Adobe 65008009 - After Effects CS4 Technical Paper page 21

In Figure 3, above, colors from different types of cameras are adjusted for presentation using a
computer monitor or cinema projection device. Colors can also be converted to other device-
independent color spaces, like CIE xyY.
Adobe provides color profiles for commonly used devices in video and digital cinema work-
flows. (See Appendix B - "Adobe-supplied ICC profiles" for more information.) However, it is
highly recommended that you create a custom color profile for your computer monitor. There
are several quality software vendors that offer profiling utilities that use a measuring instrument
(colorimeter or spectrophotometer) to create custom profiles for your monitor.
Project working space
CIE XYZ is a very powerful color encoding method. Color values using the CIE XYZ color space
do not need additional metadata to define color appearance. However, CIE XYZ is not commonly
used in video and digital cinema workflows and cannot be used to define data in your After
Effects project. Color data in your After Effects project is defined using RGB values. So how does
After Effects use color management to support accurate and consistent color? This is where the
project's working color space (working space) comes in. The project working space in After Effects
serves as an RGB color space that is used by After Effects for all compositing operations. The
project working space acts as a central reference for color values in your project. By defining a
common reference for your color values, After Effects can take advantage of the benefits of color
management, converting colors as needed in your workflow to present accurate and consistent
color on a wide variety of output devices.
ICC
ICC
ICC
Figure 4 — The After Effects project working space acts as a common color space for the translation of imported and
exported colors.
Choosing a project working space
If you are going to use color management in After Effects, you must select an ICC color profile
from the Working Space menu in the Project Settings dialog box. This is how color management
is activated in After Effects. But which one is the right one for you? This document provides rec-
ommended working color space choices in the workflows defined in chapters 2-4. However, here
are a few pointers for the selection of a proper working space for your workflow.
Color space size
For 8-bpc and 16-bpc projects
•
ies of your project (that is, limits on how saturated your color can become). You don't
want to artificially restrict your color gamut if you intend to output files to a device
with relatively large color gamut.
• For 32-bpc projects - The gamut defined in your project is boundless. You do not
have to worry about restricting colors to the boundary of the color space you choose
as your project working space.
ICC
- Your working space will define the gamut boundar-
ICC
ICC
ICC
Color management workflow in Adobe After Effects CS4 21