A common frustration in After Effects: your composition looks great in the editor, but after rendering the colors appear washed out, oversaturated, or completely different. This is almost always a color management issue.

Why It Happens

After Effects uses color profiles internally. If the project color profile does not match the output color space, AE will silently convert colors during render — producing a result that looks different from the editor preview.

The Fix

Go to File → Project Settings → Color and check your working color space. For web and screen output, set it to sRGB. Make sure Linearize Working Space is OFF unless you intentionally work in linear light.

Output Module Settings

In your Render Queue → Output Module, click the format and check Color Management. Set the output profile to match your intended target — sRGB IEC61966-2.1 for web video.

Quick Checklist

• Project Settings → Color — set working space to sRGB
• Linearize Working Space — turn OFF for standard output
• Output Module → Color Management — set to sRGB IEC61966-2.1
• View → Use Display Color Management — enable for accurate preview

Pro Tips

• Enable View → Use Display Color Management while editing — shows colors as they will render.
• When importing camera footage, assign the correct input profile in the footage settings.
• If exporting via Adobe Media Encoder, check its color space settings too — it has its own output profile.