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Filed under: Editing •Post Production •

Premiere Pro C4 and After Effects CS4 Workflow Using the NEW Native RED R3D Plug-in

After Effects CS4

RED R3D files may be imported directly into After Effects. Using these files in After Effects is very similar to using other types of footage. By working in 32 bits (float) color depth, extended range color information is preserved for accurate compositing and color correction. There are also several workflows for using Premiere Pro and After Effects together for integrating editing with effects. The combination also provides expanded output options from Premiere Pro.

For access to the RED Settings dialog from within After Effects, installation of an optional AE plugin is required.This plugin must be manually copied into the correct application folder. See the pdf installation instructions in the RED plugin installer folder labeled “After Effects only”. This plugin is recommended for AE projects that use R3D clips, but is not required for exporting a Dynamic Linked Premiere Pro sequence from After Effects.

To access the global RED Source Settings dialog, choose Edit > RED Settings… The Resolution and Maximum Bit Depth controls are disabled when this dialog is opened in After Effects. This is because RED resolution is controlled using the resolution popup menu in the Composition Viewer, and the bit depth in After Effects is always 32-bit float.

To temporarily work at a lower resolution, use the resolution popup menu in the Composition Viewer.

Configuring After Effects for R3D files

For consistent color appearance of R3D files between After Effects and Premiere Pro, you must change the way After Effects interprets R3D files. If your previous workflows relied on Color Management in AE (i.e.: your Project Workingspace is set to something other than None), the required change is to assign the HDTV (Rec. 709) color profile in the Color Management tab of the Interpret Footage dialog.

You can only select Assign Profile if you have color management enabled by setting the Project Workingspace.

However, assigning color profiles on a clip-by-clip basis can be time consuming. After Effects can make this change automatically on a global basis with a small revision to AE’s “interpretation rules.txt” file. This file is located at: Vista64: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS4\Support Files\interpretation rules.txt

Vista32/XP32: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS4\Support Files\interpretation rules.txt

Mac: Applications/Adobe After Effects CS4/interpretation rules.txt

Add the following 3 lines of text directly above the line:

“# this soft rule should be the last in the list of soft rules”:

# rule to make red raw files available as Rec709

# with Gamma encoded 32bit float data

*, *, *, “R3D “, * ~ *, *, *, *, “r7hf”, 0

Once this change has been made, After Effects will automatically interpret the colors provided by the R3D plugin correctly.

Working with Premiere Pro via project import

Premiere Pro projects containing R3D files can be imported into After Effects. This creates a similar project in After Effects and preserves timelines edits and some effects. For example, color correction added to individual clips in Premiere Pro can be refined in After Effects.

Working with Premiere Pro via Dynamic Link

Dynamic Link allows content from one application to be shared with another without exporting intermediate files. Edits and other changes are automatically updated across applications.

You can use a Premiere Pro sequence as footage in After Effects. In After Effects, choose the File > Dynamic Link menu command. In After Effects, you’ll get a single linked clip that represents the duration of your Premiere sequence, but you won’t see all your individual cuts and clips (you still can access these in Premiere and continue editing there, and they’ll be updated in After Effects). Premiere Pro sends a complete frame with all effects, transitions, etc…nothing is lost.

Another advantage to using a Dynamic Link from Premiere Pro to After Effects is that you can then use After Effect’s render queue to export to a wide variety of image sequences and formats: 4k, 2k, extended color range DPX, 16-bit Tiff, TGA, etc.. Initial tests have shown this option to be faster and more robust than using Adobe Media Encoder. This workflow is pretty straightforward—-complete your edit in Premiere, then as a last step, import the sequence into After Effects, add to render queue.

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