Why is AE Render Color Darker when using AME?

[thetaxidermyrat]

Hello,

I have a problem rendering compositions out of After Effects through Adobe Media Encoder:

The colors are accurate if I render through AE as an mov. file but the file size is too much. 

But when I render through AME, while the file size is considerably less, the colors are noticeably darker.

Can someone please let me know how I can render accurate color while keeping the file size under control?

(I'm not viewing the rendered file on a different computer/screen. I'm designing and rendering on the same screen and I'd like the 2 colors to match whilst on the same screen) 

Relevant Info:

After Effects 16.0.1. (Build 48)

Picture on the Right - Rendered in AE with following settings:

   Quicktime

   RGB

   Millions of Colors

   Premultipled (Matted)

Picture on the Left - Rendered in AME with following settings:

   H.264

   Match Source Adaptive High Bitrate 

   Render at maximum Depth

   Use Maximum Render Quality

This is just a screenshot from a test render I created after I tried rendering out a video project for a client. I noticed in that case that After Effects rendered out a sharper version in addition to accurate color while the Adobe Media Encoder render (with the same settings as above) was darker in color and was not nearly as sharp as the AE version. 

I tried a bunch of different settings for H.264 but all had the same problem.

I'd really appreciate any help.

Thanks.

[Mylenium]

The discrepancy is minor in your screenshot and likely can easily be explained by the AME render averaging more info across frames to reduce data vs. a typical AE render basically only producing inefficient, barely compressed I-frames. That and of course your colors would be a prime example to teach about what not to do when using compressed CoDecs - harsh contrasts, saturated and bright colors. That's always going to cause clipping of the colors and massive compression artifacts and if you are using simialr stuff in your "real" project, that already would explain half the problems. colors need to be toned down and reigned in and contrast reduced with slight blurs and using noise/ dithering. That's just how this stuff works. In your case the issue is also very likely exacerbated by enforcing rendering at maximum depth and max quality, both of which actually work against how H.264 work. Maximum depth inflates colors to float values internally and with no color management the conversion back to 8 bit is bound to have inaccuracies. This option must not/ should not be used here at all. Other than that you have to accept some slight deviations even under the best of conditions. There is no way  to enforce specific colors with that kind of compression. You can only tweak it to visually look as identical as possible, but technically the underlying color values will be different. Again, nothing to do with AME or AE, just general limitations.

Mylenium

[thetaxidermyrat]

Thanks a lot Mylenium.

Especially for pointing out the incorrect settings I paired with H.264.

The "real" project doesn't have as much contrast or saturation, I was just testing this.

I hear you re: the inevitability of slight color deviations, but is there no codec similar to the mov. from AE that could give me colors closer to what I have picked?

[Mylenium]

Even a MOV doesn't magically render correct colors. You have a misunderstanding there. You still have to take different Gamma values for CoDecs into account and tweak the colors accordingly. If you want exact colors you have to use a color managed workflow and export to an intermediate format that supports it like an image sequence and then only encode it in the very last step. Still, even then it simply comes down to experience and understanding what each setting does. There simply are no straightforward "Use this and that." answers here. Start by avoiding the traps I pointed out and if you fiddled with the project color settings in AE, reset the mto their defaults while at the same time checking your monitor color profiles and settings to ensure content inside AE and outside reasonably matches in terms of color. Then figure out what possible corrections may be needed. In the past we would e.g. apply a simple Levels effect adjustment with a tweaked Gamma value to correct for any darkening/ brightening, which most of the time is the actual problem, anyway - different Gamma values used by different devices and CoDecs. Again, you realyl have to build experience by just trying and experimenting. One could write a book with thousands of pages, but in the end none of the advice could be useful to you. that's the nature of the thing.

Mylenium

[thetaxidermyrat]

Thanks again Mylenium