render output format

[Mylenium]

I was just wondering what is a good render output to use, i know many artists use .mov, is there any reason for this, over say standard avi of avi divx?

How about considering cross-platform compatibility? How about the fact that different versions of DivX are incompatible with each other? There is a bazillion more reasons that speak against such bastartized formats, no matter how good there compression may be.

As for your other concerns - simply don't use AE to do your final compression. AE is not made for this due to the way it works. The better way would to render an uncompressed/ only slightly compressed movie and then export it from Quicktime Pro or even more sophisticated tools such as ProCoder, Cleaner, Compressor or Squeeze.

Mylenium

[scrimski]

i have just finsihed making a 3d animation and compositied woth some video footage, it is only 5 seconds long, and with the output set to a quicktime .mov file type, its 60mb in size, with the quictime file type set to low quality.


It's not about quality settings, it's about framerate, resolution, color depth and bitrate.
Quality settings is the last thing to touch when trying to reduce file size, large impact on the image quality for sure, but not much on the file size.

[beenyweenies]

I would recommend that you render your video out of AE using the Animation codec, quality set to 100%. This will serve as your master file. From this file you can create any compressed versions you may need using Quicktime Pro or other compression apps (see the bottom of this post). This way, if you need to compress the video in a different format/codec for some reason, you won't have to fire up After Effects and re-render the project, you can just use your master Quicktime file.

Within Quicktime Pro/other compression apps, here's a few options to focus on:

1. No matter what compression program, codec or output format you choose, set the compressed files' frame rate to be roughly half of your actual frame rate. For example, if your master video is 29.97fps, set the compressed version to be 15fps. This will not be noticeable (most web videos are done this way) and will cut your file size in half.

2. Set the bitrate to around 600-1,000 Kbps. This requires some experimentation, but this value range usually works great.

3. In your compression program, set "keyframes" to automatic if the option is there. Otherwise, turn keyframes off.

4. Formats - There are several formats that work best - MPEG4, H.264 and Sorenson, in that order. MPEG-4 delivers great quality and low file sizes, and would probaby work best for your needs. I would avoid using Divx or other "specialty" codecs because fewer people have those installed than you might think. I would also stick to Quicktime formats because Quicktime is Mac/PC compatible and has a wide install base, whereas Windows Media Player for the mac hasn't been updated in years, and sucks horribly. As a result, most mac users don't even use it. You want to use formats and codecs that the widest possible audience will have ALREADY INSTALLED. Few people will be willing to go download anything just to watch your videos.


For compression applications, Quicktime Pro is the best way to go since it's so easy to use and cheap. There are free alternatives, such as SUPER (http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html) (download link is at the bottom of page).

[scrimski]

Don't go below 15 fps, this will cause your picture to stutter. I would use 18 fps as a minimum though.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.