AE 24.0.3. imported Prores luminance flicker

Yes. The dropped level is the incorrect one.

Hope this gets solved soon.

Thank you

Jari

To clarify (and this is my suspicion as well), it's the initial "dropped luminance" frames that are incorrect relevant to the source footage?

Now that we have a clear repro case, we're digging in to why this is happening.

Thanks for your persistence here!

Hello

Time zone difference makes a small delay... 🙃

- When I drop a Prores clip to a comp, whatever frame I am parked at has already the dropped luminance level. It seems I cannot bypass this.
- Advancing frame by frame holds the levels same, so no flicker.
- After purging all memory & cahe and pressing play causes a flicker. A couple of first frames on the timeline and the frame you started the playback from.

What is interesting to me, luminance level stays correct when turning layer sampling to low.
AE internal generated solids, shapes, etc are not affected. Only imported Prores encoded material.
PS. This does happen with Prores 422 too!

Regards
Jari

Ah, I think it's a bit more subtle, and I don't think Render Multiple Frames is actually involved.

So repeat the steps up to 7, ignoring step 2.

Now:

1. Step forward frame by frame in the Comp using the Cmd+Right Arrow key combo — no flicker?
2. Back to time 0, Purge all memory (disc cache already off).
3. Spacebar to start a preview — yes flicker?

This is what I'm seeing.

Hi Paul,

I followed your steps to the letter, but sadly the preview still flickers on my Mac.

Jari

OK Jari, I think I've got something here. Try these steps:

1. Launch AE.
2. In Preferences (Settings): Memory & Performance, disable Enable Multiframe Rendering.
3. In Preferences (Settings): Media & Disk Cache, Clean Database & Cache (or if you want to be absolutely thorough, navigate to the Database and Cache folder locations and delete them from disk).
4. New Composition.
5. In the Composition Menu: Preview, disable Cache Frames When Idle.
6. Quit AE.
7. Relaunch, import your ProRes gradient clip into a new composition.

Does the flicker no longer occur?

That is what I am seeing on my Mac system.

Paul

Was out for a few days. Looking into this now.

Hello Paul,

Thanks for your reply.
Any clip rendered as a Prores 4444 from AE will do. I am happy to send my test clip (5-second long HD1080 Prores 4444) Here is a Wetransfer link to download the test clip in Prores format (expires on 30.11.).

https://we.tl/t-J47Uv70sXM

if you can pm me an email or a drop box, etc. I can send it directly to you for download.

"Cache frames" is off.
Exported video flickers even if dropped directly to Render Queue without any RAM preview.

The problem may pass unnoticed with real live material. Add an imported Prores 4444 clip with some peak whites to a timeline and add a levels effect. Lower the gamma drastically to make only the highlights visible and it is quite easy to notice. The luminance level drops in a couple of first frames on the timeline and the frame you started your preview from. This is visible in the rendered result.

(2.  Sorry, I don't use Premiere, so I cannot confirm if the problem is visible there too.)

Regards

Jari Hakala

Postwork

Looking into this.

Two quick questions to get started:

1. Could you attach the ProRes gradient clip that is demonstrating the issue for you?
2. Do you seem the same flickering with this footage in Premiere Pro?