Hey everyone, I'm Jess Libby, a Motion Designer and Art Director.
The digital world of color can be complex, but mastering color depth will empower you to make informed decisions for your projects.
So, what exactly is color depth and how do we determine the best one to use?
Color depth, also known as bit depth, is the amount of color information stored in each pixel per channel.
In 8-bit, each channel can hold 256 shades.
That gives us 16.7 million colors, which is plenty for most users, while 16-bit gives each channel 65,536 levels of color.
That's an increase to 281 trillion colors.
Let's take a closer look at 8-bit color depth.
This is the standard color depth for most videos.
It works great for web content and social media.
However, you might hit some limitations when you start adjusting the exposure or working with gradients.
Open the After Effects project supplied to follow along.
The project should open up to the 01_AE Color Depth composition.
This composition is built with many gradients and glows.
Notice how the transitions between these gradients are getting the stepping effect.
This is what we call banding.
It's a visual artifact that appears as distinct, visible bands of color, and it can be a common issue when working with 8-bit color depth.
This color depth doesn't have enough information to handle the subtle color shifts.
Let's update the working color depth from 8-bit to 16-bit.
To do this, hold Alt and click on the box that says 8 bpc at the bottom of the Project panel.
This will update the working space to a 16-bit color depth.
Now take a look at the gradients.
There's no banding anymore because of the additional color information.
Remember we now have trillions of colors, we have a much smoother transition.
This gives us richer, more accurate colors.
Let's tweak the levels further.
Click on the adjustment layer name Levels - ADJUST ME and open the Effect Controls panel to tweak the levels.
Take a look on the left.
When I push the levels in 8-bit, the banding is even more pronounced, but on the right in 16-bit, it still looks good even with heavy adjustments.
Working in 16-bit color depth opens up a world of possibilities, offering more flexibility and color fidelity.
Even if the footage or final output is 8-, 10- or 12-bit, you can still benefit from the richness and accuracy of a 16-bit color depth.
Speaking of output, let's discuss color depth when rendering.
Go to Composition, Add to Render Queue, click on the Output Module Under Format, open the dropdown and select QuickTime.
Next click Format Options... and navigate to Apple ProRes 422 HQ.
Click OK.
Under Depth you'll see we have Millions of Colors selected.
If you remember, earlier in this video, I mentioned 16-bit color depth will give us trillions of colors.
In order to get Trillions of Colors, click on the dropdown and select it.
Something important to know is that the ProRes 422 codec is limited to a 10-bit color depth.
Selecting Trillions of Colors will allow us to take advantage of this codec's maximum color depth.
If it's important to retain all 16-bits, say for further production or archiving, you can look at image sequences like OpenEXR Sequence or the Apple ProRes 4444 XQ codec.
Even if the final delivery is limited to 10-bits, a working color space of 16 can still make a difference.
Let me show you an example.
Open the composition called 02_Comparison.
We have two H.264 mp4 clips exported from this project with the depth of millions of colors.
The top one, titled AE Color Depth_8.mp4, was exported from a working space with an 8-bit color depth.
As expected, you can see the stepping and some compression artifacting.
Let's hide this layer by clicking on the Eye icon to the left.
Now you'll see an example exported with the same settings from a 16-bit working space.
Do you see how much better the gradients look?
Having a higher color depth before rendering gives a much better result after compression, and these two files are about the same in size.
Use 8-bit for quick turnaround projects, flat motion graphics or web videos where color finesse is less critical.
Consider 16-bit when you want more control for color grading or working on feature films, VFX-heavy shots, or gradient-heavy motion graphics.
The color precision will give your videos smoother gradients and preserve subtle hues and details that might get lost in 8-bit.
You can continue exploring how changing the color depth affects the compositions in the provided After Effects file.
I also encourage you to try changing the color depth in your own projects, to see if there are any visual differences.
