Adobe After Effects CS4 - Manual (Page 706)

700 USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Rendering and exporting
Last updated 12/21/2009
Output modules and output module settings
Output module settings apply to each render item and determine how the rendered movie is processed for final output.
Use output module settings to specify file format, output color profile, compression options, and other encoding
options for final output.
You can also use output module settings to crop or stretch a rendered movie; doing this after rendering is often useful
when you are generating multiple kinds of output from a single composition.
Output module settings are applied to the rendered output that is generated according to the render settings.
For some formats, an additional dialog box opens when you choose the format in the Output Module Settings dialog
box. You can modify these settings and use settings presets to specify format-specific options, such as compression
options.
You can apply multiple output modules to each render item, which is useful when you want to make more than one
version of a movie from one render. For example, you can automate the creation of a movie and its alpha matte, or you
can create high-resolution and low-resolution versions of a movie.
Note: Before rendering, check the Audio Output settings in the Output Module Settings dialog box to ensure that they are
correct. To render audio, Audio Output must be selected. If your composition does not include audio, do not select Audio
Output, so that the size of the rendered file does not increase needlessly.
Click the triangle to open the Output Module Settings menu, or click the underlined text to open the Output Module Settings dialog box.
Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial with tips for working with proxies, output modules, and output module
templates on the
Video Copilot website .
More Help topics
“ Encoding and compression options for movies ” on page 715
Change output module settings
• To change output module settings for a render item, click the underlined output module settings template name
next to the Output Module heading in the Render Queue panel, and choose settings in the Output Module Settings
dialog box.
• To apply an output module settings template to selected render items, click the triangle next to the Output Module
heading in the Render Queue panel, and choose a template from the menu.
You can choose a custom output module settings template or one of the preset output module settings templates.
Several templates are provided, including the Lossless template for creating movies for transfer to video, film, or an
NLE system.
Note: The default output module settings template is assigned to a render item when it is created. To change which output
module template is the default, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you choose an output module
template from the menu.
To change output module settings for multiple output modules at once, select the output modules and then choose an
output module template. The template is applied to all selected output modules.