ACES 1.2 from Octane looks washed out and grey in After Effects (whites not matching)

[corsac]

Hey everyone,

I’m struggling with a color mismatch between OctaneRender and After Effects when working in ACES 1.2. My EXR looks washed out in AE, with dull whites compared to the Octane Live Viewer.

Here are my settings:

OctaneRender 2025.3 (Build 1.7.0) in Cinema 4D 2025.3.3

• Color mgmt: ACES 1.2 config file (downloaded from the Github https://github.com/colour-science/OpenColorIO-Configs)

• ACES Tone Mapping: Enabled

• Render settings: HDR Float 32-bit, Color Space = ACEScg

• Imager OCIO view: ACES : sRGB (so I assume it’s rendering in ACEScg but showing sRGB on my monitor)

• Live Viewer: OCIO sRGB

• EXR output: 16-bit

After Effects 2025

• Color Engine: OCIO Color Managed

• OCIO Config: ACES 1.2

• Bit Depth: 16 bpc

• Working Space: ACEScg (compositing_linear)

• Display: ACES/sRGB

• Footage color space: ACEScg

Everything should match, but my AE preview looks wrong. Whites look grey, and it’s definitely not the same as Octane’s Live Viewer.
Did I miss something obvious? Why does AE make the image look washed out even though the settings seem correct?

Here is a link to the exact AE and C4D files I’m using https://www.dropbox.com/t/foZth9jQrp6biJ6I
As well as screenshots of all my settings and results below.

Thanks in advance (this one’s driving me crazy)

[jayroth2020]

Hello, have you reviewed this link? It could be helpful...

https://tomwitte.com/blog/aces-settings-for-after-effects

[ChrisHekman]

Hey everyone,

I’m struggling with a color mismatch between OctaneRender and After Effects when working in ACES 1.2. My EXR looks washed out in AE, with dull whites compared to the Octane Live Viewer.

Here are my settings:

OctaneRender 2025.3 (Build 1.7.0) in Cinema 4D 2025.3.3

• Color mgmt: ACES 1.2 config file (downloaded from the Github https://github.com/colour-science/OpenColorIO-Configs)

• ACES Tone Mapping: Enabled

• Render settings: HDR Float 32-bit, Color Space = ACEScg

• Imager OCIO view: ACES : sRGB (so I assume it’s rendering in ACEScg but showing sRGB on my monitor)

• Live Viewer: OCIO sRGB

• EXR output: 16-bit

After Effects 2025

• Color Engine: OCIO Color Managed

• OCIO Config: ACES 1.2

• Bit Depth: 16 bpc

• Working Space: ACEScg (compositing_linear)

• Display: ACES/sRGB

• Footage color space: ACEScg

Everything should match, but my AE preview looks wrong. Whites look grey, and it’s definitely not the same as Octane’s Live Viewer.
Did I miss something obvious? Why does AE make the image look washed out even though the settings seem correct?

Here is a link to the exact AE and C4D files I’m using https://www.dropbox.com/t/foZth9jQrp6biJ6I
As well as screenshots of all my settings and results below.

Thanks in advance (this one’s driving me crazy)

It seems the values are clamped in the EXR?
Are you still encountering this issue?

[corsac]

Hi guys!
Thanks for the link (and sorry for the delay).

So I checked out the link you sent, and it turns out the issue was something really dumb. In After Effects color settings, the bit depth was set to 16 bits, and after switching it to 32 bits (float), everything seems to work perfectly now! Same preview in Octane and in AE - no more grey whites.

In my Octane settings, the file export format is set to 16 bits/channel, but in the "Main tab" of Octane, the buffer type is set to HDR (Float 32-bit). So, should the EXR actually be 16-bit or 32-bit? It’s a bit confusing to me at this point..

Anyway, the important thing is that once I set the color depth in AE to 32-bit float, it works flawlessly.
Thanks for the help,

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/6fy08tmymw5weq8hv1xg2/2025-10-29-13_54_05-Parsec.png?rlkey=y4v5q4uytougmhva9i18twnzk&e=1&dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/761gpt9arxz415myxv3bo/2025-10-29-13_54_13-Parsec.png?rlkey=eyscizvjnx5nhm705p641m8sy&dl=0

[corsac]

Oh god… this is a never-ending nightmare. I don’t even know if I’m cut out for this.

Now that I set it to 32 bits, I can see that the whites are correct, and I get this nice HDR range, like this.
https://tinyurl.com/32bitsaces
But as soon as I apply a basic Lumetri Color + LUTs on top, it automatically clamps everything like before, and I end up with those grey whites.
https://tinyurl.com/clampedcolors The same thing happens if I apply the Dehancer Pro plugin etc.

How am I supposed to apply custom LUTs and use these plugins correctly? How do people even manage this? Maybe working in 32-bit linear makes it impossible…?