• Joined: February 21, 2019

Topic: Render too dark on mobile?

I’ve just rendered out my first brickfilm (it’s only about ¾ finished – I just wanted to see what it looked like mini/lol ). It looks absolutely fine on my PC – both in the preview window in Sony Vegas and as the rendered mp4. However, when I play it on my phone, it looks much darker. It’s quite dark anyway, so with it being darker, some of the shadows cast on the characters faces are pure black. Also, it seems to make any flicker even more noticeable!

Anybody else ever had this? Is this something that can be remedied with the render settings? I haven’t yet tried uploading to YouTube to see how it then plays on both PC and mobile...

I guess I just may have to increase the brightness of the final film, so it can be watched on mobile. It may then look a bit too bright on a PC monitor, but I’d rather that than have it look ugly on mobile.

  • Location: United States
  • Joined: June 21, 2011

Re: Render too dark on mobile?

Yep, I had that too. Apparently this film is way too dark on some screens, even though it looks fine on mine. The truth is, different screens/devices display colors/brightness differently. So what looks fine on one won't look quite the same on another. Those that do color-correction for Hollywood movies preview their work on various projectors, TVs, and monitors to insure that their movie looks good on everything. (Or at least, I think I've read somewhere that they do.)

Here's my suggestion: check your own brightness settings on both screens. If the phone was about halfway up, that might be your problem right there. Also, you mention some shadows being pure black, but is that completely obscuring the details, or simply looks darker than you'd prefer? If the former, you may want to fix that, but if the latter, you can do without. You want it watchable on everything, but feel free to optimize it for whatever kind of device you think people will watch it most on.

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Pritchard Studios's Website

  • Location: Cary, NC
  • Joined: September 14, 2009

Re: Render too dark on mobile?

Pritchard Studios wrote:

The truth is, different screens/devices display colors/brightness differently. So what looks fine on one won't look quite the same on another. Those that do color-correction for Hollywood movies preview their work on various projectors, TVs, and monitors to insure that their movie looks good on everything. (Or at least, I think I've read somewhere that they do.)

People who do color correction use calibrated monitors that are highly accurate but they don't primary rely on the monitor to have good colors. Instead the use various scopes to get everything to look good across several monitors. There is always going to be a wide range in how colors are displayed because there are different display technologies and also some people prefer more vivid colors or brighter screens than what is accurate.

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AquaMorph's Website

  • Joined: February 21, 2019

Re: Render too dark on mobile?

Ok, so I uploaded to YouTube, then watched on my TV. It looked fine (or, at least, the same as it did on my PC monitor)!

However, I do think more people must view YouTube via mobile devices now. I guess I'm going to have to brighten the dark looking shots a little, and try to find a happy medium.

  • Location: United States
  • Joined: June 21, 2011

Re: Render too dark on mobile?

Thanks for clearing that up Aqua!
It's always nice to learn something new.

And you are right Hatter, more and and more people are watching YouTube on their phones, so keeping that in mind is a good idea.

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