After Effects 2020 on Mac does not work at all with Arri Alexa Footage
After Effects 2020 on Mac does not work with Arri Alexa footage that when imported into Premiere has the AMIRA LUT automatically added. You can see my first exampled here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27MpmJfKHqg and my second example from Arri's example footage here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9aRnCeu7PE The footage drops out, goes blue, and goes upside down becoming completely useless.
The only way to get the footage to work is to recompress it all and the reconnect, but we are talking a huge amount of ProRES 4444 footage that I really don't want to recompress, especially when it works fine in After Effects 2019.
I had initially posted about this in January to the adobe community, at https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects/serious-problems-in-after-effects-17-1-on-mac-opening-an-older-project/m-p/10994021?page=1#M106682 but everyone seemed to think it was a computer issue. I have posted more about it on my blog at http://www.jonahlee.com/index.php?id=6163621534354849335/after-effects-2020-does-not-work-with
This is certainly a bug as it has happened on my machine with footage that works fine in 2020, with Arri's example footage on my machine, but also at work on a trashcan macpro with the ARRI footage that they shot (all their footage is in fact ARRI footage, so none of it works in After effects 2020.

8 comments
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Jonah Walker commented
I do still wish their was a way to to not have the AMIRA lut at all. If I want a LUT I will put it on myself!
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Jonah Walker commented
OK, so this is **** weird. So the Betas seem to work with freshly imported Alexa footage, unlike the previous version of 2020, but opening up my old project from 2019 now shows the same issues, but I have figured out a fix.
If I reload the footage, it then works correctly. This did not work in normal 2020, but does work now. But if you are still having the issue try reloading the footage.
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Jonah Walker commented
OK so Adobe now has released Betas of their video apps from within the Creative Cloud app. I downloaded After Effects which is version 7.1.0 (Build 55) and there the problem is fixed. Both the footage from Arri, and the Alexa footage I have been working on works.
I don't know for sure that it is connected to the LUT, but it only happens on footage where the LUT shows up. If you go to ARRI's sight and download all their test footage from different cameras, there is some that does not have the LUT show up and it worked, but all ARRI footage with the LUT has the problem. Also if you recompress the footage to exactly the same settings, it then works fine and doesn't have the LUT. That is why I think it was with the LUT.
I wish the Betas had release notes to see what is new about them.
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Andrew Lewitin commented
I've noticed that my pro res footage that in 2019 was imported and said trillions of colors, in 2020 will say millions of colors. I'm not sure if this is related, but I've had a lot of color issues because of this, and am also sticking with 2019 for now.
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Chase commented
I've also encountered this issue. Had a project that worked fine in CC2019, updated to CC2020, and this started happening. I was on a macpro trashcan, and now on a new tower and have the same issue. Very frustrating. In the meantime I have been working in CC2019, but thats not really a good long term solution.
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Antoine Autokroma commented
Jonah how do you know the issues is from the LUT embedded ? Weird those flashing lights
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Jonah Walker commented
Well I just tested it and After Effects 2020 17.0.6 released today still does not work with any Arri footage that has the metadata to add the AMIRA LUT in Premiere. That footage just doesn't work at all. PLEASE TEST THIS ADOBE, THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM!!!!
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Jonah Walker commented
Has no one else noticed this problem? This is driving me nuts.