Tips & Tricks

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Introduction to Color
Management
by Chris & Trish Meyer, CyberMotion

How to color manage Artbeats clips In this article, we’ll give you an overview of how to set up a color
managed workflow in After Effects CS3, with specific advice on how
in After Effects CS3. to best handle stock footage shots from Artbeats. There are essen-
tially four pieces to the puzzle: The Project Working Space, the Input
After Effects CS3 has introduced the concept of “color management” Profile, the Output Profile, and the Display Profile.
to the motion graphics world. Color management is based on the
admission that in the real world, nothing’s perfect: Different formats Project Working Space
(such as video cameras, still image cameras, computer-generated The Project Working Space (PWS for short) is the central reference
imagery, etc.) have different biases when it comes time to capture color space you will be using in your project. It is set in File > Proj-
or create an image. Likewise, different output formats and devices ect Settings. Every source will be translated into that space, compos-
- such as television sets or web browsers - have different biases as iting will take place in that space, and the result will be translated
well. Additionally, computer monitors also have their own biases. from there into the output space. So obviously, it’s choice is very
When all these devices have potentially different ideas of how “red” important.
a rose is, how do you know when you’re seeing the truth? The an-
swer is to identify each of these biases (also known as “profiles”) and The most common choice for the PWS is to make it the same as the
to compensate for them as you travel through the processing chain. format you expect to be rendering to. For example, if you are going
to be rendering to a high definition video format such as HDV, set
this to HDTV (Rec. 709); if you are rendering to a standard defini-
tion format such as D1 or DV using the NTSC standard, choose
SDTV NTSC. By doing this, since the result of a composite in After
Effects will already be in the same color space as your output, you’ll
be cutting out at least one translation (and therefore, one less chance
for math errors) in your workflow. This approach has another advan-
tage if you are using the Video Preview feature inside After Effects,
or are otherwise checking your work on an actual video monitor: Set
the PWS to be the same as your external video monitor, and com-
positing will take place in the same color space as is being used by
that monitor. (We’ll discuss monitoring in more detail later in this
article.)

If you don’t know what your output format will be, the next best
choice is to set it to match a format that matches the majority of your
sources (which we’ll also discuss in a moment). This way, you will
be cutting out a translation on input.
Another approach is to choose a “large” color profile for the PWS
figurethe
that encompasses the widest possible range of colors during 2b
compositing stage, and then translate from this to your required
destination on output. This is a good choice for the most critical
applications, such as going to film. In this case, Adobe suggests you
use their ProPhoto RGB profile.

Figure 1:The Project Working Space in After Effects is set in the File > Proj-
ect Settings dialog. A common choice is to set it the same as the format you
will be rendering to, such as SDTV for standard definition video or HDTV
for high definition video.

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Input Profile movies - the format used by Artbeats for most of their clips), then
After you have set the Project Working Space, you will now be After Effects may pick the wrong format. For example, After Effects
allowed to set the Input Profile for each of your footage sources. CS3 likes to default to sRGB, which is correct for most web and
To access this, select a source in the Project panel, and go to File computer graphics, but wrong for video.
> Interpret Footage > Main. In the dialog that appears, click on the
Color Management tab, and set the Assign Profile popup to match In this case, you will need to manually set the Assign Profile popup.
your footage. But what’s the correct choice? It depends on where the clip came
from. Artbeats clips have been optimized for use in video projects, so
if you have a standard-def clip, pick SDTV (NTSC or PAL, depend-
ing on your format); if you have a high-def clip, pick HDTV (Rec.
709, which is the official number of the HD spec).

figure 3a

figure 4

figure 3b

Figure 2: Verify that the correct color profile is being used for each clip.
Open its Interpret Footage dialog and look under the Color Management
tab. After Effects CS3 usually defaults to sRGB for Artbeats clips, which is
wrong; change it to SDTV or HDTV depending on the video format of the
clip.

This is where things get a little tricky. On the one hand, if you are
running After Effects on a computer with an Intel processor, some
formats - such as DV - will have the correct profile chosen for you
Figure 3: What is the correct profile for a clip? For a V-Line clip such as
automatically by a new technology in After Effects known as Media VWD109 from the Washington DC collection (a), the correct choice is SDTV
Core. On the other hand, if you are using an older (pre-Intel) Macin- NTSC; for a synthetic render such as LAL113 from the Light Alchemy col-
tosh computer, or if your footage is in a format that Media Core does lection (b), it may be sRGB to better match the computer monitor the clip’s
not automatically handle (such as Photo-JPEG encoded QuickTime creator may have been working on.

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Of course, there can be exceptions to every rule: If you choose what Figure 4: If footage seems to be lacking in contrast (a), apply a Levels effect
you think the right profile should be, but the result doesn’t look quite and look at its Histogram (b). The gaps on the left and right ends of the
right, there are a few other options you can try. For example, if the Histogram are a clue that the luminance range of this clip might actually be
clip is a purely synthetic 2D or 3D render, chances are the creator 16-235. Remove the Levels effect, go back and change its Input Profile in the
Interpret Footage dialog (c), and now the clip will have more contrast (d).
was looking at a computer monitor rather than a video monitor
(Clip TR1117 from the Artbeats collection Retro Transportation.)
while creating it. If they were using a Mac, then Apple RGB may
be a more accurate choice; if they were using Windows, then sRGB
may be more accurate (as most Windows PC monitors default to the

figure 4c
sRGB color space). Try both and see if one looks “better” (yes, we
are talking a subjective judgment at this point - but it’s a synthetic
image to begin with, so there’s no “reality” to worry about being
faithful to).

