Loss of Color Quality When Exporting to MP4 from After Effects or Media Encoder

[rajen1111]

I am reaching out for assistance regarding a color quality issue I’m facing when exporting videos from After Effects.

I completed my post-production in Adobe After Effects using a PNG sequence for the source visuals. When I rendered the project into a .MOV format, the output maintained the exact same color vibrancy and accuracy as the original PNGs. However, the resulting video is 10 minutes long and around 50 GB, which is impractically large for delivery.

To reduce the file size, I converted the .MOV to .MP4 using Adobe Media Encoder. While this reduced the file to a manageable 1 GB, I noticed a significant loss in color quality — the colors appear dull and less vibrant.

Additionally, I tried exporting directly to MP4 from After Effects, but the same issue occurs — the color fidelity is noticeably degraded compared to the .MOV file.

My key question is:

Is there any way to export or convert to MP4 (either through After Effects or Media Encoder) while preserving the original color quality from the PNG sequence or MOV render?

Any guidance on correct export settings, color management workflow, or codec recommendations to help retain the original color fidelity in MP4 format would be greatly appreciated.

[Rodrigo Brazao]

What happens If you import the .mov to AE, right click> interpret footage > color > preserve color

After this, try to use the render queue inside AE to convert ir to mp4.

If It didnt work, try to import the mp4 to AE, interpret footage and preserve again and see If it still different.

Also, check in your project settings which color profile you are using

[Byron Cortez]

Con el contenedor .MOV seguramente estás utilizando algún códec sin mucha compresión como Animation o Apple ProRes, mientras que con el .MP4 sí utilizas un códec de compresión como el H.264, por lo tanto, siempre vas a tener una pérdida de la información de color. Podrías intentar comprimirlo menos, intentar ciertos ajustes como los que te dice Rodrigo Brazao, entre otros, pero siempre que uses un códec de compresión vas a perder información de color. A lo mejor imperceptible, pero se pierde por la compresión.

Además, no sabemos qué profundidad de color es la del .MOV, tampoco con qué códec estás trabajando al menos para tener una idea.