Jordan Vanderlinden with an overview and the basics of using EXR files in After Effects and looks at some tips for workflow. This look at using multi-channel EXR files from a 3D application in After Effects provides a great example of how incredibly useful using EXR files in a production environment really is, saving on the number of files you are dealing with as well as the file sizes. Check out the tutorial for Using EXR files, and MultiChannel EXR Files in After Effects here.

In this video I will go through the basics of EXR’s in AE and give some tips on how to use them well. When using 3d compositing with After Effects it takes a while to get your footage looking good and if even one of your 3d passes doesn’t look good or your shadows are to dark etc. you have to re-render and that takes time, however there is a solution; EXR’s.

After Effects has had the capability to import EXR files for quite a wile now however to be able to read multi channel EXR files, fNord’s ProEXR is used. ProEXR retails for 95.00 USD and extends EXR functionality for Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro giving the ability to extract the rendering passes from the one EXR file in After Effects.

Recently has updated ProEXR with the ability to open V-ray Multi-pass VRimg files directly in Photoshop or After Effects, no longer needing to convert them with OpenEXR first, ProEXR 1.7 will allow you to open VRimg files directly on files using the .vri extension. Check out a previous post for more info PROEXR ADDS SUPPORT FOR MULTI-PASS V-RAY FILES IN PHOTOSHOP & AFTER EFFECTS

OpenEXR is a high dynamic range imaging image file format that was released publicly by ILM as an open standard along with a set of software tools. Since then it has been implemented and supported in most applications 3D, and 2D due to its high image quality, efficiency, and EXR’s ability to have multiple render passes in one EXR file providing a streamlined solution for managing a large number of files.