Exporting to After Effects, and entire sequence is dark?

B

brandonanthony1

Well-known member
Hey all, so I've been working on a project for the past week, went to export, and when I do, everything is a good bit darker than in the project timeline.

Before I go any further, just figured I'd give you the setup I'm on: Editing in AE CS5.5 w/ Canon t2i footage (on pc).

I've done some searching here and there, and it appears that it might be something to do with the gamma settings that After Effects uses? I've tried modifying my settings, but to no avail, it keeps exporting dark.

Below is a quick 2 second example, as you can see, the talent walking is much, much darker than he should be: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYPxC9vZ3gw&context=C3256052ADOEgsToPDskK2BQ1dw2IaMFijUPFz3_1b

Can anybody help me figure out exactly what is causing this issue? Never really had anything like this happen before.

Thanks!
 
After outputting more and more, just in different codecs, I noticed that when I output to Quicktime-Animation, that the color seemed correct, while any others (AVI,MP4,H264) did not correctly represent the color in my timeline.

....huh?
 
I know that H.264 has a gamma shift. Raises the gamma by .4 I believe. Animation is always a winner, but you'll have to render it more.
 
What codecs have you used to export? I'm a little confused.

H.264 is a codec and also a format; MP4 is a codec, a format, and a wrapper; AVI and MOV are just wrappers.

I know you're on a PC, but whenever you export to a codec like ProRes, for example, you have to disable the "Automatic Gamma Correction" in its configuration window. The codec you choose to export with likely needs to be adjusted.

Since you had success with Quicktime using Animation (which is basically jpegs or tiffs strung in a series - absolutely no compression), what other codecs do you have at your disposal for Quicktime? Do you have anything like Avid DNxHD? At work, we use DNxHD on our PC's with CS5.5 for intermediate work and mastering, as it maintains color fidelity through the entire pipeline, but its file size is way smaller than Animation. You should also have options like 10bit 4:2:2 you can try.

Lastly, are you exporting for a particular deliverable size/format/type? Or are you exporting to send the project to another software in your post pipeline?
 
Right now, the final delivery will be Youtube, that's it. I've tried exporting with the following:

Quicktime wrapper with h.264 codec, mpeg4 codec, animation, motion jpeg, and an assortment of others. The only ones that have exported with true-whites and not "dark" exports are the animation and png codecs.

What could be causing this drop in gamma? I've tried messing with the project settings, but nothing seems to help.
 
Color Settings: 16 bits per channel (was 8 bits)
Working Space: None

Blend Colors Using 1.0 Gamma: Checked
Match Legacy After Effects Quicktime Gamma Adjustments: Not-Checked

Audio Settings: 48khz


I just tried re-exporting through DNxHD, and it appears to be exporting true-to-color. Still having issues with the likes of H.264.
 
H.264 is going to change your image contrast a little, but not by much. It shouldn't be drastic. It's just how the compression works.
 
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Nothing, as far as I can tell. I adjusted my monitor a little bit, but I'm not 100% sure if that was the issue. H264 seems to change it quite a bit, while DNxHD seems to export the most true to form, besides animation. Animation's file size's are really an issue though, not really feasible it seems.
 
brandonanthony1 said:
Nothing, as far as I can tell. I adjusted my monitor a little bit, but I'm not 100% sure if that was the issue. H264 seems to change it quite a bit, while DNxHD seems to export the most true to form, besides animation. Animation's file size's are really an issue though, not really feasible it seems.
Click to expand...

Yea, Animation is nothing but a series of uncompressed still frames. Even if you were to upload it to YouTube, YouTube would then compress it to H.264 or MPEG-4 (I don't remember which one they use).

What kind of monitor are you using? Do you have a reference monitor (another monitor that is calibrated)?

DNxHD is a 10-bit 100 Mbps 4:2:2-enabled codec, so it will likely look "flatter" and potentially more similar to your comp. H.264 is far more compressed and an MOV will change the gamma - period - but it shouldn't be a huge change. How drastic is the change when you export from AE to an H.264-encoded video? Can you describe it? Look at the highlights and shadows - is there detail lost there that you saw in your AE comp? Is there a color shift?
 
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Do you have Adobe Media Encoder? Since Animation is working for you, a workaround could be to just export your project as Animation and then render it to H.264 in Adobe Media Encoder. I've had problems with AE's exports before, but not with AME - H.264 or otherwise.
 
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