If a clip looks washed out, then there is a chance it was encoded

using a 16-235 video luminance range rather than the full computer
0-255 range. A good way to check your hunch is to add the clip to a
composition, apply Effect > Color Correction > Levels, and look at

figure 4a figure 4d
figure 4b

the Histogram in Levels: If you see gaps at the left and right ends
of the Histogram, it’s probably a 16-235 clip. Remove or disable
Levels, then go back to the Interpret Footage dialog for this clip
and set its color profile to SDTV or HDTV 16-235: The result
should look better.

Output Profile
Unlike Input Profile, where you need to manage the color profile
for each source, Output Profile is easy: You only need to set it
once when you render. In the Render Queue, open the Output
Module’s options and click on the Color Management tab. Set
the Output Profile popup to match the format you are rendering
to, such as SDTV or HDTV. This defaults to matching the Project
Working Space - so if you followed our earlier advice for setting
the PWS to match your desired output format, you’re already
done.
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Figure 6: We sometimes have trouble with Apple’s color profiles for non-
Apple monitors. For example, even though this computer has an NEC
LCD1830 display, and Apple has a profile for it, we get better results select-
ing the sRGB profile in the Mac’s System Preferences.
Figure 5: Set the Output Profile in the Output Module to translate colors
from the Project Working Space to the file format you are rendering to. If
they are the same, no translation is necessary.

The absolute best approach is to create a custom profile for your

monitor. Get a monitor profiler (Pantone, ColorVision, and Gretag
The nice thing about this option is that if you are rendering to more Macbeth are popular manufacturers) and have it create a translation
than one format - such as video, but also a web version or a Quick- that matches your specific monitor and video card.
Time client proof - you can add extra Output Modules to the same
render, and give each one its own profile (for example, sRGB for the As hinted earlier, if you are using the After Effects Video Preview
web, or Apple RGB if the client will be viewing a QuickTime proof feature, your windows are being blasted out to your external video
on a Mac). After Effects can then translate the colors from its PWS monitor without any additional color correction. In most cases, your
to match the environment the clip will ultimately be viewed in. external monitor will be of the same video format as your intended
output. If not, then for critical color correcting, you will want to
Monitor Profile temporarily change the Project Working Space to be the same as
Now that we have color management working throughout the After your external monitor, so that After Effects will translate all of your
Effects image processing pipeline, that last step is making sure sources into a matching color space before it creates the image you
you’re viewing the colors accurately while you’re working. will be previewing.
If you are viewing your work on your computer monitor, you will
want to make sure your operating system is using the correct profile Zooming Out
for your monitor so that it can properly translate the colors being There is one huge fly in the ointment as of the time this was writ-
displayed inside After Effects. Under Windows, the place you will ten (early 2008), and it has to do with differences in the way Adobe
find this can vary depending on specific operating system; Control and Apple handle “gamma” tags inside QuickTime movies. Without
Panel > Display > Settings > Advanced > Color Management is a dragging you through the gory details, in short: If your intention is
typical path. Most PC monitors either default to sRGB or have an to render a QuickTime movie that will look the same inside Adobe
sRGB option, so this is a good choice most of the time. On the Mac, applications on Windows as it does inside Adobe applications on
look under System Preferences > Display > Color. In our experience, the Mac, go into Edit > Project Settings and make sure the “Match
the Mac chooses a good profile if you are using a built-in screen or Legacy After Effects QuickTime Gamma Adjustments” option is
Apple Cinema Display, but its color profiles for other monitors don’t off. On the other hand, if your workflow is from After Effects to an
look right. As most non-Apple monitors are made with the assump- Apple application such as QuickTime Player or Final Cut Pro, then
tion they will be used under Windows, sRGB is a good alternative turn this option on. It defaults to off, but will be turned on automati-
choice. cally if you open a pre-CS3 project in After Effects CS3.
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Figure 7: If your workflow takes you between Adobe applications on the

Mac and Windows, disable the “Match Legacy Gamma” option. If your
workflow takes you from After Effects to Apple applications such as Quick-
Time Player, enable this option (as we have here).

Adobe has done a nice job in making available additional informa-

tion on Color Management in After Effects CS3. For a general back-
ground plus several example workflows, download and read their
technical paper on the subject: http://www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_
colormanagementpaper. For more on the gamma issues mentioned
above, visit http://www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_quicktimegamma.

Color management may seem like a new, scary, complex thing to

learn, but in reality, it’s the best way to go. After all, what’s the point
in shooting, editing, and compositing the very best image you can,
only to have your colors translated into the wrong space? Learn color
management, and you can deliver the image you really intended to.
For even more tips and tricks, Chris and
Trish Meyer have just released the fourth
edition of their book Creating Motion
Graphics with After Effects. Most of the
examples use Artbeats footage at full D1
size. To learn more, visit:
http://www.books.cybmotion.com.
###
Chris and Trish Meyer are the founders and owners of CyberMotion
(www.cybmotion.com), an award-winning motion graphics studio
in Los Angeles that has created a wide variety of work for film,
broadcast, corporate events, and special venues. They were one of
the original development sites for After Effects, wrote the highly-ac-
claimed books Creating Motion Graphics and After Effects Appren-
tice (2007), and are long-time Artbeats users.
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