DPX Import in CS5

Assign a proper color profile to your footage in the footage interpretation.

Mylenium

Can you post a sample that I could experiment with?  Support for multi-channel DPX was added in After Effects CS5, but otherwise very little changed for DPX files so I wouldn't expect a difference between CS4 and CS5.

How were the DPX files generated?

If you look at the Interpret Footage settings, including the Cineon Settings dialog, is there any difference between what you have in CS4 and CS5?

Is color management turned on in the project?

I get the exact same results with that DPX file in both CS4 and CS5 on 10.6.3.

Do you see this problem in the footage window or in the comp window?  If in the comp window, what else is going on in your comp?

Have you changed *any* settings in the Interpret Footage dialog?

Have you enabled color management for the project?

Are you using the same project in CS4 and CS5?  If you import this file into a new project in both versions (which is what I'm doing) do you see the problem?  In either case, please post project files that I can look at.

Also, you don't have the Exposure value at the bottom of the Footage or Comp viewer turned up, do you?  The screenshot you sent makes it look almost exactly like you have that turned up by about a stop.

Curious.

Can you post a project file that you have created with CS5 that shows the problem?

My next thought is to reset the preferences.  Quit After Effects CS5, go to User\username\Library\Preferences\Adobe\After Effects, then drag the 10.0 folder out to the desktop or another safe location.  (Don't trash it yet.)  Restart CS5, import the DPX.

Also, have you made any changes to the Interpretation Rules file?  Have you installed any third party utilties, like drivers for Matrox, AJA, etc.?  Sometimes they change the interp rules.

Sorry for the delay.  Most (but not all) of what I'll suggest here is covered by our PM's, but for the sake of the reading public...

The project file you posted doesn't reproduce the problem for me.  But the DPX file doesn't display.  I get an error instead:

After Effects error: internal  verification failure, sorry! {Old Cineon settings should have been  converted to new ones before getting here.}

After talking with the engineers about this problem, we think that you possibly have a corrupted install.  The DPX interpreter doesn't seem to be functioning correctly.  Can you try reinstalling After Effects CS5, or at the very least try installing it on a different machine to see if the problem reproduces there?

One of the components we think may be corrupted are the color profiles.  Try going to Library\Application Support\Adobe\Color\ (on root of the drive, not the one in your user folder), and poke around in the Profiles and MPProfiles folders.  Everything look OK in here?  Try pulling the contents out, starting After Effects CS5 and seeing if this changes the problem behavior.

Are the configurations between the two machines the same?  Same version of Mac OS, same language?

What plug-ins, hardware, and codecs do you have installed on the problem machine?

I wouldn't expect that you should have to clean the system in order to get a good install.  But you might want to try the reinstall a second time, making sure to clean up any bits AE leaves behind.  Preferences, plist files, anything in the app directory.

No, the apps are quite independent so there's nothing CS4 should be doing to interefere.

I'm not familiar with CleanMyMac.  Did you use the uninstaller in the After Effects application folder first?  At the very least use that first with any licensed version of an Adobe application before running CleanMyMac.  I fear your licensing data on the machine could become bungled otherwise.  Probably not an issue for the trial, though.

Can you post your Interpret Rules.txt file from CS5?  Some capture cards make edits to those, so I want to double-check that AJA hasn't done anything weird in there.  Given the fact that I can't get your CS5 project to work I really doubt that's the case, but it's all I've got to go on right now.

Thanks.  Nothing unusual in your interp rules file.

There is a soft rule in the interp rules that tags DPX files with the working RGB profile.  This is the default and normal behavior, but I'm wondering if it's related to the problem.  Comment out that line, restart After Effects, and see what happens.  (Still wouldn't explain the error I get when reading your project file, though.)

The Cineon Importer itself has some settings that can effect this. The default should be the same in CS4, but clearly something ain't right.

Can you try selecting different entries in the popup I highlight below to see if that fixes the issue?

You get to this dialog by:

1) Import a DPX file

2) File Menu->Interpret Footage->Main...

3) Color Management Tab

4) Click on the Cineon Settings button.

The default should be Full Range. Please confirm that it is, and if it isn't try setting it back.

--chris

after effects engineering

Does the problem workstation have Glue Tools installed?

http://www.gluetools.com/products_dpx.html

--chris

I think you can workaround this issue by forcing AE to use our DPX importer instead of the one provided by Glue Tools.

In the import dialog select All Files and the make sure you select DPX/Cineon for Import As.

I'm on Windows and don't have Glue Tools installed, but I believe this will work. Please let me know either way.

--c

We've just published a new technical support document about this solution:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/845/cpsid_84546.html