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HELP: Setting up After Effects for GH2 Color Grading
  • 49 Replies sorted by
  • Now I have a headache!

  • Rec 709 seems to be, at best, anachronistic or at worst, video engineers who endured decades of NTSC jokes giving everyone the finger. I totally agree, it's stupid. As soon as analog went the way of the dinosaur their silly superstitions and pseudo-science should have been a thing of the past but, no, that crap lingers on.

    Besides, just watch TV, it doesn't matter local or network, cable, etc. there are no standards being observed and maintained. And even if they are the distribution channel (AT&T, Time Warner, etc.) screws it up.

  • Sorry to revive this one but, i'm doing my color correction in AE and the color management question came up. my footage are ProRes HQ (converted from MTS GH2-moont7 files with 5DtoRGB). should I use rec 709, disable it or.. whats the best option? also used 5DtoRGB to transcode my Canon Legria HF200 to ProRes LT.. and these files are in one and only timeline. how can I be sure of the color profile to be used? Thanks in advance.

  • @aronaguiar if I recall correctly, in case you're using 5DtoRGB, there's no need to assign a color profile.

    Anyway, you have 3 options at least: 1) use "Preserve RGB", 2) use no color management at all, as Shian previously advised, 3) use Rec. 709.

    In any case, you gotta see it for yourself: if your imported video (in AE's time line) looks the same (or you like how it looks there) as in some PC media player, then it's OK. Moreover, it's very easy to find out if you used a proper color profile. Import in the time line your video, do nothing with it in AE and render it there. If your rendered file "visually" looks the same as the original one, then you did everything right.

  • How to make DNxHD codec appear in the Render settings in After Effects?

    It works in Sony Vegas Pro, but not in AE.

  • Thank you @MikhailK ! will do.

  • @producer ... if you've got the codec in your computer, then ... a copy of it needs to be someplace that Ae looks for such things. So, figure out how to find your folder of Ae codecs (the ones it lists) and then copy the DNxHD codec into that folder.

    Neil

  • @producer Try to reinstall DNxHD. It should appear for sure. Anyway, after you're done, in the render settings of this codec you should manually check "RGB gamma" (not Rec. 709), otherwise your blacks will be crashed.

  • @MikhailK: Thank you, going to reinstall now, let's see...

    If I use CineForm codec, should I uncheck .709 and check RGB for best results too?

  • No, again DNxHD codec doesn't appear in AE Render settings.

    What have I got to do?!?

  • in response to Producer "DNxHD codec doesn't appear in AE Render settings"

    well, I'm assuming you've installed the avid dnxhd codec, yeah? otherwise google where to get it. The below instructions are for windows

    Dnxhd doesn't appear, it's buried. Dnxhd is a quick time based codec for windows

    In the render queue: go to output module, click in the output module settings window:

    choose format dropdown. in the dropdown, choose quicktime now click the format options button in the window that opens, there will be a video codec dropdown- in that dropdown you should see aviddnxhd. You can click the codec settings button for colorspace, etc.

  • @producer Try this one. http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Download/en423319

    And follow the advice of @chauncy. Otherwise, I don't know what else you can do.

    As for Cineform, as far as I recall, you can choose Rec. 709 or 444 (filmscan 1,2...). I didn't try 709 and tried 444 only. 444 looks OK (with RGB gamma). But...I don't use this codec in AE because in case I try to render a comp which has some internal precomps, my AE shows some error and doesn't let me render this comp. Only a single comp goes with no error.

  • The weird situation is that even QuickTime is not shown in the output dropdown menu. Of course, I have it installed and no any problems with it in Sony Vegas Pro 11, where I can even use DNxHD codecs for .AVI !!!

    Yes, I had Avid DNxHD Codec 2.3.7 installed since long time ago. Yesterday I downloaded and installed version 2.3.8 ( http://www.digital-digest.com/software/Avid_DNxHD_Codec.html ) - same issue with AE.

    Someone in other forum wrote that DNxHD installed codec files must be copied in the AE codecs folder, but I can't find it.

  • I had also problems with AE + DNxHD. I re-installed everything, including Windows. Then it started working.

  • re-install AE

  • @producer Shian is right. I've just recalled that a long time ago in a galaxy far away... I once had the same problem with DNxHD. I removed AE and DNxHD. Then I reinstalled DNxHD and only after that I reinstalled AE. I did work out for me.

  • Alos, Quicktime should be reinstalled before the installation of AE.

  • Hm, I think that's the way I did it ago...

    Actually, I use AE CS4 portable version which I found in the net long time ago (I'm still on Win7 32-bit), but no any other issues with that.

    Currently I use CineForm or UT video codec 4:2:2 BT.709. Is that wrong or I should use 4:2:2 .601?

  • @producer Sorry, man. I use CS6 (Win 7 64 bit). I don't know regarding your question on 4:2:2 .601... Ask Shian :-)

  • This is embarrassing, but I'm having trouble making sense of all this. Can someone help?

    I'm trying to use DNxHD to go between Vegas 12 and AE CC 2014 (on a Win7 x64 PC). I've tested various permutations and always end up with my DNxHD files looking washed out. If I render out other codecs (for example h264, or wmv) it looks like it's supposed to. And it always looks right inside of Vegas and AE, it's just when I view the results in VLC (or Quicktime) that it looks washed out.

    For better or worse, my usual workflow is:

    1) Do rough edit in Vegas, project settings are 1920x1080, 25,000 fps, progressive, 8-bit. Then I export any clips I want to mess with in AE as DNxHD mov files (RGB, 1080p/25 36-8bit).

    2) Mess with them in AE, re-export as DNxHD with same settings. Still washed out. My AE project setting are at the default -- I've not messed with them at all. This means 8-bit color and color management set to "none". It doesn't matter if I change this to 32bpc.

    3) Re-import to Vegas (same settings as above) for final edit and export as DNxHD (same settings). If I then render out DNxHD mov, it's washed out. If I do a wmv or mp4, it's fine. WTF?

    I'm trying to keep this post short, but let me know if you need more info. I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

    Cheers, Lori

  • @lorilin I've had the same issue before. I don't know anything about Vegas but as for AE...it's not a problem at all. When you export from AE, you gotta go into DNxHD codec settings and in the color settings (or...profile) of this codec please check "Rec. 709" instead of "16-235".

    If that doesn't help then there's something wrong with your project color profile (if you use color management in AE).

    As for 8bpc in AE, I would recommend you to use 32bpc only. For color grading it matters a lot (at least in AE).

  • @lorilin

    One other thing that may be of issue here as I know of others who've found this ... you might see if there's a setting for letting the app or the system set color settings. VLC may be setting color settings (esp. gamma/sat) differently than the system controlled programs such as Ae& Vegas. This has come up several times on the Adobe forums for both Premiere Pro and SpeedGrade ... where the issue it turned out was conflicting settings on the control of the apps.

    Neil

  • You guys RULE! Thanks for the help. @tonalt -- the first link did the trick (I have an nVidia graphics card). Now my DnxHD movs look like they're supposed to. Yippee!

    @MikhailK, I will try setting Vegas and AE to 32bpc and see what happens. I've not messed with the default settings (8bpc) just because I didn't want to complicate things for myself.