Color Timing using AE?

[gbalaji]

Is it possible to use After Effects CS4 / Premiere Pro CS4 to do my low cost edit / Color Timing for a feature film project?

Adobe has any possible plans of promoting AE as a Color Timing tool?

[Barend Onneweer]

It's certainly possible and it has been done.

The tools are all there, at least in After Effects. And the processing quality is excellent, too. It's the user interface that isn't optimized for grading work. And you'd have to render previews to see anything moving.

I started out grading commercials and music videos in After Effects because of the extensive toolset and I knew the software well. With great results. But AE's layer-based interface and the need to render anything before seeing it in motion makes it far from ideal. When you split the edit into multiple sequences in Premiere, they'll show up as separate comps in After Effects which will help avoid 500 vertical layers in AE.

Adobe is developing AE as a jack-of-all-trades. Which is great for many occasions - and less for others. What I like about AE is the ability to cross over from designing and roughing out, to compositing and finishing in a very fluid and seamless way. But in the last year I've graded a couple of 30 minute projects and one 55 minute documentary in After Effects and it was no joy. The results were good, but getting there was no fun.

I haven't dealt with Apple Color enough to recommend it but it might be a better solution for grading a feature on a budget.

Me, I've finally decided to get myself a Scratch workstation.

Bar3nd

[Tarek S. Kandil]

Colorista combined with Native controls have done a good job for me so far. Trying it first time with a lengthy piece of work so if u'd like i can tell you what happens.

Magic bullet with after effects at 32bpc for me is the deadliest combo for low budget. I've never spent more than 500 dollars putting anything together.

Some stills, (sorry facebook) of what we're workin on now. One pass thru colorista and a film simulator for kicks.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69703&id=505282542&ref=nf

Cheers,

T

[Tarek S. Kandil]

I personally like the interface but that's cause I do it a-z. And I'm used to it I'll spend longer I don't mind. Are you shuttling between studios/suites or is everything taking place on one pc? I think that makes the difference for me. If I'm doing something dedicated/commercial and its going to an editor/audio/finishing/etc all separate facilities, then I won't go for AE, and figure out something dedicated to specific task. Color seems to be it.

But if its personal I online straight away with adobe.

If its just you, on one computer, play cs4. If you're receiving project files and preparin them to leave your pc for whichever next step, apple color. My 2 cents.

So tired. So sleepy. So bright out.

No more booze.

I swear.

T