Adobe After Effects CS4 - Manual (Page 722)

716 USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Rendering and exporting
Last updated 12/21/2009
After Effects uses an embedded version of the Adobe Media Encoder to encode most movie formats through the
Render Queue panel. When you manage render and export operations with the Render Queue panel, the embedded
version of the Adobe Media Encoder is called automatically. The Adobe Media Encoder appears only in the form of
the export settings dialog boxes with which you specify some encoding and output settings.
Important: The embedded version of the Adobe Media Encoder used to manage export settings within After Effects
output modules does not provide all of the features of the full, stand-alone Adobe Media Encoder application. For
information about the full, stand-alone Adobe Media Encoder application, see Adobe Media Encoder Help.
You can also use commands in the File > Export menu to encode movies into some formats (such as raw DV streams)
using QuickTime components. (See “
Rendering and exporting movies using QuickTime components ” on page 703.)
For most output formats, you can specify format-specific encoding and compression options. In many cases, a dialog
box opens and presents these options when you choose a format to export to or click the Format Options button in the
Output Module settings dialog box. (See “
Output modules and output module settings ” on page 700.)
More Help topics
“ Rendering and exporting overview ” on page 688
“ Render and export a movie using the render queue ” on page 692
“ Output modules and output module settings ” on page 700
QuickTime compression settings
Choices you make in the Compression Settings dialog box require tradeoffs between file size and movie quality. The
higher the visual quality of your movie, the larger the file size.
1 In the Render Queue panel, click the underlined name of the output module.
2 For Format, choose QuickTime Movie.
3 Click Format Options in the Video Output section.
4 In the Compression Settings dialog box, choose a compressor.
Note: Set the color depth in the Compression Settings dialog box instead of in the Output Module Settings dialog box. This
setting ensures that non-Adobe plug-ins receive color depth information from After Effects. See step 8.
5 Select a Quality level from Least to Best.
The Quality control specifies the spatial compression of the movie, which compresses the data in each frame of a
composition. Higher quality produces better image quality but results in a bigger movie file. This quality setting is
unrelated to the quality setting for each layer in After Effects.
Note: (Mac OS only) If you intend to use key frames in the movie, hold down Option and adjust the Quality slider to
control the temporal compression of the movie. Temporal compression compresses a movie by comparing successive
frames and keeping only changed data. High temporal quality maintains smoothness of motion. Low temporal quality
tends to produce jerkiness of motion because a pixel doesn’t change unless the difference between frames is great.
6 If you want the smallest possible files, and your compressor choice allows for a key frame rate, select the box and
enter a number in the Key Frame Every box. Generally, you should enter a number equal to the frame rate. For
example, if you set a frame rate of 30 fps, enter 30 in the Key Frame box.
Note: If you are going to use the resulting movie in another After Effects composition, enter a small value (less than 5) in
the Key Frame Every box or deselect the Key Frame Every option.