place them over the old broken ones (clearing the cache didn't seem to help with those).
    After replacing with comps without numbers and clearing all of the caches, it seems to be working so far.
    I can't believe this bug even exists. Especially when the "Replace with After Effects composition" will repro the bugs. Sounds like poor testing on Adobe's part.
    At the very least this should be documented somewhere officially. I was able to find this post on the web after looking up this specific issue: http://www.digitalrebellion.com/blog/posts/adobe_dynamic_link_troubleshooting.html

  • Premeire CS4 and After Effects CS4 not working

    If this isn't the place on the forum to post this please say so. Every thing was working until one day after effects started making my image sequences alot smaller than usual.  I could find no help for this, so I restored my computer.  After it got done restoring After Effects wasn't installed. I restored it to when it had been installed.  This confused me so i tried to re-install it using the package that you download from the trials(I'm using the trial versions). It got to about 80% loaded(Not 80% installed, the installer was 80% open) it froze and wouldn't go any further.  I had to use Ctrl Alt Delete to get it closed.  I reinstalled the installer many times, but the same thing kept happening.  After this happend I figured I could live without the After Effects Trial.  Adobe Premiere worked perfectly untill I tried to export to a media file.  When I do that it comes up with an error.  When I click the error button a text file comes up with a bunch of numbers, also it says something like "This operation was canceled by the user". I didn't do anything to cancel it so I have no idea what's happening. If you need the text document posted please say so.   Thanks for your help I can't figure out what's going on.

    I'm trying to export to .avi, but the weird thing is was it was working before the whole thing with after effects.

  • Final Cut and After Effects "file is busy"

    Hello All-
    I am running Final Cut Pro 5.1.4 and After Effects 7.0.1 Pro (on OS 10.4.8) and I have a question. I have a series of After Effects animated DV Quicktime clips edited together in Final Cut, and when I make changes to the After Effects project files and try to rerender, I get an error:
    After Effects error: unable to overwrite - file is busy (delete) (-47) ( 3 :: 3 )
    It's like Final Cut is "holding onto" the files and not allowing After Effects to rerender them. If I close down Final Cut, I can rerender just fine, but this gets real annoying closing it down and restarting it every time I need to rerender a clip. The problem is, because of my workflow, I need to do this dozens of times a day with clients in the room and I'm spending a lot of time closing and restarting Final Cut over the course of a day... is there way to do this without closing down Final Cut?
    I assigned After Effects to be the "External Editor" for "Video Files", and used Final Cut's "Open In Editor" command. It sends the quicktime file to After Effects (not exactly what I want) and you would think that at this point Final Cut would have relenquished its access to the file so that I could rerender in After Effects, but nope, I still get the error. I have tried this with the User Preference setting "Always Reconnect Externally Modified Files" both on and off, no difference. I have also tried "Embed Project Link" in After Effects's quicktime output options, but this didn't help anything (I believe this only affects other Adobe apps).
    The weird part of this is that when I drop a Photoshop file onto the Final Cut timeline, I can do "Open in Editor", it throws it to Photoshop, I can alter it and save with no problem, and pop back into Final Cut and it will be updated. But no such luck with Quicktime files and After Effects.
    Let me know if there is a solution to this, or if I am stuck having to shut down Final Cut every single time I need to rerender one of the After Effects animation clips in the timeline.
    - Bob Wilson
    MacBook Pro 2.33ghz Core 2 Duo 15"   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   3 gigs ram, 160 gig HD

    What i have to suggest is more of a work around than it is a solution. i've had this problem off and on as well. What i do is add a number to the name of the newly rendered file, (ie. "monkey_throwspoo2.mov") import that file into FCP, open it in the viewer, and then copy it (apple + c). Provided it's the smae length as the previous file, you can right click on the previous file in the timeline and paste attributes, making sure to click on the content button for video (and audio if there is any). This should replace the old file in the timeline with the new one. Granted, you end up having a bunch of files that you're not using, but it's faster than restarting Final Cut (and looks more like it's something you're doing on purpose rather than a problem with the program to your clients). Hope this helps.
    Craig

  • After Effects CS4.0

    I am looking to evaluate After Effects for my corporation. I have a 32bit machine and need a demo version of this software.

