Colour Space workflow ... EX3 -> FCP -> AE -> FCP -> Web

Hi everyone ... I had some issues recently with using different codecs and noticing colour shifts in my footage. I was hoping someone could suggest a workflow to produce best results in terms of colour space and retaining colour information.
Our workflow is as follows:
Shoot EX3 and 5D -> transcode all footage to ProRes422 -> edit in FCP with a ProRes Sequence set to "Render 10bit material in High-precision YUV" -> use AUtomatic duck to import the ProRes footage into After Effects -> Grade/effects in AE -> Render from AE to ProRes422 -> import renders back into FCP -> output ProRes quicktime movie -> Encode for web/DVD

Does this sound like a good workflow? I have noticed that if I do a render at ProResHQ there is a noticiable colour shift ... is this correct?
Sometimes I need to render from AE with an alpha so I choose ProRes4444 or Animation+ and I also see a colour shift with the ProRes footage.
Any advice on this would be much appreciated! thanks! Michael

>I have noticed that if I do a render at ProResHQ there is a noticiable colour shift ... is this correct?

No. It is not correct behaviour at all, but that said, I did get a color shift recently rendering rgb footage between 8 bit and 10 bit uncompressed in AE. Exact same settings, just that when I export as 10 bit uncompressed (or ProRes), the colors shift.

If what you are seeing is caused by incorrectly set color profiles, do this:

Set your project working space to Rec 709. Interp the footage to Rec 709 (by default it could have been imported as SRGB 1966). Export as ProRes. Is there still a color shift?



www.strypesinpost.com

thanks for this advice - I will try these settings and let you know the results. Cheers

Why are you importing the footage back into FCP, then exporting for DVD? Just take the rendered file from AE and use that to make the DVD.


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I export the AE render back into FCP so I can lay down the final audio mix, present to client/directors, final broadcast check before outputting. Also, depending on the project maybe not the entire film has gone through AE.

Makes sense, because for all its strength, AE is no Smoke. You have close to zero RT playback capabilities, and you get a lot of tracks.



www.strypesinpost.com

Yeah, I'm a fan of After Effects, but real-time it ain't. Maybe that's changed a bit with CS5 ? I haven't really used the program at all since I got my CS5 upgrades in ? but historically it's had no real-time features to speak of. That just wasn't the program's focus.