Applying corrections to a frame other than the first in Adobe camera raw in AE

[noisyboy]

EDIT: [SOLVED] Read this: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5683.msg43962#msg43962

So I have a little question of my own

You import a raw DNG sequence into AE - great. You make your primary adjustments to your first frame with Adobe's raw interface - also great. But what if you don't want to adjust the first frame and your hero frame is say frame 120 for example. Is there a way any of you are aware of that allows you to adjust a frame other than the first frame without importing that single frame as a still, applying settings and saving as a preset, importing that sequence and applying that preset to the sequence?

If somebody has a better way of doing this inside of AE then please do share. I only really want tousle this for the control over the highlights and shadows with the sliders which I personally find to be unmatched in terms of their highlight speed in getting the job done.

I'm sure I did this with a cinema DNG sequence once.

Maybe I was drunk.

[Audionut]

Not sure how it works with AE, but with Camera Raw you can open up all your files and apply changes to all of them at once.

Also, you can save your settings (from Camera Raw) and apply them to any images you want in bridge (edit|develop settings).

[noisyboy]

It as with Camera Raw which I was questioning. It opens it up for you when you import to AE. Problem is that maybe you apply corrections and are happy and you click save. Then after say 10 seconds (for example) you suddenly realize that the shot isn't quite right and you want to tweak it based on whatever happens at that point so you click on the sequence and go to modify the camera raw settings and end up with just the first frame again. Really sucks

[Audionut]

Sounds like you might be better off importing as sequences.

Select a range of frames and open and edit, then import to AE.  Select the next sequence, etc, etc.

That sounds like a long way to do things, but if you really want the highlight recover of ACR, I don't see another way.

[noisyboy]

Ah - so you mean open them in PS and edit with ACR while syncing changes and then save them and THEN open in AE?

Think I see what you mean. Does PS support playback?

Cheers

[Audionut]

I meant open them in Camera Raw (ACR).  You made it sound as if AE uses ACR also.

Yes, PS6 can do playback.  I've never used it though so I don't know the details.

Have a look here: http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/new-video-features-photoshop-cs6.html

[squig]

ACR import in AE doesn't show all the frames like it does in Photoshop which sux, but yeah I think you could make the adjustments in ACR/Pshop then open ACR/AE and the adjustments should be there, haven't tried it myself yet.

[Audionut]

In that case, I'd do it all through bridge (edit|preferences|general|behavior|double click opens in bridge), then as squig mentions, when you import to AR, all the adjustments should carry over.

[noisyboy]

Sweet - I'll give it a blast and let you know how it goes.

Cheers dudes 

[noisyboy]

Amazing - totally forgot about this thread! Cheers for the reminder Audionut

I FINALLY worked out a cool way to adjust a frame other than the first DNG in the sequence inside of After Effects using a bit of a mish-mash of squig and Audionut's suggestions with a bit of a twist.

Basically - the crappy way is that you are inside of AE and make your adjustments in ACR when it pops up... Cool.

Then you are playin back the footage and the camera pans around and all of a sudden everything is different and you change your mind on the adjustments, so you right click on your footage in the project browser, click Interpret Footage, click Main, and then select More Options to get back into ACR.

BUT... you end up back at the first frame which is no good at all as you need to see the frame that you want to base your corrections on which is like 3/4 seconds in... Booo 

Anyway - the super cool convenient way to get around this is to:

1) go to your project browser, right click the footage and select Reveal in Bridge.

2) Instantly Adobe Bridge pops up with your sequence and you can highlight the whole lot and right click then select Open in Camera Raw.

3) Now you can select any frame on the right hand side, then click Select All, and then perform your adjustments. When you are finished, click "Done".

4)Then all you have to do is right click the sequence in the project browser and click Reload Footage and BOOM - behold your adjustments

Soooooo happy I figured this out. Many thanks for your input dudes! Props!

Ps. For an added bonus - save any corrections you think will work on other shots as a preset inside of Camera Raw. Then you can conveniently apply in Bridge by highlighting all DNG's in the sequence and right clicking then selecting Develop Settings -> [your preset] and then again just right click your clip in the AE project browser, click Reload Footage, and there you go.

Oh - and another great thing is, because of the way the DNG's are named (from zero onwards), you can look at the frame number in the bottom right of the AE comp and then select that frame number inside of ACR so you know for sure you have the correct hero frame selected. AND because this is all inside of Bridge, you can exit the comp you are working on and open and view another sequence so you can match shots (as in match the shot you have open in ACR with a different shot inside of AE). Pure WIN.

[eyeland]

Great hints Noisy.
For me, choosing "Open in Camera Raw" does not work and I get an error message when doing so.
Looking at a few forums, this seems to be a known issue, and none of the workarounds I found worked for me.
What DOES work for me is simply choosing "open" instead of "Open in Camera Raw" in bridge.
When I do this, ACR opens in PS and everything else then works as you described. Hope this can save someone else a headache

[guentergunter]

Thank you very much, noisyboy!
The way you described works like a charm.

I finally got rid of Resolve :-)

[dmk]

I saw this topic is super old but still relevant.

On a laptop and slowish drive this workflow didn't really work for me - opening multiple files in camera raw through bridge hung and crashed.

However, I realized a good workflow using ae and bridge, if you just want to reference a frame other than the first in a sequence, yet apply the final changes to all...

1) open bridge and navigate to the frame you want to reference. bridge will give you thumbnails without needing to open anything, and it works fast enough to see content - so just scroll through

2) open that image in camera raw (right click -> camera raw...)

3) adjust to liking

4) save/export xmp file settings. Hitting "done" is okay to close, won't harm anything

5) now in AE, import dng sequence (camera raw will popup there)

6) import/load the saved xmp

Basically using bridge for what it's good at (browsing file system and opening single files) and after effects for what it's good at (everything else)