    You will be missing out on a large number of great features if you stick to a 32-bit environment, I would recommend looking into upgrading the hardware itself if you are interested in After Effects. 
    If you need a chance to test it for now, install the trial of CS4 and see if you like the software.  When you are convinced, and you will be, then feel free to purchase Production Premium CS6.  Why?  http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/64-bit-windows-required-effects.html - if you purchase CS6 and you cannot run it in the 64-bit environment we require, we can get you a serial number for CS4 that you can use with your purchase.  Then, when you do get around to upgrading your hardware, and you will really want to, then you already have CS6 ready to use. 
    Just wanted to call out the following piece of info from the article I linked to from above -
    Windows 32-bit users: You can install the 32-bit versions of Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and After Effects CS4 included with the CS5 and CS5.5 versions of the Production Premium and Master Collection suites. For users with version CS6, contact Adobe Customer Service to request your serial number for Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. After upgrading to a compatible 64-bit operating system, you can install and use Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects CS5 and later.
    The 32-bit versions of Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and After Effects CS4 can be downloaded here:
    http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5291

  • Quicktime Codecs/Compressors and After Effects?

    Hi,
    I have AE CS4, updated.Win XP SP 3 and 560ti Nvidia.
    I have a few questions regarding quicktime and after effects.
    I mostly render using quicktime and photo-jpeg as the compressor.But in the timelapse I shot, it is not giving me precise colors and the final movie is low on contrast.
    I tried animation codec, awesome but file size too large.I am rendering for stock footage where 1GB is maximum file size limit.
    My questions:
    1 - Will updating Quicktime update the compressor menu list under quicktime format in after effects render settings?Will updating also add new compressors, if any?
    2 - Where does quicktime store encoders/compressors if installed on C drive?
    3 - I saw many recommending DNxHD codec.I downloaded it.What next?Is it a quicktime compressor, i.e. to be used with quicktime as we use h.264, animation and photo-jpeg?
    4 - How do I add DNxHD codec to After Effects for use in renders?
    5 - Could you recommend the best lossless quicktime compressor which gives not so big file size as animation does?
    Currently I see 11 compressors in format options under quicktime.Are there more?I have the latest k-lite codec pack installed if that matters.
    Thank you.
    Would be greatful if you can explain, it will help me get clear on this.
    Thank you.And sorry if it is a very basic question.

    Hi, thanks for the replies.
    It is a timelapse footage and not animation file.I meant animation codec under quicktime format gives me the best results.I tried h.264 and photo-jpeg, but the final video looks flat and low on contrast.I have done some color grading and only animation and png renders it correctly.
    But the problem is that the file size is pretty huge.I also see banding in photo-jpeg and h.264 renders.
    I want to upload the timelapse to pond5 for sale.But photo-jpeg just gives me flat colors and flat contrast.
    Can you suggest a compression that maintains colors plus gives a size under 1GB?
    Photo-Jpeg render frame:
    https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42878955/1%20Photo%20-%20Jpeg.JPG
    Animation render frame:
    https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42878955/2%20Animation.JPG
    You can see how flat photo-jpeg looks.Also hasn't rendered the colors and contrast properly.
    Along with this, can you help me install DNxHD codec?I downloaded it and it has 2 folders, Source and TestFrames.What next?

  • Severe audio problems in After Effects CS4 and MXF and more...

