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Jacob31436913qklx
Participant
May 21, 2025
Answered

Video appears dark and oversaturated when sending from After Effects to Adobe Media Encoder queue

  • May 21, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 2223 views

I'm on PC, Windows 10.

I just updated both After Effects (25.2.2) and Adobe Media Encoder (25.2) today. 

 

Before when I added videos from AE to AME, they looked just fine. I usually export as either H.264 match source-high bitrate, or as Quicktime, or AVI, and had no issue with the look or color. Now when I send to the queue, the videos end up looking dark and oversaturated. 

 

My After Effects project settings are usually Rec 709 for the color settings. I've tried setting it to sRGB IEC61966-2.1, and none, with the same results when trying to export to AME.

 

When exporting from After Effects, the results look just fine. I'm aware I can export from AE and convert videos in AME, but in my daily work, it's really nice just sending it to the AME queue and having it render in the background while I continue to work on shots in After Effects. 

 

I've searched the forums for this issue, and found similar issues, but not quite what I'm experiencing. 

Any advice is greatly appreciated or direction to a different forum where this is addressed. 

I've attached screenshots below with all my settings.

Correct answer Jacob31436913qklx

Update: Finally Solved!

 

In After Effects, there is a setting under the Color Management Settings called "Use Display Color Management." After finding this, it immediately became clear that this was what was causing my issue. In my scene, this was originally checked on, but when I turned it off, my project looked exactly like my AME export. AME does not have this setting, so it was reading the AE scene exactly as is and not applying that color correction.

The Solution:

Turn off "Use Display Color Management"

Make an Adjustment Layer and set it as the top layer in your Comp

Add the Color Profile Converter Effect to your Adjustment Layer

Set the Input Profile to whatever your current color settings are in your project

Set the Output Profile to whatever gets your scene to look how it was when "Use Display Color Management" was turned on. (in my case, I chose Rec709 Gamma 2.1 If you're not working in this already, this is the setting I recommend)

Save your file, and when you send it to AME, it should look exactly the same.

How to avoid this problem in the first place:

Through troubleshooting this, I realized I had made a big mistake that I usually don't make. Before you work on a scene, especially if you're doing color correction and color grading, make sure to set your project to the color settings that you want for the final export! I usually work in Rec709 Gamma 2.1, which is pretty common for most videos. But I didn't set that before I worked on the scene, so I did all my color work in a completely different color profile. Save yourself the headache. Turn off "Use Display Color Management" and set your project to the color profile you need. But if you made the same mistake, no sweat, just use the solution above. 

 

I hope this helps someone out there. And let this be a lesson to keep learning from our mistakes.

Cheers.

2 replies

J
Jacob31436913qklxAuthorCorrect answer
Participant
May 23, 2025

Update: Finally Solved!

 

In After Effects, there is a setting under the Color Management Settings called "Use Display Color Management." After finding this, it immediately became clear that this was what was causing my issue. In my scene, this was originally checked on, but when I turned it off, my project looked exactly like my AME export. AME does not have this setting, so it was reading the AE scene exactly as is and not applying that color correction.

The Solution:

Turn off "Use Display Color Management"

Make an Adjustment Layer and set it as the top layer in your Comp

Add the Color Profile Converter Effect to your Adjustment Layer

Set the Input Profile to whatever your current color settings are in your project

Set the Output Profile to whatever gets your scene to look how it was when "Use Display Color Management" was turned on. (in my case, I chose Rec709 Gamma 2.1 If you're not working in this already, this is the setting I recommend)

Save your file, and when you send it to AME, it should look exactly the same.

How to avoid this problem in the first place:

Through troubleshooting this, I realized I had made a big mistake that I usually don't make. Before you work on a scene, especially if you're doing color correction and color grading, make sure to set your project to the color settings that you want for the final export! I usually work in Rec709 Gamma 2.1, which is pretty common for most videos. But I didn't set that before I worked on the scene, so I did all my color work in a completely different color profile. Save yourself the headache. Turn off "Use Display Color Management" and set your project to the color profile you need. But if you made the same mistake, no sweat, just use the solution above. 

 

I hope this helps someone out there. And let this be a lesson to keep learning from our mistakes.

Cheers.

    H
    harry_2319
    Participant
    August 31, 2025

    Thankyou!!! I have an assessment due tonight and this exact issue was very nearly the end of me. Definitely a mistake to be learnt from.

     

    J
    Jacob31436913qklxAuthor
    Participant
    May 22, 2025

    Update:

    restarting AE, AME, and the computer does not change the result.

    changing the bit depth of the project does not change the result in AME.

    using an older version of AME does not change the result.

     

    another odd thing that was not happening before I updated, I cannot change the renderer in AME. It is greyed out.

     

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