Can't change the color of png file in After Effects

[Nube101]

Hi, everyone.

Need help. I  want to understand why I can't change the colour of a *. png file with the effect "CHANGE TO COLOUR" in After Effects like it is done here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTk7LnpPATw

At 2:35 of the video, the guy changes the colour of the rose with a simple click on the colour picker in "TO"

field to whatever he wants. I am unable to achieve this whatever I do. My png with gray figures on that to remain gray. The png file is set to RGB, the same as in After Effects. What is wrong with it, please help. I also understand that people may suggest  - "what you trying to achieve?", or "you doing it the wrong way". But for now, I just want to understand is this possible to do this way with the PNG image. Like sort of "yes" or "no". And if "yes" - what do I do wrong? And if no, then how is that supposed to be done correctly? I also attached the image I am working on just for a general idea. I was trying to transition it from gray to red.

[Joost van der Hoeven · Accepted solution]

The issue is that your png has no color (black, grey and white are not colors!). You beter use Effect > Generate > Fill. Hope this helps.

[Nube101]

Kind Magician!

THANK YOU!

[Rick Gerard]

That tutorial is a perfect example of an enthusiast discovering a recipe and then doing a pretty poor job of explaining the workflow and the why. With a better explanation, you would have not had a problem understanding that you need some color values to make the change. You would also have learned with the thingies are. Watch out for these kinds of tutorials. Make sure your trainers know what they are talking about. The number of views is no indication of the quality of explanations or the workflow.

If you want to colorize a grayscale or monochromatic image there are several other tools out there. You can use something as basic as Curves or Levels. You can try Colorama, TriTone, Hue Saturation, or even Lumetri. You can even use channel or level controls to generate a matte from a copy of your image layer and use that high contrast layer as a luma track matte for a solid or a shape layer with a gradient. The most efficient workflow depends entirely on the shot (image) and what you want to do to it. 

[Nube101]

Hi Rick! Thank you for your expanded answer and sorry for not replying earlier. The thing is that when you don't have time to go for fundamentals due to murderous deadlines you resort to videos like this. I was surely aware of its poor representation, but I would just fail my assignment (I'm an intern student doing production videos for the company that I'm obviously don't want to disappoint) if I would watch videos with a duration of say 27, or 44 minutes explaining something simple like this. And on top of that, the list of the queried videos on Youtube is surprisingly limited and is sliding off-topic in literally 5-6 titles. So you sort of forced to use something short to visualize what you trying to achieve to attain help from the community. Especially when English is your second language and it is running out dramatically when describing After Effects actions in plain words 🙂 

[echevars]

Bro why you are so mad trying to help the people out there. LOL. This guy just needed a solution.