Color grading between After Effects CS5 and FC Express

So, I'm editing my movie in Final Cut Express and want to take a scene into After Effects for a grade test.

Now I've always wondered what is the best way to go about doing this. If I render the clip out as a sequence in FCE and take into AE, do the grade, and then render out again - the footage always loses some quality. I know it is possible to render lossless but that takes ages and it's generally a lot of messing around!

What is the best way to work simultaneously between these two programs? What I'd love is to export directly into AE from FCE, edit the clip and export back into FCE, without losing quality or messing around. I know that this can be done when editing in Premiere, but I'm not, so...

Please provide feedback on this, for it is something that has always bugged me but I haven't got down to shouting out about it.

Thanks!

 

Up until recently I had pretty much used FCE and AE exclusively on my machine. There's really no easy way around it...unless you can get your hands on a copy of FC Pro for an XML? export, and also premiere. I don't know what either of their deals are with trial versions/illegal downloads.

I always used the Apple Intermediate Codec when going between programs. If there was a loss in video quality, it went unnoticed to me.

 

I'd usually edit in FCP. Then in AE, I'd colour the raw footage and export it into whatever format it is I'm after. Then in FCP, reconnect the files to the coloured versions.