AEXTIPPS - 01 - EXR & Cryptomatte Workflow in Adobe After Effects 2020

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the new integrated ProEXR 2.5 Plugin inside of Adobe After Effects 2020. Thanks to this new integration you don’t have to install anything to work conveniently with EXRs and Cryptomatte anymore.
You will learn how to use the EXtractorR effect to shuffle out layers from multi-channel EXRs and how to automatically build pre-comped layer-stacks from your EXRs. Also, you will see how to use Cryptomatte files inside of Adobe After Effects 2020 and pull masks from different Cryptomatte layers.
Helge Maus teaches 3D- & VFX Applications for over 20 years. His focus lies on VFX, but he also works with many studios and agencies from different visualization areas.
Houdini / NUKE Cryptomatte Introduction
• Introduction to Crypto...
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[@ExacoMvm]

The most annoying part is when you have to render it, lets say you have ~1700 frames or 1min render of like 1080p, you copy and paste few of your multilayer exr to get different cryptomatte masks, so you end up with like 8-12 masks and AE will start to struggle and likely will render that anim for like 1-2 hours no matter what hardware you have, maybe it's 7GB/s NVMe SSD w/ the fastest CPU such as EPYC 9654 it will still struggle. DaVinci Resolve Fusion and Nuke imo is bit more efficient in that but ofc avoiding MultiLayer EXR might do the trick. Unless idk something such as referencing the sequence layer instead of copy/paste.

[@pixeltrain3d]

Yes, AEX is not really able to work in heavy production files for vfx at all. It's a motion graphics app :-)

[@InLightVFX]

It should be noted that you should save your EXR as "Float (Full)" inside Blender. Perhaps you mentioned this. But I started with Float (Half) and I'm assuming it can't store precision depth required so the cryptomatte came out black in AE. Also, thanks for these Blender videos in general. Very nice to see someone take Blender seriously as part of a legit production pipeline!

[@blendershots]

Thanks....a lot....I was also doing the same resulting in black image

[@pfifferling6811]

thank you for this very concise and well structured tutorial!

[@jduddy6841]

I'm getting 'no cryptomatte layers visible' in AE. Even though I can see all the exr layers in EXtractor. Any ideas?

[@rafaelbmancini]

Excellent tutorial. Thank you!

[@sturm3d]

I wish it was possible to render out a seperate cryptomatte sequence from V-Ray, which the AFX plugin can read..

[@spheno-id]

Why is that i didnt saw that since i use vray i was loocking for that !!! it s help a lot it s so simple to understand why is that neither chaos neither After effect explain that the way you do thankkk youuu!!

[@Motionworks]

Thanks for the clear explanation.

[@pixeltrain3d]

You're welcome.

[@hemanthhemu9630]

Wow.... clean..super clean tutorial and underrated

[@muinasjutumees]

C4D renders cryptomattes in two ways: 1 - "black" file when Regular image is saved, which turns into a crypto when effect Cryptomatte is added 2 - "blue" looking file were objects are all seperated with different type of blues. This does not have any cryptomatte layers when I try to add Cryptomatte effect to extract objects. This file renders, when Multi-Pass image is saved (either Multi-Layer or separate files). So there will be two crypto files, when rendered into seperate files. The question is why it renders it double and how to use the "blue" one? Thanks for the tutorial!

[@motiondesignberlin10243]

Thank you! If the Cryptomatte is stored inside a Multilayer EXR, can you access that with the Cryptomatte effect too?

[@DariaSigalova]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for this tutorial! It is extremely helpfull.

[@DaddyWoo69]

REALLY GOOD TUTORIAL! THANK YOU

[@user-jg2uo8iz3p]

How to use Normal(World position) in AE? Nuke can use it， but i don't see using in AE.

[@pixeltrain3d]

Sorry, I don't have After Effects anymore - for more than a year.

[@junan.lin21]

​@@pixeltrain3d it's ok. Thanks your reply, although i still not find answer.

[@massimobaita7178]

Thank You very much, Helge!

[@ANOSTUDIO]

Thank you

[@yohanha6276]

Good. Thank you !!!