    Hi!
    I've been experiencing a lot of problems lately with several CS4 products.
    First, and the worst, is that there seems to be some severe audio bug in After Effects when handling mxf-files. I pre-cut a project in premiere CS4, shot with a Sony EX1, and then imported the project in After Effects CS4.
    In premiere everything worked fine and I had all the audio. In AE however the audio matched with the MXF-files disappeared (Yes I had the import audio box checked). All other audio worked fine from the music tracks and so on, but the MXF-files (MXF for NLE) was completely blank, the waveforms were completely flat. I checked every option there is in AE regarding audio and tried enabling and disabling XMP ID's and so on. After a lot of tweaking and testing I understood that the problem was not with any settings anywhere, the MXF-files lacked audio even if I started a new project and just imported the MXF-file.
    The problem seems to be connected to when importing from Premiere. My colleague was editing a similar project on his computer in After Effects without problems, and he started out fresh in AE (didn't pre-cut in premiere). However, we tried to move my project to his computer, to see if the problem was connected with incompability with my hardware or such, and he got the same problem as me when he opened the project. Waveforms on MXF-files were completely flat. Certain confirmation that the problem was not connected with my computer appeared when he later reopened his own project, that had worked fine before, and audio was now completely gone - waveforms flat. An hour later, by chance, his audio suddenly popped back.
    I have experienced this problems in two different projects in different forms (but both pre-cut in premiere). In the first, audio disappeared while previewing but was there when I ctrl-scrolled and rendered (no I hadn't muted audio in the preview panel). In the second, audio was completely gone even when rendered.
    In both cases I tried saving and restarting the computer, reimporting from premiere, starting a fresh after effects project and only importing the mxf-files, changing the project settings, fps fixed to the correct instead of auto, changing output audio mapping, changing XMP, and so on in every possible way and combination I could imagine.
    At my company our suspicion is that After Effects flags mfx-files imported from Premiere in some wierd way, to strengthen and ensure compatibility between the two - regarding different audio tracks, settings and effects from premiere (and this is almost what you could suspect that the XMP ID is for, but as explained with or without doesn't change a thing regarding this). We have no problem with the pure MXF support for AE, as MXF-files work just fine in After Effects if you import them directly and have not imported them through premiere earlier (but after a file has been "flagged" you seem to be sc***ed)
    Anyone else experiencing this? Or am I missing something huge?
    As additional notes, the dynamic link function seems extremely buggy and both premiere both sometimes complains about "dynamic link already in use and only one connection blah blah" even though only one link is used, and even though you restart the projects, programs, computer, whatever.
    In furher addition Adobe Media Encoder (which also seems to be using some sort of dynamic link offspring) is super-buggy and most codec formats either doesn't start to render or just renders partially and then the program hangs. The problem have a connection with a process named pproheadless.exe eating upp all the RAM (4gbs).
    (My workstation has been working smoothly for one and a half years and I have had very little problems with CS3 and "just" AE CS4. I am cautious of updates, don't have spyware and use Quicktime 7.5 as 7.5.5 is superbuggy and people seems to have problems with 7.6 and it doesn't fix the gamma issues anyway.)
    Sorry if this was a long post but the problem is compl

    Dude, that's what these forums are all about. Everyone in here says they dont work for Adobe, but they all act like apologists for what is clearly a disaster of a software release.  My complaints aren't as specialized as yours, just very basic, and I wont go into all of them, because the list is long, and includes nearly every program in CS4.
    I'm going for a refund, either from the retailer or my credit card company. Releasing software like this is dishonest.

  • After Effect cs4 export and render issue

    When I tried to render or export a video, After Effect(CS4)
    become no respond and close,after that, my computer shut down too!
    My computer:
    Althon 64X 4600+
    2GB DDR2 Ram
    ATI HD5870 (500mb video Ram)
    Windows 7 32 bit
    Can anybody can slove this problem for me?

    Mylenium asked very pertinent questions.  I'll make some educated guesses, which may or may not apply.
    First thing: 2 GB may seem like a ton of memory to you, but in AE-Land, it's NOTHING.  You need to trick that machine of yours out with memory.  On a 32-bit system, that would mean bringing it up to 4 GB.
    If you're trying to use multiprocessing, turn it off and leave it off.  On a 32-bit system, you'll never have enough memory to make multiprocessing work efficiently.
    Trying to speed rendering by using Open GL acceleration?  Turn that off, too.
    Since you're on a 32-bit system, the most recent version of AE you can run is Version 9.  Make sure it's fully updated. 
    But if you shot video on a DSLR, HDV Camera, XDCam or Flip Cam, you could still have problems.  Since you can't be running AE 10, which pretty much solved the problem of long-gop footage, here's why:
    Dave's Stock Answer #1:
    If the footage you imported into AE is any  kind of the following -- footage in an HDV acquisition codec, MPEG1, MPEG2, AVCHD, mp4, mts, m2t, H.261 or H.264 -- you need to convert it to a different codec.
    These kinds of footage use temporal, or interframe compression. They have keyframes at regular intervals, containing complete frame information.  However, the frames in between do NOT have complete information.  Interframe codecs toss out duplicated information.
    In order to maintain peak rendering efficiency, AE needs complete information for each and every frame. But because these kinds of footage contain only partial information, AE freaks out, resulting in a wide variety of problems.
    I'm a Mac guy, so I like to convert to Quicktime movies in the Animation or PNG codecs; both are lossless.  I'll use Apple's Compressor, Adobe Media Encoder or Quicktime Pro to do it.

