How come I can't match the color correction of OBS using After Effects? What's special about it?

[SY256]

Hello, I was messing with the color correction filter, and I was able to get a cool way that makes it look like a thermal camera or something, but I'm wondering why the moves don't seem to translate to After Effect's color correction tools? I'd think adjusting contrast and saturation is the same no matter how you do it no?

I broke it down to every step and each slider of OBS color correction seems to be unmatchable in After Effects. It gets close but its all pixelated and not quite right. I tested it by shooting a small vid with the fx and without, so I could try to match it in AE. Even contrast works worse in AE. What's different about OBS that it looks better than in than AE, supposedly a 'pro fx' program?

I tried Brightness/Contrast, Lumetri Color, Color Balance HLS, they all look worse. Turning the contrast up in OBS brightens my picture, and turning it up in AE darkers and dulls it, turning it down as far as it'll go it still doesn't get as bright.

 

[AaronD]

What's different about OBS that it looks better than in than AE, supposedly a 'pro fx' program?

"Pro" does not mean "perfect". It only means that people pay to use it. *In theory*, that means that the designers can spend more time and effort on it and make it "better" (whatever that means), but that's becoming more and more untrue.

Free tools have been around long enough now that the volunteers have gotten them pretty good, and there's also something to be said for too much development effort causing "tunnel vision". Same problem as spending hours tweaking your processing settings, finally declaring it "perfect", and then finding out that bypassing it all is clearly better. (it's amazing how often that happens!)

Use what works, regardless of what it actually costs, as long as it's within your budget of course. If a free thing is better than "state-of-the-art, top-of-the-line, <insert-marketing-BS-here>, professional", use the free thing!