[@aliengruvgod]

Brilliant instruction, pixeltrain. Thanks!

[@pixeltrain3d]

Thanks, Oliver!

[@aliengruvgod]

@@pixeltrain3d Have you ever tried using an .exr multilayer file from Blender? In After Effects, the Cryptomatte effect keeps tellings me that "no cryptomatte layers were found." When I use Extractor to select the individual cryptomattes I get either nothing at all or outlines of objects. I can find very little online about this, probably because it's so new to Blender.

[@fabioapelbaum8840]

Thanks for the info! I have been working with After Effects and cryptomattes for a while now and I love it. I work with C4D and Octane to get all my 3d rendering... one thing that I noticed about EXR multilayer and cryptomatte is that After Effects takes much longer to preview every frame as in my old workflow, which used to be rendering individual object mattes within C4D Octane for any object that I needed instead of the crypromatte and separate passes as EXR sequences instead of the multilayer file. Comparing both workflows when bringing it all into After Effects, the multilayer file and cryptomattes takes much longer to render every frame, have you noticed the same? I feel its almost impossible to work, so I end up selecting all the mattes I need within AE by using cryptomatte and render them as individual EXR sequences of each matte and when done, I bring them into my AE project to replace the layers I originally had with the cryptomatte plugin and then I can obtain a faster preview when working in AE. I know my workflow is not perfect because it takes a long time in AE to render all my mattes just get started... but once Im ready, is much faster and smoother to move through the timeline. So im still hoping for a better workflow. Does I make sense? Do you have any suggestions to avoid what I have to go through, or have you noticed the same issues in AE?

[@pixeltrain3d]

Hi Fabio, Yes, sure, I have the same issues. My workaround was to subcomp the extracted stuff and so give AEX the chance to cache these. But meanwhile, I left AEX (again) completly for VFX and Compositing work and went back to NUKEX. Comping and Motion-Graphics are two different things, and I my experience, VFX Comping is not a strength or market of AEX. But try the pre-comp and give Adobe Feedback. Hopefully they find someone in their team, who is willing to hear. Kind regards, Helge

[@BlackPantherElite]

Great Intro for AEXTipps - you got my sub! One question regarding color management: I see you are working with 16bpc. What was your exact color pipeline/settings for this example (from your DCC to the settings in After Effects)? I consider working linear with sRGB working space 16bpc for doing motion graphics (combining Images, 4K Video Clips from bmpcc and EXR Renderings out of Houdini and Blender). Output destination for screens/online. Can you recommend these settings? ACES/linear/32bpc would be a bit of overkill for me, so I am in need for a medium-quality solution. Thanks, best wishes and stay safe!

[@pixeltrain3d]

Hi, for Motion-Graphics I normally use 16Bit, due the fact that still some AEX Plugins don't work in a linear 32 Bit Colorspace. So, the results between the Plugin preview and the final results don't match :-( For 3D-Compositing I would recommand 32-Bit linear and I set my Display Profile to REC709. But then I only can use some of the plugins. Hope that helps, Helge

[@BlackPantherElite]

@@pixeltrain3d Hi! Thanks for the answer. - Yea I found that to be a problem as well - and also some AE Effects are not 32-Bit yet sadly.... Thx for the recommendation. One question left though: When you do motion graphics and also integrate some 3D Renderings inside the same project, do you then tend to use 16 or 32 bit? Best wishes

[@polystormstudio]

Thanks for this, I didn't realize the plugin is built into AE now. Is Cryptomatte still sluggish in After Effects? I stopped using it because it's so slow in animation so I stuck with Puzzle Mattes in Redshift.

[@pixeltrain3d]

Hi Mike, It's still slow im comparison to NUKE, the advantage lies in the workflow. But I found, that it helps to make the extractions and comping in subcomps, so that AEX can cache them when they will be used one level up, or I sometimes make proxies from the pre-comps. Like said, I have to releflect my NUKE project workflow in my files. Cheers, Helge

[@Crick2x9]

OMG THANK YOU!!!!

[@pixeltrain3d]

You're welcome!

[@eugene4950]

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