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J-87
J-87
Participant
May 15, 2020
Question

Colour Space Headache!!! Illustrator to After Effects. Please Help!

  • May 15, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 747 views

Hello all. New to After Effects so please excuse any faux pas.

I’m having issues/massive confusion/thundering headaches regarding colour spaces and was hoping someone could help me out with some clarification. I’d be incredibly grateful. Here’s the scoop:

 

  • I’ve been working on some pieces for my Instagram Stories.

  • All graphics have been created in Illustrator.

  • I imported the illustrator files into AE and got to work on some very simple animation. All working well.

  • I then imported 2 photos and the colours looked horrible.

  • After a quick Google search I realised that my colour setting within AE was set to ’None’ and this might be the reason for the photos not displaying as I had hoped.

  • I changed the colour space to sRGB and was pleased to see the photos were now showing as they should.

  • HOWEVER, now I noticed shifts in other colours within the project.

  • Any layer that I had opted to ‘Create Shape from Vector Layer’ was now noticeably different. (Lighter).

  • Some more Google searches followed and I realised that my Illustrator files were showing in the project panel thumbnail as being: Rec.709. I manually changed this via the Interpret Footage settings to sRGB and the ‘Create Shape from Vector Layer’ issue was solved.

  • However, I wasn’t satisfied. WHY was my footage showing as Rec.709 in the first place? So I double checked the project colour settings and they were still sRGB as I had set them so I concluded it must be an issue with my illustrator file.

  • A lot of back and forth later and I can’t seem to work out why the heck AE is showing the illustrator files to be Rec.709 when they are clearly saved as sRGB.

  • Again, manually looking into the Interpret Footage options, I noticed the dialog box says: Embedded Profile: None.

  • Ok, this means that Illustrator is definitely the culprit here. But wait a minute… more info in the dialog box says ‘in the absence of an embedded profile, assign a profile that matches the colour space used when the footage was created’. Surely according to this, AE should auto assign my footage to sRGB since its embedded profile is (apparently) absent.

 

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE HEADACHE!

 

I just want consistency and to have a proper understanding of what I’m doing / what I’m doing wrong.

I realise this is possibly way more long-winded than necessary but I wanted to paint the full picture.

 

ANY HELP OR ADVICE GREATLY APPRECIATED!

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Mylenium
Mylenium
Legend
May 15, 2020

Nothing wrong. You are simply not using correct color management. Not in AI, not in AE, not in PS. Arbitrarily messing around with color profiles doesn't constitute CM. The default "None" would be just fine, as it's essentially just sRGB with color profile usage turned off. And there's the rub: Somehow your system is misconfigured, likely with a wrong monitor color profile or customized color settings without you actually using proper proof previews and profile assignments and thus your colors never line up in any of the apps. That being the case, you need to start from scratch and educate yourself how the different apps actually deal with CM. Again, for AE using "None" would do just fine if only the monitor is calibrated correctly and the same settings are used elsewhere. In that case even the auto-interpreted Rec. 709 is a non-issue, as it's fully contained inside default sRGBwith no gamut limits.

 

Mylenium

J-87
J-87Author
Participant
May 16, 2020

Mylenium,

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. 

 

Though I imagine ‘problems’ like mine are tedious to read through and the appeal to invest any of your time holding my hand and walking me through this is almost certainly very low, I really would appreciate your expertise if you could stick around…

 

‘Arbitrarily messing around with colour profiles doesn’t constitute CM’ - absolutely right! And this is exactly what I’m not wanting to do. I’d much rather have a proper understanding and thus full control over colour management. 

 

So where to start?? From scratch, as you say. Well, great! But how?

Correctly configure my misconfigured monitor? Well, great! But how?

Achieving consistency across apps with profile assignments? Well, great! But how?

 

etc etc.

 

If you can point me in the direction of a ‘Feeling incompetent? Despondent? A permanently-fudging-your-way-through-your-creative-projects fraud? Well turn that frown upside-down with this ignorance-banishing beginners guide to everything you need to know about colour management across multiple adobe apps’ handbook, that would be wonderful!

 

J

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