Video tutorial: Colour correction in After Effects

Even a straightforward grade on your videos usually requires you to isolate individual elements or colours and treat them separately to the adjustments applied to the entire film. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to resolve this smoothly with the application of masks and alpha layers. The video I’m using is a stop-frame animation featuring a set of black rotating mirrors that reflect clothes and accessories. The challenge was to keep the general tone of the video even, cool and fairly desaturated whilst preserving the subtle, muted colours within the mirrors.

Next month we’ll walk through some additional After Effects techniques for colour correcting your animations. In the meantime, remember that the most important thing in regards to colour correction is calibrating your monitor carefully. All your good work will be wasted if your screen is lying to you.

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