Adobe After Effects - Manual (Page 293)

Color management
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Color management and color profiles
Calibrate and profile your monitor
Choose a working color space and enable color management
Linearize working space and enable linear blending
Interpret a footage item by assigning an input color profile
Assign an output color profile
Enable or disable display color management
Simulate how colors will appear on a different output device
Broadcast-safe colors
This video from the After Effects CS5: Learn By Video series provides an introduction to color management, both explaining how it works and how
to use it.
Color management and color profiles
Overview of color management
Color information is communicated using numbers. Because different devices use different methods to record and display color, the same
numbers can be interpreted differently and appear to us as different colors. A color management system keeps track of all of these different ways
of interpreting color and translates between them so that images can look the same regardless of the device used to display them.
In general, a color profile is a description of a device-specific color space in terms of the transformations required to convert its color information to
a device-independent color space.
In the specific case of working within After Effects, ICC color profiles are used to convert to and from the working color space in the following
general workflow:
1. An input color profile is used to convert each footage item from its color space into the working color space. A footage item may contain an
embedded input color profile, or you can assign the input color profile in the Interpret Footage dialog box or interpretation rules file. (See
Interpret a footage item by assigning an input color profile .)
2. After Effects performs all of its color operations in the working color space. You assign a working color space (project working space) in the
Project Settings dialog box. (See Choose a working color space and enable color management .)
3. Colors are converted from the working color space to the color space of your computer monitor through the monitor profile. This conversion
ensures that your composition will look identical on two different monitors, if the monitors have been properly profiled. This conversion does
not change the data within the composition. You can choose whether to convert colors for your monitor using the View > Use Display Color
Management menu command. (See
Enable or disable display color management .)
4. Optionally, After Effects uses a simulation profile to show you on your computer monitor how the composition will look in its final output form
on a different device. You control output simulation for each view through the View > Simulate Output menu. (See Simulate how colors will
appear on a different output device .)
5. An output color profile for each output module is used to convert the rendered composition from the working color space to the color space
of the output medium. You choose an output color profile in the Output Module Settings dialog box. (See Assign an output color profile .)
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