AE Newbies: Don't Export, Render!

	AE Newbies: Don't Export, Render! by Dave LaRonde on Dec 4, 2006 at 9:52:57 pm If you're new to AE, you might be used to exporting to get things from one application to another. So you'd think the way to get animation out of AE is by exporting, right? Wrong. Usually, exporting isn't the best choice. You see, in AE there are TWO ways to create files for use in other applications, exporting and rendering. In AE, the two terms are not interchangeable, because they represent two broad file creation options. Exporting is almost always the down-and-dirty, limited-choice, one-at-a-time file creation option. Rendering is the sophisticated, choice-filled, customizable, batch-processing file creation option. There aren't very many universal Words To Live By in AE, but there is one rule of thumb that you'd do well to learn: "If AE gives you a choice between rendering and exporting, it's almost always better to render." Why? 1) More Choices -- Try this test: create a comp of your choice, then duplicate it. Export one of the comps, and notice the range of choices available to you. Now add the other one to the render queue: you'll note that you have LOTS more choices of what to do, giving you a range of choices for virtually any need. 2) Customization -- You'll note that when you add your comps to the render queue, you have two things you can adjust: the Render Settings and the Output Module. Each one lets you create and save your very own settings, a very handy thing to have. What if you need to create a lot of alpha channeled quicktime movies? Create a custom Output Module for that very purpose! What if you want to include audio in your quicktime move? No sweat. Make an output module for that purpose? Want to make 23.976, film-frame-rate footage into 29.97 TV frame rate video? Make new Render Settings to do that. Best of all, you choose the default render settings and output modules: just set 'em and forget 'em! 3) The Only Choice -- There are some things that you can do only in the Render Queue, such as adding 3:2 pulldown to 23.976 footage, as mentioned above. And it works slicker'n snot on a doorknob. 4) Batch Processing -- Too Cool For Words. Are you getting sick of exporting a big comp, then waiting for several minutes to finish? What if you had a bunch of comps to get done? Hey, just add 'em to the Render Queue! If you've set your default Render Settings and Output Modules, just add 'em one after another, save the project, and then you can render when YOU want to... like overnight, when you're having fun and the computer isn't doing anything. 5) Exotica -- Wouldn't it be cool if you could make an animation AND attach the AE project right to it? You can do that in the render queue. Wouldn't it be slick to make a quicktime movie AND an image sequence of the same thing at the same time? No sweat in the render queue; in fact, there are a couple of ways to do it. Now there ARE a few things that you can't do from the render queue. You can't make AIFF files, for one. Or WAV files. And there are others. But they're few and far between. So: repeat after me: "If AE gives you a choice between rendering and exporting, it's almost always better to render." Class Dismissed. Dave LaRonde Sr. Promotion Producer KCRG-TV Respond to this post   •   Return to posts index

	Re: AE Newbies: Don't Export, Render! by Dave LaRonde on Dec 4, 2006 at 10:26:43 pm [Aharon Rabinowitz] "...new to AE 7 is the ability to render as WAV. You may have missed it because it was not available previously..." Oh, you bet I missed it: I'm still using AE 6.5! One of these days I'll catch up to the rest of the world. Dave LaRonde Sr. Promotion Producer KCRG-TV Respond to this post   •   Return to posts index

	Re: AE Newbies: Don't Export, Render! by Dave LaRonde on Dec 6, 2006 at 6:29:43 pm Well, that's just dandy if you your RAM preview is abosolutely, dead-on perfect. It's also fine if you have enough RAM to preview the entire comp. But what happens if you have two of HD video to RAM preview? Unless you run AE on a Department of Defense supercomputer -- re-written to use a terabyte of RAM -- you can't possibly RAM preview the whole thing! You HAVE to render it out! Here's another one: what if a RAM preview reveals that there's this one, tiny little thing you screwed up? What if you KNOW you can fix it without doing another preview? I don't know about you, but that happens to me all the time! What are you going to do in that case: wait around for another RAM preview, then save it once the preview's done... or simply add it to the render queue and start rendering? Saving RAM previews are fine if you have short, little pea-shooter comps. Otherwise, RENDER! Dave LaRonde Sr. Promotion Producer KCRG-TV Respond to this post   •   Return to posts index