ACES and OpenColorIO are the industry standard tools for color management in the VFX industry. It’s now been two years since I began writing about color management, and during that time After Effects has seen some very significant changes. When After Effects 2023 was launched just over a year ago, one of the major new features was the integration of ACES and OpenColorIO directly into After Effects, negating the need for a 3rd party plugin.
After Effects is now natively compatible with the rest of the global post-production industry.
While this is great news for After Effects users, and color management support in After Effects continues to improve, it does present something of a learning curve – especially for motion designers and anyone who hasn’t had to deal with color management before.
Although a 28 minute video may not be considered “express”, so far this entire series on color management totals well over 11 hours long, and this is the 27th instalment (including an “unscripted” one). It’s not realistic for someone wanting to get started with ACES to sit down and watch 11 hours of video, and so here’s all the essential details on ACES and After Effects, in one spot:
Everything you wanted to know about ACES and After Effects, but were afraid to ask…
The previous 4 videos in this series have dealt with tone mapping, and how to work with brand colors and color management. One of the issues I mentioned is that After Effects cannot currently preview a High Dynamic Range image on a High Dynamic Range monitor. However I’m excited to share the news that the latest version of the Public Beta (which any After Effects user can download) includes early support for HDR displays, currently with the Adobe Color Engine.
In the video above I may have suggested that this new Beta version offered HDR support for ACES – which isn’t correct. This is the very first time that After Effects offers support for a HDR display, and currently it’s only for the Adobe color engine. However it’s only a matter of time until the HDR preview / monitor support is extended to OpenColorIO and ACES as well.
That’s a wrap. Mostly.
So after nearly 12 hours of videos and 28 separate posts, I think I’ve covered just about everything I was planning to for this series. I still have a few loose ends that will make for a couple of future videos, but they’re not directly related to color management and ACES, more like bits that ended up on the cutting room floor.
But if you really, really just want the basics, then here’s an even shorter version – the ACES “super express” tutorial that covers the bare minimum details. This is for anyone who may not be using After Effects on a regular basis, but just needs to jump in and set up some bash comps or simple projects:
In the videos I mention the free plugin available for Blackmagic BRAW support, which is available here, from Autokroma.
But for now, I’m going to hang up my color-management hat and start thinking about some other After Effects topics to write about.
This is part 26 in a long series on color management. If you’ve missed the other parts, you can catch up here:
Part 4: Maxwell’s spinning discs
Part 6: Understanding the CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram
Part 8: Introducing Colorspaces
Part 9: The theory of a color managed workflow
Part 10: Using After Effects built-in color management
Part 11: Introducing OpenColor IO
Part 13: OpenColorIO and After Effects
Part 14: Combining OCIO with After Effects
Part 15: Logarithmic file formats
Unscripted: Looking at ACES and OCIO in After Effects 2023
Part 19: Introducing High Dynamic Range
Part 20: High Dynamic Range Compositing just looks better!
Part 21: HDR Formats, Colorspaces and TLAs
Part 22: Introducing Tone Mapping
Part 24: Corporate Branding Colors with Standard Dynamic Range
Part 25: Corporate Branding Colors and ACES
AND – I’ve been writing After Effects articles and tutorials for over 20 years. Please check out some of my other ProVideo Coalition articles.

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