Comments (If you’re using After Effects CS4, see this post about ProRes 422 color management and this post about gamma shifts with ProRes 4444.)
In After Effects CS5, we fixed some bugs regarding ProRes 422 and ProRes 4444 media in After Effects. See the previous paragraph for links to posts that give workarounds for those bugs in After Effects CS4. But we didn’t quite get everything (yet). This post gives workarounds for two issues in After Effects CS5:
- After Effects ignores alpha channel information in ProRes 4444 media.
- In 8-bpc color depth mode, previews of ProRes 422 media look very wrong (blue and pink).
If you have problems other than these two with ProRes media in After Effects CS5 let us know.
After Effects ignores alpha channel information in ProRes 4444 media.
UPDATE: This bug is fixed in After Effects CS5.5.
On Mac OS:
- Close all Adobe applications.
- Copy the MediaCoreQTCodecRulesCS5.xml file in your Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common folder to your desktop in case you need to revert any changes made in subsequent steps.
- Open the MediaCoreQTCodecRulesCS5.xml file in your Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common folder in a text editor.
- Find the
codec='ap4h'andplatform='mactel'entries for both directions (encode and decode). - Change the
deepdecodefourccvalue for each from'v210to'b64a'to match the following example lines:
< QTCodec codec='ap4h' vendor='****' platform='mactel' direction='encode' versionlow='0x00000' versionhigh='*' gammatag='false' cvbuffertag='0' deepdecodefourcc='b64a' decodefourcc='argb' />
and
< QTCodec codec='ap4h' vendor='****' platform='mactel' direction='decode' versionlow='0x00000' versionhigh='*' gammatag='false' cvbuffertag='0' deepdecodefourcc='b64a' decodefourcc='argb' /> - Restart After Effects CS5 and see if the alpha channel information is seen and interpreted correctly by After Effects. If it isn’t, let us know by filing a bug report.
On Windows, the fix is similar but the .xml file is located in your user AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Common\ directory and the entries for codec='ap4h' and platform='windows' need to be modified instead.
In 8-bpc color depth mode, previews of ProRes 422 media look very wrong (blue and pink).
UPDATE: In January 2011, AJA released updated software that appears to fix this issue.
The picture below is an example posted to the After Effects user-to-user forum by someone who had this problem.
This problem appears to be the result of a codec conflict with an AJA codec that is installed for the purpose of sending previews to external video devices.
The first workaround is to set the project’s color depth to 16 or 32 bits per channel (bpc).
The second workaround is to turn off the preview to the external video device. I.e., choose Computer Monitor Only from the Output Device menu in the Video Preview preferences.
The third workaround is to just remove the offending AJA codec. See the forum thread for more information about that, and what problems that causes for Final Cut Studio.
AJA is aware of this issue.
AJA is aware of this issue.??They didn’t even have fixed their Buggy Adobe Plugins for CS4 which i’m waiting for MONTHS now.
Why in the world are these setting in the User/Library folder instead of the /Library folder? Do you think only certain users would want these settings? Because I know Bob would hate to have correct color values. 8-)Yet, on Windows, this is not a user setting.P.S. Gamma is still screwed up in CS3.
We had this “ProRes 422 media look very wrong” problem but it was fixed when we patched to the Io HD Driver Version 8.0
Tried this and it didnt work, does this fix work if you have upgraded from cs4 to cs5 and still have cs4 installed?
re: problem 2….Changing to 16 bpc fixed the problem instantly. Disabling video preview did nothing. The footage had even looked wrong in the bin. I wouldn’t think the video preview setting would have any effect on that part of the issue.
[reply from TMGK:
The video preview setting triggers the bad codec.
]
Hey Todd,
Followed the advice here and opened a project I had added a Prores 4444 clip to and it still didn’t work (CS5 mac).
Tried Interpret footage and the alpha selection area still greyed out.
But I deleted the source from the project and dragged it back in again and the straight alpha was properly recognized and all was well.
I’m using Blackmagic hardware and drivers and haven’t seen a problem such as the AJA one above.
Re: Problem 1 (alpha channels in Prores 4444).
Altering the xml file still doesn’t fix the issue. I’ve since worked out that if the very first frame of the animation you’re trying to render from after effects is completely opaque and there’s no transparency to be calculated then the alpha channel simply will not render. The only workaround I’ve found (other than using a different codec) is to place a 1×1 pixel layer in the very top left of your comp and specify it as a “silhouette alpha” layer. This way at least there’s some transparency to be calculated at the start of the file.
If the Quicktime Preferences ‘Enable Final Cut Studio Color Compatibility’
is enabled… While encoding in AE CS5…. The result is gamma-shifted…
Uncheck the preference and do the encoding in AE. Then come back to the quicktime player and open the file.. Open the original to check. You will find a small shift. Not re-enable the preference and they are looking identical. Make sure that you ALWAYS de-check the preference when encoding…
On a side note.. ADOBE…
WE the creative USERS should NOT have to obtain a degree in brain surgery to make a simple AE>FCP roundtrip…… This is ridiculous
Check this post:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/834886?tstart=0
Paul seems to be on the right track. If the first frame of the clip you are rendering to ProRes4444 with alpha does not have a black area in the alpha channel, the alpha doesn’t work when trying to bring the clip back into After Effects.
The problem is not in writing the alpha channel though. If the first frame of the sequence you are rendering has a completely opaque (white) alpha, the alpha still renders fine for the whole sequence, however, when you try to read it back in, the alpha does not work.
I think this is because After Effects looks at the first frame of the Prores4444 file to see if there is an alpha channel. If the alpha channel on the first frame is entirely white, it thinks that there is no alpha channel, and you can’t specify that there is.
A simpler solution than Paul’s idea of writing a black pixel to the alpha channel, is to just make the first frame have a black area in the alpha. An easy way to do this is to just off-set everything you are rendering by one frame forward, so that the first frame is has a black alpha. This should fix the problem. What a pain in the neck!
I have updated the xml file 2 times before & it worked, but now it does not? Have you updated something?
This is infinitely annoying. i utilized this technique effectively on my workstation at the office (running snow leopard), but to no avail at home (lion). I can’t even find the same folder in OSX 10.7!
I HATE, HATE, HATE this operating system and the minute fiddling that accompanied the useless changes. Is this a bug that has been addressed for those unlucky souls who now use Lion?
Help!