AHHHHH!!! Help me with this stupid program!

C

c.g._eads

Veteran
Okay, for all of you Forum Fred's out there, I promise I will be seeking answers to my questions through the archives here. In the meantime, please help me out. I'm new to Premiere Pro/After Effects workflow and I'm not quite sure how it's done.

Using: AFTER EFFECTS 7 and PREMIERE PRO 1.5

All I want to do in After Effects is color correct my short movie. So I import the short movie project into AE. All of the files show up in the bin (Should I have done this?) Then, I drag my main sequence into the composition window. This is where I basically lose all my understanding of the workflow.

I drag my levels effect onto the sequence and color correct for the first shot. Buuuuuuutttttt... this then color corrects the entire short movie. I want to color correct each individual shot. Is this done with keyframes (taking the value down to 0 for every effect each time you reach a new shot?)? Cause if I have to lower and higher dozens of keyframe values every time I get to a new shot, that seems very unintuitive. So could somebody tell me the easiest way to color correct all the shots in a sequence?

Thank you!

Chris

p.s. i'll probably be posting lots of questions in here the next few days. So get used to me. :)
 
Hi Chris,
There are many ways to skin this cat. Some workflows operate by exporting individual scenes which you then colour-correct - exporting a ton of corrected scenes. Another way is as you have done export the entire movie and then start correcting across the length of it. You can use the keyframed method you already discovered above; you can also apply short sections of Adjustment Layers which you can repeat for different sections. So that means you have one movie layer and dozens and dozens of adjustment layers. If you have it, you could also use ColorFinesse., a very powerful colour-corrector that ships with AE.

For simple correction I would simply leave it in Premiere and not even bother involving AE. Premiere can do simple levels, curves, HSL control etc. and it does it on a per-clip basis which might suit your workflow better.
 
"All of the files show up in the bin (Should I have done this?) Then, I drag my main sequence into the composition window. This is where I basically lose all my understanding of the workflow."


Instead of making a new composition with the sequence in After Effects, simply double click the sequence and it should pull up in the exact same layout that it is in Premiere. All over your clips will appear independant on the timeline and in the right order. The new A.E. timeline should be exacty the same as Premiere's timeline.

Hope that helps.
 
c.g._eads said:
Okay, for all of you Forum Fred's out there, I promise I will be seeking answers to my questions through the archives here. In the meantime, please help me out. I'm new to Premiere Pro/After Effects workflow and I'm not quite sure how it's done.

Using: AFTER EFFECTS 7 and PREMIERE PRO 1.5

All I want to do in After Effects is color correct my short movie. So I import the short movie project into AE. All of the files show up in the bin (Should I have done this?) Then, I drag my main sequence into the composition window. This is where I basically lose all my understanding of the workflow.

I drag my levels effect onto the sequence and color correct for the first shot. Buuuuuuutttttt... this then color corrects the entire short movie. I want to color correct each individual shot. Is this done with keyframes (taking the value down to 0 for every effect each time you reach a new shot?)? Cause if I have to lower and higher dozens of keyframe values every time I get to a new shot, that seems very unintuitive. So could somebody tell me the easiest way to color correct all the shots in a sequence?

Thank you!

Chris

p.s. i'll probably be posting lots of questions in here the next few days. So get used to me. :)
Click to expand...

I don't use PP I use avid but I would either import scenes rather then the entire short or if you do import the whole sequence you could always split the layer and cc that way.
 
I am color correcting my feature in AE 7 at present. I edited the film in Premiere Pro 2 via the Adobe Production Suite. In AE i imported the sequence (of the entire film). All my files came into AE flawlessly.

If you want some great help check out Stu Maschwitz's book The DV Rebel Guide. Its worth every penny.
 
workhouseboys, thanks. that simple one additional click made a huge difference.

Alex, I've been having some quality issues with my outputted color corrected footage that I do in premiere. Some people have told me it's because Premiere is not good at color correction and that the quality of my image would be much more consistent if I color corrected in AE. Which is why I'm doing this. Is this a myth or have people found this to be true. Oh, and I will be doing more than just levels correction for most of the footage.

Also - and if I'm covering stuff that's too basic, feel free to ignore me - When you color correct a shot, does AE automatically create an adjustment layer for that shot that you can then cut and paste to any other shot? Where is this layer kept and how do I find it in order to cut and paste? I'm familiar with the concept of layers, I just don't use them that often.
 
AE will add an effect to that clip/layer that should be copy and pasteable to another clip if I'm not mistaken. Just click on the effect and ctrl+c, then click on the new layer/clip to paste and ctrl+v. Opening up the entire sequence as a comp like workhouseboys mentioned has always worked best for me, but everybody's got their own style that works.

Not sure if AE will actually cc better than premeire or not - it does do 32 bit color so maybe thats it? For little stuff I CC in premiere and then larger things where I need more control I go to AE and use Color Finesse.
 
You could also use an actual Adjustment Layer on top of your whole sequence, if you have an overall look you want applied to all shots. Then you can perform tweaks on the individual shots in addition to that.
 
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