Technical paper
Color management workflow
in Adobe After Effects CS4
Getting started
This guide is intended for professionals in the motion graphics, video, and film produc-
tion industries who need a reliable approach to achieving accurate and consistent color
in their workflows. Before we get started, let’s first talk briefly about why accurate and
consistent color is difficult to achieve, and how color management technology in Adobe
After Effects CS4 can help.
What is color management?
Color management technology enables you to achieve more accurate and consistent
color reproduction. To achieve this goal, color management technology performs two
essential tasks:
Identifying a specific color appearance for red, green, and blue (RGB) num-
•
bers in a digital file
Attempting to maintain that color appearance by changing, if necessary,
•
the color numbers needed by an output device to produce the specified
color appearance
To perform these two tasks, the color management features in After Effects rely on ICC
(International Color Consortium) color profiles and a color management system (CMS).
Though you can read more about ICC profiles in After Effects Help, for now you simply
need to know that profiles give the CMS the data needed to maintain color appearance
when color values are sent to a device. For example, if the color represented by the num-
bers R235, G56, and B70 captured by a digital camera is tomato red but appears closer
to brick red on a monitor, the CMS can translate the RGB numbers to those needed
by the monitor to preserve the tomato red appearance. In this way, color management
helps you produce consistent color—independent of the unique color characteristics of a
particular device.
TAblE of ConTEnTS
1 Getting started
3 High-definition video workflow
7 Digital cinema workflow
14 Animation/Flash export workflow
19 Appendix A: Color spaces and color manage-
ment
23 Appendix B: Adobe-supplied ICC Profiles
29 Appendix C: Glossary
32 Appendix D: Additional resources
PrEviouS vErSion of ThiS doCumEnT
This white paper describing color manage-
ment workflows in Adobe After Effects CS4 is
an update to the original “Color Management
Workflows in Adobe After Effects CS3” white
paper published with the release of Adobe
After Effects CS3.
Use the link below to access the original white
paper covering color management workflows
in Adobe After Effects CS3.
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/afteref-
fects/articles/aftereffectscs3_color_mgmt.pdf
