REC709 and sRGB - no color management difference

[Milan_Michalik]

We know, there is only a gamma difference (to make it simple) between REC709 and sRGB and this gamma difference is quite important for serious work.

I never used color management in AE in the past, because it slowed down the fps for the preview.

Yesterday I wanted to check how it works in CS6 and I found out this:

There is no difference between REC709 and sRGB in color management in After Effects CS6 Win or Mac?

I set the color management on and choose REC709.

I import a footage (I tried every possible format - stills, video, video seq... with or without embeded profiles).

In interpret footage box - if I choose something weird like Film or cieRGB or widegammutRGB, I see the change in the viewer.

But if I am switching between sRGB and REC709, I see no difference.

I see the message, that the gamma will be corrected from 1.9 to 2.2, but it is not happening.

Well... I used the similar concept in Nuke and Smoke and it works there, just I don't know what I am doing wrong in AE ?

And yes, I read all the help files and tutorials 10000x.

Thank you for any ideas in advance.

Milan

[paulinventome]

Sorry, replying to myself ; first sign of madness i know.

It's worth also checking that in the View Menu you have choices for use display colour management which should be on. And simulate output should be off (meaning sRGB). So perhaps some of these options are not set like that for you?

cheers

Paul

[Milan_Michalik]

Hi to all, I solved it. Thank you Paul, thank you Fuzzy, thank you Bob.

What was the problem?

Combination of one button and cache.

Just after Paul wrote (thank you again) that it worked for him, I tried again everything step by step. I couldn't simulate Paul's success.

Then I saw this green line above the timeline. F.... CACHE 🙂 Actually, I like it very very much, but this time... argggg.

So if we don't need a 32fp precission, it works just great in 8 or 16bit too, as I expected. And also, it doesn't matter, if we linearize the scene or not.

So the quick 8 bit method for basic projects and fast preview speed:

choose 8 bit project

no need to linearize, button off

blend colors off

match legacy off

and the most important thing: COMPENSATE FOR SCENE REFERRED PROFILES MUST BE OFF

and then the second important thing: DELETE ALL CHACHES, also disk cache and PURGE EVERYTHING

only after this I see the change !!!!!!!!

The professional method if your workstation is fast enough for 32bit projects and preview (mine is not).

The conversion will be more accurate of course.

choose 32 bit fp project

linearize, button on

blend colors probably on

match legacy off

and the most important thing: COMPENSATE FOR SCENE REFERRED PROFILES MUST BE OFF

and then the second important thing: DELETE ALL CHACHES, also disk cache and PURGE EVERYTHING

only after this I see the change !!!!!!!!

And the magic continues: now also the simulate preview works!

So the problem was that the COMPENSATE FOR SCENE REFERRED PROFILES is default ON and with cache enabled I haven't seen the difference when I turned COMPENSATE FOR SCENE REFERRED PROFILES off.

There is similar cache behaviour with replacing footages. If I shut down AE and I replace the 3D render footages (for example) - with the same name, then when I start AE, I see old cached footages. AE doesn't know that I replaced the footages, because they have the same name. I must realod them all, then it deletes the cache.

Thank you again and have a nice day 🙂

Cheers

Milan