H.264 Compression washes out my show reels colours how do I fix it ?

[andy gee]

Hi Everybody

I have searched on the web for an answer to this and hopefully somebody can help me fix this issue.

I have exported my show reel from after effects using quick time format and using animation codec best quality at 25 FPS.

the final output looked great but doesn't play that well as I'd expect because of the size of the file.

I tried exporting out using the h.264 codec was reduced the size, but ended up washing out the colours of the output.

I know that from my research on various sites its something to do with the Gamma when it exports, apparently this is a bug that's been around for years.

So my question is how can I sort this out as my codec and rendering out of after effects is a little limited.

Hope somebody can help

thanks

Andy Gee

[BrianHoard]

Hi Andy,
This is truly a problem I have also experienced. And it happened to H.264 as well as MPEG4. Here's what I did to fix it...
- Export a high-resolution QuickTime out of AfterFX using the Animation codec, 100% quality. This file will be huge, but is needed to compress from.
- Open QuickTime Pro
- Go into your QuickTime Preferences, under Edit>Preferences>QuickTime Preferences>Advanced
- Under Video: Select "Safe mode (GDI only)"
- Now, open the QuickTime file created earlier and export as H.264.

I had researched this problem a while back and found all sorts of people with solutions, software, etc but none of that worked for me. But doing this within QuickTime preferences solved the problem very easily for me. Hope it works for you.

[andy gee]

Hi Brian

I am currently exporting it out from QT pro using your settings will post how it turns out when it is done.

thanks

Andy Gee

[andy gee]

It worked ! kind of the colour is still not as it should but that works for now I am playing around with adding a contrast effect to a pre comp in after effects to see if I can make it vibrant before h264 compression

[BrianHoard]

If your final will be a QuickTime, you can also tweak the final output colors using QuickTime Pro. And after you save it (no need to re-compress it) it will tell the playback to do the color settings you made.

[andy gee]

Hi All

Okay I have managed to get out various elements to burn to DVD but now my trouble is actually burning it to DVD because all my work is 1024 x 576 when I put this in to say adobe encore or Nero the final quality is reduced by the final out is always 720 x 576 for DVD. I just can't seem to get my head around it.

Andy Gee

[BrianHoard]

Hi Andy,
DVD Video has very specific resolutions and frame rates that it supports. So depending on the type of DVD you're burning, you have to comply with the right resolution and frame rates.
Are you wanting to do an NTSC DVD or PAL? The 576 height tells me you may be working in PAL?

You could also use Blu-Ray which supports HD formats. I personally like 720p for all my work nowdays, which is 1280x720. I'm not sure if your resolution is a PAL HD format?

Another option you could possibly do is put your file on a data DVD rather than a video DVD. It would play on computers, but not set-top DVD players.
But it's probably just as easy to skip the whole DVD thing and upload your reel to Vimeo and pay for the annual subscription so you can upload high-resolution files. That way as you promote yourself, you can easily send people to your Vimeo site.

And finally, if you need to get your file to burn on a standard DVD, you could give it to Encore as you are now, and click on your file and select "Interpret Footage" (I think that's what it's called) and tell it to treat it as a 16:9 Aspect Ratio.
Hope that helps.

[andy gee]

Hi Brian

My Overall movie dimensions are 1024 x 576 Pal wide screen. After doing some checking on line. I realised that 720 x 480 was the dvd standard format. I don't have a blu ray burner or disks so doing it in blu ray was a no go.

I decided in after effects to pre comp my entire show reel make a new comp 720 x 480 and place it inside that and scale it down so if fits this seems to have done the trick my movie plays now at the right scale. I just wished that I could have kept the wide screen with black bars top and bottom

Andy Gee

[BrianHoard]

Hi Andy Gee,
I have done wide screen standard DVDs. You assemble your video as you are, square pixels, 16:9. Then when you do your precomp, set that comp to 720x480, wide screen aspect ratio. That will tell the video to use the right playback size and DVD players will play it properly. Of course, the black bars are only there when you're playing a wide screen video on a 4:3 display. But if you play it on a wide screen, it will look great and have no distortion or black bars.