color correction and changing look from two identical shots

[BombshellStudios]

I am at my wits end with this. Been fighting it for about three days now trying to figure out what the issue is.

Enclosed are two shots of my timeline. These shots are literally the exact same shot and take from the camera just with some shots in-between from editing. #1 is how it is supposed to look and up until about three days ago everything looked like this. Then randomly - and I have added nothing to the files (actually been working on audio these last few days) - the image in various places started looking like #2.

A) It seems to be random but eventually the whole timeline ends up like that.

B) I've cleared caches. Deleted/reinstalled software. Turned off all Plugins. Reinstalled all plugins. Nothing seems to effect it.

C) When I render before it all eventually looks like that it will render parts looking like #1 and like #2.

I know this isn't going to remotely be enough info so I'll just start by saying what info can I give that can help us solve this?

Thanks.

Michael

iMac Pro 10.14.1

AE 16.0.0 bld 235

Magic Bullet Suite 13

[Mohammad.Harb]

In the project settings, which color space are you using?

[BombshellStudios]

Here are the settings. I haven't touched them. Footage was also shot Canon 5D 2.

[BombshellStudios]

Also, I just recorded my screen with me scrub on THE EXACT same shot and you can watch it change in the middle of the shot.

[Mohammad.Harb]

The recorded video shows that you are applying the effects on an adjustment layer.

I would suggest:

Hide all layers except this layer, and playback the video

If you did the edits in after effects, check if there are missing frames or an unwanted layer on top.

take this layer into a new composition and check at this frame

apply effects on a new brand adjustment layer

[BombshellStudios]

Mohammad,

Thank you so much for your help. I've been trying all sorts of things to try and figure this out.

So, I just did all of your suggestions and it did not change things. However, one thing I noticed made me curious. #1 below is how the uncorrected footage looks in AE. #2 is how the raw camera footage looks in Quicktime. Something is definitely screwing with the color space.

[BombshellStudios]

This appears to be irrelevant info so edited to strike it out.

I may just have discovered the problem.

Looked at the original footage files in the finder:

I have never shot anything with a color profile of PAL (1-1-6). I don't even recognize that? Any thoughts?

[Mohammad.Harb]

did you capture the video with an iphone? this may be caused if the video codec set to HEVC

[BombshellStudios]

No shot on a 5D Mark ii. And remember, this only started happening three days ago. I've been in post edited and did all the color correction and this never happened. It was only when I came back to start laying in the credits (different composition all together) that when skimming this composition I saw this. I've rendered it out numerous times before for pushing to Audio and other things, no issues.

Also, I've noticed that when I SKIM the video, if I hold the skim in place where there is a bad render it flashes up Adaptive rendering in the upper right corner and then will actually render appropriately. Doesn't do it all the time. Like I can't get it to do it on the shots of the little girl close up above. This is starting to get SUPER frustrating.

[BombshellStudios]

One more thing while I'm trying to troubleshoot.

I opened an older version of the edit (shot back in May 2018). This was dated July. It was also with AE 15. Opened it and everything looks great.

So then I opened AE 16 and opened the file, which of course asked me to update this file to the newer version. I did. Low and behold, the footage looks like crap again.

So this was NOT happening LAST WEEK. Did Adobe push out an update to 16 in the past week?

Michael

[BombshellStudios · Accepted solution]

Mohammad,

I think the problem is solved. Finally spend about 45 minutes with chat support. I did NOT know about the ability to do a hard reboot of all preferences. "Command+Option+Shift" as you open.

I had cleaned out the preferences myself but obviously I must have missed something. I feel a bit of a simpleton but I'm definitely going to hold onto this little gem going forward.

Thank you so much for taking the time to help out. Much appreciated.

Michael