  • Photoshop cs4 and cs5 and after effects 7.0

    Hello my name is mel
    My question ! I'm working with photoshop cs4 and after effects 7.0 building a web page and this going to be my first page . I got the header in and the footer also,
    the main body is going to be this avi file. after effect project that I want to run when the page opens. I want to slice up and send to DW for coding . my question is how do you slice this page up and transport it to DW.cs5 and do you have to code the avi in html and css to run when the page is open. Because as now when you run the avi in photoshop nothing elese on the page works , just the avi runs when you turn off the avi then every thing is back normal .to run the avi you have go to the video part of psd and click on the start button . any idea or any suggestion how to proceded would help
    thanks
    mel
    [email protected]

    we were told in design school to use ps to design your site   then transport to DW to code??
    Maybe I misunderstood you.... You do the graphics in PS, that's of course what everyone does and then you code in DW, but by all means, you do not operate on the atrocious code Save for Web would spit out from PS. Trying to fix it is more trouble than starting with a blank page in DW and inserting the background and otehr images manually. And you definitely misunderstand "animation" vs. "video" After Effects is just a means to turn animation into video just as Flash is a means of creating dynamically rendered animation or interactive content. Both have their uses, but without knowing what kind of animation or video you actually need to produce, this is going nowhere. It may turn out that all you need is an animated GIF, after all... Furthermore your AE 7 is dated and does not output good H.264 or FLV directly compared to more recent versions, so this opens up yet anotehr can of worms when it comes to producing good quality web video at small file sizes... In any case, you still require a lot of reading. Too complex a topic for which nobody can provide a tippy-toe tutorial and without understanding even some basic concepts, the most beautifully designed PS grafik will end up being nothing more than a useless lump of pixels on a web server...
    Mylenium

  • How to install riot gear and evolution in after effects cs4

    Please tell how to install them in adobe after effects cs4.
    Please i am waiting for the solution.

    > Please tell any site from which i can learn editing and some vfx creating from after effects cs4.
    Start here to learn After Effects.

  • Puddle and reflection effects in After Effects CS4

    I am currently using After Effects CS4 (will be upgrading to CS6 in a couple of days) and I am currently trying out a test project using basic lighting animation.  However, one element I want to create is a puddle on the ground.  I was wondering if anybody here could advise on creating a puddle and its effects in After Effects, such as wave movements, reflection (particularly background elements) and whether I should use the basic pen tool or use some sort of diffusion maps.  If I wanted to make things a little more complicated, then how can I create rain effects to hit the ground plane without it looking like a screen filter and have it influence the puddle?
    If any of you would be able to point me out to some other tutorials on the web, I would be very grateful for that.

    GenArts' Monsters GT has a Puddle 3D effect that is quite okay for that. Beyond that I don't see how we should advise specifically without a reference image. There's a million types of puddle from still and murky flat ones to deep asphalt holes to wavy large ones on fields and how "real" they look will ultimately depend on their context.
    Mylenium

  • Video tutorials for After Effects CS4 (and some still relevant from CS3)

    I just added a post to my blog about some new video tutorials that we posted (and some old ones that are still relevant):
    video tutorials for After Effects CS4 (and some still relevant from CS3)

    Thanks Todd!

  • After Effects CS4 and OMF / AAF

    My project's sound editor who I recently brought on board asked me for an OMF or AAF file from my film (that I'm editing together using After Effects CS4).  I exported the OMF file for a clip that was about 15 seconds and the file was > 1GB!
    My questions:
    1)  Is this typical?  Seems like the sound editor shouldn't need anything this massive.
    2)  I couldn't find any exporting tool for AAF - is there a plugin to do this?  Is this a smaller net resultant file?
    He said there should be plugins for After Effects to export the kind of thing he needs, so I'm pretty sure these are possible.

    Hello, Scireja.
    I think there is a very widespread but understandable confusion regarding the nature of two different kinds of OMF files.
    From your description, it seems like you want to export an OMF exchange file, which is a common way to translate a video timeline into something you can take to a DAW application like Pro Tools for audio post, while keeping the audio edits as separate clips.
    But the OMF export option in After Effects is for OMF essence files. These are video files, in the native wrapper Avid systems use when ingesting or capturing material. It's not a project with embeded clips, but just a video file.
    After Effects can't export this kind of OMF exchage files directly. Premiere Pro does export such files, as this feature is more typical of editing applications. Please note that there could be good news: You have the ability to export an AE project as a Premiere Pro project, and once you have this converted project in PPro, you can then export it as an OMF exchange file.

Maybe you are looking for