Color management workflow in Adobe After Effects CS4
3
high-definition video workflow
This chapter provides detailed, step-by-step instructions for using Adobe After Effects CS4 and
Adobe Photoshop CS4 to achieve more accurate color in a high-definition (HD) video workflow.
Use this workflow to produce content for high-definition television or video/DVD distribution.
This workflow can also be used by producers of content for standard-definition (SD) distribution.
For these users, content can be edited in After Effects and Photoshop for high-definition output
and colors converted for standard-definition, if necessary, when compositions are rendered
for final output.
Figure 1 - High-definition video color workflow
This workflow uses the HDTV (Rec. 709) color space as the project working space, the common
color space for compositing. Primary colors and gamma are based on those defined by the ITU
(International Telecommunication Union) in Recommendation 709. On a calibrated and profiled
computer monitor, you can accurately view colors defined in the HDTV (Rec. 709) color space.
In this workflow, it is common for footage to be brought into the project as high-definition video,
composited in an HD TV color space, and output to an HD TV color space. In this scenario, the
color values are not converted in the import→composite→output pipeline. This has an advantage
of maintaining consistency between footage you are compositing in After Effects and footage
that may not be color-managed in other parts of your workflow. However, colors are converted
when sent to your computer monitor in order to view the HDTV (Rec. 709) color space accu-
rately. It is normal in video production to use a reference video monitor to preview how colors
will look when played back on the final viewer’s video display. You can choose a reference video
monitor using the Video Preview preferences (choose Preferences > Video Preview). After Effects
does not convert colors from the project working space to this output device. Colors are con-
verted only for your main computer display.
Interpret Footage
- QuickTime movies (MOV)
(
HDTV (Rec. 709), SDTV NTSC, SDTV PAL
)
Interpret Footage
- vector graphics (PDF)
(
ICC profile embedded in image
)
Interpret Footage
- raster graphics (TIFF, JPEG, DNG)
(
ICC profile embedded in image
)
computer monitor
(
your monitor profile
)
project working space
(
HDTV (Rec. 709)
)
output -
high-definition TV
(
HDTV (Rec. 709)
)
output -
DVD or digital video tape
(
HDTV (Rec. 709)
)
production color path (Imported files are converted to project working space for compositing. Project colors are rendered to output color spaces during output.)
color adjustment for computer monitor (Project colors are adjusted for display. Color adjustments for display do not affect color values in project compositions.)
no color adjustment
HD reference monitor
